Is that a recession indicator or what?
JUST IN ‼️ Chase is killing the UNLIMITED 3x ad spend gravy train on the Sapphire Reserve Biz Card.
haven't seen this announced anywhere publicly yet, but my Chase rep just sent me the notice directly + told me communications are initially going out to their top 1% of spenders.
This is a pretty massive change for ecom / info / media buying ppl because unlimited 3x on Meta + Google was arguably the single craziest feature of the new Business Sapphire Reserve.
Until now the debate was basically:
Amex Biz Gold = 4️⃣x, but capped at $150k/yr (extendable through additional cards)
Chase Biz Sapphire Reserve = 3️⃣x, but UNLIMITED
So if ur spending $50k/mo on ads, Amex wins early in the year.
If ur spending $500k/mo, Chase absolutely skullfucked it because there was no ceiling and didnt have to deal w flipping Amex cards
That party is ending. RIP
Interestingly, Chase's PUBLIC website still shows the 3x advertising category without a cap rn. So I think we're getting a first look at the change before it gets broadly announced.
What do high-spending founders do now?
IMO the answer becomes very obvious: stack the cards.
First $150k of qualifying US ad/software spend → Amex Business Gold at 4x.
Then move spend → Chase Sapphire Reserve for Business at 3x until you hit Chase's new annual ceiling.
Once Chase drops you to 1x, GTFO THE CARD.
At minimum I'd plan to churn Amex Gold Biz cards and get multiple to juice the 4x and make it unlimited, or move overflow onto an uncapped 2x product like Venture X Business, or even an uncapped 2.3% cash-back setup depending on whether you value points or cash (Slash offers this).
So IMO the new ad-spender stack is no longer:
Chase OR Amex?
It's:
🥇 Amex Gold 4x until $150k
🥈 Chase 3x until the new cap
🥉 2x uncapped / specialized cards for overflow
If your ad spend is in non-USD currency, you could also consider the BoA Atmos Summit card to get 3.3x points (only non-USD spend).
No matter how you slice the cake - the worst possible move is spending millions on ads and blindly letting everything after the bonus caps fall to 1x.
At this level, card optimization isn't "travel hacking."
A 1-2 point difference on $2M-$10M of annual spend is literally 100s of thousands of dollars.
RIP unlimited Chase 3x 🪦
It was beautiful while it lasted