Welcome back to Chase Sapphire Preferred week! Today’s topic: the Chase Sapphire Preferred credit score conundrum, aka what credit score do you need to get one of these cards? And does it even matter anymore?

As luck would have it, there’s some good data out there on this. Credit Karma surveyed its members on the CSP, and here’s the Chase Sapphire Preferred credit score distribution they came up with:

I also went through the comments on that CK page and tallied up the scores for those who said they were approved, and I came up with an average of 712. This obviously isn’t the most scientific method ever, but 712 is actually pretty close to what I’d imagine the midpoint to be based on looking at the graph. If you’re curious, you can also go read the relevant posts in the myFico forums.

Of course, there’s more to getting approved for a Chase Sapphire Preferred than just a credit score. As you may have heard by now, Chase has tightened up the underwriting on its Ultimate Rewards-earning cards (i.e., the Freedom, Sapphire Preferred, and Ink) and will not approve you if you’ve had too many cards open recently. Doctor of Credit and Miles to Memories, among others, have reported on this new, unfortunate development. And there are some other datapoints in this Flyertalk thread if you’re so inclined.

How many new credit cards is too many, you ask? The consensus is that even five new cards (both Chase and non-Chase) in two years is too much. So even if you have a credit score of 800, you can still get turned down. And it gets worse: according to the Doctor of Credit article (which you really should go read), even being added as an authorized user to another card counts against that limit of five. The Chase Sapphire Preferred is a jealous lover, it seems.

Worst of all, according to DoC:

A friend of mine has 3 INKs and applied for 2 more. Not only did they deny his applications, the reconsideration rep forced him to close two of his three existing cards.

I’ll repeat that: the rep denied his applications and forced him to close 2 of his existing cards.

So if you’re a newcomer to the wonderful world of credit cards, things are in your favor. Just make sure you apply for your Chase Sapphire Preferred before you apply for any other cards, lest you be denied the 40,000 Ultimate Rewards Points that is rightfully yours.

For the rest of us who have high credit scores and several credit cards, the new underwriting standards represent an unfortunate development in the hallowed history of the Chase Sapphire Preferred card. The Frugal Travel Guy is fond of reminding us that our credit is one of our most important assets. How are we, the citizens of the United States of America, supposed to utilize that asset if we can’t apply for more than 2 or 3 credit cards per year? Let us hope that cooler heads (by which I mean the people in the marketing department) prevail at Chase credit card headquarters.

Jamie Dimon, if you’re reading this, can you help us out? It’s senseless to withhold the Chase Sapphire Preferred® card from those who need it most. I’d like to think that my children will grow up in a world where this fine card is available to all Americans, not just a privileged few. It is imperative that we put this Chase Sapphire Preferred credit score issue to rest and move forward!

Welcome back to Chase Sapphire Preferred week! One of the best things about being a blogger is the interaction with people from all over the world. I publish a post from my living room and a few minutes later I’m getting responses over email, Twitter, and in the comments section. And there’s one topic that keeps coming up over and over again.

“Great post!” says the typical reader. “But I think you’re avoiding the larger issue. And by that I mean, which card is better: the Chase Sapphire Preferred® or the the Hello Kitty^® Visa^® Platinum Reward Card^®?

I’ve avoided this question long enough. I know I’ll probably ruffle a lot of feathers when I finally make my pronouncement as to which card is superior, but that’s okay. Extremely important bloggers like me are used to that sort of thing, so let’s get down to business.

REWARDS: The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is the gold standard of flexible rewards points. You can redeem points for a wide variety of travel purchases: flights, hotels, even train trips! Also, there are rumors that one can earn extra points at restaurants on certain Fridays, though details on that particular deal are hard to come by.

The Hello Kitty card, on the other hand, lets you accumulate points which can be exchanged for merchandise from sanrio.com. For example, you could buy this Hello Kitty calculator:

…which you can then use to calculate how many more Hello Kitty points you’re going to earn with your Hello Kitty^® Visa^® Platinum Reward Card^®.

ADVANTAGE: I’m going to call this one a toss-up.

DESIGN: The Hello Kitty card is TOTALLY cute!!!! How many other credit cards feature the color pink? I’m not even going to look at the Chase Sapphire Preferred® since there’s no way they can compete with Hello Kitty in this area. I’m pretty sure the color pink is nowhere to be found on that thing.

ADVANTAGE: Hello Kitty.

WEIGHT: The Chase Sapphire Preferred® weighs more than the Hello Kitty card. Those of you who follow sports know that weight is a factor in head-to-head matchups, so I have to give the nod to the Chase Sapphire Preferred® here.

Advantage: CSP.

INTANGIBLES: A recent study ranking the top 10 Chase Sapphire Preferred® cards found that the Chase Sapphire Preferred® card accounted for an incredible 6 of the top 10 Chase Sapphire Preferred® credit cards. The Hello Kitty card had exactly 0 entries on that same list. I think we know who wins this one.

Advantage: CSP.

THE VERDICT: The Hello Kitty card put up a good fight, but deep down you knew that the CSP would prevail, didn’t you? Congratulations to the wonderful folks at Chase for another credit card victory!