Chase Sapphire Preferred: Great First Pass

Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card this is a popular introduction to the world of travel credit cards. The ability to make profitable transfers to partner airlines and hotels with a relatively low annual fee ($95) is a big part of this card’s value proposition. Plus, it offers a solid welcome bonus of 60,000 points after you spend $4,000 in the first three months of opening an account.

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How much are these points worth?

Each point is worth 1 cent when redeemed for a credit statement or gift card. However, with Chase Sapphire Preferred, the value increases to 1.25 cents per point if you use your points to book travel through the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal or, for a limited time, if you use them to redeem certain eligible purchases through Pay Yourself back. . The 60,000 points welcome bonus is worth $750 if you choose one of the 1.25 cents per point options.

Sapphire Preferred Card Registration Bonus Cost

Points transfer

You can also transfer your points to Chase partner airlines and hotels, including Aeroplan, British Airways, Flying Blue (Air France/KLM), Hyatt, Marriott, United Airlines and others.

This method may be the most profitable, but also the most difficult. If you’re willing to put in the effort to explore affordability and maximize your points, you can get significantly more than 1.25 cents per point value. International first class tickets tend to have the highest ratings. For example, if you can get an $8,000 ticket for 100,000 points, that’s a staggering 8 cents per point.

Only three Chase cards allow you to transfer airline or hotel points: Sapphire Preferred, Chase Sapphire Reserve® (which charges an annual fee of $550) and Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card (which costs $95). If you already have another Chase card in your wallet or plan to add one, you can combine your points with your Sapphire Preferred (or Sapphire Reserve or Ink Business Preferred) card so they can be transferred too.

For example, Pursuit of Unlimited Freedom® marketed as a cashback card, but in fact, cashback is provided in the form of Ultimate Rewards points at 1 cent apiece. If you have both Chase Freedom Unlimited and Chase Sapphire Preferred, you can transfer the points you earn with Freedom Unlimited to Sapphire Preferred, which will open up many additional benefits in terms of redemption options.

For those switching to their first travel card from a cashback card, don’t rush to cancel or postpone the card – card combinations can be quite lucrative.

Chase Sapphire Preferred Transfer Options

The following point values ​​for Chase’s transfer partners are based on The Points Guy as of August 2022.

Earning points

By using Sapphire Preferred at restaurants, select streaming services, and online grocery shopping (excluding Target, Walmart, and wholesale clubs), the card provides 3X points and 1X points for everything else. You can also earn 5x points on travel booked through Chase Ultimate Rewards and 2x points on other travel purchases.

Three points per dollar is a great bet for daily essentials, but you can get the best of both worlds by pairing Sapphire Preferred with Freedom Unlimited. Based on the fact that 1 point is worth 1 cent, Chase Freedom Unlimited gives you 5 times more points on Lyft rides (until March 2025) and travel booked through the Chase portal, 3 times more points at pharmacies and restaurants, and 1 .5 times the points per dollar elsewhere.

For most everyday purchases, you’ll earn more points with Freedom Unlimited, and then because you have Sapphire Preferred, you can get 25 percent more value from each point by transferring and redeeming your points with Sapphire Preferred.

What else do I like about Sapphire Preferred

It is one of the few cards that offer primary car rental insurance as well as excellent trip cancellation/interruption insurance (up to $10,000 per person and $20,000 per trip). Cancellation and trip interruption insurance is rare among travel cards, and even rarer among mid-tier travel cards with lower annual fees, such as Sapphire Preferred.

Other notable benefits include purchase protection, extended warranties, baggage delay insurance, and more. In addition, the Sapphire Preferred Program offers a $50/year Ultimate Rewards Hotel Credit to help you save even more money on your Chase booking. In addition, you will also receive an additional 10% of points earned in the last year for each account anniversary.

bottom line

I would summarize the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card by highlighting the solid welcome bonus and the potential for transferable points. Few cards with annual fees of $95 or less can compete with the overall value proposition of Sapphire Preferred. That’s why it’s such a great first travel map.

Later you can upgrade to a map like Sapphire Reserve or Platinum Card® by American Express. They offer additional perks (such as airport lounge access and credits that offset various types of purchases), but at more than five times the annual fee. This is a game of chance with a higher risk.

The gamble can be worth it, but especially if you’re new to the world of transferable points, Sapphire Preferred is a more affordable way to start earning points and experiment with different redemption methods.

Have a question about credit cards? Email me at [email protected] and I’ll be happy to help!

Ted Rossman is a senior industry analyst at CreditCards.com. He has spent the last decade in the personal finance industry, conducting consumer and industry research and providing commentary for the media and consumers. Its main focuses include credit cards, debt management and credit ratings. Ted regularly shares his advice through major media such as Good Morning America, Wall Street Journal, CNBC and Fox Business. He also writes a weekly “Wealth and Desires” column for CreditCards.com, which is mostly about cashback credit cards.