Chase Trifecta vs Amex Trifecta (Why I Have Both)

hey everyone welcome back to the channel so in this video i wanted to do a comparison between the chase trifecta and the amex trifecta credit card setups as you can tell from the title to this video i have both of these setups i pay over 1 000 per year to have both of them and i know that sounds like a lot of money but it does provide a lot of benefits and a lot of value to me in return especially when i'm looking to travel for free with the points that i have in these two chase and amex accounts so in this video i'm just gonna go over all the basics that i can think of off the top of my head as i'm comparing these two setups and trying to recommend them to certain types of people out there i'm not going to really script much of this out i just have a brief outline here i'm going to kind of go off the top of my head try to do this in as few takes as possible but if you're not already go ahead and subscribe down below to help support the channel and let's get right into the video here so the first setup that i'm going to talk about here is the one that i like to recommend the most to people especially to beginners and that is the chase trifecta now there's a number of reasons for that which i'll get into here but first let's just explain what cards make up the chase trifecta so you're gonna have the chase freedom flex the chase freedom unlimited and then an option between either the chase sapphire preferred or the chase sapphire reserve now the chase freedom flex has no annual fee the chase freedom unlimited has no annual fee and then the sapphire preferred has 95 per year as an annual fee while the sapphire reserve is much more expensive at 550 per year you can only choose one of those sapphire cards which is why you end up getting a three card setup one of those sapphire cards and then those two freedom cards now you can always throw in some chase business cards as well because all those cards are going to earn chase ultimate rewards points and that's really what makes up this credit card set up is the fact that they all earn these points that you can combine into one account but i'm not going to talk about those business cards here in this video we're really just going to stick to the personal credit cards that most of the average people out there watching this will be able to go and get tomorrow if they wanted to so with the chase trifecta the first card the freedom flex is going to earn mainly 5x points per dollar in rotating quarterly categories that's the main selling point with that card and then with the freedom unlimited you're getting 1.5 x points per dollar on all other purchases there's some other points categories as well that overlap a little bit between those two cards other than that you're gonna get 3x points per dollar on those cards on dining and 3x points per dollar at drugstores as well again there's a few other benefits here but that's very high level what those two cards offer then with the sapphire cards we're gonna start with the sapphire preferred which like i said has a 95 annual fee that is going to get you 5x points per dollar on travel book through the chase portal as well as 2x points per dollar on all of all other travel outside of that portal there's a few other categories as well that are added last year they made some updates to this card so you got 3x points per dollar on online groceries as well as 3x points per dollar on select streaming services so it's not too bad there but then when we look at the sapphire reserve you're going to get a little bit higher of points earning rate especially through the chase portal you get 10x points per dollar on certain travel as well as 5x points per dollar on other travel through that portal then 3x points per dollar on all other travel that you book outside of that chase portal the sapphire reserve really is a good card but you're gonna need to be traveling a few times per year quite a bit actually as well as have a lot of chase points within your account to really make that card worth it now when it comes to the sapphire cards like i said they do earn points but i really don't use my sapphire preferred card that i have in this setup for myself i really don't use that sapphire preferred card that much and i just made a video about this the other week why i love the sapphire preferred card but i hardly ever use it so that card and the sapphire reserve are going to really be worth it for redeeming your chase ultimate rewards points that you combine across all those chase credit cards that earn those ultimate rewards points which we're gonna get into next year so with the sapphire preferred you're gonna get the ability to cash out those points at 1.25 cents per point for travel through the chase travel portal as opposed to that one cent per point redemption for cash back where you simply could cash out your points just for cash deposited into your bank account let's explain this a little bit with an example here though so you get 20 000 chase ultimate rewards points in your account what could you do with that you could redeem them for cash back at that one cent per point rate where 20 000 chase ultimate rewards points would then become 200 of cash back at that one cent per point rate or you could take it on the sapphire preferred at 1.25 cents per point go into the chase travel portal and redeem those same 20 000 points with a 200 cash value for 250 worth of travel which is where you get that 1.25 per point number with the sapphire reserve you're gonna get a little bit higher of a redemption rate at 1.5 cents per point so the same 20 000 points in that example would be able to be redeemed through the chase travel portal for 300 worth of travel whether that's flights or hotels or anything like that 300 worth of travel for 200 worth of points or 20 000 points 1.5 cents per point at that valuation so very good value from those two cards right there but that's not the only thing that you can do to redeem those points because you can also transfer those points out to one of