The Chase Sapphire Preferred Card offers 50,000 bonus points for new cardholders who manage to spend a total of at least $4,000 on purchases during their first three months of membership. This bonus is equal to $625 toward travel booked through Ultimate Rewards. It’s without a doubt that this offer makes Chase Sapphire Preferred Card one of the most attractive travel rewards credit cards overall.
Points are earned at the following rates when you make purchases with Chase Sapphire Preferred Card:
- Two points for every dollar spent on dining at restaurants and travel
- One point for every dollar spent on all other purchases
The rewards don’t stop with this point system. The Chase Sapphire Preferred Card offers these additional perks not typically found with other credit cards:
- No foreign transaction fees. When cardholders make international purchases, most credit cards charge an additional fee, usually up to 3%, just to process the transaction. That can be in addition to any foreign currency exchange fee. The Chase Sapphire Preferred Card has no foreign transaction fee so it’s perfect for use on purchases anywhere outside the United States.
- Live customer service representative. When customers call the customer service line, they have access to deal directly with a live representative rather than automation. At any time of the day or night, cardholders will be able to call the always-available customer service. I have not had a chance to test the quality of this customer service, so please feel free to share your experiences at the end of this review.
There is an introductory annual fee of $0 the first year, then the annual fee is $95 per year, it’s important to keep this in mind as you enter the second year of membership. As always, you should consider whether the rewards you receive exceed the annual fee in value. And of course, you must be a Type B credit card user, one who does not pay interest or late fees due to paying the bill in full and on time every month, in order for any of these rewards to be worthwhile — otherwise you’re better off finding a low-interest credit card.
For the right profile of cardholder, $625 worth of travel plus the overall rewards of this card can mean quite a bit of time and money saved.
Updated December 15, 2016 and originally published May 18, 2011.
{ 31 comments… read them below or add one }
This sounds like it could be a good deal for someone who travels often or spends that much in 3 months. Being retired, I spend less than 10% of the required amount.
Your total expenses (payable by credit cards) are less than $1,200 per year (= $3,000/3 months x 4 quarters x 1/10th)? Where do you live and can I move in?
I like the dividend bonus. I’ve not seen anything like that on any other reward program.
Paying for a credit card is a very dumb move. I get 2% cash back, not points but actually cash, using my card and it’s free.
Which card is this?
I have a similar card, 2% *cash* back, no fee. HSBC, it’s called True Cash Back. Got it as a fluke. When we got our 0% financing on a refrigerator from Best Buy, we clicked on the “notify of any special offers” and this card was the special offer. It had a ridiculously low limit 2k, but we just kept asking for increases and now it’s up to about 6k, but they will not increase any card limits anymore (since ’08). This is our go-to, daily card. We regularly charge 2-3k on it per month.
This sounds great but I do love my card so I will keep it
Usually I don’t like ‘paying’ for a credit card, either. In this case, I plan to take advantage of the bonus to pay down my mortgage.
The hard part, will be spending $3,000 in three months.
I figured that I could put all of my regular expenses, in addition to auto insurance premiums and some condo fees.
Then, I’ll probably cancel the card before being hit with the fee. The everyday perks aren’t worth it.
this looks as if it is a good deal, but i just can not get past that $95 annual fee.
Can’t a person just cancel after three months and then not pay future $95 annual fees?
If you don’t care about your credit score…
I have researched lots of review on this.. Sounds very good… but $3000 for 3 month and $95 / yr….hard in my case, I applied … got turned down.. don’t know the reason yet my credit score 727, but when I home, there was a pre-approved letter (it was for my wife her high score 763), and its looks like its the best deal of all the ones available online. It’s the Regular sapphire (no annual fee), and will only have to spend $750 in 3 month to get 50,000 points valued at $500. So I asked her to apply for it. It showed approved online. now waiting..
I’m a regular sapphire cardholder myself, but it’s not as great because you can’t transfer the points to hotel/airline partners like you can with the sapphire preferred. Just something to keep in mind.
I was originally turned down as well, but I kept calling and speaking to different representatives until I was approved. I’ve read other cases where this has worked as well if you would like to give it a try.
Not long after I got the CapitalOne Venture card (no annual fee) so I can get no foreign transaction fee, I’m bombarded by Chase offers. On the same day just recently (July 2011) I get 2 mailings for this Chase Sapphire Preferred card. I open the first one, and it offers me 50,000 points if I spend $750 in 3 months–it’s already better than the $3000 in 3 months requirement with all other bonuses being equal. Then I opened the other envelope, and I see the same brochures, but it offers me 100,000 points for the same $750 in 3 months deal. It seems like a fabulous deal if the high bonus significantly pays for the annual fee starting in the second year. I’m usually very careful not to get suckered into any offers too good to be true, but is Chase just bending backwards for me?
