The Offer
Chase has announced that in October they’ll be adding a 60,000 points signup bonus for new Sapphire Banking customers who start a Sapphire Banking relationship, bring $75,000 in deposits or investments, and keep it there for 3 months. Existing Chase Checking customers who upgrade to Sapphire Banking are eligible too, but they do need to bring in $75,000 of new money.
As a reminder, Sapphire Banking is Chase’s new premium banking product, an upgraded version of what used to be called Chase Premier Platinum checking. It’s available for all Sapphire Reserve or Preferred cardholders. It waives ATM fees, investment fees, and has a slew of other benefits.Â
The Fine Print
- Bonus will be awarded within 45 days after the 90 day bonus period
- Chase Premier Platinum checking members are automatically upgraded to Sapphire Banking and are not eligible for the bonus
- There will likely be terms that the bonus will be taken back if account is closed within 6 months
- Unknown if this will result in a 1099
Unknown if it’ll be available online or require a branch visit The offer will be available online and in branch, with the exact date to be announced shortly- Funds held in the following accounts count toward the $75,000 requirement: checking, savings, liquid card, CD, investment and retirement accounts
Our Verdict
You’ll need to tie up $75k to do this deal, and even after the first 3 months you’ll need to keep the $75k there to avoid the $25 monthly fee, or you can just pay that fee. A better option might be to put $75k in a Chase investment account to satisfy the $75k requirement. Just be sure to be aware of any tax implications when transferring investments.
Overall, I’d say it the investment option might be a good deal for some people, especially if Chase doesn’t consider it taxable due to being a points bonus. This bonus is certainly not for everyone, though.
The initial rumor was for there to be a 50k points bonus, so this 60k is better than expected. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the bonus lowered at some point later, Chase likes to make a splash when introducing a product.
If you don’t have any Sapphire card, you can, of course, apply for either the Sapphire Reserve or Preferred with their 50,000 points bonus and land up with both the card bonus and the checking bonus. And you can also get up to 75,000 bonus points when taking out a Chase mortgage.
Another good stack here can be to open now the $300 Chase Total checking bonus, then – after bonus hits – upgrade to Sapphire Banking in October. You can do the $225 savings bonus as well. (Update: not sure if this will work since there might be a clause about only earning one bonus per calendar year.) Just remember that you’ll need $75k in new funds for the Sapphire bonus, so you can’t count funds in the Chase checking toward the $75k. Should be possible to transfer out and then back in, just keep in mind the minimums you need to get the respective bonuses and to keep the account fee-free.
