Chase is tightening up its rules on earning credit card bonuses with a few changes in a short period of time. What is it foreshadowing?

Chase already has “5/24”

We’ve talked about 5/24 before and how you shouldn’t let it live rent free in your head.

But as a reminder, 5/24 is the metric Chase uses to pace how often customers can obtain their credit cards. If you’ve had five new credit cards appear on your personal credit report in the most recent 24 months, Chase won’t let you open a new card. With some reports of success for some who had more than five in 24 months, it’s more of a guideline than a hard rule.

We bring this up because it offers a starting point for restrictions Chase puts in place for getting their cards.

Now Chase is also adding new restrictions to the refreshed Reserve

Chase has just refreshed its Sapphire Reserve product (my refer-a-friend link), offering new benefits at a new (higher) annual fee. For a $795 annual fee, what do you get?

• $300 travel credit annually
• $500 credit at The Edit (given as semi-annual $250 credits)
• $300 dining credit at Sapphire Reserve Exclusive Tables (given as semi-annual $150 credits)
• Complimentary Apple TV+ and Apple Music, and a free DashPass membership
• $300 credit at StubHub (given as semi-annual $150 credits)
• $120 in Lyft credits (given as $10 monthly)
• $120 in Peloton credits (given as $10 monthly)

Whether you feel it’s a good value or not will entirely depend on whether you naturally use these benefits. The fee is so large that it’s incredibly difficult to get equal value from the card if you don’t use any of these credits.

But as part of the refreshed card, Chase also snuck in a change to how they reward the sign-up bonus. The offer terms for this card now state “the new cardmember bonus may not be available to you if you currently have any other personal Sapphire cards open, previously held this card or received a new cardmember bonus for this card.” They’re also considering “other factors”, which is pretty vague.

Colloquially, this is the Chase-equivalent of the dreaded “Amex pop-up jail”. That’s where American Express may or may not give you a bonus and won’t tell you why. Sometimes people are stuck “in jail” for months without any guidance on how to get out of jail.

Reduced likelihood of refer-a-friend bonuses

On top of this, Chase launched a business version of the Sapphire Reserve. Along with it are some new terms for the refer-a-friend program.

Effective October 7th, 2025, you will be eligible to receive referral bonus awards for new Chase Business card customers only. Referrals of individuals with existing Chase business card accounts will no longer qualify for the referral bonus.

It remains to be seen how this will work in practice. But the verbiage suggests that someone with a current Chase business card open will not earn a bonus for their referring friend. Could someone who had a business card but closes it and applies for a new card earn a bonus for their friend? Perhaps. But I won’t get my hopes up until we get to that point.

So what’s it all mean?

Obviously, 5/24 has been around for a long time and I don’t think you should expect any changes there in the short term.

The new Chase pop-up jail is about controlling costs

The new restriction on the Sapphire Reserve is about turning a profit on the card. The card’s juicy initial 100,000 Ultimate Rewards bonus from the start was so generous and effective at drawing crowds that it became a loss leader for Chase. Slowly, the issuer has been trying to earn a profit off those cardholders, but it doesn’t help when those same members reapply every four years to earn another hefty bonus.

Chase wants business from prospective cardholders it doesn’t already have, not paying extra to retain members it already has. Just the existence of the new rules is enough to convince some to not bother trying to product change their current Reserve or cancel it only to fail earning a new bonus.

And, yes, you should absolutely expect this to spread to other cards. It will likely spread to Chase’s other Ultimate Rewards cards first, followed by the co-branded cards after they can demonstrate it doesn’t negatively impact new cardmember acquisition. It just makes sense to start with the Reserve given the card’s history at struggling to turn a profit.

The refer-a-friend change is foreboding

I think it helps to think of the Chase refer-a-friend program as a commission. Chase is paying you a commission to land a new customer. Only currently that new customer isn’t actually new–it’s an existing customer looking to expand their relationship with Chase. The issuer is deciding that they simply don’t need to pay out commissions for that subset of applicants.

Currently, it’s only on business cards earning Ultimate Rewards. I think it’s fair to assume this will eventually spread too. I don’t think it’s necessarily surprising that Chase is looking to cut back on paying out more points. This probably most impacts those married individuals who frequently refer their spouse for a card and their spouse refers back.

But why is Chase doing this?

Let’s take a brief look at the presentation from Chase’s recent Investor Day event. Sometimes there are nuggets that identify the rationale behind the changes a company makes.

Firstly, Chase seems to take a lot of pride in their leading position in the credit card division. They note a growing gap between themselves and “Peer 1”.

Growth for Chase seems to come from all across the board. They’re seeing heavy growth particularly in the premium and small business space. (And guess what cards they’re reducing bonuses/commissions on? Premium and small business cards.)

Chase is ultimately telling investors that it’s seeing substantial growth in a couple of areas. And then Chase goes out and reduces expenses because it doesn’t feel it needs to pay it. Their changes actually make sense from a business perspective, so it shouldn’t be surprising what they’re doing.

Bottom line

Chase is reducing commissions it’s paying out on some of its cards. You should expect this to eventually spread to other cards once it proves successful (not much abatement in growth). That’s disappointing to consumers who used to reliably get some extra points for signing up for cards.

It would behoove consumers to check out the story companies tell their investors. Sometimes you can get some extra context behind why companies made changes or what might come soon. Here, it seems like Chase believes it doesn’t need to pay out and have it negatively impact the growth trends it’s seeing. Time will tell if that strategy works for them.

Suggested reading:

• Pro Tip: Keeping Your Credit Cards Open With Five Simple Tasks
• Keep or Cancel: How to Handle Too Many Credit Cards
• The Best Options for Airport Lounges for Families