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The Chase Sapphire Preferred is one of THE BEST cards to keep in your wallet
I’m a huge fan of Chase credit cards. Not only do they have excellent co-branded cards, but their bread and butter Chase Sapphire Preferred lives in my wallet. It’s currently advertising a 60k welcome offer after spending $4k in 3 months, but more than that, it’s been a card I’ve held longterm. Let’s take a quick look at the benefits and a few reasons why I think everyone should have one.
You can also read our full review
Interested in the Chase Sapphire Preferred? Compare it to other great travel credit cards here.
Straight to it: The 3 Reasons I love keeping the card in my wallet
1) No foreign Transaction fees
Anywhere in the world, you don’t have to worry about paying fees. For someone like myself, this is a great benefit, and means I can rest knowing anytime I swipe, I’m not paying some silly surcharge.
2) Primary Rental Car Coverage
A lot of credit cards come with secondary rental card coverage, the Chase Sapphire Preferred offers primary and that means I can select, no thank you, when it comes to paying those hefty Collision Damage Waivers. For someone who rents A LOT, that saves me wads of cash every year.
3) Access to Ultimate Rewards transfer partners
This is where you can make your travel dreams come true by accessing partner programs and redeeming for sweet spots. Ability to merge points from Chase “cash back” cards to convert into fully transferrable Ultimate Rewards
Bonus Reason: Chase refer-a-friend
Chase recently upped the total amount of points that you can earn by referring people to 75k in a year. That’s a massive amount of points and completely outweighs the annual fee just by sharing the love.
Bonus, bonus: 2x dining and $95 annual fee
While I put most of my dining on my Amex Gold because it earns 4x on dining, it also comes with a $250 annual fee. This card, guarantees 2x dining, but only assesses a $95 annual fee.
Interested in the Chase Sapphire Preferred? Compare it to other great travel credit cards here.
Don’t have one? This is a great time to consider one. It comes with a great welcome offer of 60k Ultimate Rewards after $4k in purchases in 3 months
This is the best public offer we’ve seen on the card. If you’re eligible to get this card as a new cardmember and qualify for the bonus, there hasn’t been a better time to hop on it. The annual fee of $95 isn’t waived.
Who’s eligible?
Chase has some specific restrictions in place for Chase Sapphire cards, so let’s walk through them.
5/24
- If you’re opened more than 5 credit cards in the last 24 months Chase won’t approve you for this card
- Make sure you check your credit report to see how many cards are listed
1/48
- If you’ve received a sign up bonus for any Chase Sapphire card ( Preferred or Reserve ) in the past 48 months, you’ll be ineligible.
Some examples of where to use Ultimate Rewards?
Transfer to United and fly their new Polaris business class.
30k A night for the Best Hyatt in the World ( ranked by me 🙂 ) Alila Villas Uluwatu
Transfer to British Airways and use points to upgrade. Buying cheap business out of Europe and points to first a great use. This is what it’s like:
Overall:
The Chase Sapphire Preferred offers some really great benefits for a card that only costs $95 annually. It not only provides primary rental car coverage, which saves me a ton at the counter, but it also means I can merge points from my Freedom, Ink Cash, and Ink Unlimited that would otherwise only earn me cash back. It’s a fantastic way to increase the value of the points earned on those cards.
Every situation is different, but I ultimately decided to keep a Chase Sapphire Preferred en lieu of the Chase Sapphire Reserve. Do the math yourself, but the Chase Sapphire Preferred offers a lot of bang for the buck, and is squarely positioned in my wallet.
Miles,
Why do you keep the CSP over the CSR? The CSR is $55/year more after the travel credit. It also means you have a minimum point value of 1.5 cpp. Anyone spending over $5500/year on the card is almost always better off with the CSR. I do advocate signing up for the CSP though since the sign-up bonus is better. I would upgrade when the fee came due though.
That being said I have neither the CSP nor the CSR. I have the Citi Prestige (for now) and Chase Ink Preferred and Cash. Chase Ink Cash + Chase Ink Preferred is pretty close to the CSR in terms of spending, minus lounge access I get from other cards and the 1.5 cpp. Ink Cash gets 2x on restaurants (up to 25k) and Ink Preferred gets 3x on travel (up to 150k).
Jeremy – I had a reserve and downgraded actually. The reasons I keep it and highlighted have quite little to do with spend, and more to do with benefits + refer a friend, and I don’t really ever redeem my ultimate rewards in the chase travel center. I think the $55 argument is a really good one and for people that don’t keep a lot of cards like myself, it makes total sense ( you also need to assess opportunity cost of that $300 credit, i.e – other cards with higher category bonuses). For me…my dining gets split between amex gold and citi prestige ( which also gives me my priority pass w/ restaurants ) and flights go to amex plat, biz plat, or chase ink biz pref. My other expenses go on cards that earn 1.5x and now 2x with citi double cash. I push spend on this when I’m abroad b/c so many places take Visa, and freedoms/ink cash/unlimited assess foreign transaction, I use it on all my car rentals, and the 75k a year refer a friend is mega valuable – reserve doesn’t have one ongoing. So when it came time for me to keep the reserve, it just didn’t make sense, but easily makes up the $95 a year fee.