chase's many great travel partners at a one to one ratio there's several hotel partners and several airline partners that you can look at that'll put on the screen right now as well i really like using hyatt as my hotel transfer partner of choice because you can get a lot of very good very good value from those redemption award charts that hyatt offers you so one of those options you could take those 20 000 points transfer them out to one of those travel partners where usually then you can get more than two cents per point in value i've gotten as much as four cents per point from that hyatt redemption when i transfer into high points so it can get four times more value from those points as opposed to just redeeming them for cash back but let's also touch here on a common question that people have when they're deciding on the chase trifecta setup and if it's right for them should they get the sapphire reserve or the sapphire preferred so i think it's very easy answer honestly i like the sapphire preferred just a little bit better than the sapphire reserve for most people including myself because it has that cheaper annual fee 95 per year and on top of that you actually get a new 50 hotel credit that you can use if you book a hotel through the chase travel portal with cash so as long as you're getting good value from that credit your effective annual fee is lowered from 95 per year down to just 45 dollars per year which is very cheap for a credit card setup so you have the chase sapphire preferred with 45 per year as an effective annual fee along with the two other freedom cards with no annual fee when it comes to the sapphire reserve i do think that's a very good card because it has a lot of other good very good benefits including a 300 travel credit that can be used for many general travel purchases that can lower that effective annual fee from 550 down to 250 per year so that's not too unreasonable but i think that it's not worth to pay that higher annual fee unless you really are traveling several times per year and you have a lot of chase ultimate rewards points in your account that you're gonna redeem through the chase ultimate rewards portal at that higher 1.5 cent per point rate because that's where you're going to really make up for that lost value from that annual fee there on that card they both have that one-to-one point transfer as exactly the same so that's why i like using the sapphire preferred because transferring points out to partners is the best way to get the most value from those cards now next let's move over to the amex trifecta side of things and away from chase because the amex trifecta is gonna be very unique in that it costs a lot of money each year to have it 945 to be exact between the amex platinum annex gold and blue business plus so let's go over those cards a little bit more go over some of the benefits and the points learning categories to compare that to the chase trifecta now one thing i do like about the amex trifecta is that there's not as many overlapping points categories as there is with the chase trifecta a lot of those cards with chase they all had that 3x points on dining and a few other things like that they kept it all very similar but with the amex trifecta setup you get the amex platinum card at 695 per year the amex gold card at 250 per year and then the amex blue business plus at zero dollars per year so combined that's 945 and this is the typical amex trifecta setup i know some other people like to include some other american express cards but i'm strictly talking about ones that only earn membership rewards points which are the competitor to chase's ultimate rewards points but those membership rewards points are redeemed in much different ways which again i'll get to later on as well so first with the points earning categories here looking at the amex platinum card you're gonna get five x points per dollar on all hotels that are prepaid and booked through amextravel.com five x points per dollar on airline tickets that you book through either the airlines or amextravel.com as well as 1x points per dollar on all other purchases then with the amex gold card you're getting 4x points per dollar on groceries 4x points per dollar on dining 3x points per dollar on flights and then 1x points per dollar on all other purchases and the amex blue business plus as just a flat 2x points per dollar on all purchases and i do want to mention that the blue business plus is a business credit card so it has its own set of challenges with using that card and getting approved for that card first of all you need to have at least some sort of small business or a side hustle to get the blue business plus in your possession it's gonna get you that 2x points per dollar on all purchases but you really should be using it only for business expenses in the first place it's always good practice keep your personal and business expenses separate that's something that i do try to do although i have used it for personal expenses at some points but for the most part keeping it as business expenses is the way to go because then you're gonna get all the benefits and protections that come with that business credit card but next let's talk about some of the other benefits that go along with this amex trifecta setup because that's the most important thing to consider here we're gonna start with the amex gold card because that has the credits and benefits that are the most easy to use so you have the 250 annual fee but then there's 240 worth of credits on the amex gold card that you get each year to effectively lower the annual fee to as little as 10 per year now i've said this in previous videos as well i don't think everyone out there is gonna get that value and get that effective annual fee all the way down to ten dollars per year that's very ambitious and very optimistic but still the fact that you can do that is very valuable there because the annual fee of 250 doesn't seem as high anymore but those credits are going to work out like this so there's 120 in uber credits that you