I came across a fairly interesting DP: if you currently hold a Sapphire card, then in addition to meeting the 48-month waiting period for the welcome bonus plus the 5/24 requirement, you may also need to close or downgrade the card and then wait 30 days before applying for a new Sapphire card. Details below:
Background: The applicant had held the Sapphire Preferred for many years. In order to apply for the Sapphire Reserve, they downgraded the Sapphire Preferred to Freedom. It had already been more than 48 months since receiving the Sapphire Preferred welcome bonus, and they also met Chase’s 5/24 application requirement.
- First application: After calling to downgrade the Sapphire Preferred to Freedom, they submitted the first application and were instantly denied. They received a letter saying, "You already have a Sapphire-branded card account with us". No HP.
- Second application: After receiving the denial letter, they applied again and were still instantly denied, receiving the same letter and reason as the first application. No HP.
- Third application: They waited until the Sapphire card in their Chase account showed the Freedom logo, and then applied again. This time there was a hard pull, but they still received a denial letter saying, “Too many requests for credit or opened accounts with us”. They called reconsideration, but the result could not be changed. The representative suggested applying again later; the denial may have been related to the product change not yet being 30 days old, since a product change can still be reversed within 30 days.
I personally think this DP is worth using as a reference, since whether you are considered a Sapphire customer is determined automatically by the system. My suggestion is that after a product change or account closure, it may be better to wait a while before applying for another card that could conflict.