Chase Sapphire Preferred Card Review - What We Like/DON’T Like (2021)

hey there i'm jeff with creditcards.com today we're doing a review of the chase sapphire preferred card this is one of the most popular travel credit cards out there so there's a lot to like about it but naturally it also has its downside so we'll cover all of that in today's video and we'll even have a final verdict for you at the end so hopefully i earn your thumbs up you realize just how much time and effort we put into our content um and you end up a subscriber to our channel you know we're gonna do a lot of videos in the future related to credit cards and credit more generally all right so as far as this review goes here's how we're going to break it down we're going to talk about the current signup bonus we'll cover the rewards which i think are really important we'll talk about some of the redemption options for those rewards then we'll go over some of the other benefits and fees that you'll see with the card and like i said before we'll do a final verdict at the end now along the way i will compare this card to some other popular travel credit cards but if you kind of want to just skip to the front of the line we did do a full guide about the best travel credit cards and i'll link that down below in the description for you now as far as credit cards go things change pretty quickly and i obviously cannot come back and update this video really quickly so if you just want to make sure everything is current check down below in the description our full review should have everything updated everything i mentioned in this video is accurate as of when we're publishing so things may change just check out the links down below in the description all right so that's kind of a lot of wind up now let's briefly touch on the sign up bonus i don't like to mention the exact signup bonus only because it changes so if you want to see the current signup bonus check the links down below in the description usually chase is one of the more generous card issuers when it comes to sign up bonuses now you may also want to try out our card match tool it's a service that's on our website i'll link that in the description you can see if there are any uh special offers that you're kind of interested in um i think that's worth trying at least once and again the link is down below in the description for that so i think the signup bonus is nice i don't think it's what most people should focus on i like to bring it up just so you know what you're getting yourself into but i also want to talk about the rewards because i think those are more important that's kind of the long-term value of getting a credit card you should focus mostly on the rewards and the sign up bonus is kind of the cherry on top so as of now here's a look at the rewards for the chase sapphire preferred card you can see that it earns five points per dollar on lift rides that does expire in march of 2022 but the core two spending categories are travel and dining so you earn two points per dollar on travel purchases those would include things like you know hotels and airlines buses taxis they have a pretty large broad list that's considered travel or coded as travel and then two points per dollar on dining purchases that includes you know restaurants fast food uh cafes they have a fairly broad list for dining as well and then this is a limited time offer but two points per dollar on up to a thousand dollars in grocery store purchases and then one point per dollar on all other purchases you will see that sometimes they have limited time promotions chase is pretty good at that but really the core spending categories are travel and dining and then one point per dollar on all other purchases so just at first glance the chase after i preferred card looks like it needs a revamp i mean two points per dollar on travel and dining purchase that's not all that impressive and i think a lot of people see two points per dollar and they say well that's kind of equivalent to two percent cash back that's not exactly true i mean if you compare it to something like the citi double cash card that earns two percent back on all transactions one percent when you buy one percent when you pay that kind of looks like a better card but you're not seeing the whole picture you'll also have to consider the value of your chase ultimate rewards points yes they can be worth one sample points making the equivalent of about you know two percent back but they can also have the potential to be worth more so now i want to cover the redemption options for your chase ultimate rewards points now if you just go to the points guy and you look up their estimate for the value of chase ultimate rewards points they say they can be worth about two cents per point that is if you're using your points to transfer them to different travel partners of chase um it's obviously not guaranteed that you get two cents per point that's just an estimate but if you're really diligent with your research and you hunt for deals i think there's a realistic scenario where you get two cents per point if not more out of your points so obviously if that's the case if you do get two cents per point it's not essentially the equivalent of two percent back it could be the equivalent of essentially four percent back again you're looking just at the transfer partners here and so here's a list of the current transfer partners for chase right on the screen you can see that they have a number of different hotel and airline partners and that you can take your chase ultimate rewards points and convert those to the points or miles from some of their transfer partners the one thing that i do think is worth noting is that while they have a pretty large list of transfer partners that is not the whole story they actually have transfer partners that are a part of the three major airline alliances so united is a part of star alliance british airways is a part of one world and air france is a part of sky team so that means for example let's say you're trying to fly with delta you can actually transfer your points to air france miles and then book delta flights that way so i consider the transfer partners to be a nice upside for chase a reason to actually have a chase credit card but obviously transfer partners are not your only redemption options for your chase ultimate rewards points