can use for uber rides or uber eats 120 of dining credits with select dining partners and all those credits are going to be split up into ten dollar monthly use it or lose a credit so you get a ten dollar dining credit and a ten dollar uber credit that you have to use each month or it'll go away and it doesn't roll over into the next month very important to be aware of that but there is a lot of value there to be had for getting back that 945 annual fee that you pay up front for the amex trifecta credit card setup now next for the amex platinum card there is over 1400 in credits that are advertised on amex's website so i'm not going to go over every single one of those because that would just take way too much time and this is again just a very high level video here go check out some of my other videos where i explain in detail all those credits on the amex platinum card but me personally i get about 700 in value from all those credits so that offsets that 695 annual fee completely for me there's a lot of good credits in there like uber credits saks fifth avenue credits airline incidental fee credits and also a few useless credits like an equinox credit that i personally won't ever use because there's no equinox locations near me but that's one of the negatives to it is there's just a lot of credits and it becomes like this metal coupon book that's one of those things that a lot of people really don't like about the amex platinum card it's one of the big complaints that people seem to have whenever i'm reading the comment sections but i agree with them it's a lot to consider but there are some other good benefits as well like hotel statuses very good purchase protections and travel insurances access to airport lounges and a whole bunch of other things like that again i'll have other videos in my description below to go check out where i go through those in much more detail but then with the blue business plus it's a very straightforward card really just getting that 2x points per dollar on everything there's no other bells and whistles nothing else exciting about that card again a business credit card so it's good for some people out there if you have some sort of small business i really don't put as much spending on this card as i would like but i am currently working on that welcome bonus that i had since i got this card just a few months ago after i meet that welcome bonus it'll stay in my wallet and be mainly used for any spending that i have for this small business of this youtube channel here now next let's move over to the redemption options that you'll get with the american express membership rewards plans that you'll earn from your amex trifecta setup now compared to the chase ultimate rewards points honestly i do like those chase points better because they're more flexible and easier to understand for most people out there but if you know what you're doing and you do the research you can still get a lot of very very good value for your membership rewards points especially if you redeem them for first class business class or longer international flights we'll get into that right here now so the first redemption option that you get with american express is gonna be for a statement credit where you get 0.6 cents per point which is not a good value at all anything below one cent per point you really want to stay away from unless you're completely out of cash and you need to redeem for those purposes but at that point you probably should not be using credit cards in the first place so 0.6 cents per point for a statement credit do not ever do that you can also redeem them for amazon purchases a lot of the times if you log into amazon and you go to make a purchase then you check out you'll see the option if you're paying with an amex card to redeem membership rewards points for that purchase but you're getting 0.7 cents per point for those purchases too so again below the one cent per point mark really bad value there for this point redemptions next you can redeem for travel through the amex travel portal where usually you get 0.7 cents per point for most hotels ebook through that portal again not the best value there so you really don't want to do that with those points but you can get one cent per point for most flights that i found on the amex travel portal so that's not awful one semper point like i said is the bare minimum i've redeemed a few points here and there just for shorter domestic flights through that portal it's really not that bad of a deal so that's one option that you do have but in order to get the most value from those points you really are gonna want to transfer them out to different travel partners that i'll list on the screen right now american express has many great travel partners that you can choose from a lot of the times they have different deals going on where you transfer your points to certain partners and get extra value or extra redemption from those options so you always want to be on the lookout for those deals if you're planning a trip especially if you're planning to travel to europe or somewhere else across the world that's where you get the most value for those longer international flights and first class in business class flights as well so this is going to require a little bit more research and i do plan to make some more videos in the future i'm sitting on almost 300 000 amex membership rewards points at the moment starting to plan some different trips here and there so hopefully i'll have some good examples in the future on this channel for that so go ahead and subscribe down below once again if you haven't done so already so let's go over now my final thoughts and my opinions that i have for the amex trifecta versus the chase trifecta because these setups are not going to be for everyone especially the amex trifecta setup because that one is going to cost a lot each year in annual fees so for me it's worth because i get the value from those credits but for others out there you might not get as much value as you think you really need to ask yourself