Dr Jabadski

I’ve been fortunate over the years to ask for and receive several bonus bumps from Chase yet the parameters for a bump are not transparent. In past years I was always told it could be done only within 3 months of account opening. In the past month I been given different information by different phone reps so I thought I would initiate a discussion here in an attempt to add understanding to this process.

A couple of months ago I applied for and was instantly approved for 2 Chase business cards. The minimum spend was met for both accounts within a few days of receiving the cards, before the first statements.

Three weeks later, after meeting minimum spend and before the first statement, I saw that the bonus and minimum spend for one of the cards had increased. I sent a secure message requesting a bonus bump and I called shortly after sending the message. The phone rep said yes, it could be done within 90 days of account opening and to call back once the increased spend had posted (not pending) to the account. The secure message reply was “… we're glad to inform that we can match the offer. Please reply to this email or call us after meeting the remainder $x,957 ($x,000.00 - $x,043.00) purchase spend requirement and we'll manually add xx,000 bonus points. The end date to meet the purchase spend requirement is (91 days after application date)”. I replied to the message a few days later, the bump appeared on my first statement under “Total miles transferred to ABC Airlines” and “Year-to-date miles earned on credit card” but without a line item for the bump.

In other words, the credit card statement specified:
+ Additional miles earned on ABC Airlines purchases 0
+ Additional miles earned at restaurants 0
+ Additional miles on travel 0
+ Miles earned on all purchases x,043 (x being minimum spend for new offer)
+ New Cardmember Bonus xx,000 (original bonus)
Total miles transferred to ABC Airlines xx,043 (original bonus plus bump)

The airline miles activity a few days after the credit card statement specified:
Chase Bus Card 1 Mile All Purchases x,043 miles (minimum spend)
Chase Bus Bonus Miles xx,000 miles (original bonus)
Chase Business 1st Purchace [sic] Bon xx,000 miles (bump)
(interesting typo on airline website list of activity)

7 weeks after the approvals, after 2 statements and meeting minimum spend on the first statement, I saw that the bonus and minimum spend for the other card had increased. I sent a secure message requesting a bonus bump and I called shortly after sending the message. The phone rep said yes, he called it an “enriched bonus”, I haven’t yet received a reply to the secure message. I asked and he said that it could be done with 5 months/billing cycles and it could be done in reverse (request bonus in effect BEFORE one’s application) and he gave me a date 112 days after account opening as the deadline to meet the higher minimum spend. I asked (perhaps inadvertently giving him an easy answer) if the 112 days which is more than the 3 months specified is to allow time for the card to arrive in the mail, he said yes. (FWIW, I’ve been approved for 4 new cards in the past few months, I did not request expedited delivery, each took 2 full weeks to arrive in the mail, a week longer than averages from the past.)

Bottom line/datapoints:
Chase will still match an “enriched offer” (bonus bump).
One phone agent said within 90 days, another said within 5 billing cycles.
One phone agent said minimum spend deadline is 91 days, another said 112 days.

Dr Jabadski

Communications are finished regarding the minimum spend (MS) deadline for the second Chase business card bonus bump above. I had called and secure messaged (SM) on the same day requesting the bump, the phone rep said “yes” and told me a deadline 112 days from account approval/opening. The SM reply a day later said “yes” and gave me a date 91 days from account approval/opening.

Although I generally meet MS for any credit card by the first statement, 2 bumps each with significantly increased MS requirements at nearly the same time caused my spend planning to go down the tubes. I now need as much time as possible for the second card MS and I wanted a paper trail for the deadline. Sent a SM reply asking for review and clarification of the deadline, Chase’s reply stated “We are unable to assist you with your inquiry by email. Please contact Customer Service at the number listed on the back of your card, and request to speak with a supervisor, so we can discuss this issue further with you.”

I called that day and a very nice supervisor told me in essence that the deadline date is 91 days, Chase does allow a few more days, the previous phone rep should not have told me the few-extra-days date and Chase does not give out the few-extra-days date. Fascinating that about 12 hours after the call and about 18 hours after the time stamp on the reply I received a second reply to the same SM, stating “I would like to confirm that you can make the spend by x/xx/2021.” (112 days)

Bottom Line:

Chase will match new offers for bonus bumps.

Minimum spend deadline is based on original application/account approval date.

Minimum spend deadline is probably more than 3 months/91 days but Chase doesn’t like to tell the exact date.

mia

Did the amount of the minimum spend change when Chase matched the higher bonus?

Dr Jabadski

Yes. As I wrote above “Although I generally meet MS (minimum spend) for any credit card by the first statement, 2 bumps each with significantly increased MS requirements at nearly the same time caused my spend planning to go down the tubes.” (MS here being “minimum spend”, not “manufactured spend”.)

I even did my best groveling, pulled out all the stops (40 year customer, health care worker, Afghanistan vet) and Chase will only bump if I meet the increased minimum spend.

mia

Thank you for the confirmation. When Citi "matched" offers they would not increase the spend or the bonus. Instead, they made an adjustment for the difference. At present Citi has a No Match policy, but its an interesting (to me) difference in corporate policy.

