Should I take a gamble on the SAPPHIRE RESERVE over the PREFERRED?

[Anonymous]

The CSR has been my dream travel card and one of the reasons I got started on the “Card Journey” in order to eventually qualify for it. However, I lived out of the country for a while and just started my credit journey from the ground up last January.

After six months I had received my first official FICO score of 771 and figured I should try for the CSP. At the time my CL was only $750 on the Discover IT card, and I only had six months of history, so naturally I was denied.

Fast forward a year, I picked up two other cards, (BoA travel CL $1100, and an AMEX BCE CL $6000) and was able to raise my Discover limit to $2250. I just got my one year review from Discover today so I decided to check the Chase prequalified offers and for the first time ever, they gave me four card offers, one of which is the Sapphire Preferred.

I’ve heard that official Chase prequals are about 90% guaranteed, and the CSP is an awesome card, however I’m really wanting to get the CSR. I’ll be taking a group of people to Japan this year and I’m responsible for all the booking and travel arrangements (probably around $15,000 worth of expenses), so the CSRs higher limit plus higher reward rate would be a definite plus. Yet I’m wondering if this card is a realistic possibility?

My credit history only goes back one year. My current income is around 31k, my combined CL is $9350, my utilization is only at around 2-3%, I bank with Chase, and my Experian FICO (which Chase pulls in my state) is 731.

Would applying for the CSR be realistic, or should I stick with the safer CSP and try to upgrade next year? Any advice or personal testimonies would be very helpful, as I have a $1000 travel purchase coming up in about 2 weeks and another $6-7k one arriving toward the end of March, so I want to apply for one of them soon.

Appreciate all responses and advice.

[Anonymous]

Since you already bank with Chase I would strongly suggest you go in to a branch and speak with a Personal Banker.  They have the ability to see approvals that might not appear on the website and can otherwise add credibility to your application.  

[DeeBee78]

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@Anonymous wrote:
The CSR has been my dream travel card and one of the reasons I got started on the “Card Journey” in order to eventually qualify for it. However, I lived out of the country for a while and just started my credit journey from the ground up last January.

After six months I had received my first official FICO score of 771 and figured I should try for the CSP. At the time my CL was only $750 on the Discover IT card, and I only had six months of history, so naturally I was denied.

Fast forward a year, I picked up two other cards, (BoA travel CL $1100, and an AMEX BCE CL $6000) and was able to raise my Discover limit to $2250. I just got my one year review from Discover today so I decided to check the Chase prequalified offers and for the first time ever, they gave me four card offers, one of which is the Sapphire Preferred.

I’ve heard that official Chase prequals are about 90% guaranteed, and the CSP is an awesome card, however I’m really wanting to get the CSR. I’ll be taking a group of people to Japan this year and I’m responsible for all the booking and travel arrangements (probably around $15,000 worth of expenses), so the CSRs higher limit plus higher reward rate would be a definite plus. Yet I’m wondering if this card is a realistic possibility?

My credit history only goes back one year. My current income is around 31k, my combined CL is $9350, my utilization is only at around 2-3%, I bank with Chase, and my Experian FICO (which Chase pulls in my state) is 731.

Would applying for the CSR be realistic, or should I stick with the safer CSP and try to upgrade next year? Any advice or personal testimonies would be very helpful, as I have a $1000 travel purchase coming up in about 2 weeks and another $6-7k one arriving toward the end of March, so I want to apply for one of them soon.

Appreciate all responses and advice.

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I would also have to advise you to step into a branch and see what pre-quals you may have. I'm more inclined to say that you would be approved for the CSP over the CSR, just because you don't have any experience with a $10K limit (minimum limit for the CSR) and your history is very short. The only unknown here is whether you have significant assets with Chase (like 6 figures significant), that could potentially sway them to overlook a short history.

Never do an upgrade from CSP to CSR - you'd miss out on the signup bonus, and won't be eligible for it for 24 months after closing the card. 

[Anonymous]

I’ve set up an appointment at a branch for tomorrow.

Now, as I’ve been researching I’ve seen people in the last few days talking about “double-dipping” and applying for both on the same day. I’m only at 3/24 currently, so if I’m preapproved for the CSP, would there be any downside to applying for that AND the CSR, or would that damage my approval odds for the card that I made the prequal for?

I could probably make the bonus spending for both of them especially if I’m responsible for purchasing everyone’s airfare who’s joining me in Japan, and I’ll be traveling overseas in March for two weeks so I expect to spend at least 1k more than usual that month.

I suppose I’m just curious if that applying for both will make it more likely that I won’t get either?

[arkane]

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@DeeBee78 wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:
The CSR has been my dream travel card and one of the reasons I got started on the “Card Journey” in order to eventually qualify for it. However, I lived out of the country for a while and just started my credit journey from the ground up last January.

After six months I had received my first official FICO score of 771 and figured I should try for the CSP. At the time my CL was only $750 on the Discover IT card, and I only had six months of history, so naturally I was denied.

