The Chase Sapphire Preferred Card Review

August 16, 2021

The Chase Sapphire Preferred Credit Card at a Glance

Here’s a quick snapshot of what the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card bonuses have to offer:

Earn 100,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards® points after reaching the minimum spending requirement of $4,000 in the first three months the account is open.
$50 Ultimate Rewards® annual hotel credit.
Earn 5X points on travel when purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards®.
Earn 3X on dining, some delivery services included, takeout and dine out (previously it was 2X).
Receive 3X points on grocery store purchases (except Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs).
10% anniversary point bonus. Chase will calculate your entire spending from the past year and give you a 10% bonus each anniversary. So, if you spent $30,000 on your card for the year, you’ll bag an additional 3,000 points!
$95 annual fee.
$0 foreign transaction fees.
Additional benefits such as Trip Cancellation/Trip Interruption Insurance and an Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver.

Sounds pretty good, right?

Let’s take a closer look at the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card.

Learn how to apply for the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card here.

Who Is The Chase Sapphire Preferred Credit Card For?

With its heavy-hitting value for travel rewards, the Chase Sapphire Preferred card offers incredible value for those who enjoy traveling. However, the new benefits and increases that Chase added to the card this year broaden the overall demographic to anyone wanting to maximize credit card rewards.

You can apply for this card if you don’t currently have either the Chase Sapphire Preferred (or Reserve) card and haven’t received a new cardmember Chase Sapphire Preferred bonus (or Reserve) in the past 48 months. Finally, you still qualify for your own Chase Sapphire Preferred card even if you are an authorized user on someone else’s Chase account.

Welcome Offer for Chase Sapphire Preferred New Cardmembers

When you spend at least $4,000 in the first three months of opening the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card, you earn 100,000 Ultimate Rewards points!

100,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards® points can be redeemed for $1,000 in cashback, which might be helpful if you are looking to set aside some cash for an emergency fund with CIT Bank or even to put into a retirement fund with M1 Finance.

Don’t need the money right away? Then stockpile your rewards for when the world starts traveling freely again. The 100,000 point bonus is worth at least $1,250 in travel when redeemed through the Chase Ultimate Rewards® booking portal.

Learn how to apply for the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card here.

Redeeming Your Chase Ultimate® Rewards

Earning 100,000 points sounds well and good, but we always want you to get the most out of your points. Let’s take a look at the four options Chase gives you, and focus on the last one–which is by far our favorite!

Trade In Your Points For Cashback

Chase gives cardholders the ultimate flexibility as an option for redeeming points. If you don’t plan on any travel in the near future, you can choose to redeem your Chase Ultimate Rewards® points for cashback through statement credit, check, or direct deposit with a point value of 1 cent per point. That makes your 100,000 Ultimate Rewards points bonus worth a solid $1,000 in cashback.

Utilizing the Pay Yourself Back℠ feature, points can be worth an additional 25% when redeemed for a statement credit toward purchases in select rotating categories, increasing the potential value of the bonus to $1,250.

Travel Booked Through the Chase Ultimate Rewards® Portal

You can book travel directly through Chase’s booking portal–making your life a whole lot easier. The value is 1.25 cents per point if you have the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card, so your 100,000 points equal $1,250 in Chase Sapphire Preferred travel dollars. That’s the equivalent of a couple of plane tickets (depending on where you’re traveling to, of course).

Trade In Your Points for Experiences

The Chase Ultimate Rewards® program lets you trade in your points to attend exclusive events curated specifically towards you, based on the card you have. These include sporting events, concerts, and culinary experiences.

Transfer Your Points to One of Chase’s Airline & Hotel Partners

These transfer partners include:

British Airways Avios
Aer Lingus AerClub
Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards
JetBlue TrueBlue
United MileagePlus
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
World Of Hyatt
IHG Rewards Club
Marriott Rewards
Flying Blue
Iberia Plus

The potential value of these points when transferred is significant. In some cases, it even exceeds $1,250 depending on your exact redemption–which is why this last option is our favorite!

Other Benefits Of The Chase Sapphire Preferred Card

We’ve outlined the major benefits of the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card, but there are a few more things to cover. Here are a few more perks that the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card offers:

Rewards never expire as long as your card account is active–but remember, once you transfer the points to one of the 13 transfer partners, you can’t get them back to your Chase account, so make sure to keep them in your account until you’re really sure you know what you want to spend them on and you’re ready to book an award flight/night.
You can combine your Chase Ultimate Rewards® points with your spouse’s into one account.
You can also transfer points between authorized users.

One-Year Anniversary Bonus

The introduction of a one-year anniversary bonus is a nice addition to the already reward-stacked Chase Sapphire Preferred card. No matter how much you spend (there is no minimum or maximum) you receive a 10% point bonus on your card anniversary. Obviously, this is especially appealing to heavy users, but even moderate users will receive a nice bonus. For example, if you spend $50,000 for the year, you’ll receive a 5,000 point bonus. That’s a value of $50.00 cashback or $62.50 in travel rewards.

Trip Delay Insurance

To make the Chase Sapphire Preferred card even more appealing to travelers, if your trip is canceled, Chase has you covered. Up to $500 per incident which includes food and lodging. If you’ve ever been stranded by an airline before you’ll certainly appreciate this perk!

Primary Vehicle Rental Insurance

Want to save money on vehicle rental insurance? The Chase Sapphire Preferred card offers complete rental insurance protection on any rental using your card. This insurance is all-inclusive (accident, damage, theft). For any rental up to 1 month of use.

Extended Purchase Protection

This gives you 120 days of purchase protection (up to $500) for any purchase you’ve made with the Chase Sapphire Preferred card. This includes any accidental damage up to the theft of the item. Be sure to keep any receipts for expedited service.

Warranty Extension

This provides an additional 1 year of coverage on any products that have an original manufacturer’s warranty of 3 years or less. This can is potentially a massive benefit to those with high-ticket items like large screen televisions or expensive sound equipment.

Learn how to apply for the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card here.

Is The Chase Sapphire Preferred Card Hard To Get?

The average qualifying Chase Sapphire Preferred credit score is 690. Although this is not a hard and fast score for acceptance (some card members have reported receiving a card with a lower score), you should keep in mind that a solid credit score is required for entry. This is especially true when keeping the Chase 5/24 rule in mind.

Also, that Chase only allows you to have one Sapphire card at a time. So if you have a Chase Sapphire Preferred card, you cannot hold the Reserve card as well. And vise-versa. Keep this in mind when applying, as each application counts towards the Chase 5/24 rule.

You Can Also Earn Ultimate Rewards With Other Chase Cards

The Chase Ultimate Rewards® program carries over to many of their other credit cards. Here are current Chase credit cards that earn Ultimate Rewards® points:

Chase Sapphire Reserve (transferable)
Ink Business Preferred Credit Card (transferable)
Chase Freedom Flex
Chase Freedom Unlimited

The first two (plus the Chase Sapphire Preferred) are often considered “premium” cards because the Ultimate Rewards® points you earn from them come with the ability to transfer to airline/hotel partners. The other Chase cards do not have that ability, but you can combine your Chase Ultimate Rewards® points into one of your premium card accounts to create more valuable transferable points.

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If you really want to maximize your travel rewards check out ChooseFI’s free travel rewards course.