Chase Sapphire Preferred vs Reserve Rewards and Benefits Review

By Gavin | July 16, 2019

We're going to talk about who should apply for the Taste Sapphire Preferred versus a Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card.

The main reason I want to talk about this is that people always ask me what's your favorite travel credit card. Obviously, if you have a score of 700 above or 3 to 5 credit cards with one to two years of credit history I would recommend getting one of these cards.

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The Chase Sapphire Reserve is in the top tier

The Chase Sapphire Reserve is one of the top cards from Chase, so if you look into the cards that most normal people can get I would argue that it's in the top tier, and since it has a $10,000 minimum credit limit, that means Chase is going to have to approve you for a $10,000 credit limit on this card alone, not all the cards that you have, but this one alone.

If you don't have that kind of limit I wouldn't apply for it, because they're going to reject you because Chase typically wants you to give you about 50% of your income as a credit limit. This means that you have to be making at least $20,000 of income for this 50% rule, and it's not a hard rule, but it's their rule.

The people do not match the rule will be rejected

There are some people that will be at 40%, but there also might be some at 80%, the main problem though is that if you're someone with a thin file, let's say you're a student that it's probably going to be unlikely that Chase is going to approve you for this mid or actually especially a top-tier credit card.

If you don't have any chase history, this means that you typically need to have a freedom card and probably about two to four months of history with them before they're going to approve you for either the Chase Sapphire Preferred or the Chase Sapphire Reserve for this group of people.

The Chief Sapphire Preferred is easier

I typically recommend Chief Sapphire Preferred just because I think approvals are going to be a lot easier, the Chase Sapphire Preferred the minimum opening limit is just $5,000, it's a lot less of a risk for Chase, and they're giving you a $10,000 credit limit.

If you're a student or with a vendor file right out of school the annual fee is also likely going to be not the best for you. Obviously, your mileage is going to vary, but I feel like there are some other better choices, especially if your goal just to get lounge access with this and pretty much everything I talked about.

Your mileage is going to bury to summarize, incomes need to be pretty large to get approved for Chase Sapphire reserve. If you want to build your way into a premium card like like this you basically want about one year of history from other cards before applying.

Applying the two cards need precondition

You would want this freedom card first, and then after having the freedom card you need to have that for about two to four months of good history, and then you can apply for the Chase Sapphire Preferred or the Chase Sapphire Reserve on that. Note if you apply for the card using the links on my website JohnnyJett.com you can find them under the Points rewards credit cards, some people think that Chase Sapphire Reserve gives more value to teach Sapphire Preferred.

The main reason this group is probably here is that they get a lot of value out of the TCF I reserve, I mean but the floor here, and $50.00 annual fee scares them, and I think that's fine again. If you're concerned about that if you're not really sure about what your spending is going to be or look like the taste that I preferred.

Getting chase a fired preferred first is a smart way

It's probably the way to go because their annual fee is a lot more reasonable in year one, the fees are waived. If you don't like it you can always downgrade to another card, afterward, you're still getting the same signup bonus. The only difference is going to be Global Entry Priority Pass as well as get and not getting three times the points or instead of two times.

A lot of people I talked to end up getting chase a fired preferred first, and then they end up getting the Chase Sapphire reserve, just because it's a smart way to get started, that's a more measured way of getting acclimated into miles and points game.

Between two cards annual fees are waived

The other thing to consider is the annual fees, between these two cards annual fees are waived for the Chase Sapphire Preferred in the first year, but it's not waived for the chase Sapphire reserve, so for many it might make sense to get the taste of that fire preferred in the first year, just to avoid the feet and then upgrading to the Chase Sapphire Reserve, just because they don't mind missing out on the benefits of the first year.

It's really not a bad strategy, it's just finding the one that works for you. My question to you guys is what's the thought process when you were considering the Chase Sapphire Preferred versus the Chase Sapphire Reserve.