Should I close my Chase Card?
 

I'm fairly new to the credit card/miles thing. In the past month my wife and I have obtained (2) BA Chase 100,000 mile cards, (2) Citi Platinum Select/AAdvantage Visa Cards, (2) CitiBusiness/AAdvantage Visa Cards and (1) Citi Select/AAdvantage American Express Card. A pretty busy month! I have a year old Chase Sapphire Card that I don't use. I'm thinking of closing it in case other Sapphire offers arrive. If I do, will I be shutout from future offers because I closed an account or if I don't, will I still be shutout because I already have a Sapphire Card? Thanks for any advice and I love Flyertalk!

shutout
 

I think you will be shut out since you already had a Sapphire Card.

Does anyone know for sure if I will be shutout or for how long?

I believe you will be shut out of future sign up offers for a Sapphire card regardless of whether you close the account or not. Chase seems to have put the kabosh on churning. It shouldn't prevent you from sign up bonuses on other Chase cards however.

At least years.

Maybe by 2018 or so they'll forget? Or simply change the card enough that they won't consider it the same card?

(I cancelled my last Chase Priority Club Visa many years ago -- at least 5, I'd guess, and maybe more. They let me apply for and get a bonus for the Chase Priority Club Select Visa late last year, but not only was that many years, but it was also a new type of Priority Club Visa: The original was a Platinum, and the new one is a Signature.)

Gosh, even if the only reason you want to cancel is to reduce the number of cards (or total credit available) with Chase because you're considering applying for another card from them, even for that purpose it can take a few months for whatever it was that you needed from the cancelled card to be available for new card apps.

I'm a novice, what do you mean by "change the card enough"?

One person’s data points. I had a Sapphire Preferred card from Mar through Sept 2009. I applied last week and got the ever popular “we’ll let you know” page. I called preemptively 2 or 3 days later and they asked if I would be willing to transfer some of me Chase UA credit limit to the Sapphire card and I said yes and I was approved. The card/account has appeared on my Chase On-line page but I’ve yet to receive it, expect it any day. I have no idea if they will give me the bonus.

(BTW, I had Chase personal UA cards for about 9 months in 2006, 2008 and 2009 and business UA cards in 2006 and 2009. I was approved for the 50000 UA card Oct 2010 and for the 30000 (later adjusted to 50000) Continental Card in Feb 2011.)

(Sorry, double post. Can't see anyway to delete this one.)

To put out different version of the card, that the bank considers "different enough" to not have people who had the earlier version of the card be counted as people who had the card as it stands after the change.

In other words, what my Priority Club example illustrated: That once Chase came out with the Priority Club Select Visa, they didn't have any problem giving bonuses that applied to that card to people who had previously had (but since closed) an earlier type of Priority Club Visa, that was quite different.

What no one knows, though, in advance, is whether there will be a "different enough" version of the Sapphire card you have, nor can well tell (until people have reportable experiences) when a bank considers a new verison of a card "different enough" (to count as a "fresh start" for allowed apps) and when it doesn't. (You can't necessarily tell from the T&Cs. And since banks don't like to talk "in print" about cards they no longer have, they're unlikely to ever explain such a situation in a card application ad or splash page or T&Cs.)

I'm no expert on this but I can say this:

I had a chase UA Visa for just shy of a year. I cancelled it but first I asked them to move its now freed up credit line to my remaining Chase CO MC. They did this.

Then I applied for another chase card and when it was first denied, I called in and ask them to simply borrow credit from the CO MC so I could get this new card, and that way they weren't putting themselves out.

Well, I got double lucky because they were about to do just that but then they ended up giving me the new card AND more credit.

Point is, either way, do try to move the existing available credit line you have been granted to something else CHASE and THEN cancel.

Key point. Chase can give you a card but deny you bonus if it deems the 2nd card is the same version of the old card. I had that happened to me on CO card in the past. However Chase is also good at giving bonus if the new card is deemed different enough from the old card. I got bonuses on different versions of UA cards in the past. I also got the 50K on the new version of CO card.