Dr Jabadski

You are very welcome. Agreed, corporate policy (and how it changes over time) is interesting. My first (of 8) Sapphire card was 10 years ago, 15,000 bonus, I closed the account in 2 months (anticipating a quick churn) after charging a dollar over the minimum. Then, a couple of years later I received a Sapphire Preferred 50,000 bump in addition to a 50,000 bonus with no increased minimum spend. Nowadays, the bump points or miles are relatively small with a large increase in minimum spend and I'd never close an account after 2 months.

(Unfortunately, some of us (like me for example) will bend over backwards to meet a minimum spend and never miss a bonus , especially with how much more challenging approvals are in the past few years. With my current situation of a 50% bump and a 150% minimum spend increase, veterans and certain Georgia US Senate run-off candidates (not saying which ) will benefit as I don’t MS (manufactured spend) anymore, my insurance company will not allow pre-payment and I often meet minimum spends with donations.)

Dr Jabadski

Geez, all of a sudden I feel like Robert Deniro in the film Taxi Driver .

Datapoint: (Probable) successful bonus bump 3.5 months after approval. This datapoint is posted with due consideration that Chase bonus bumps traditionally have been available only within 90 days/3 months. It never hurts to ask.

Chase Ink Business Cash, applied/instant approval 6/5/23, SUB 75K UR/$6,000 posted on 6/15 based on estimated federal tax payment, noted on first statement on 7/3/23.

On 9/20/23 became aware of 90K UR/$6,000 current SUB. Called customer service 9/21/23, agent said she would put the request in, secure message on 9/23/23 as below. Secure message (SM) reply next day that the request was being passed to the appropriate department. No other replies. Today noted 15K more UR in that card’s UR account, with notation “Adjustment 09/23(/23) 15,000 pts”.

I can't think of any other reason for the 15K UR, presumably a successful bonus bump (guess it could be because I’m such a great guy ).

(Note: some special characters, including “, are not allowable in Chase SMs. And yes, I play the retired Afghanistan veteran card whenever it might be helpful. My favorite was a year or 2 ago when my Hyatt MHC wrote back to me, in reply to my email containing a line similar to the line below, “well played veteran card”. Never mind that in this case "a few years" refers to 10 years .)

Just now 9/27/23 seeing their reply, timed just a few hours after my secure message, (obviously) shoulda checked my SMs a few days ago.

SPN Lifer

I got Mrs. SPN Lifer a "bump" upgrade last October to whatever current sign up bonus (SUB) miles were being offered (10K or 15K difference) for the United Quest Visa, via an internal message within the Chase website, including a link to the newer offer.

I read about the technique on FlyerTalk. Chase is pretty good about this.

No cards played.

Dr Jabadski

Shoulda played some cards, mighta gotten her the future SUB, the extra-special super-duper double-secret-probationary SUB that’s only available to card players .

(Yes, entirely tongue in cheek, I've actually never heard of a "extra-special super-duper double-secret-probationary SUB".)

dparkinson

I just applied to and was approved for the 90K Ink Unlimited SUB. I just got the card today but saw that there’s a 120K in branch offer. Since I haven’t started spending towards the bonus, nor actually received the points, my reading of the terms is that I can apply for the 120K and then just cancel (essentially voiding) the 90K card and still get the bonus. However, the banker in the branch said that the mere act of being approved for the 90K card means I can’t get any Ink SUB for the next 2 years. Does that sound correct based on y’all’s experiences?

MDtR-Chicago

The language in the offer likely says you cannot get another bonus on the same card for 2 years. That language is generally not being enforced at this moment.

However, it is generally a bad idea to close a card right after being approved, especially if you're going to immediately apply for another card again. It may be a factor in Chase shutdowns. And even beyond that, Chase will generally re-open the existing card within a 30 day period anyway.

The prevailing advice here will likely be to earn the 90k bonus you have already signed up for. Not worth risky behavior with Chase. If you have an advertisement for the 120k offer, you can try asking Chase to match that offer instead, by secure message.

Another "safe" path would be to meet the spend on the existing card and get another card from the Ink family in 90 days. Meet that spend for a second bonus.

Dr Jabadski

My first time declined (expected) Bonus Bump after one phone call and multiple secure messages. Maybe it was declined because it wouldn’t have required any additional spend on the card?

lAzyTraveler

Applied United Business card back in Nov with 75k SUB miles. I received the bonus in Dec, but I just noticed that I got another 25k miles as “Chase Credit Card Adjustments” a couple of days ago. I know Chase is offering 100K SUB now, but it’s interesting that Chase does something like this.

Dr Jabadski

Yup, me too.

Outstanding - but nope, not me. Your post 1 day after my being declined for the 3rd or 4th time over the past 3 weeks was discouraging (for me). (I hope Chase didn’t mistakenly give you my Bonus Bump .)

Did you request it? If so, by phone or secure message or another way? Are you best friends with Jamie Dimon (Chase CEO) ?

I Never Promised You A Bonus Bump Rose Garden

lAzyTraveler

Nope. I didn't even know Chase offers something like this. I checked my UA account and saw the number. No call or message, no request or complain. I guess I was lucky?