Fast forward a year, I picked up two other cards, (BoA travel CL $1100, and an AMEX BCE CL $6000) and was able to raise my Discover limit to $2250. I just got my one year review from Discover today so I decided to check the Chase prequalified offers and for the first time ever, they gave me four card offers, one of which is the Sapphire Preferred.

I’ve heard that official Chase prequals are about 90% guaranteed, and the CSP is an awesome card, however I’m really wanting to get the CSR. I’ll be taking a group of people to Japan this year and I’m responsible for all the booking and travel arrangements (probably around $15,000 worth of expenses), so the CSRs higher limit plus higher reward rate would be a definite plus. Yet I’m wondering if this card is a realistic possibility?

My credit history only goes back one year. My current income is around 31k, my combined CL is $9350, my utilization is only at around 2-3%, I bank with Chase, and my Experian FICO (which Chase pulls in my state) is 731.

Would applying for the CSR be realistic, or should I stick with the safer CSP and try to upgrade next year? Any advice or personal testimonies would be very helpful, as I have a $1000 travel purchase coming up in about 2 weeks and another $6-7k one arriving toward the end of March, so I want to apply for one of them soon.

Appreciate all responses and advice.

---

I would also have to advise you to step into a branch and see what pre-quals you may have. I'm more inclined to say that you would be approved for the CSP over the CSR, just because you don't have any experience with a $10K limit (minimum limit for the CSR) and your history is very short. The only unknown here is whether you have significant assets with Chase (like 6 figures significant), that could potentially sway them to overlook a short history.

Never do an upgrade from CSP to CSR - you'd miss out on the signup bonus, and won't be eligible for it for 24 months after closing the card. 

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The CSR no longer has the 100K bonus available, both are 50K now. So OP won't be missing anything by signing up for CSP first and then upgrading to CSR down the road. (well maybe the 1.5x vs 1.25x UR redemption but that's an easily bypassed issue)

[Anonymous]

You can only have one Sapphire card at a time. So you can apply for both if you really want, but you can only get approved for one.

[FinStar]

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@Anonymous wrote:
You can only have one Sapphire card at a time. So you can apply for both if you really want, but you can only get approved for one.

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^This OP^.  Only 1 will be approved.  Given the profile info that you've shared and what others have mentioned, it's likely the CSP might be more viable in terms of approval vs the CSR. 

[wche]

Double dip is possible, however with your credit profile, more than likely won't pan out. CSP has a minimum 5k credit line, whereas CSR is 10k. I think you will be approved for CSP no problem. CSR, not so much with your thin profile. If your CSP application goes into pending, you can always call reconsideration to make your case. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Appreciate the input from everyone. Cheers!

PS, If I do get approved for the CSP, but they only give me a SL of the minimum $5k, is it possible to immediately call the reconsideration line to try and get an increase? The only reason I’m asking is that when I buy plane tickets in March I’ll probably buy directly from the airlines and might spend around $7k+ in one shot, and want to try and get all the tickets on one transaction to ensure a stable price and that everyone ends up on the same flight, so a $7-8k SL would be more desirable than the $5k starter (and I’ve heard Chase is a bit stingy with CLI requests down the line).

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:
The CSR has been my dream travel card and one of the reasons I got started on the “Card Journey” in order to eventually qualify for it. However, I lived out of the country for a while and just started my credit journey from the ground up last January.

After six months I had received my first official FICO score of 771 and figured I should try for the CSP. At the time my CL was only $750 on the Discover IT card, and I only had six months of history, so naturally I was denied.

Fast forward a year, I picked up two other cards, (BoA travel CL $1100, and an AMEX BCE CL $6000) and was able to raise my Discover limit to $2250. I just got my one year review from Discover today so I decided to check the Chase prequalified offers and for the first time ever, they gave me four card offers, one of which is the Sapphire Preferred.

I’ve heard that official Chase prequals are about 90% guaranteed, and the CSP is an awesome card, however I’m really wanting to get the CSR. I’ll be taking a group of people to Japan this year and I’m responsible for all the booking and travel arrangements (probably around $15,000 worth of expenses), so the CSRs higher limit plus higher reward rate would be a definite plus. Yet I’m wondering if this card is a realistic possibility?

My credit history only goes back one year. My current income is around 31k, my combined CL is $9350, my utilization is only at around 2-3%, I bank with Chase, and my Experian FICO (which Chase pulls in my state) is 731.

Would applying for the CSR be realistic, or should I stick with the safer CSP and try to upgrade next year? Any advice or personal testimonies would be very helpful, as I have a $1000 travel purchase coming up in about 2 weeks and another $6-7k one arriving toward the end of March, so I want to apply for one of them soon.

Appreciate all responses and advice.

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You will not get approved for the CSR.  Your profile just isn't mature enough yet.  Focus on building your existing relationships so that you have about 10k CL's on each card.  You also want to have more than 2 years of credit history (AAoA) at a very minimum.