A Few Changes to Sapphire Reserve Benefits Come August

If you have a Chase Sapphire Reserve® Card, you should have already gotten a notice in the mail about a few changes to your benefits effective August 26, 2018. But let's get real. I'm sure many of you throw that mail away without even looking at it. Here are the changes it went over.
1.

Earn 50k Points/Year via CSR Referrals (Leave Yours in Comments)

The Sapphire Reserve Card has been added to Chase's Refer-a-Friend Program. For every person that applies and is approved through your personal referral link, you'll earn 10,000 Ultimate Rewards. The maximum bonus points you can earn through Sapphire Reserve referrals per year is 50,000.

The Referral Offer
The sign up offer for the Chase Sapphire Reserve® through Refer-a-Friend is the same as the public offer: 50,000 Ultimate Rewards for spending $4,000 on the card within three months of account opening. That is what your friend will earn.

NEW CHASE RULE: Only One Sapphire Product Per Customer

Today we learned of a new rule enforced by Chase regarding their Sapphire products. Applicants will not be approved for another credit card in the Sapphire family if they already have one open. These are Chase's Sapphire branded credit cards:

Sapphire
Sapphire Preferred
Sapphire Reserve

This rule will only affect applicants moving forward and should have no affect on the cardmember status of existing cardholders.
Where the Rumor Came From
Doctor of Credit was a sent a photo from someone who works at Chase of a memo that was sent to them by Chase. It went over four points.

Product Changing From An Expensive Annual Fee Card

The Chase Sapphire Reserve®, the Citi Prestige, and the The Platinum Card® from American Express card are premium credit cards with huge benefits and high annual fees to match.

The first year, these are fantastic cards. The second year, the value is less certain. We'll look at canceling and downgrading options in this post.

The First Year

Many people are scared off by that annual fee, which makes sense at a superficial level. We all got interested in miles and points to save money, not spend it.

These Are the Two Cards to Get If Just Starting with Miles

If you’re just getting started you need to get the most powerful combo of credit cards to earn miles. I’ve discussed the general strategy to maximize miles from credit cards over your lifetime recently, but let me be very specific for beginners.

Start with the Chase Freedom Unlimited® and the Chase Sapphire Reserve®. While you’re at it, get the Chase Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card if you have more spending capacity and a business. I recommend these 2-3 cards because:

They earn Ultimate Rewards, that transfer to 11 partner airline
They complement each other.