so let's cover those now so you can see a list here on your screen the ones that i want to point out though are one a travel redemption option two the pay yourself back feature and three cashback so if you choose not to transfer your points to transfer partners but you still want to book travel probably the best use here points is to go through the chase ultimate rewards portal which can be similar to kayak or expedia and if you go this route your points effectively get a 25 boost so instead of being worth maybe one cent per point they can be worth 1.25 cents per point and just as an fyi chase also has the chase sapphire reserve which is kind of the step up from this card and that one earns a 50 boost if you're booking travel the way i just explained you cannot have both cards though at any given time you can only have either the chase sapphire preferred card or the chase sapphire reserve not both but i'll link the chase sapphire reserve for you down below in the description it does have some advantages over the chase sapphire preferred card but obviously it has some drawbacks as well now if you don't end up booking travel with your points either through the ultimate rewards portal or through their transfer partners chase does have a new program they call pay yourself back which allows you to redeem your points as statement credit for certain purchases again at a value of 1.25 cents per point although this may change or go away in the future now one thing that i personally like about chase credit cards is that they have kind of a fail safe for the value of your points so let's say you don't use the the pay yourself back feature or the travel features any of that that i discussed you can actually redeem your points for a general statement credit for gift cards or direct deposit at a value of one cent per point so there are some very realistic uh options for getting at least one cent per point for your membership rewards points now let's move over to some of the other benefits and fees that come with a card i think the first thing you have to acknowledge is the 95 annual fee obviously i don't love having annual fees but it's very much in line with a lot of the other mid-range travel credit cards out there uh like the capital one venture rewards credit card uh and the city premiere card but the one thing i'm a little disappointed by with the chase sapphire preferred card is that it doesn't have a recurring uh credit that you can count on year after year that is definitely staying around that will help you to offset the annual fee so there is no credit for tsa pre-check or global entry or no recurring airline credit fee or anything like that now they are really cognizant of that annual fee and they do often run um you know promotions here and there that can maybe help you mentally offset that annual fee i know they have some running right now so maybe my concerns are a little overblown but i tend to prefer when credit cards have yes they might have an annual fee but they have a credit that recurs year after year where you can sort of mentally say okay that's helping me to offset the annual fee and we just don't have that as of now with the chase sapphire preferred card beyond that though there are some really nice perks to the card for instance you don't incur any foreign transaction fees so you can use the card abroad just like you would in the united states and you don't incur a foreign transaction fee in the process it's also a visa so it's accepted almost everywhere that credit cards are and there are some nice protections and insurance items that you don't often see with cards that have a 95 annual fee now we have more details about that on our website i don't like to list them in our videos because they do change here and there but i know we have a more comprehensive list in our full review again the link is down below in the description but some of those i think personally might be a reason in and of themselves to get the card now one of the biggest upsides that i consider with this card is the fact that it works nicely with other chase cards out there and in fact there's something called the chase trifecta which if you know about credit cards you've definitely heard about this but the general idea is you take three different cards from chase you pair them together and you use each one of them to maximize spending in certain categories and then you pull your points and you go for a big vacation or something and you use your points to book something that you otherwise probably wouldn't pay for so we have more information about the chase trifecta down below in the description it can certainly be a way to maximize your points and to spend smartly generally the cards you'll see are the chase freedom flex i'll link in the description chase freedom unlimited again link in the description and then either the sapphire preferred or the sapphire reserve again you cannot have both of them you can only have one of them and that would be the chase trifecta i think it's a pretty great setup and we'll have more information for you in the description but that's about it with the chase sapphire preferred card you know there's a lot of things that are good about the card obviously like i said at the outset there are downsides as well you just have to figure out what's right for you in terms of our final verdict generally speaking we really like this card we like you know the protections and perks you get with it we think the the value of the points can be fairly high the points themselves can be pretty lucrative we like their different redemption options their travel partners we love that it has no foreign transaction fees i think the annual fee is modest i wish it was a little bit easier on a recurring basis to offset but net net i think it's a great starter travel credit card and again we have more information full reviews guides comparisons on our website check down below in the description for that i hope i earned your thumbs up and you now subscribe to our channel have a great day [Music] you

Channel: CreditCards.com

Views: 14,032

Keywords: chase sapphire preferred, chase sapphire preferred card, chase sapphire preferred card review, chase sapphire preferred review, chase sapphire review, chase credit card review

Id: ql5tl1mfQuU

Length: 11min 1sec (661 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 27 2021