New Chase Sapphire Preferred Offer 55K + 50K

[Offers contained within this article may no longer be available]

There’s a targeted offer going out for the Sapphire Preferred offering the 50,000 + 5,000 (for authorized user) bonus for spending $4,000 within the the first 3 months of account opening and an additional 50,000 when you spend $25,000 on purchases within the first year. I think 105,000 Ultimate Rewards for $25,000 annual spend is a pretty exceptional offer but here are some things you may want to consider before jumping on the offer. 

It’s not easy to accumulate Ultimate Rewards

Unlike American Express Membership Rewards that can be accumulated very quickly between the Premier Rewards Gold Card, Platinum Card, and Preferred Card (just to name a couple of options), Ultimate Rewards are pretty hard to come by. This is a major difference between the programs and one reason why this offer stands out.  

You basically only have a couple of options for building an Ultimate Rewards balance. There’s the Sapphire Preferred, Chase Freedom cards, and the Chase Ink cards. The problem with the Freedom cards is that the bonuses offered for those cards are rarely significant (the bonus is currently at 15,000 Ultimate Rewards). And the problem with the Ink cards is that they are business cards and so many people may not feel comfortable applying for them since you need to have a business.

That really only leaves the Sapphire Preferred as the primary means of building a large Ultimate Reward balance for your average credit card consumer. 

Thus, if you desire to earn a lot of Ultimate Rewards then this offer will be tempting for the simple fact that you don’t get many opportunities to earn high quantities of Ultimate Rewards. Also, if you’re not able to apply or get approved for the Ink cards, this offer appears all the more valuable because this may be your only chance to earn a killing from a sign-up bonus for the foreseeable future. 

Consider the opportunity costs

As pointed out by Reddit posters, there are opportunity costs to spending an additional $21,000 on the Sapphire Preferred to obtain this bonus. For example, that amount of spend is pretty significant and could be spent on other new cards and earn up to 7 or more sign-up bonuses! So you should consider how easily you’re able to meet sign-up bonuses before applying for this card. 

If you struggle to meet sign-up bonuses but would like to hit a handful or more cards over the next year, then you should probably hold-off on trying to hit the $21,000 in extra spend and utilize that spending opportunity for other cards. You’ll most certainly get more value for the $21,000 in spend.

If on the other hand, meeting minimum spend requirements is not ever an issue for you, then I say go with this offer. Since you can hit minimum spends with ease, there’s really no opportunity costs because you can still hit the sign-up offers from other cards if you want. In this case the only reason I’d see to not jump on the offer is if you truly have no use for Ultimate Rewards (rare for a lot of people) or you’re just too lazy to spend the additional $21,000.   

Maximizing with the Ink Plus

If you’re able to get approved for the Ink Plus, that could be an additional 60,000 Ultimate Rewards points for a total of 165,000 Ultimate Rewards. Then factor in the points earned from your spend and you’ve got at least 195,000 Ultimate Rewards! 

That’s a lot of Ultimate Rewards and not easy to come by. Moreover, that many points could be stretched pretty far. For example, that many points could get you 6 round trips to Hawaii on Flying Blue! That many round trips to Hawaii gained from just two cards is pretty insane and that’s why I think this offer (along with the Ink Plus) is worth jumping on if hitting minimum spends in not an issue for you.