@Anonymous wrote:Based on how much you travel, and that you have a freedom, I would keep it.
If you do the math and you ended up spending under 2375 for the year on dining/travel, then you lose money. (unless you rent cars a ton and that was used a lot)
If you would have spent that same amount on the Chase Sapphire you would have been better off. I would always tell someone to downgrade and just keep $500 on it. That way one day if you decide to get the ink or travel more you can go back to CSP and not deal with the hassle.
Can you explain the $2375 figure? Why is the card worth keeping if you spend over that amount on dining compared to the no AF CS? I'm just curious about the math and what the significance of that cutoff is.
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+1 to always keeping it as a Sapphire at least, though I would leave the CL at $5,000 at a minimum, actually I would not change the CL at all. Re-PC back to CSP when points usage gets into the plan.
Consider transfers to Hyatt, not just airlines. There are some lower tier Hyatt's that get good redemption rates and may be in locations you are headed.
For now though, your plan to pay the AF is good. Your travel spend may shift, if you already used the bonus points, so besides dining you may be adding some airfare spend to the 2pt category.
Use the Freedom regularly too, take advantage of the 5pt categories.
Good luck!
@Anonymous wrote:If you would have spent that same amount on the Chase Sapphire you would have been better off. I would always tell someone to downgrade and just keep $500 on it. That way one day if you decide to get the ink or travel more you can go back to CSP and not deal with the hassle.
Can you give a little more detail on this? Is it really that esy to go from the CS to the CSP? Looks like OP has decided to go another year, which is about what I think I would do but I find this interesting.
Going from a CSP to a CS is like a 2 minute phone call to Chase. It is not difficult at all, you just call the number on the back of the card.
@Anonymous wrote:My average dining is over $300/month and get a slightly better return on CSP than on the discover (2% until June) or NFCU (1.5%). I rented cars 3 times last year and used CSP for primary insurance. I also like the trip cancellation feature of the card. I usually transfer points from freedom to CSP and use them for trips and get the 20% point bonus on chase travel. I don't transfer points to airlines. I easily surpassed the $95 fee in points last year minus the 40K bonus (now 50K), so I guess I'll keep it for another year, since I plan to do a lot of traveling this year as well. Learning about the 1% visa conversion rate is interesting. I have amex but no mastercard. NFCU has no FTF and no fee. My amex cards carry a 2.7% FTF. Upgrading to platinum and its $450 fee or PRG ($195) doesn't make sense at this time since I don't travel internationally often and only make $50K a year. So for how I use it, I guess the $95 fee is reasonable, given how much I use the card, at least for one more year. If I stop traveling next year I'll downgrade to CS if it is still available. I have budgeted for the fee that hits on February 1.
Thanks to all who responded to my initial post.
Even if you decide to keep it I would recommend calling in to see if there is a retention offer. Chase is a bit stingy with this card when it comes to offers, but if you are putting enough through the card they may throw enough points your way to totally offset the AF. They won't waive the AF, but the points may be even more valuable.
@Anonymous wrote:
@red259 wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:If you would have spent that same amount on the Chase Sapphire you would have been better off. I would always tell someone to downgrade and just keep $500 on it. That way one day if you decide to get the ink or travel more you can go back to CSP and not deal with the hassle.
Can you give a little more detail on this? Is it really that esy to go from the CS to the CSP? Looks like OP has decided to go another year, which is about what I think I would do but I find this interesting.
Going from a CSP to a CS is like a 2 minute phone call to Chase. It is not difficult at all, you just call the number on the back of the card.
Okay, I was more refering to the fact that it looks like you're saying you could switch back tot he CSP if you change your mind.
I didn't say that, but I don't see any reason why you can't upgrade again later on. You may need to wait a year or so under the CARD act, but I'm sure Chase would be more than happy to upgrade people. Probably what I would do (depending on my number of accounts in the prior two years) is just apply for a new CSP if more than two years has passed so that I could get another signup.