In order to earn a welcome bonus for a new Sapphire Preferred or Sapphire Reserve card, you can’t currently have a Sapphire card open. Luckily, there’s an easy solution: cancel your current Sapphire card or product change it to a Freedom card. Then wait “a few days”. I was curious about exactly how long “a few days” was, so I tested it out. The answer: 2 days.
Note: To be eligible for the Sapphire Preferred 100K offer, you must also not have received a Sapphire Preferred or Reserve welcome bonus in the past 48 months. For me, it was more than 48 months since my last bonus, so I was fine.
On Tuesday, at around noon, I called Chase to product change my Sapphire Reserve card to the Freedom Unlimited card. I then logged into my Chase account and saw that the card already showed up as a Freedom Unlimited. So, I began the experiment right away…
Attempt 1: 30 minutes after product change
Approximately half an hour after product changing, I applied for the Sapphire Preferred card. Chase immediately denied the application with the assertion that I “already have a Chase Sapphire® credit card.” 
The good news was that there was no credit inquiry, so it didn’t hurt to keep trying…
Attempt 2: Next day, less than 24 hours later
I tried again the next morning (Wednesday) at 9am. Same result. Denied. No credit inquiry.
Attempt 3: Next day, more than 24 hours later
I wondered if it was necessary to wait at least 24 hours, so I tried again at about 2pm. Same result. Denied. No credit inquiry.
Attempt 4: Two days from product change
On Thursday at 3:30pm, two days after I had product changed, I tried again. Chase finally processed the application. I wasn’t approved instantly, but they did run a credit check with both TransUnion and Experian.
It was disappointing that I wasn’t instantly approved, but I expect that I’ll be approved after review. If not, with past denied applications I’ve had great luck calling Chase’s reconsideration line to ask them to reconsider.
Next Day Update: Approved on Friday
The next morning after my application finally went through, I received an email saying that my application was approved!
Final Answer: 2 Days
It took 2 days for Chase’s systems to acknowledge that I no longer had a Sapphire card after product changing. I can’t promise that it’s always exactly 2 days, but I expect it to be around that long in most cases. The good news is that if you apply too soon, there’s no harm. Chase won’t run a credit inquiry if they think you still have the old card.
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I have some data points from followers saying they were denied “for still having a sapphire product” until after their statement closed, despite the new product already showing up in their account for days to weeks. So are there other factors to account for besides timeframe?
It is my understanding once you downgrade your CSP, you loose all the insurances that card was providing. If approved for a new CSP, it does not reestablish the insurances, because it has a different account number. Is this correct?
I downgraded last year but did receive 100k bonus in February 2022. I guess no Sapphire for me.
Hey,
I have a CSP from 9 years ago. I was going to downgrade it to the Chase Freedom Unlimited today and reapply for the CSP 100K on Monday. This should work, right?
Anything else I am missing? Thanks Greg!
Not mentioned, but worth noting: This experiment was done during the week. You are proposing to do something similar but over a weekend. Nobody knows for sure, but I would guess that it might take 2 BUSINESS days, not just 48 hours of elapsed time. So, I would not count on this all going through on Monday – might be Wednesday-ish. And just because one person did this in 2 days, it doesn’t mean everyone will always have the same processing time. The world isn’t always that reliable.
Thanks Raul, appreciate the reply. Understand the YMMV.
Not Chase but a data point for Amex. I had had the Surpass for 3 years and wanted to get the Aspire. I called and cancelled the Surpass. I then applied for Aspire after 3 days and received pop up that not eligible for bonus. I did not continue and tried 2 other times over the next week with same pop up. I called Amex and talked to several people why not eligible since had never had the Aspire. They said I had applied too many times recently. Their system shows that I had applied for card although did not proceed past the popup. One agent said to apply over the phone as sometimes will approve but denied even to receive the card. They would not give me a reason why denied and to wait for denial email. When I received it, called the number and finally found out that the system still showed I had the Surpass and was at the 5 card limit. I told them that was cancelled several weeks ago and even showed cancelled on my online account. They then went and checked again and verified that was cancelled but still in system and had to be manually removed for me to be approved for Aspire.
Does downgrading affect the miles you currently have with the saphire card?
FYI, my app was approved! I updated the post accordingly. Also, I noticed that I had the days of the week wrong in the initial post so I’ve fixed that too (e.g. I previously wrote “Wednesday” when I meant “Tuesday”)
If P2 is an AU can they apply or will they be denied since they already possess the card?
