The Chase Sapphire Preferred Card (review) is losing a unique perk that set it apart in some ways, and I’m sure cardmembers won’t be happy about it.
Chase pulling 10% anniversary bonus points benefit
As flagged by Doctor Of Credit, Chase has just updated its website to reflect that a popular perk of the Chase Sapphire Preferred will be ending:
The Anniversary Bonus is retiring. You will continue to earn 10% of your spend through 10/1/26.
For context, the card has a robust rewards structure, and offers 5x points on purchases through Chase Travel, 3x points on dining, select streaming services, and online groceries, 2x points on all other travel purchases, and 1x points on all other purchases.
Beyond that, the card has offered 10% anniversary bonus points, calculated based on your base spending on the card. In other words, points earned from welcome bonuses and spending multipliers weren’t eligible for the 10% boost. That means if you spend $5,000 on the card per year, you’d be eligible for 500 bonus points, and those points are paid out on the account anniversary.
As of now, this is the only change that Chase has revealed on this $95 annual fee card. So it remains to be seen if that’s the extent of the changes, or if Chase is just disclosing this to provide some notice.
This is a shame, probably doesn’t change the math
Of course I hate to see a card issuer eliminate a perk on a card without adding anything to replace is. So this is a negative development, no matter how you slice it.
It definitely seems to me like we’re at a point where card issuers are increasingly trying to control costs, given just how much they’ve been investing in their card portfolios in recent years. I’ve argued that transferable points are probably at a negative inflection point, as we’re also increasingly seeing cost controls implemented when it comes to how people can redeem points.
I suspect this change won’t impact the math much for most people who have this card, in terms of deciding whether or not to keep the card. As I view it, the 10% bonus was unique in that it was a fun marketing bullet and sounded like something, but I doubt a 10% bonus on base spending was actually the difference between the card making sense vs. the card not making sense, at least for most people.
Admittedly for some, this may very much be a “final straw” situation, whereby they might’ve been on the fence about the card, and this makes them decide it’s not worth it.
Bottom line
For purchases as of October 1, 2026, the Chase Sapphire Preferred will no longer award 10% anniversary bonus points, as has been the case since 2021. The card’s bonus categories are otherwise expected to remain unchanged, but this still obviously represents a negative change, and it’s sad to see these kinds of perks being chipped away at.
What do you make of this Chase Sapphire Preferred change?
