I was pleasantly surprised this morning when I opened an email from Chase. The title was, “Enroll to earn bonus points with your Chase Sapphire Card.” I wasn’t expecting very much – perhaps a useless promotion tied to shopping through the Ultimate Rewards Mall. Instead, Chase was offering a deal that will make Sapphire my go to card for the next few months.
The promotion lets you earn 5 points – equal to 5% cash back – for every dollar spent on purchases in almost every major spending category including gas, groceries, utilities, cable and even restaurants. It applies to purchases made between May 1st and July 31st, and the cap on the bonus is 10,000 Ultimate Rewards points. The 10,000 Ultimate Rewards points are worth $100 and to max out this promotion, one simply needs to spend $2,000 in the selected categories over the next three months. For most, this shouldn’t be hard to do.
After reading the email, I checked Google News and the Chase credit card website expecting to find a press release trumpeting this promotion. Unfortunately, I found nothing. After mulling the matter over a little, I came to to the conclusion that Chase was likely offering this 5x points promotion on a limited basis.
Before switching over to the Chase Sapphire Card, I used Chase Freedom as my primary card (I made the switch so I could evaluate Sapphire and properly review it.) Soon after the switch, I opened up a Citi credit card that was offering 5 points per dollar on groceries and gas for one year and that card became my primary card. This cut my Sapphire spending by 90%. I think Chase realized this and decided to offer me this special promotion to win back my business. It will.
New Sapphire cardholders or current cardholders who didn’t get this offer should contact Chase and ask them if you can get the same promotion. Its a great deal that makes this one of the highest yielding rewards cards out there, at least for the next three months.