Chase Sapphire Preferred® Review

KEY LINK: Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card – Earn 60,000 bonus points after $4,000 in purchases in your first 3 months from account opening. $95 annual fee.

I generally believe there are three reasons to apply for and keep a credit card.

• First is any welcome offer on the card.
• The second reason is if the card has attractive spending categories.
• The final reason is any ongoing benefits you receive for having the card.

Most credit cards check at least one of these boxes, but it’s rare that a card will check all three. The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, with its current welcome offer allowing you to earn 60,000 bonus points after spending $4,000 in 3 months, checks maybe 2 and a half. It has a great welcome offer and excellent ongoing benefits. The rewards you get from ongoing spending are okay but not extraordinary, though Chase has made some nice updates like adding 5x on travel booked through Chase Travel℠ and a $50 annual hotel credit. Still, the welcome offer alone makes it worth considering.

Outstanding Welcome Offer

The biggest reason to get the Chase Sapphire Preferred card right now is that its welcome offer is at an increased level. The Chase Sapphire Preferred was one of the first credit cards I ever got, and the signup bonus was 40,000 Ultimate Rewards points. That was many years ago, and over time, the welcome offer on the Sapphire Preferred has gradually continued to go up and up. First we saw 50,000 points, then 60,000 and then 80,000 Ultimate Rewards points. We have seen it go as high as 100,000 Ultimate Rewards points but I don’t know if or when that offer will ever come back.

Now you can earn 60,000 bonus points after spending $4,000 in 3 months from account opening. And if you have a spouse with a Chase Sapphire Reserve card, it could be worth even more. And even better, you can often get even more value by transferring to Chase’s travel partners. Like the time I turned 100,000 Ultimate Rewards points into a $6,500 family train trip.

Earning Ultimate Rewards points

Here is the earning potential while using the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card

• 5x total points on travel purchased through Chase Travel℠, excluding hotel purchases that qualify for the $50 Annual Ultimate Rewards Hotel Credit.
• 2x on other travel purchases
• 3x points on dining, including eligible delivery services, takeout and dining out.
• 3x points on online grocery purchases (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs).
• 3x points on select streaming services.
• 1x points on all other purchases

Combining Chase Ultimate Rewards Points

Another great reason to consider signing up for the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is the ability to combine Chase Ultimate Rewards points. You can combine your Ultimate Rewards points that you’ve earned on different cards, and you can also combine points with authorized users on your account. That makes it fairly straightforward to combine points between spouses / partners as well.

The reason this is so important and valuable is that the value of your Ultimate Rewards points depends on the card that you earn them on. If you only have a no annual fee Chase card like the Ink Business Cash® Credit Card or Chase Freedom Unlimited®, then your points are only worth 1 cent each. But if you have a premium card like the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card or Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card, then your points become worth 1.25 cents per point. So if you already have a lot of Ultimate Rewards that you’ve earned with a Chase Freedom Flex℠ or other Chase card with no annual fee, then applying for the Sapphire Preferred not only lets you earn 60,000 bonus points after spending $4,000 in 3 months, but it makes all of your EXISTING points worth 25% more. Having a premium Chase card like the Sapphire Preferred also unlocks the ability to transfer your Ultimate Rewards points to Chase’s hotel and airline transfer partners.

Points for those who have the Chase Sapphire Reserve® are worth 1.5 cents per point. Unfortunately, you can’t hold both the Sapphire Reserve and the Sapphire Preferred at the same time. But if you have a spouse or partner who does have the Sapphire Reserve, then you should be able to combine points with them. That might make the welcome bonus worth $1,000 or more.

Primary Car Rental Insurance

Another reason to consider applying for the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is for the car rental insurance. Like the Chase Sapphire Reserve®, the Sapphire Preferred has outstanding car rental insurance. Paying for a rental car with the Sapphire Reserve saved my parents nearly $1000 when they ran into problems with their rental car. The best part about the rental insurance with the Sapphire Preferred is that it’s primary, unlike the insurance with many other credit cards. That means that it comes into play before you would be required to make a claim with your own auto insurer.

Other Chase Sapphire Preferred Benefits

Besides primary car rental insurance, some of the other benefits that come with the card are:

• Earn up to $50 in statement credits each account anniversary year for hotel stays purchased through Chase Travel℠
• Unlock 1:1 point transfers to Chase’s hotel and airline travel partners
• Trip Cancellation/Interruption Insurance
• Baggage Delay Insurance
• Earn 5x points on Lyft rides through March 31, 2025
• Get complimentary access to DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees and lower service fees for a minimum of one year when you activate by December 31, 2027.
• $10 monthly statement credit from Gopuff.
• 6 months of complimentary Instacart+ if you activate by July 31, 2024. Plus, Instacart+ members earn up to $15 in statement credits each quarter through July 2024
• No foreign transaction fees
• $95 annual fee

The $50 annual hotel credit is more than half of the cost of the annual fee.

Chase Sapphire Preferred Alternatives

If you’re liking the benefits of the Sapphire Preferred, but aren’t sure if that’s the right card for you, here are a few Chase Sapphire Preferred alternatives to consider:

• American Express® Gold Card – Earn 60,000 Membership Rewards® Points after you spend $6,000 on eligible purchases on your new Card in your first 6 months of Card Membership. $325 annual fee (see rates and fees) – read our comparison between the Chase Sapphire Preferred and Amex Gold here
• Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card – Earn 75,000 miles once you spend $4,000 on purchases within 3 months from account opening. $95 annual fee – read our comparison between the Chase Sapphire Preferred and the Capital One Venture here
• Chase Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card – Earn 90,000 bonus points after you spend $8,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. $95 annual fee. Read our full Ink Preferred review here

The Bottom Line

KEY LINK: Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card – Earn 60,000 bonus points after $4,000 in purchases in your first 3 months from account opening. $95 annual fee.

If you’re eligible to get the welcome bonus on the Chase Sapphire Preferred, you should highly consider it. This is one of the best offers that we’ve ever seen, on any card. In order to be eligible for the bonus you must:

• Be under Chase 5/24
• Not be a current cardholder of any Chase Sapphire card – aka the Chase Sapphire Preferred or Chase Sapphire Reserve
• Not have received a new member bonus for any Sapphire card in the past 48 months

If you have any questions about this offer or want to talk over how it might work for you, please email me at dan at pointswithacrew dot com. I am more than happy to talk to anyone about this or any other offer and how it might work for you.

Are you planning on applying for the Chase Sapphire Preferred with its outstanding welcome offer? Leave a note in the comments.

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