Editor’s note: This is a recurring post, regularly updated with new information and offers.
TPG staffers are huge fans of the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, happily paying its annual fee each year and listing it as one of the cards we can’t live without. We love that this card earns bonus points on travel and dining and allows us to transfer our points to valuable transfer partners.
And in 2021, Chase added some new perks to the card to make it even more valuable. One of these benefits is a 10% anniversary points bonus, giving cardholders a 10% bonus based on their total spend during the account anniversary year at a rate of 1 point for each $1 spent. So, for example, if you spent $100,000 on your Sapphire Preferred during your cardmember year, you would get 10,000 bonus points at the end of the year.
Since TPG values Ultimate Rewards points at 2 cents each, earning 10,000 bonus points would be like getting $200 in value. The more you spend, the more you’ll earn, and this one perk alone could help make up for some (or all) of the card’s $95 annual fee.
Let’s dive into the specifics of this benefit and how you can track your progress on the Chase Sapphire Preferred’s 10% anniversary bonus.
About the Chase Sapphire Preferred 10% anniversary bonus
Without reading the fine print, this new perk can initially sound slightly misleading. Here are the details:
10% anniversary points bonus: Each account anniversary year, you’ll earn bonus points that equal 10% of your total spend in points from purchases made with your credit card during the previous account anniversary year at a rate of 1 point for each $1 spent. “Account anniversary year” means the year beginning with your account open date through the anniversary of your account open date, and each 12 months after that.
You shouldn’t mistake this as earning 10% back of the points you earned in a given year. Instead, you’re earning 10% more points based solely on the dollars you spend during your given account anniversary.
You can think of this as simply adding 0.1% to the existing bonus categories on the Chase Sapphire Preferred. As a reminder, here’s the earning rate on the card:
So in your mind, you could add 0.1% to all of the multipliers above. In other words, you’re earning 5.1 points per dollar on Lyft purchases (through March 2025), 3.1 points per dollar on dining, 2.1 points per dollar on other travel purchases — the list goes on.
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While not a huge difference, it can certainly add up to a significant number of bonus points at the end of your cardmember year.
Related: 7 Chase Sapphire Preferred benefits you might not know about
How to track your progress for the 10% anniversary bonus
If you don’t know your account anniversary date already, visit the Ultimate Rewards portal to find this date as well as your progress toward your 10% bonus.
Click on “Rewards Activity” and you’ll find a summary of your spending, points earned, and your progress under “10% Anniversary points boost.”
My account anniversary just reset, so I haven’t yet earned many points toward my new 10% bonus. That number will increase significantly as I spend more over the coming year.
Another important thing to note here is that you won’t receive your bonus points until 60-90 days after your anniversary period is over. This is likely because Chase wants you to pay your annual fee for the next year before awarding you these bonus points.
Regardless, there’s no extra work involved for you to activate this benefit. The points will automatically accrue and deposit to your account once your anniversary resets. If you want to track your progress, you can do so under the “rewards activity” of the Ultimate Rewards portal. Otherwise, let the points fly in.
Related: How to use the Chase Sapphire Preferred hotel credit
Bottom line
If you don’t put a huge amount of spending on your card, this 10% anniversary points bonus isn’t necessarily monumental. Still, it’s another benefit that makes the Chase Sapphire Preferred a card worth getting and keeping.
For more details, check out our full review of the Chase Sapphire Preferred.
Official application link: Chase Sapphire Preferred with an 80,000-point sign-up bonus after spending $4,000 on purchases in the first three months of account opening.
Additional reporting by Emily Thompson.
