Chase Sapphire Preferred Bonus Reducing to 40,000 Points

Update: 50,000 point offer is now expired. Please visit our credit card page for the latest offers.

Last week I thought the credit card bubble might be soon coming to an end. There are now signs of it being true, and officially all of the Sapphire Preferred links on Chase’s website have been updated to the 40,000 point offer. Our affiliate network notified us today that effective 4/3/12 at 10:00 AM EST, the 50,000 point Chase Sapphire links we are allowed to offer will no longer be available. What this means is that the Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card will still be available, just the sign-up bonus will be lowered to 40,000 points, instead of the current 50,000 points.

What does this mean for the future of the Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card bonus? Well no one knows for sure at this point. Will they start testing the waters with higher bonuses? I do not know, and certainly no one does except Chase.

What I do know is that last year Citi offered 75,000 mile American Airline cards, that you could apply for up to three different versions at the same time. Then Citi lowered the bonus to 50,000 miles, and the higher offer has never returned. I missed the boat, and highly regret not taking part in those offers last year.

Keep in mind though we were also in the midst of buying a new home last year, so there was too much in flux to worry about opening a new card(s) at the time.

I am really tempted to open the Chase Sapphire Preferred cards for our family, as 100,000+ points between my wife and I would really come in handy for future travel. However, at this stage, taking on a $6,000 minimum spend in 3 months ($3,000 per card) to qualify for the bonus makes me nervous. If a balance transfer qualified towards the minimum spend, I might pay the 3% fee ($90) to transfer the $3,000 to each card, but I do not want to be tied towards the minimum spend right now. It is just not a good fit for our family at this time unless I can come up with a great plan to get this accomplished.

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