Should I apply for CSP w/ $8K CL?

[restdani]

Hey all, I haven't engaged in a while but have been consistently reading through posts. I applied for the Amex Gold last week since I was already pre-approved. I was able to snatch a great SUB that I aim to achieve. 

However, this morning I logged into my Chase account and noticed that not only am I pre-approved for the Chase Sapphire Preferred, but it also states a starting credit limit of $8,000. Not sure if this is even a credit limit worth a HP, specially considering my recent approval for the Amex Gold Card. I would not be able to satisfy BOTH SUB's, but I do hear people raving about the CSP. 

HELP??? What would you do considering?

[dragontears]

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@restdani wrote:

Hey all, I haven't engaged in a while but have been consistently reading through posts. I applied for the Amex Gold last week since I was already pre-approved. I was able to snatch a great SUB that I aim to achieve. 

However, this morning I logged into my Chase account and noticed that not only am I pre-approved for the Chase Sapphire Preferred, but it also states a starting credit limit of $8,000. Not sure if this is even a credit limit worth a HP, specially considering my recent approval for the Amex Gold Card. I would not be able to satisfy BOTH SUB's, but I do hear people raving about the CSP. 

HELP??? What would you do considering?

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If you can't meet the SUB spending on both cards, don't apply for anything else and focus on the cards you already have. 

Not sure I understand your question about the SL; what does a Amex charge card have to do with the SL on a revolver? I hope you know that NPSL doesn't mean you can charge whatever you want, Amex maintains an internal soft limit on all charge cards. In addition, charge cards are not included in utilization calculations in FICO8 and newer scores; which can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on the person. For some  people they would be thrilled to have an 8k SL; others would feel "insulted" by the "low" SL. I am guessing that you fall into the later category? 

[restdani]

Perhaps I wasn't clear -- the SL on the CSP has nothing to do with the NPSL on the Amex Gold. I understand I can't just charge up whatever I want, however I do feel a bit slighted at the fact that a CSP is being offered with a $8K SL, as I assumed since it's a travel card and one of Chase's more popular products, it would come with at least $10K SL. But I could be mistaken and just going based off what I've read up recently. 

[Hoben02]

Take a look at the transfer partners that each card offers and base your decision off of that. I never bothered getting any high end Amex cards simply based on the fact I have been mainly doing domestic travel.

Also, I avoid high end Amex cards based on the fact that to get any value out of those cards you have to jump thru too many hoops in my opinion to get the perks.

[restdani]

@Hoben02 Thank you for your response! That was actually one of the reasons I opted for the Amex because they partner with Avianca, so I could use those points to transfer to that airline and travel to central/south America. Whereas with Chase, the only airline they partner with that I use is JetBlue. However, what are the hoops you feel one has to go through to get good value out of points with Amex? Maybe I underestimated the complexity of redeeming the SUB MR points. 

[SouthJamaica]

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@restdani wrote:

Hey all, I haven't engaged in a while but have been consistently reading through posts. I applied for the Amex Gold last week since I was already pre-approved. I was able to snatch a great SUB that I aim to achieve. 

However, this morning I logged into my Chase account and noticed that not only am I pre-approved for the Chase Sapphire Preferred, but it also states a starting credit limit of $8,000. Not sure if this is even a credit limit worth a HP, specially considering my recent approval for the Amex Gold Card. I would not be able to satisfy BOTH SUB's, but I do hear people raving about the CSP. 

HELP??? What would you do considering?

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1. In my book the CSP is a better value than the Amex Gold, but I don't think you should apply for it until after you've satisfied the SUB spend requirement on your Gold card.

2. It's great that Chase is telling you the starting limit; that's an indicator of the solidity of your preapproval.

3. I don't see anything wrong with an $8k starting limit; sounds nice to me for a premium card like that.

4.  I have never gotten value from MR's other than trading them for JetBlue points, but since they are usually worth only 80% of a JetBlue point, that makes them worth about 1 cent, which is no big deal in the travel points world.  I'm not an expert at maximizing value from travel cards, but perhaps @K-in-Boston or @Aim_High can chime in. They would probably want to know which you use more, Avianca or JetBlue,  whether you travel economy or luxury, whether you value high-end upgrades, and other stuff like that

[Hoben02]

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@restdani wrote:

@Hoben02 Thank you for your response! That was actually one of the reasons I opted for the Amex because they partner with Avianca, so I could use those points to transfer to that airline and travel to central/south America. Whereas with Chase, the only airline they partner with that I use is JetBlue. However, what are the hoops you feel one has to go through to get good value out of points with Amex? Maybe I underestimated the complexity of redeeming the SUB MR points. 

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Has nothing to do with the redemptions of mr points. It's more the offset benefits they offer to justify the annual card fee. Like the dining benefit at certain restaurants(what garbage). I suggest you just get the Amex card and just wait another day for the CSP unless you need jetblue miles

[dragontears]

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@restdani wrote:

Perhaps I wasn't clear -- the SL on the CSP has nothing to do with the NPSL on the Amex Gold. I understand I can't just charge up whatever I want, however I do feel a bit slighted at the fact that a CSP is being offered with a $8K SL, as I assumed since it's a travel card and one of Chase's more popular products, it would come with at least $10K SL. But I could be mistaken and just going based off what I've read up recently. 

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I think you have the CSP and the CSR mixed up, the CSP has a 5k min SL w/$95AF; the CSR has a 10k min SL w/>$300 AF (sorry, I don't remember the current AF exactly and am too lazy to look it up).

Do you have lots of other accounts that are really high limits, have really high scores/income and therefore 8k is an "insult"?

[restdani]

@SouthJamaica Thanks! Yeah, I guess I am being greedy with the $8K SL, since most of my other cards are well above $10K CL. It's a good start though? Specially with Chase. 

I chose the Amex Gold initially because I didn't want to have a HP, & the SUB was 90,000 MR points for a $4k spend in 6 months. Which is pretty competitive to Chase's 60,000 points after a $4k spend in 3 months. 

I am certainly no expert in churning or truly getting use out of my points, but I would like to start now which led me to question whether applying for the CSP with this pre-approval would be beneficial. :-)

[K-in-Boston]

If you are unable to meet the SUB spending for both cards, applying for the CSP now would just be throwing away a bare minimum of either $750 or $900 depending on which card you didn't meet the requirements on.

Worst case scenario with the MRs, you can always purchase airfare through Amex Travel at a bare minimum of $0.01 per point and still earn miles in your frequent flyer account if moving points does not make better financial sense and/or provide you with an elevated cabin.