Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card review: The best travel rewards card for less than $100?

While the Chase Sapphire Preferred offers terrific flexibility and versatility, it could still leave plenty of rewards on the table. For example, miscellaneous expenses like your insurance bill or a new laptop will only earn you 1 point per dollar. If you aren’t sure whether your spending habits line up with those of the Sapphire Preferred, you may have more luck maximizing your rewards with a simple flat-rate rewards card like the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card.

The Venture card’s unlimited 5X miles on hotels and car rentals through Capital One Travel and 2X miles on all other spending makes stockpiling rewards easy. You’ll earn the same flat rewards rate on all eligible purchases, with no need to juggle cards or track categories. The card also gives you the flexibility to redeem miles through Capital One or for outside travel purchases without sacrificing value. Although the Venture card doesn’t have a feature like the Sapphire Preferred’s point value redemption boost toward Chase travel, you’ll have remarkable rewards flexibility. You can use Venture miles for statement credits toward a wide variety of general travel purchases you’ve already made within the past 90 days.

As with the Sapphire Preferred, however, the Venture card features a $95 annual fee. You’ll need to spend about $396 per month to offset the Venture card’s annual fee with rewards at a base value of 1 cent per mile. If you transfer to the right partner for an average value of 2 cents per mile (based on Bankrate valuations), you’d only need to spend about $199 per month in your flat-rate 2X miles categories to offset the annual fee. However, it may be easier to offset the Sapphire Preferred card’s annual fee without relying on rewards spending since the Venture card doesn’t carry annual bonus rewards or credits like the Sapphire Preferred does.

Learn more: Chase Sapphire Preferred vs. Capital One Venture

The Citi Premier® Card not only shares some rewards categories with the Sapphire Preferred, but it also offers some extra options that could prove highly lucrative for the right cardholder. You’ll get a 3X rewards rate on restaurant, supermarket, gas station, hotel and air travel purchases with the Premier card. And unlike the Sapphire Preferred, the Premier card doesn’t require you to book travel through an issuer portal or purchase groceries online to earn the full rewards rate. However, you can earn a total of 10X points on hotel, car rentals, and attractions (excluding air travel) booked through the Citi Travel℠ portal through June 30, 2024.

Along with its enticing rewards categories, the Citi Premier stands out for its annual $100 hotel savings benefit on stays of $500 or more, which makes up for its otherwise thin set of travel perks. On the downside, your points won’t be worth more if you redeem through the Citi Travel portal, and, depending on your travel preferences, Citi’s list of transfer partners may fall short of Chase’s.

Learn more: Citi Premier vs. Chase Sapphire Preferred

Given that the Sapphire Preferred is a travel card, consider pairing it with a flat-rate travel card or a cash back credit card that rewards your biggest non-travel categories — such as the Chase Freedom Unlimited.

The Chase Freedom Unlimited is a solid no-annual-fee credit card that earns at least 1.5 percent cash back on every purchase you make, 3 percent back on dining and drugstore purchases, plus 5 percent back on Chase Ultimate Rewards travel and Lyft purchases (Lyft offer through March 2025).

By pairing the Freedom Unlimited with the Sapphire Preferred, you can earn more rewards on purchases outside the Sapphire Preferred’s travel and restaurant dining categories. For example, redeeming your flat-rate Freedom Unlimited rewards toward Chase travel through the Sapphire Preferred (for the 25 percent redemption value boost) nets you almost 1.9 cents per dollar spent. Based on Bankrate’s latest valuation of 2 cents per Ultimate Rewards point on average, the Freedom Unlimited card’s flat-rate rewards could impressively net you around 3 cents per dollar spent if you redeem them through the right transfer partner, thanks to the Sapphire Preferred.

Like the Freedom Unlimited, the Chase Freedom Flex card is an excellent partner for the Sapphire Preferred. The Freedom Flex offers the same year-round 3 percent cash back categories as its flat-rate counterpart, but it also carries 5 percent rotating quarterly categories (on up to $1,500 in combined purchases per quarter after category activation, then 1 percent back; quarters). These can add a variety of popular categories that often suit your seasonal expenses to your disposal. 

When you redeem points through the Sapphire Preferred, this rotating rewards rate can essentially earn you 6.25 cents per dollar toward Ultimate Rewards travel or about 10 cents on average toward the right Chase transfer partner (based on Bankrate’s latest 2-cent valuation per point).

Although there’s a $95 annual fee and the rewards structure isn’t as simple as flat-rate rewards, the Chase Sapphire Preferred delivers perhaps the best value for people looking to kickstart their travel rewards experience.

The sign-up bonus provides a great leg up on cardholders’ next trip, the categories are diverse enough to justify it as a primary rewards card and the stellar redemption values encourage cardholders to plan on using Chase travel and transfer partners. Plus, the card offers peace of mind with its extensive travel insurance and how well it pairs with other cards if users want to flesh out their rewards strategies later on. Unlike many cards that earn travel miles, the rewards won’t lose value if they’re redeemed for cash back or several other non-travel options. That can be handy for some cardholders if they aren’t planning to travel for a while.

Cardholders have more opportunities to rack up rewards and perk value than many competing cards offer — no matter whether the user is a frequent or occasional traveler. The Sapphire Preferred card’s excellent transfer partners and Chase travel point value redemption boost could also maximize the value of cardholders’ other rewards spending if they use Chase cash back cards for their other everyday purchases.

The primary criteria for a rewards or cash back card’s rating is its rewards value. This includes the card’s average rewards rate, estimated annual rewards earnings, sign-up bonus value and reward redemption value.

