Chase Credit Cards
From Travel Strategies
Along with Amex, Chase issues many of the most valuable travel and reward cards.
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Ultimate Rewards Cards (Personal)
Ultimate Rewards Cards (Business)
Chase Airline and Hotel Cards
Chase Airline and Hotel Cards (Business)
Other Interesting Chase Cards
Other Chase Cards
In addition to the cards above, which may want to get for various reasons, Chase offers a few additional credit cards.
- Disney Premier Card. Offers some minor benefits at Disney World and Disneyland, and a $200 signup bonus.. But, most people will be more interested in many other cards. $49 annual fee. Official Webpage.
- Disney Card. Offers most of the same perks as the Disney Premier card, with no $50 signup bonus, and no annual fee. Official Webapge.
- Starbucks Card. Earns "stars" that you can use for free drinks, but the reward rates are lower than what is available from a decent general-purpose reward card. However, you do get about a 4% return back on Starbucks App cash reloads, and 8 free drinks (Barista picks) per year. Generally not worth the $49 annual fee, and especially because the card is affected by the Chase 5/24 rule. Official Webpage.
Chase Rules and Tips
- Chase operates their own rewards program called Ultimate Rewards, which is best credit card reward program for most people. You can't go wrong with Ultimate Rewards points. You can get very high value for your points by converting them into frequent flyer points with your choice of a collection of partner airlines AND you can always get at least 1.5 - 2 cents per point in value, without needing to find award seats, through their other redemption options.
- You can earn a signup offer for any specific Chase personal cards once every 24 months. There are no hard and fast rules for Chase's own business cards.
- All of Chase's cards are affected by the Chase 5/24 rule. If you've signed up for at least 5 cards (from any bank) in the past 24 months, your application will be automatically denied. Dealing with the Chase 5/24 Rule.
- When a card has a "sibling", you can often only get one of the cards. For example, if you already have the Southwest Premier card, you can't apply for the Southwest Plus card. Even if you cancel the Premier card, you can't receive the Plus card if you've received the Premier card's signup bonus in the last 24 months (however, you can usually "convert" from one of these cards to the other). A similar rule exists for the Sapphire Reserve and Sapphire Preferred card, except that you need to wait 48! months from earning a signup bonus on the other card. Until they close it, a loophole at Chase allows you to apply for both sibling cards on the same day and still earn the signup bonus from both of then.
- The only way to get more than one of the same Chase card, is through a product conversion (or with different businesses). Chase won't approve you for a card you already have. But they will let you convert one of your existing cards. As a result, many "hobbyists" eventually wind up converting multiple different Chase cards into multiple no-annual-fee Freedom / Freedom Flex cards.
- If you are initially declined, there is a good chance that you can still get the card by calling their reconsideration line. You just may need to make a few changes to your accounts, such as shifting credit limits from one of your other Chase cards.
- Chase usually offers referral bonuses for their cards, but unlike the Amex offers, they need to get the same card or a card in the same family. You can check online. Many of their cards have authorized user bonuses as well.
- You can only downgrade cards within the same family. For example, you can downgrade the Sapphire Reserve to the Freedom Unlimited and the United Explorer to the United Gateway, but you can't downgrade the United Explorer to the Freedom Unlimited.
- Advanced details. While it is not a hard rule, you can uaually only get approved for two Chase cards every month. If you apply for them in the same day, Chase will only make a single inquiry. They will usually match a higher signup bonus that becomes available during the first three months after you get the card. If you ask, they will usually send the cards with priority shipping.
The Freedom Flex, Freedom Unlimited, Ink Cash, and Ink Unlimited cards earn Ultimate Rewards points. But if you only have these cards, you can only redeem your points for 1 cent each. You'll need the Sapphire Reserve, Sapphire Preferred, or Ink Preferred card to transfer your Ultimate Rewards points to partners. But since you can freely move points between cards, this transfer ability extends to the points earned from the no-annual-fee cards.
If you need to talk to a representative, you can take advantage of myFico.com's list of backdoor phone numbers. These, often unpublished, phone numbers will get you directly to more experienced credit card company employees that may be better able to provide assistance.