topic Re: Capital One Savor vs Chase Sapphire Preferred in Credit Cards

Capital One Savor vs Chase Sapphire Preferred

Anonymous — Thu, 28 Mar 2019 15:43:06 GMT

Just comparing the cards and on a day-to-day it seems like the Savor is a clear winner. Both have the same AF, Basically the same SUB (when claimed as cash), yet the Savor is a lower spend req, and (as of now, since Chase changed) waives the first AF.

The only allure of the CSP seems to be the transferability of points, for being an AF card, it's point earnings are very mediocre at best. 2x for travel and dining, just 1x everywhere else. That's it. (Not taking 'background' features such as rental insurances into account, although the Savor has many of these too)

The Savor gets 4% for dining and entertainment, 2% at grocery stores, 1% everywhere else. Also 8% at Vivid Seats for you concert goers until 2020. Seems like a good daily spend travel card. However, it's all simply cash back, not travel points. As cashback goes, this is better than the $450 AF CSR, which only earns you an extra 1x on travel/dining over the CSP, and extra .25x on point redemption for travel.

It almost seems the more logical thing would be trying to get a pair of Chase cards (One of each Sapphire and Freedom, or trifecta) Try to build points on that for initial travel/hotel, then use the Savor while out and about doing your vacation. But is the combo worth $190/year. I'd say it would be a lot more lucrative if Chase bumped it up a little, gave travel/dining 3x, maybe a 2x category, such as GAS which isn't included in their travel points. Gotta feed that rental car, yes? CSR a point bump over those like they currently are.

I'm juggling between the CSP and the Savor, leaning more toward the CSP as I DO want to think about maybe getting into the whole travel thing in the future.. Plus I'm 4/24, so if my next card isn't Chase, I'm a bit locked out for a couple years. Plus I can PC it to a Freedom after a year just incase.

Basically this is a post of just wondering why the CSP seems rather blah on the front offers, requiring you to dig into the hidden gems of it (point transfers, protections, etc.) At the same time, I was going to see the opinions of those here about doing the combination of the two. Would a combo of the CSP (for travel expense) and Savor (for enjoyment expense) @ $190AF be a comparable or better than a standalone CSR @ $450AF -$300 travel expense.

Could also just chuck it into my random ramblings as I rattle my brain around overthinking things.

Re: Capital One Savor vs Chase Sapphire Preferred

Anonymous — Thu, 28 Mar 2019 15:52:35 GMT

CSR is far more valuable to travelers than the CSP due, in part, to the $300 travel credit which basically makes it a $150 AF card. That's before the UR redemption bonus increase, Priority Pass, etc.

You don't sound like a traveler so Savor is probably your best choice of the three. I really only see the choice between Savor and CSR, which basically is determined by how much someone travels.

Re: Capital One Savor vs Chase Sapphire Preferred

Anonymous — Thu, 28 Mar 2019 16:19:15 GMT

The Chase points transfer is only worth it if you have the Chase Sapphire Reserve. The Freedom/CSP combo isnt really going to benefit you.

The Savor is a nice card. Id get one, but already have the CSR so its not worth it to me in my use case.

Re: Capital One Savor vs Chase Sapphire Preferred

Anonymous — Thu, 28 Mar 2019 17:15:49 GMT

I'm likely going for the CSP first, I've never had the chance to travel via other means besides driving. I've driven to Canada from southern usa, stayed with a friend so no hotel cost, that's the limitation thus far. I mostly drive wherever I go. Figured the lower AF CSP would be a good start, see if I can manage before dropping on larger AF cards. If it comes down to it, I can PC up to a CSR later, if I don't use the travel features, I can drop it to a freedom. Might see about getting a Savor afterwards anyway since it seems like a good all around card, or the no AF version, the SavorOne.

Edit: Another DP to consider, is I'd have 2 AUs on it, on a CSR that'd be an additional $150 on the AF. Whereas the CSP has no fee for AUs.

Re: Capital One Savor vs Chase Sapphire Preferred

Anonymous — Thu, 28 Mar 2019 17:50:32 GMT

If you don't make use of the entertainment category, the Uber Visa card is likely better than Savor, plus no AF.

With that said, I would pick CSP between the two due to its flexibility in downgrading to CF/ CFU for trifecta.

Re: Capital One Savor vs Chase Sapphire Preferred

Anonymous — Thu, 28 Mar 2019 19:06:25 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
The Chase points transfer is only worth it if you have the Chase Sapphire Reserve. The Freedom/CSP combo isnt really going to benefit you.