Be sure you send chase a message regarding the 100K points, they will honor that offer with the invitation code they sent you.
Can you provide the 3-digit code for the deal? I want to see if Chase will match this offer. Thanks in advance. Is there an eligibility date of expiration?
I already got my card and started using it. When I activated the card I asked for confirmation of the bonus points in my offer, and was told 100,000 as I expected. The offer code was DT3 and the mail offer I received said it expires 8/30/2011.
I called Chase today but they said that only the offer code won’t work. I also have to call the correct ‘policy number’. Can you please list the phone number you called? Thanks.
I applied online, but the number in the offer letter is 1-866-814-6960.
See the banner on the offer letter: http://i43.tinypic.com/igf2o0.jpg
Okay, I think by ‘policy number’ they meant ‘invitation number’. That’s an applicant-specific 12-digit number, not a phone number, that is associated with the offer to me only (on my letter that number is printed together with the 3-letter ‘offer code’). Obviously, since I’ve already applied, that number is not going to work for you, and so I’m not going to share that. I think getting a good offer depends partly on your credit score.
Did chase match your 3 digit code? please let me know. Thanks.
This is probably my favorite travel card on the market. The monthly spending requirements are a little steep but if you only have one credit card this is an ideal back-up. Remember you only need to spend 1k per month for the first three months so shift the payments you would make with your first credit card over to this one until the 3 month period is up. The points rack up very quickly compared to others cards in the travel industry.
although this might not matter to most people, my personal favorite perk is the zero foreign transaction fees since I spend 6 months/year abroad :)
I had another question upon reading the terms that were mailed with my sapphire preferred card…the terms state:
“Term: Cash-like Transactions
What It Means: The following transactions will be treated as cash advances: ….making a payment using a third party service”
Does this mean that if I use amazon webpay that I am going to incur the fees:
“Cash Advances: Either $10 or 5% of the the amount of each transaction, whichever is greater” ?
Has anyone used Amazon Webpay with their Sapphire Preferred? If so, were you charged as per the terms above?
Thanks so much in advance for your time, effort, and assistance. It is so greatly appreciated.
If you ever cancel the card, do you lose your miles?
This is pretty much the top of line card from chase and people are crying about spending 3k in 3 months. You should be bringing around 120-150k household just to apply for this card. On top of that great credit and 5+ yr credit history in good standing.
I just got my Preferred card in the mail today, surprised to find it made out of some type of metal, (guessing this is chases version of the amex Black) for me they started me off at a avg limit of 15k and 3k cash adv option. Spending the 3k will be extremely easy and looking forward to it. Also the bonus on international spending with no international transaction fees this shall be one of my primary cards. Happy Hunting if you want easy money look into chase freedom and or chase checking account bonus’s
If you want a card to earn miles towards free travel, this card is not the one.
The reason for this is that they use the cost of the ticket as a base amount to figure out how many points you need for a free ticket. They do this by multiplying the cost of the ticket times a fixed number (in my case, 80) to get the number of points you need. A ticket that cost $400 will require 32,000 points. Most standard airline rewards for coach service is 25,000 points. When you look at Business Class (or First), it can get even worse. A Business class ticket from NY to LA costs about $1,800. With the x80 you would need 144,000 Ultimate Rewards points for that ticket. Most airlines in the US have these types of tickets for as little as 50,000 points. Ultimate Rewards does offer a direct airline transfer but only for three airlines, and one is an Asia airline with little use for most travelers. I have not looked at other travel offers like hotels or rental cars to see it this applies. If you want travel points, stick with the Airline cards.
Dont the points transfer 1:1 to Star Alliance airline programs? That kind of makes your point moot. Also the ultimate rewards travel are normal tickets…..not Award seats that have little availability. Big difference.
FYI for anyone using the Chase Sapphire Preferred card, in most places it looks like there is a hidden charge of around 0.3% skimmed off the exchange rate.
I have this credit Card. It’s amazing Well worth the Annual fee. Customer service is amazing and the bonus you get in points pays for the annual fee for the first 4 years anyway.
Paying for credit card is not dumb if the rewards you get outweigh the cost. If you are getting $400 up front and thousands in rewards over the year then $95 is a drop in the bucket. For most people that don’t spend enough to max out the rewards though they should stick with cards without the annual fee. Just depends on the person.