To estimate a card’s average annual rewards earnings, we first calculate its average rewards rate based on how much it earns in different bonus categories and how closely its categories align with the average person’s spending habits, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Based on this data, we determine a “chargeable” spend (which purchases are likely to be put on a credit card and earn rewards). This includes the following spending by category:

• Groceries: $5,200
• Dining out: $3,000
• Entertainment: $2,500
• Gas: $2,100
• Apparel and services: $1,700

Using this data, we assign a weighting to each of a card’s bonus categories. For example, a card’s grocery rewards rate receives a 23 percent weighting based on how much of the average person’s budget is spent on groceries. We also estimate the redemption value of points or miles from various issuer, airline and hotel rewards programs.

This weighting and rewards valuation allows us to estimate a card’s average annual rewards earnings — how many points or miles you’d earn with a given card if your spending was about average and you used the card for all of your purchases, as well as what those points are worth. We also use point valuations to determine a card’s sign-up bonus value

With these calculations complete, we assign each card a score based on how its average rewards earnings, sign-up bonus value, rewards rate and redemption value stack up against other rewards cards.

We also rate cards based on how much it costs to keep them in your wallet or carry a balance.

To start, each rewards or cash back card is scored based on whether it offers an intro APR and how its ongoing APR compares to the rates available on other rewards or cash back cards.

We also score each card based on how its annual fee influences its overall value.

We consider a card’s annual fee in two ways — how it ranks relative to the fees you’ll find on other cards in the category and how it impacts a card’s overall rewards value. Cards with an annual fee will always be at a slight disadvantage in our scoring system since annual fees inherently cut into your rewards value, but if a card offers terrific value via its ongoing rewards and perks, it can earn a high score even if it carries a high annual fee.

With this in mind, we rate a card based primarily on how its ongoing rewards value and ongoing perk value (such as annual credits or bonuses) stack up against other cards in the category when you subtract its annual fee.

We rate each card’s flexibility based on the restrictions it imposes on earning and redeeming rewards and factor this rating into a card’s overall score.

Flexibility factors include whether a card only allows you to earn a high rewards rate on a small amount of spending or requires you to meet a certain earning threshold before you can redeem rewards. We also examine whether your points are worth less when you redeem for some options versus others and whether a card gives you the flexibility to transfer rewards to airline and hotel partners.

We also score each card’s set of features – its perks and benefits — against five tiers of features to provide a rating. We break down these tiers as follows:

• Tier 1 has less-than-standard card features (an ultra-streamlined card that offers basic utility and next to nothing in the way of ancillary benefits.
• Tier 2 includes the benefits you’d expect on standard Visa or Mastercard credit cards, such as free access to your credit score, car rental insurance and $0 liability for fraudulent charges.
• Tier 3 includes “prime card” or better-than-average card features like cellphone insurance, lost luggage insurance, concierge services and purchase protection.
• Tier 4 includes luxury features such as airport lounge access, elite status with an airline or hotel and credits for expedited security screening membership programs.
• Tier 5 includes the sort of exemplary benefits you’ll find on top-tier luxury cards, such as high-value travel credits, cardholder memberships and other unique and valuable perks.

The biggest differences between these cards are their annual fees, reward categories and cardholder benefits. The Chase Sapphire Reserve carries a whopping $550 annual fee, while the Sapphire Preferred card's annual fee is just $95. The Reserve card's higher annual fee gets you several perks that are missing from the Preferred card, however, including an up to $300 annual travel credit, up to $100 Global Entry/TSA Precheck credit and more. The Chase Sapphire Reserve also has a higher Ultimate Rewards travel redemption boost — 50 percent compared to the Sapphire Preferred card's 25 percent.

No, the Chase Sapphire Preferred does not offer free Priority Pass airport lounge access. Chase Sapphire Preferred cardholders can still enroll in Priority Pass, but you’ll have to either upgrade to the Chase Sapphire Reserve or apply to an eligible alternative to the Reserve card for complimentary Priority Pass Select™ membership.

Yes, new Sapphire Preferred cardholders could obtain substantial value from these perks with rideshare, food delivery and other partners:

• 5X total points on qualifying Lyft purchases, including rides, subscription products, membership products and Lyft bikes and scooters (through March 31, 2025).

• 5X total points on eligible Peloton Bike, Tread, Row, Guide and accessory purchases totaling at least $250 (earn up to 25,000 points through March 31, 2025).

• 12 months of complimentary DoorDash DashPass membership, which includes $0 delivery fees and lower services fees on eligible orders (must activate by Dec. 31, 2024) — a $99 value.

• Six months of complimentary Instacart+ membership, which includes family shopping features, free delivery on groceries and other eligible orders, reduced service fees, $15 in quarterly statement credits (through July 2024 for members), 5 percent back on eligible “Pickup” orders and more (must activate before the July 31, 2024 offer end date) — about a $60 subscription value and up to $30 in quarterly credits.

• $10 monthly Gopuff statement credits for food and other delivered products (through Dec. 31, 2023) — up to a $60 value, if activated in June 2023.

The Gopuff and Peloton offers are a bit specialized and may not be the most lucrative for some people, but many cardholders may be able to make good use of the Lyft, DoorDash and Instacart perks. The values of just the Instacart+ and DoorDash DashPass offers nearly recoup the cost of the Sapphire Preferred card’s annual fee for the first two years.

It can be difficult for people with fair credit or lower to be approved for this card. However, you may have better approval odds if you have good to excellent credit (a FICO score of 670 or higher or a VantageScore of 661 or higher). You can check with Bankrate’s CardMatch™ tool to see if the Sapphire Preferred card may be a match based on your credit profile.