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Why I cancelled the Hyatt Visa Signature from Chase
I’ve had the Hyatt Visa Signature in my wallet for 3 years now. I originally signed up because of the offer of 2 free nights after first purchase – it came in great at the Park Hyatt Chicago and Grand Hyatt Singapore. After that I’ve basically kept it in my wallet for the sole purpose of the free annual night certificate and platinum status within the brand. I’ve put very little spend on the card, actually only when I would stay at a Hyatt property, but now even the 3x points earned that way can be matched with the Citi Thank You Premier card which earns 3x on all travel. I’d value the Citi Thank You points higher than Hyatt points solely because they are flexible. So I wouldn’t even be using it to stay at their own properties. So it begged the question…. Why am I keeping the card?
I also feel like Hyatt devalued their Platinum status considerably when they made Wifi free to all guests ( as this used to be quite a nice cost savings for Platinum members ), so now the residual benefits are a possible room upgrade, 15% bonus points, and 2pm check out when available. I think these are all great benefits to have, but I also recently qualified for Diamond status through 02/2017 through a challenge and get more benefits from that status than I do from the card. So this leaves only the free night.
So Why am I keeping the card??
Time to take action:
- My annual fee hit on September 1st and I called into ask in August about any retention offers. None
- Nothing at all? The only response I got was that I was Diamond and that carried a lot of benefits. Well…yes, this is true, but the card has nothing to do with this. Can you waive the fee or offer me bonus points? Nope…
So I let my free night award credit to my account, paid the annual fee, moved the credit balance over to my IHG card and cancelled the account. Maybe in the next year and half I’ll revisit his card as I do highly value the annual free night, and also with Chase’s new rules I can reapply for the card and receive the new member bonus again…2 free nights anywhere for 1,000 in spend. NOT BAD!
End of the story…card is cancelled and my wallet is trimmed down without losing any of my total line of credit.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
The Chase Sapphire Preferred is a great starter card that earns Premium Ultimate Rewards that can be transferred into over a dozen partners many of which are US based.
Welcome Offer
60k Points after $4k spend in 3 months
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex℠and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash , Ink Business Unlimited you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.
- 3x on dining
- including eligible delivery services for takeout
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards – Chase Travel Portal
- $50 Annual Credit on hotel stays purchased via Ultimate Rewards/Chase Travel
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 10% Anniversary Bonus
- Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
- Chase Sapphire Preferred® continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel Portal and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including primary rental car insurance, purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 13 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in the Chase Travel center for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Primary rental car coverage is my favorite
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.