CSP/CSR Revamp Wish List

[jwa77]

Not sure if this is the place to sound off on gripes or suggestions for CSP/CSR but here goes:

1) The "floor" earn rate of these cards should be higher.  Why not take the base rate of the CFU and apply it to all "other" purchases? I'd love to have just ONE card that earns 2/3x on dining and travel and "1.5" on everything else.  That would be great.  Besides, both these cards have annual fees; why do "other" purchases get penalized so heavily?

2) Why not have the points on these cards increase on dining and travel?  4/3 would be amazing and it would put it in direct compeition with the new Citi Prestige and Citi Premier and even Amex Gold that have higher point awards?

3) Stick one of the CSR perks on the CSP -- namely--Global Entry credit -- and/or put something else on the CSR..(not sure what)

[wasCB14]

It would be nice for CSR to give 1.5x on off-category purchases since CFU has a FTF. Not a major concern for me, though, as a lot of international spend is on travel or dining.

Chase and Amex can buy miles pretty cheaply from airlines, but the 1.5 cpp "book through Chase" redemption option might make 4x URs uneconomical. Amex doesn't give as good a value on cash and "pay with points" redemptions, even with a Schwab Platinum.

[Anonymous]

4x on CSR would be 6% earning rate on travel. Im all for it, although i don't see chase doing it.

[wasCB14]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

4x on CSR would be 6% earning rate on travel. Im all for it, although i don't see chase doing it.

---

One thing I could see them doing is offering 4x on some category (probably not all travel and dining) but nerfing the 1.5 cpp "book through Chase" travel redemption rate to CSP's 1.25 or even 1 cpp.

I'm pretty happy with CSR as it is. It complements Amex Platinum nicely.

[Shadowfactor]

I think something that is often forgotten around forums, is that we are a small subset of the general public.

Most people are very happy with chase and it’s strong domestic redemption value. So many times I hear from others that they love southwest because the points are a fixed value or that portal bookings at “50%” more value. They really think the value of their points just jumped 50%, which is true in a way but they don’t realize that 50% isn’t the whole picture and you can get a lot more by transferring to partners.

It seems like most people don’t have an interest going to international trips but just want the points to be good for Christmas to see grandma even if the value is so crappy it’s not even funny.

Chase has a huge market share on these types of customers who probably pay some interest as well.

Theirs really no reason for chase to change the sapphire line right now, and it may not be possible. They lost a ton of money on the initial welcome bonuses and who knows what the whole financial picture is for chase credit cards as a whole. Plus with the bloggers pushing chase like it’s the cats meow, they have the marketing so why change anything ?

For your average consumer, chase is likely the best overall card and they know it so why change it ?

[Anonymous]

---

@wasCB14 wrote:

---

@Anonymous wrote:

4x on CSR would be 6% earning rate on travel. Im all for it, although i don't see chase doing it.

---

One thing I could see them doing is offering 4x on some category (probably not all travel and dining) but nerfing the 1.5 cpp "book through Chase" travel redemption rate to CSP's 1.25 or even 1 cpp.

I'm pretty happy with CSR as it is. It complements Amex Platinum nicely.

---

It could happen, if airline devaluation marches on, chase would be smart to devalue UR as well. I will keep my calculator at hand, when its time to switch to other products (prestige), i would not hesitate.

[mongstradamus]

If anything I would like them to have at least one card that had bonus on groceries. They have like seven cards and none give bonus to groceries. That's is where amex excels I think either EDP or gold are really good for groceries.

A second thing which would be nice is have travel category include gas.i think the Citi premier does that.

[Anonymous]

You can get better value transferring, but the value isn't THAT bad using the portal on the csr.

[Anonymous]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

You can get better value transferring, but the value isn't THAT bad using the portal on the csr.

---

That is not guaranteed, unless you fly international business, you are not guaranteed a better rate that chase portal.

And if point transfer is the only thing one care, prestige is better than csr (5pts vs 3 pts).

[iced]

---

@jwa77 wrote:

Not sure if this is the place to sound off on gripes or suggestions for CSP/CSR but here goes:

1) The "floor" earn rate of these cards should be higher.  Why not take the base rate of the CFU and apply it to all "other" purchases? I'd love to have just ONE card that earns 2/3x on dining and travel and "1.5" on everything else.  That would be great.  Besides, both these cards have annual fees; why do "other" purchases get penalized so heavily?

2) Why not have the points on these cards increase on dining and travel?  4/3 would be amazing and it would put it in direct compeition with the new Citi Prestige and Citi Premier and even Amex Gold that have higher point awards?

3) Stick one of the CSR perks on the CSP -- namely--Global Entry credit -- and/or put something else on the CSR..(not sure what)

---

1. I'd hardly call 1 UR per dollar a penalty. While ideally I'd also like to see more UR earning on a single card, I can't fault them for not doing it. To attain the same point earning as a CSR, I'd need two American Express cards, both with an AF. The CFU has no AF. 

2. Citi and American Express have higher point earnings, though not with the exact same categories. There's also an assumption that's basically saying UR/MR/TY are all equal, but they're not. To one person, 1 MR may be worth 2-3 UR, but to another person, 1 UR may be worth 2-3 UR. Trying to make them all equal only reinforces the very, very false notion some have that they should just try to maximize point accrual for point accrual's sake, rather than choosing the program that best fits their individual spending habits and travel patterns.

3. The CSR is already paying people to use it, so adding even more freebies doesn't make much sense. For a frequent traveler/diner, which is exactly who this card targets, they're attaining tens of thousands (or more) UR every year for between $50 and $150 ($50 for GE renewal years). $150 for 50,000 or even 20,000 miles each year is a steal.

Would I complain if they added even more benefits to the cards? No, but I cannot, on any rational level, complain or gripe about the level of benefits they provide. Until both Citi and American Express basically had to significantly up their game to compete, the CSR was the talk of the credit town after it came out - the gold standard. It's still a very good card, unless you subscribe to some min-max philosophy that there's the best and everything else is crap.