Hold The Presses – It Is Possible To Get Both Sapphire Cards!
Well my day just took a turn for the better! Don’t you just love when that happens? Earlier today I wrote that my wife was denied for an upgrade to the Chase Sapphire Reserve from her Sapphire Preferred because of it being within 12 months since she signed up for the card. And I said that I could not upgrade her Freedom card to one because we are limited to one Sapphire card per person, per Chase’s terms. It appears that may not actually be the case. It is possible to get both Sapphire cards!
What Do Chase’s Terms Say
There verbiage that I am talking about is as follows:
The product is not available to either (i) current cardmembers of any Sapphire credit card, or (ii) previous cardmembers of any Sapphire credit card who received a new cardmember bonus within the last 48 months.
This is what is known as the Sapphire family rule. It has been widely thought that it meant that you could not carry both unless you already had both before the terms were added. That is because the term product is used, as in the card. And terms were not talking solely about the welcome offer being off limits.
But it appears that thinking was an overreach and that upgrades may be the way around it.
Data Points
Reader Casey kicked it off in my article saying that it is possible to carry both:
I found this to be great news for my particular situation. And decided to look for more data points. That is when our friend Derrick from Travel On Point(s) offered up two more data points. He was recently able to upgrade a Chase Freedom Unlimited card to a Sapphire Preferred while already holding a Sapphire Reserve. On of his group’s mods was able to do the same thing.
Final Thoughts
This is an interesting turn of events and something that could work out very well for myself. The terms should still apply for when signing up for a new card though but this is a workaround.
Remember that you need to have a $10,000 limit to get a Visa Infinite card like Casey said. You may need to move some credit limits around to make the upgrade happen. Although it appears that they have no issue dropping the limits below $10K when they see fit from Shawn’s recent data point.
This isn’t the most useful info for everyone because the cards have so much overlap. There really isn’t a reason to hold both unless you want access to the lucrative Sapphire Preferred referral offers. Or if you are looking to take advantage of short term offers and you recently signed up for one or the other like me right now. But if Chase ever adds grocery or gas to one of the cards, say the Preferred, like I had suggested they should then there would be a reason to hold both. And it appears that we would be able to do it too, if we play it right!
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Hey Mark, have you heard any DPs on this recently? Hoping to downgrade my CSR to a freedom, then sign up for CSP 100k offer, then sometime a bit later upgrade freedom back to a CSR. Wondering if anything has changed with the new freedom cards and/or if they closed this loophole in the last year. Thanks!
Should work fine. Just wait till after the CSP bonus posts
Hey Mark, I would like to point out that in the screenshot you posted for the reader, Casey, the IP address and the email address is clearly visible. Guess you need to rectify that since it is not otherwise visible publicly when posting a comment.
Wow – not sure how I missed that – will do. Thanks David
[…] Miles to Memories has reported some data points indicating that it is possible for one person to hold both the Chase Sapphire Preferred and Chase Sapphire Reserve card at the same time. I don’t think most people would be interested in having both at the same time, but perhaps some will find it interesting to know that it is indeed possible. […]
[…] posted in 2017. Update 6/2/20: Milestomemories has verified with some data points that you can upgrade to a Sapphire card (e.g. Freedom/Slate to […]
If you upgrade, do you get he bonus?
Nope – only if you are targeted for an upgrade offer do you get points. I don’t think I have ever seen one offered for the CSR either.
Fairly common knowledge that you can have more than one. A MDD can get you both at the same time. I’ve personally had them downgrade a CSP to a CS and upgrade a CFU to a CSR at the same time (leaving me with a CS and CSR). Also, the $10k is only required to get -approved- for CSR ($5k for CSP), but product changes are not approvals and limits can be adjusted any time after.