Yes they can apply, that’s fine
“Be the datapoint”
– The Tao of Greg
I have tried this out, downgraded my card but had not realize that I had received a bonus within the last 48 months. So downgrading is a great idea to start, but make sure that it’s been 48 months since you received your first bonus from a Chase Preferred card or you get an automatic denial. I didn’t see this circumstance in your article.
Thanks for all your great information in all of your articles!
It was more than 48 months for me. I added a note about that to the top of the post.
When you received the automatic denial, did they do a credit inquiry first?
I don’t think so. But then again I didn’t check my credit report
Also, it looks like you’re respond to a lot of comments, that is very nice of you and much appreciated!
thank you so much for testing out how long you can apply after a product change. Very helpful
About a month ago I closed my CSP after around eight years because the 100K offer was just too good. The plan was to apply after 30 days (that’s how long to wait per OMAAT).
I applied and went pending, no surprise since I have around a half dozen each personal and business cards. To my surprise I was declined due to Chase having issued me as much credit as they feel comfortable with for my income. I was surprised as I figured the credit from the closed card (around $7,000) would be enough to cover the new card. Negative, Ghostrider.
I called up recon to ask about this and they said that they couldn’t do anything and when I asked about reshuffling credit from sock drawer cards like Marriott I was told that the only cards I could move available credit from were Freedom cards. I found this surprising but said to go ahead and transfer credit from one of my two $5K limit Freedom cards. They tried but were not permitted to go below $5K on either card. Then I tried moving credit from one of my business cards but they said that was not permitted either.
After that I ended the call. The lady had genuinely tried to help but couldn’t do anything. A day later I reached out to Chase to lower my credit on one of my business cards by $10K and today asked them to close another business card with a $10K limit. I plan on reapplying for the CSP in a few days. With any luck the $20,000 reduction in credit they’ve extended to me will make a difference. I’m guessing that the economic uncertainty has Chase tightening down credit they’re extending to limit their liability.
If anyone has any suggestions or insight I’d be happy to hear them.
I think it’s worth calling reconsideration again to see if you get a better agent. They were right about not being able to move business credit over, but unless it’s a new rule, I’ve never had trouble moving credit from miscellaneous other consumer cards.
Your credit with them sits in two buckets: personal cards and business cards. Can’t move/re-allocate credit across those two buckets. So even if you have screamin’ high CLs on business cards, you can’t move that to a personal card (or vice versa). So agent was very likely correct.
This may sound nuts, but I decided against applying for a CSP (CSR holder since 2017) mostly because I am taking a flight back from Spain transiting through PHL this fall and I can’t wait to try a Sapphire lounge for the first time. As someone living on the West Coast it’s been difficult to plan a trip that involved an airport with their lounges so I’m looking forward to it.
If it was somehow possible to immediately change back to a CSR after earning the bonus I probably would have done it, but everything I’ve read online says you have to wait 12 months.
Good luck to you, Greg! Hope you’re ultimately approved.
All Priority Pass memberships allow you entry to the Sapphire Lounge 1x per year. You only need the CSR if you want unlimited visits or guests who don’t have their own PP.
What you could do is product change your csr to a freedom card. Wait a few days, apply for csp. Then from what I read, you can product change back the freedom card back to a csr. I’m gonna apply this weekend since I product changed it this past Monday. I have a few trips that were booked with my CSR for later this year and want it for the travel protections. I plan on product changing my Csp to a freedom card after one year. Or cancelling it. Not sure yet.
Pretty sure they won’t allow you to “change back” from a Freedom to a CSR, it’s a one-way process. Please update here and let us know if you were able to do that. I would be surprised if you can, but there’s only one way to know for sure.
I read some other Facebook forums and a few people said they have done it. They did csr to cf, applied CSP for the sub, then pc cf to csr. You can’t apply for another sapphire card if you hold one already but you can product change a freedom card so you can hold two sapphire cards is what I read. I will test this out and report back.
@Andy – Good to know, thanks. I would be traveling with someone else so would incur a $75 fee if I used my other PP card (CS Platinum), but I’m not totally sure if I will keep the card when the next AF is due (before my trip).
@Mike – I thought there is a one Sapphire rule, wouldn’t Chase not let you PC the Freedom to a CSR if you’re already holding a CSP?
Greg, as you value the CSR, is there one in P2’s wallet?
Greg – some say it makes a difference for time frame if you cancel vs product change, but you don’t think so? Thanks for testing this.