The Chase Sapphire Preferred – $1200 worth of benefits for $95.

I’ve been wanting to cover this card in a separate article as it is one of the top choices to consider when you want a “cheap” travel and dining card with almost all of the perks and benefits of the bigger brother – the $450 annual fee Chase Sapphire Reserve.

Personally, I am a Reserve card holder (and love it) for perks I mention in my article on the Chase Trifecta, and as per Chase rules, one individual cannot hold more than one Sapphire card at any given time. That being said, the Preferred card now had a higher value proposition due to it being revamped with a higher sign-up bonus and a change to the annual fee structure.

Sign Up Offer

You receive a sign-up bonus of 60,000 Chase UR Points which would be deposited in your Ultimate Rewards portal to be used towards travel/transfer/cashback or purchases. You do however need to spend a whopping $4000 in the first 90 days of card ownership. The card does have a $95 annual fee. Downgrade paths were available to the freedom and freedom unlimited NO ANNUAL fee cards.

The point to dollar conversion with the CSP is 100 BP = $1.25 when redeemed towards travel on the Chase website through Ultimate Rewards.

Example: 10,000 BP = $125 when redeemed towards travel. $100 if for cash-back.

Now, the real value comes in the ability to transfer points on a 1:1 ratio to the 13 flight and hotel partners that Chase has.

Chase Sapphire Preferred Calculator

The Value

Patience and due diligence is key. Here is an example of how points transferred to partners can be so valuable and give you higher positive expected value.

Let’s say you plan a weekend getaway want to stay at a Hyatt property that has a $400/night rate. If you were to transfer points from your Chase account into your Hyatt account, you can get the same room – off season for as low as 8,000 points or mid-level redemptions of 10,000-20,000 points.

Effectively, in case of the 8,000 points you’re getting a 5:1 return – each point is redeemed at a 5 cent value and the value drops as the point redemption required rises.

Next step of following the base principle ¢1 = 1 point, you effectively paid $80 for the $400 room.

Now these redemption rates do require a bit of legwork to find and might require to book well in advance to truly benefit off of but they do exist.

Now imagine what you can do with the 60,000 sign-up Bonus Points.

Perks and Coverages

1. Primary Auto Rental Coverage

This effectively takes over and bypasses your personal vehicle insurance (if any) to take care of damages/theft to a rental vehicle thus not impacting your insurance rates.

2. Best in class Travel Insurance

You may find detailed explanations in the Guide to Benefits.

3. 2X back on Travel and Dining.

Travel can include tours, parking, bus rides, train tickets apart from just flights booked either through third party sites or directly. Dining includes food delivery services to restaurants and take away stalls.

4. Point pooling with other Chase Bonus Point earning cards.

If you have the Chase Freedom and(or) Unlimited cards – you can point pool all the points earned across accounts to the Sapphire card to earn either the 1.25x redemption or transfer out to partners.

5. Ability to downgrade

If you decide you no longer want to pay for the card and do not see value, you may downgrade to any of the freedom cards without losing your credit account history.

Additional benefits

1.Gain access to Exclusive Sapphire Lifestyle Events

Sapphire Preferred card holders gain exclusive access to events like the Sundance Film Festival, Radio City Music Hall and private events with celebrity chefs. Chase reserves seats for it’s members to purchase at discounted rates or redeem points.

2. Additional authorized users can be added for free

If you have a friend or family member who you may like to add and receive full benefits of the card as you do, you can do so by requesting Chase to add an authorized user to the account at no additional cost. Do keep in mind you are solely responsible for paying off their balances which are included in your credit limit. Best of all, all points earned by their transactions directly post to your account.

3. No Foreign transaction fees

If you travel often or once in a year, rest assured you will not be charged interest on the transactions. Just be mindful to call Chase and alert them on your upcoming trips so that they do not flag your account and block it/decline transactions.

4. Earn bonus points on non-US transactions too

Chase pulled a big one on Amex which will only earn points on US based transactions. With the Sapphire cards, irrespective of country, you will still receive the bonus points towards travel and dining.

If all of these perks that the CSP card have to offer interest you, you may check apply for the card. If you have further questions, feel free to leave a comment down below and let us know what you think about the Chase Sapphire Preferred.