Join The FI Weekly 🔥

Financial Independence is a Journey but your not alone Join the Must Read Weekly Newsletter for Anyone pursuing FI that has helped 70,000+ People On Their Path to Financial Independence. Subscribe Now

The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card Review (2024)

Choose
Posted by Choose FI

Choose FI has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Choose FI and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities. American Express is a ChooseFI advertiser.

Disclosures

The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card remains our top recommended credit card in 2024. The flexibility of this card and the points you earn is unrivaled and it's the perfect way to get started with travel rewards.

The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card at a Glance

Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card

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

Benefits include:

  • Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
  • $50 annual hotel credit (on hotel nights booked through Chase Travel℠ )
  • Earn 5X points on travel when purchased through Chase Travel℠
  • Earn 3X on dining, some delivery services included, takeout and dine-out.
  • 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!
  • No foreign transaction fees.
  • Additional benefits such as Trip Cancellation/Trip Interruption Insurance and an Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver.
  • $95 annual fee

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

Redeeming Your Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card

Earning a large number of points sounds great in theory, 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 cash back through statement credit, check, or direct deposit with a point value of 1 cent per point. That makes your 60,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards® points bonus worth a solid $600 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 $750.

Travel Booked Through the Chase Travel℠ Portal

You can book travel directly through Chase Travel℠, 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 60,000 points equal $750 in Chase 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 $1,500 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 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.

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 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

Is The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card Hard To Get?

The average qualifying Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card credit score is 690 from the data we've seen. 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 vice-versa. Keep this in mind when applying, as each application counts towards the Chase 5/24 rule.