before you get any of these cards do i already spend money on the services or the products that these credits cover if the answer is no to that then you're not really getting as much value from those credits as you think you are once you get that card you might be able to use those credits you might be able to use the uber credits on the amex gold card or the airline incidental fee credits and all that stuff but if you're not already paying for those things in advance then are you actually getting that full value that's a question you have to ask yourself before you apply for any of these cards now i will say if you are a frequent traveler if you're traveling to the airport maybe a few times per month or almost every week or something like that then it definitely is worth it to get the amex platinum card for that airport lounge access all the different statuses that you get the uber credits all that stuff it's very much worth it on the platinum card if you are traveling a lot so i travel a few times per year i do get to make good use out of those benefits but not as much as some other people out there so that's why i have to justify the annual fee from those credits but luckily i am able to justify it and that's why i continue to keep this amex trifecta set up in place i also really like the fact the amex gold card earns a lot of points on groceries because the chase setup there does not really cover groceries in a very good way it gets the 3x points on online groceries with the sapphire preferred but that's about it sometimes you'll get the 5x points per dollar on the freedom flex with groceries as a quarterly category but other than that groceries is not covered by chase that well so the amex gold card is good because groceries or food expenses that's usually going to be your third highest category of spending outside of housing and transportation so i always think it's important to maximize that spending category in your daily life that's why i like having the amex gold card and it really is the card that i use the most when i'm not working on hitting a minimum spend requirement for any sort of welcome bonus out there but for the chase trifecta i really do think that this is gonna make the sense for the most amount of people out there if you're looking for a travel credit card set up it only costs as little as 95 per year plus there's that 50 hotel credit to lower down that effective annual fee of 45 dollars per year and at worst case scenario you could always downgrade that sapphire preferred after one year of having it to a no annual fee freedom card or the freedom unlimited or freedom flex because that has no annual fee it allows you to keep the same account open whereas with american express there's no downgrade path for any of those platinum cards the gold card or even the green card into a no annual fee card you're always going to have that annual fee somehow some way with those cards unless you close the account completely which isn't always the worst thing but i do like the fact that with the staff i preferred you don't have to worry about that you can keep that same account open but really one of the main reasons why i chose to keep both of these credit card setups here in my wallet is because i value chase points and american express points essentially as equal so i'm just gonna go with whatever credit card is earning me the highest rate in whatever category so i'll go with groceries the amex gold card because it gets me four x points there i'll even go with dining on the amex goal because it gets four x points there compared to three x points on any of those chase cards and since i value those points equally i'm just going with the higher option so i like to have a variety kind of a diversity across my credit card portfolio if you can call it that with amex and chase points i think there's a lot of good redemption options on both sides so if you're looking for a simple credit card setup that gets you good options for redeeming those points that are very flexible go with chase because that's the cheaper option the easier option and the more flexible option but if you're looking for more value especially for those longer term first class business class flights international flights those types of things for redeeming your points through those travel partners with american express then you can go with the amex trifecta credit card setup as well just make sure that you're getting good value from those credits to help lower that effective annual fee over there because it can get a little bit pricey if you want to have both like me because maybe you're a credit card nerd as well go ahead and do it because it can be worth it like i said to get that variety across those different credit card setups so i hope this video was useful like i said i didn't really have a script repaired or anything else prepared for today so i was just talking off the top of my head keeping it very casual and conversational but let me know if you guys did appreciate the style of video maybe i'll do some more things like this in the future as i try new things with this channel in 2022 so let me know down in the comment section below if you liked it and also let me know which of these two credit card setups you prefer the amex trifecta or the chase trifecta but anyway thank you guys so much for watching this video all the way until the end i hope you have a great day and i'll see you in the next one

Channel: Daniel Braun

Views: 124,401

Keywords: chase trifecta, amex trifecta, american express trifecta, chase, amex, american express, chase trifecta vs amex trifecta, amex trifecta vs chase trifecta, chase credit cards, amex credit cards, american express credit cards, best credit cards, best credit card setup, best credit card setup 2022, amex platinum card, amex gold card, amex blue business plus, chase sapphire preferred, chase sapphire reserve, chase freedom flex, chase freedom unlimited, daniel braun

Id: -fRy8IKwDzc

Length: 18min 16sec (1096 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 21 2022