Benny Joseph, WalletHub Analyst
@Benjy_1
You can downgrade from Chase Sapphire Preferred to Freedom Unlimited by calling customer service at 1 (800) 432-3117. You can also send a secure message from your Chase online account and request a product change. Your Sapphire Preferred account must be open for at least 12 months and in good standing to be eligible to downgrade.
Once you’ve completed the downgrade from Chase Sapphire Preferred to Freedom Unlimited, the card number, credit limit and APR will stay the same. You can use the new account immediately until the new Freedom Unlimited card arrives, in about 7-10 business days. The Preferred card’s $95 annual fee will be refunded in full if you request the downgrade within 60 days from when you’ve paid it. After 60 days, the refund will be prorated based on the number of days since you paid the annual fee. Also, rewards earned with the Sapphire card will transfer to Freedom Unlimited, but their value will decrease from 1.25 cents to 1 cent apiece when you redeem them for travel.
It’s important to know that when you downgrade from Chase Sapphire Preferred to Freedom Unlimited, it won’t show up on your credit report as a new account. Downgrades are done using a soft “pull,” or inquiry, meaning it won’t affect your credit score.
Chase Freedom Unlimited®
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Yes this is correct. There are other answers on this board that claim you cannot go to Freedom XYZ, including Freedom Flex, but when I called to downgrade my Sapphire Preferred (11/30/2020) both options were available. Another option they gave was the Chase Sapphire No Annual Fee card, which looks like the same Sapphire but loses the 1.25 multiplier for the Ultimate Rewards points when you use for travel (a trade for the new fee). I switched to the Flex which means a new number since it is a Mastercard (Unlimited remains Visa), but as Benny noted above it will not change the credit reporting since the line of credit (opening date, etc) is the same through CHASE, regardless of which card (Sapphire XYZ, Freedom XYZ) and processor (Visa, Mastercard) is used to do transactions on that line of credit.