Questions and Answers

I have a Reserve card and a Freedom unlimited card with over 500K UR points. The annual fee on my Reserve card has just been posted, and I’m seeing very little value in the benefits right now (no interest in immediate travel).
Questions to the Chase wizards:
1: What happens to the UR points if I don’t renew the Reserve card. Do I keep them all with just the freedom card, and if so can I use them in the same way as if I renewed the Reserve card. I am aware that the redemption value of a point would no longer be 1.5 cents
2: How easy would it be to reacquire the Reserve card when life opened up again?

Any other strategies for dealing with the Reserve card?

If you close the CSR with the points still in the associated UR account, you will lose them. You can transfer them to the Freedom and they will stay active but you won’t have the 1.5 or the transfer option. You could choose to downgrade to the CSP which still gives you some travel/transfer options or the Freedom Unlmited that earns 1.5UR/$. Both those options will also preserve your points.

Impossible to say how easy it will be to get the CSR back given how often rules and situations change but if you downgrade now you can always upgrade again if you can’t get a new card.

Thanks and I have a follow-up question. If and when at some point in the future I upgrade back to the CSR, will I be able to transfer the points I have stashed in the Freedom card back to Preferred/Reserve points.

Yes, you would. You can transfer points freely among your UR-earning cards. I’m with Gaurav in that I would downgrade to the CSP ($95/yr). You’d still be able to transfer points as needed to airlines/hotels and if you use them through the Chase portal they’re worth 1.25 cents each. If you downgrade I *think* all the points associated with the CSR would stay around because I think your card number will stay the same (after I got the CSR, I downgraded my CSP to CFU and the number stayed the same). To be safe you may prefer to transfer them all to your CFU before downgrading.

Thanks again for the reply.
I think I’m starting to understand something that I do need to really be aware of I could product change to a freedom card and keep all my UR points but I would NOT be able to transfer them to partner airlines/hotels, unless (or until) I have a Reserve/Preferred personal card.
Is that the case?

That’s correct. You must have a card with an annual fee to be able to transfer the points.

Once again thanks for the clarification. The appropriate action seems to be downgrading to a Preferred card.

Sorry to hit you guys again but I just ran across a post from 2 weeks ago that discusses an 80,000 bonus points for applying for a Preferred card
So an alternate strategy might be to product change to a Flex card and then apply for the CSP and get the bonus. I won’t be restricted by the 5/24 rule.
Question: how long does it take for a product change to occur, is it instantaneous or is more like the time it a card cancellation to go through.

I think it was pretty much instantaneous. You might wait a day or two to make sure everything is transitioned over but you should not have to wait long.

[QUOTE=”GBOAC, post: 70696, member: 1420″]Sorry to hit you guys again but I just ran across a post from 2 weeks ago that discusses an 80,000 bonus points for applying for a Preferred card
So an alternate strategy might be to product change to a Flex card and then apply for the CSP and get the bonus. I won’t be restricted by the 5/24 rule.
Question: how long does it take for a product change to occur, is it instantaneous or is more like the time it a card cancellation to go through.[/QUOTE]
I am not 100% positive, but isn’t there a 48 month waiting period between earning a new card bonus on the second CSR or CSP?

There is, [USER=1420]@GBOAC[/USER] will have to check that.

[QUOTE=”Mark in MI, post: 70700, member: 3650″]I am not 100% positive, but isn’t there a 48 month waiting period between earning a new card bonus on the second CSR or CSP?[/QUOTE]

Once again thanks for the responses. I had mistakenly thought the bonus period was 24 months but it is 48 months as stated in a recent Chase post by Ben (and confirmed by a Chase rep)
“Specifically, you’re not eligible to apply for the Sapphire Preferred or Sapphire Reserve if you have either of the cards, or have received a new cardmember bonus on either card in the past 48 months.”

I thought I would update this thread with my ultimate decision — I will renew the Reserve card at the discount fee of $450 — I was reminded about the expanded use of the travel (to the grocery store) reimbursement. And I also realized I need to renew my Global entry card some time early next year. That recovers almost the total amount of the fee:-)