Why? Because of reduced earnings? Unlike using UR for travel purchase, CSP and CSR are the same for transfers (but you are likely to have more to transfer with the CSR)

Re: Capital One Savor vs Chase Sapphire Preferred

EAJuggalo — Sat, 30 Mar 2019 12:00:03 GMT

I keep my CSP for those "background" features as you call them. Trip protections and primary rental car insurance. I pretty much only use it for travel charges, some restaurants and places that don't take AMEX. Otherwise I have my AMEX Gold which is 4x on restaurants and grocery stores.

One other thing to keep in mind when you are comparing points vs. cash. You can usually get redemptions at good value. In the last year I've gotten 3cpp from Chase transferring to SW and 3cpp transferring to Delta from AMEX. That makes my CSP effectively 6x for travel and restaurants and the Gold 12x on restaurants and groceries.

Re: Capital One Savor vs Chase Sapphire Preferred

Revelate — Sat, 30 Mar 2019 15:27:49 GMT

@EAJuggalo wrote:
I keep my CSP for those "background" features as you call them. Trip protections and primary rental car insurance. I pretty much only use it for travel charges, some restaurants and places that don't take AMEX. Otherwise I have my AMEX Gold which is 4x on restaurants and grocery stores.
One other thing to keep in mind when you are comparing points vs. cash. You can usually get redemptions at good value. In the last year I've gotten 3cpp from Chase transferring to SW and 3cpp transferring to Delta from AMEX. That makes my CSP effectively 6x for travel and restaurants and the Gold 12x on restaurants and groceries.

With your spend profile how does the CSR not come out well ahead? If you are leveraging the travel credit which sounds like you are, it just doesn't take much spend.

To the original post: if you don't travel enough to use the travel credit then maybe CSP makes sense from a churning perspective, but long term? Not really. Fact is the CSP use case is so narrow as to be nearly irrelevant, I'm not even that certain why Chase keeps it around for new applications other than they probably make more money on it because consumers are conversely making less.

That said, I'd really be curious what you're putting AU's on for if not for spend aggregation when we're talking new tradelines and scoring purposes: those need to be included in the calculation and those two alone if used heavy might make up even the travel credit difference.

CSR is basically in all ways a better card than a CSP for the overwhelming statistical majority.

Re: Capital One Savor vs Chase Sapphire Preferred

mongstradamus — Sat, 30 Mar 2019 15:35:39 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
The Chase points transfer is only worth it if you have the Chase Sapphire Reserve. The Freedom/CSP combo isnt really going to benefit you.

Why? Because of reduced earnings? Unlike using UR for travel purchase, CSP and CSR are the same for transfers (but you are likely to have more to transfer with the CSR)

I think if you are going for optimal value than CSP and CSR are practically the same in my eyes. When I say optimal value I am talking about transfer to airline partners. I personally have never used UR for 1.5 or 1.25 with CSR and CSP respectively. I have always tried to get at least 2.5-3 cpp for value of my UR

Re: Capital One Savor vs Chase Sapphire Preferred

Revelate — Sat, 30 Mar 2019 15:53:02 GMT

@mongstradamus wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
The Chase points transfer is only worth it if you have the Chase Sapphire Reserve. The Freedom/CSP combo isnt really going to benefit you.

Why? Because of reduced earnings? Unlike using UR for travel purchase, CSP and CSR are the same for transfers (but you are likely to have more to transfer with the CSR)
I think if you are going for optimal value than CSP and CSR are practically the same in my eyes. When I say optimal value I am talking about transfer to airline partners. I personally have never used UR for 1.5 or 1.25 with CSR and CSP respectively. I have always tried to get at least 2.5-3 cpp for value of my UR

Point still stands though, other than the SUB you have to earn those points to transfer anyway and then it just doesn't take much for CSR > CSP or in my case CSR >>> CSP.

Re: Capital One Savor vs Chase Sapphire Preferred

EAJuggalo — Sun, 31 Mar 2019 21:53:56 GMT

The five figure minimum SL, the additional cost for an AU. ( My wife has zero interest in anything to do with credit except using it.) And it is a larger AF for something that I only use for a few charges a year. I would need $13,000 annual spend in restaurants and travel in order for it to even out. This year I'm planning on putting about $6,000 on it, the vast majority of that a Disney vacation for the family. The only other big benefits I see are Priority Pass, which I wouldn't be able to use anyway since I have a family of 4 and PP caps at two guests plus cardholder. GE, which I have multiple GE credits through my NFCU Flagship and it's free AUs. And the Trip Delay Insurance starts at 6hr instead of 12.