Update 5/8/25: Rates reduced to $100/10,000 for Sapphire Preferred/Ink Unlimited and $75/7,500 for Freedom Unlimited.
Update 5/4/25: Rates have been DRAMATICALLY increased. $300/30,000 for Sapphire Preferred/Ink Unlimited and $150/15,000 for Freedom Unlimited. If you’ve ever wondered how much money we give up by not using affiliate links on this site, this gives you some insight. Hat tip to TwG
See this follow up post: FAQ On The $300 Rakuten Credit Card Bonus (Chase Sapphire Preferred, INK, Freedom)
Original Post:
In a surprising move, Rakuten is now promoting a $50/5,000 bonus when signing up for the Chase Sapphire Preferred, Chase Freedom Unlimited, and Chase INK Unlimited.
Sapphire Preferred | Freedom Unlimited | INK Unlimited
This is perfect timing on the Sapphire Preferred card which is already offering an excellent 100,000 points bonus (ending soon).Â
Typically shopping portals are not allowed to offered kickbacks for credit card signups. While the affiliate can sometimes earn well in excess of $50 per signups, the banks and affiliate networks don’t typically allow incentivizing signups in that manner. Apparently Rakuten negotiated this deal specially with Chase. (We don’t use credit card affiliate links on Doctorofcredit ever.)
A lot of us apply using the referral link of a player-2 or a friend which might be better than with using Rakuten. Still, many people prefer an easy bonus like this, especially if you value Rakuten/MR points at more than 1 cent each. (There’s yet another option of buying a card signup bonus on eBay.)
It’s kinda strange to earn Membership Rewards points for signing up on a Chase card. 🙂
If you’re new to Rakuten, it’s a good time to sign up now with their $40/4,000 bonus. You can find our referral link in this post.
Hat tip to Greedyenthusaism91