KEY LINKS:
- Chase Sapphire Preferred – 60,000 Ultimate Rewards when you spend $4,000 in the first 3 months – Read more and apply here
- Capital One Venture – 50,000 Venture miles when you spend $3,000 in the first 3 months – Read more and apply here.
People who are new to points and miles often ask me what credit card they should sign up for. The Capital One Venture and Chase Sapphire Preferred are nearly always in the conversation. However, my answer between these two choices is a little different than it was few years ago.
I’ve had both the Chase Sapphire Preferred and Capital One Venture cards and so has my wife. The Preferred was actually the first annual fee card we signed up for back in 2011. We were on our honeymoon which we used as an excuse for a 13 month round the world trip and the foreign transaction fees on my Chase Freedom card were eating us alive. After a little research I settled on the Chase Sapphire Preferred which had no foreign transaction fees and a 50k sign-up bonus. You always remember your first and since the Preferred was the one that introduced me to award travel it has always held a special place in my heart. However, given the recent enhancements that Capital One has made to the Venture card offering, I thought it was time to reassess these two mid-range cards and see if one is better than the other. Let’s dive into the details.
Sapphire Preferred vs. Venture: Annual Fee
- The Capital One Venture is $0 for the first year and then $95 per year thereafter.
- The Chase Sapphire Preferred is $95 for the first year.
Winner: Venture as you can “test” the product for a year without any financial obligation.
Comparing the welcome offer
The current Capital One Venture offers 50,000 Venture miles when you spend $3,000 on purchases within the first three months of opening your account. You could be targeted for a 60,000 mile sign-up bonus after $3,000 as my wife and I did by mail. The extra 10,000 miles are a nice cherry on top if you receive the mailer. We both jumped on this offer when it came. Read more about the current Capital One Venture offer here.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred provides 60,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points when you spend $4,000 on purchases within the first three months of opening your account.
Winner: Tie. While the Venture miles are worth $500 to $600 in travel credit depending on the offer, Chase provides a slight advantage with 60k points being redeemable for $750 in travel credit on the Chase Ultimate Rewards® portal. However, the spend requirement is 33% higher and if you receive the Venture mailer for a 60k sign up bonus the gap is bridged to a large degree once you take the annual fees into account as it is not waived on the Preferred for the first year while for the Venture it does not apply in year one.
Rewards
The Venture card earns 2 miles per dollar spent and a massive 10 miles per dollar on hotels booked at Hotels.com through a partnership that is due to continue through January 2020. If you pair this with the Hotels.com rewards program you can effectively earn 20% back on hotels which is pretty remarkable.
The CSP card earns 2 points for travel and dining and 1 point on all other spend.
Winner: Slight edge to Venture. The 2x earning on everything is great for those who want to simplify their award earnings. The Hotels.com partnership is lucrative for those who stay in hotels frequently since you can earn 10x points on hotel purchases. If you use your card for eating out a lot or your travel doesn’t involve many hotel stays then the earnings on the CSP may be slightly better as the redemptions could be favorable. However, if the Hotels.com 10x points deal is not extended after January 2020 then the Preferred could retake the lead.
Redemptions and Transfers
Venture allows you to use miles to “erase” travel purchases from your activity at a 1 cent per mile ratio. There is a lot of flexibility for redemptions as you can them for most types of travel. You can also transfer to 15 airline partners although it is not always a 1:1 ratio. The simplicity of the program when redeeming for travel purchases is good for newbies and also for those who are in the miles game already but need a card that has added flexibility. We recently used AA miles to book flights to Europe and used the Venture card to absorb the taxes and fees. If you redeem for cash the miles are worth 0.5 cents each…don’t do this.
CSP gives you a redemption value of 1.25 cents per point when booking through the Chase Ultimate Rewards® portal. This is now run by Expedia. You can also transfer UR points to 12 travel partners. If you decide to redeem for cash the value is 1 cent each.
Winner: CSP by a hair. With the addition of travel partners and the simplicity of erasing the travel purchases, the Venture card gives the CSP run for its money, but for more experienced travel hackers Chase points are generally going to provide a better opportunity for transfers or redemptions.
Other Benefits
My favorite ancillary benefit to the Venture card is the statement credit of up to $100 for a Global Entry or TSA Precheck application. Besides this, it offers benefits such as a “Credit Wise” credit score tracker, secondary auto rental coverage, travel accident insurance, lost luggage reimbursement and extended warranty protection. One downside is that Capital One pulls credit reports from all 3 bureaus.
The Preferred has a ton of travel benefits for its $95 annual fee. These include primary CDW on car rentals, $10,000 in trip cancellation insurance, baggage delay insurance, trip delay reimbursement, travel accident insurance, lost luggage insurance, trip cancellation and interruption insurance and extended warranty protection among others.
Winner: Depends. If you need Global Entry or TSA Precheck the Venture is the easy winner. If you are looking for top tier ongoing benefits at the $95 annual fee charge, the Preferred has a slight leg up.
Conclusion
I used to universally recommend the CSP card due to its great benefits and low annual fee. However, I have recently found myself directing more people to the Venture (Dan keeps recommending the Preferred). For those new to the points and miles hobby, the zero upfront cost, relatively lucrative bonus and easy to understand earning parameters are big draws. The Venture also has an easy to understand redemption process. The addition of transfer availability only strengthens the redemption options. Most travelers just getting started with points and miles do not have the Global Entry or TSA Precheck either and the Venture provides a rebate on this cost. The Preferred has slightly better ongoing benefits and is a great card for those who are a little more well versed at redemptions as you can maximize the UR points when transferring to travel partners.
Overall, I think both cards provide a ton of value. It is beneficial to sign up for either, but I believe the best strategy is to sign up for both cards if you can get approved, can hit both bonuses and will pay them off without carrying a balance. This will give you the maximum flexibility when it comes to redemptions, transfer partners and earning options. While I would prefer to hold the Preferred (see what I did there) on an ongoing basis due to the slightly better benefits, I think that the 1st year value of the Venture is higher if you utilize the Global Entry/ TSA Precheck benefit.
KEY LINKS:
- Chase Sapphire Preferred – 60,000 Ultimate Rewards when you spend $4,000 in the first 3 months – Read more and apply here
- Capital One Venture – 50,000 Venture miles when you spend $3,000 in the first 3 months – Read more and apply here.
Which card would you pick between the Capital One Venture and Chase Sapphire Preferred? Leave a comment and let me know why!
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
Actually, the CSR is the first card to get (if you plan to churn) because of the Chase rules on churning. You can always get the Cap One cards later. In addition, if you have the CSP it restricts the ability to get the CSR.
I also prefer the CSR compared to these two. However, the $450 can be a tough sell for a newbie to the game. Often I find it easier to introduce people to travel hacking with a lower annual fee card. My wife has just about reached her 48 month window on a Sapphire card and we are considering getting her the CSP (with the 60k welcome offer) and then upgrading her to the CSR (which currently provides only a 50k welcome offer)after 13 months to earn the 10k extra UR points, pay the lower AF for the first year and then take advantage of the increased value those points would have under the CSR 1.5x valuation. This strategy would only work if we can hold off on using those UR points for the 13 month window which I think we can accomplish.
What is your thought about the Arrival card?
The Arrival card would be a great third option and would belong in the conversation with the Venture and Preferred. Unfortunately, Barclays has stopped offering the Arrival card as of a few weeks ago. 🙁