In the world of points and miles, few credit card bonuses have made waves quite like this one: The *chase sapphire preferred* is currently offering a 100,000-point bonus after spending $5,000 in the first three months.
Plenty of travelers have jumped on this huge offer already – and for good reason: It’s the first 100,000-point bonus we’ve seen on this go-to travel card in almost four years, dwarfing the card’s standard 60,000-point bonus. You can’t do much better than that for a card with just a $95 annual fee.
But all this buzz brings up one big question: After rolling out in early April, how much longer will this big bonus last?
If you’re looking for the short answer, I’ll cut right to the chase (no pun intended): We don’t know for sure … and the bank isn’t saying – at least not yet. But based on our knowledge of the credit card landscape and how Chase has handled offers like this one in the past, we can make some educated guesses.
So whether you’ve been on the fence, waiting for the right time to apply, lining up a big upcoming expense, or even thinking about getting the card again to earn another huge bonus (yes, that’s possible), here’s what you need to know to make sure you don’t miss out.
Read our full review of the Chase Sapphire Preferred!
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A Primer on How Limited-Time Offers Work
Before getting into when we think this offer will end, it’s important to understand how the banks think about these kind of promotions.
Sign-up bonuses, welcome offers, credit card offers – whatever you want to call them, they’re all a marketing expense, plain and simple: A way to lure new cardholders in the door. And nothing’s more effective than an eye-popping, six-digit bonus.
Even though this 100,000-point bonus is awarded in the form of Chase Ultimate Rewards, those points can be cashed out for 1 cent each. So let’s just assume that Chase is accounting for an expense of $1,000 for every new cardmember they add through this bonus … even though savvy travelers like you and I can get far more value out of those points.
With that in mind, Chase likely set a goal for how many new cardmembers it wants to bring in, set a budget for this bonus, and crunched the numbers to figure out how long – roughly – it may last.
For easy(ish) math, let’s just pretend the budget for this offer is $50 million. Once 50,000 people apply for the card, Chase is likely to pull the plug on the offer and drop it back down to the regular 60,000-point bonus.
But maybe those 50,000 new cardmembers pile in even faster than the bank anticipated – or maybe it takes a bit longer. That’s why many banks (including Chase) won’t announce an end date for a big new offer right when it launches: They’re waiting for the numbers to start coming in.
How Long Did Previous Offers Last?
Chase still isn’t saying when it might pull this big new offer and we have no way of knowing how many people have signed up so far. But let’s turn to history to form an educated guess on when this offer might end.
Last fall, Chase ran a limited-time offer on the Sapphire Preferred … but it was different. The bank stuck with the standard 60,000-point bonus but added a $300 statement credit for purchases made through Chase Travel℠ in the first year. That was certainly better than the normal bonus, but a bigger stash of points is more flexible … and valuable! That offer lasted nearly six weeks.
Before that, the bank upped the ante on both the Sapphire Preferred and its souped-up sibling, the *chase sapphire reserve* to 80,000 points. That’s arguably a better offer. It lasted just over a month.
Nearly four years ago, Chase dangled a nearly identical 100,000-point bonus (albeit with a slightly lower spending requirement) … and it lasted more than three months! But those were drastically different times: Chase was trying to lure travelers back from the depths of the pandemic. Given the circumstances today, it’s hard to see this 100,000-point bonus drag on for quite that long.
While these aren’t apples-to-apples comparisons, they give us a sense for how long the current bonus might last. Given what we know now, a month or so would be our best, reasonable guess. And since we’re already two weeks into the current offer, we could at the halfway point before this opportunity closes.
And if applications and approvals are trending higher than previous offers – and given all the buzz, they very well might be – this offer could be pulled even sooner.
Apply Now Even If You Aren’t (Yet) Eligible
So what should you do if you’re waiting for the perfect time to apply? Or maybe not even quite yet eligible?
Without question, if you’re considering this card (and bonus), now is the time to go for it. If you’re waiting to time it right with a big expense, this may require a little flexibility. See if you can prepay bills like insurance and utilities or even your quarterly income taxes to help meet the card’s $5,000 spending requirement. Every little bit helps!
If you don’t think you’ll be approved – either because you’ve had the card before and it hasn’t quite been 48-months since you earned your last bonus or because you’re over Chase’s dreaded 5/24 rule – the worst that can happen is you’ll be declined.
This will require a new credit inquiry but the temporary ding to your score will be mild and will have little bearing on your ability to get other cards in the future.
But more importantly, if you’re declined for the current elevated offer, you can phone up Chase and ask for reconsideration. Even if the bigger bonus has ended, they can reevaluate your application once your situation changes and turn that decline to an approval. So long as it’s not too long after, you’ll still be eligible for the 100,000-point bonus so long as you applied beforehand.
To do this, simply call (888) 270-2127 and ask Chase to re-review your application. You’ll generally need to do this within 30 days of when you initially applied. Even so, it can buy you a little extra time to become eligible. Just be prepared to provide a few pieces of financial information like total household income, monthly rent or mortgage payment, and reasons for other recent credit inquiries.
Bottom Line
This might not be a once-in-a-lifetime offer, but it’s pretty darn close. The chance to score 100,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards on a card with a low $95 annual fee doesn’t come around very often.
While we don’t yet know exactly how much longer this massive bonus will last, we’re guessing it’s days are numbered. Apply soon before it’s too late.
Learn more about the *csp*.
