I’ll Explain How Shifting Credit Between Chase Cards Can Actually Help You Earn MORE Chase Ultimate Rewards Points

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Here’s a quick tip…

You can reallocate your credit card limits to help you earn more Chase Ultimate Rewards points!  Given many of the best credit cards for travel are Chase Ultimate Rewards points earning cards, I’m positive this tip will be useful to many of you.

The idea might seem a little odd, at first.  But I’ll share an example of how it can really pay off.  And show you how you can do it, too!

Earn More Chase Ultimate Rewards Points By Reallocating Your Credit Lines

Say you’re planning a vacation for your family.  You want to maximize the travel rewards you’ll earn for your airfare and hotel purchases, which are going run $6,000.

You have a $10,000 credit limit on your Chase Freedom card but only a $5,000 credit limit on your Chase Sapphire Preferred Card .

The Sapphire Preferred earns 2X Chase Ultimate Rewards points per $1 on travel, which is like earning at least 2% cash back given Ultimate Rewards are worth 1 cent per point when redeeming them for a statement credit.  Even better, you can get a whole lot more value from your Ultimate Rewards points when you use them for travel through Chase’s travel portal or transfer them to travel partners, like United Airlines and Hyatt.

So ideally, you’d put the entire $6,000 worth of airfare and hotel expenses on your Sapphire Preferred, but your card’s credit limit makes that impossible.

The solution?  Transfer at least $1,000 worth of the credit limit from your Freedom card to your Sapphire Preferred card.  That way you’ll earn 2X Ultimate Rewards points on the entire $6,000 worth of expenses.

I’ve done this before with my Ink Business Preferred Credit Card and Ink Business Cash Credit Card, to make the most of the Ink Business Cash’s 5% cash back (5X Chase Ultimate Rewards points) on the first $25,000 spent in combined purchases at office supply stores and on phone, internet, and cable TV services each account anniversary year.

In comparison, the Ink Business Preferred only earns 3X Chase Ultimate Rewards points on select categories like internet, cable and phone services, and more (up to a maximum of $150,000 in combined purchases per account anniversary year) and 1% back at office supply stores.

How to Shift Credit Between Chase Cards

In my experience, it has been incredibly easy to shift some of the credit available on one card to another.  I’ve done it a number of times over the years and all it takes is a phone call or secure message.

Have both account numbers ready and let the rep know that you’d like to shift credit from one card to another.  They’ll require that you leave some amount of credit on the card you’re transferring the credit from (i.e. your credit limit can’t be taken to zero, and some cards have a credit).

A few things to note:

• Shifting credit won’t require a credit pull unless it will cause one card’s limit to exceed $35,000 (they should warn you about this)
• You can’t move credit limits between personal and business cards or between charge cards and credit cards
• Credit shifts are usually processed within 24 hours, though I’ve seen them done nearly instantly before

Have you ever shifted credit limits between cards?  Please share your experience in the comments below!