Credit card planning? Upgrade to the CSR?

[Citylights18]

Anything you can do to avoid a card app is probably a good thing. I wasn't charged an AF this year for my CSP.

https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Cards/Chase-Sapphire-Preferred-AF/td-p/6186061

What that allows me to do is upgrade and pay the AF on the CSR when its more suitable to my budget. For this reason I would really check when your AF hit on the CSP this year, if you had to pay it ect. If you upgrade after your AF hits you'll have to pay the $95 for the CSP then turn around and pay $550 for the CSR to get hit twice.

[NoHardLimits]

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@randomguy1 wrote:

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Is getting more than 1.5 CPP difficult rn?

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If you want more than 1.5 cents/point in redemption value, you will most likely need to transfer the UR points into one of the transfer partner programs.  Even then, recent airline and hotel point devaluations make it more difficult than ever to get outsized value.  Your best bet for high return is to use a small amount of UR points to "top off" a transfer partner's loyalty account balance for an award that would otherwise take a great deal more effort/spend to achieve.  For example, let's say that you are 3000 miles short of a business class ticket to Hawaii.  Transferring 3000UR to get that award ticket would be worth far more than $45 (3000x.015).

[longtimelurker]

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@UncleB wrote:

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You've received lots of great advice, and I just wanted to point out that while the Altitude Reserve is giving 3x points on dining through the end of the year, that's a temporary benefit and will expire on December 31 unless they decide to extend it. 

After that date dining purchases will be at the 1x rate, so you probably don't want to think of the AR as a 'dining' card when you're making your decision.  (Possibly you're thinking of the new 'Altitude Go', which gives 4x on dining.)

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While true, it also depends where you are.   In the UK at least, it's easy to pay at restaurants with mobile pay, so the AR is getting the 3x points on dining in effect, even though it's all due to mobile payments.

[randomguy1]

Thank you for all your input all. I was able to PC the card to the Reserve.  This has been a goal card for me for years.

All the following are upgrades\beneficial for me at this point:

3x Dining

3x Groceries

1.5 PYB (which I will redeem my points)

$300 Travel credit on groceries

$60 DD credit

$100 global entry credit (although I don't plan on applying anytime soon)

Lastly, it was beneficial for me to PC the card before my CSP AF hits (most likely next month).

[randomguy1]

Hey - I just wanted to add, I had to re-enroll my DoorDash for the CSR even though the credit number is the same. Upon re-enrolling, the $60 DoorDash credit is given per calendar year. So by enrolling now, I have $60 to use for 2020 and then will have $60 to use in 2021.

[Anonymous]

I don't even have to do much math before determining mine was worth it. Chase will reimburse, automatically and without question, $300 of anything "travel". For example, I book on Kayak, OFTEN, and Chase has issued the credit for 3rd party bookings without fail. 

So now you're down to $250 of the AF left to "defeat" before it starts paying you back. Next, it's 3x points on dining and travel and 150% points value booking through Chase Travel Rewards.

I run about $20-25k through my CSR every year. How much do you think you'd be charging in a given year? 

[randomguy1]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I don't even have to do much math before determining mine was worth it. Chase will reimburse, automatically and without question, $300 of anything "travel". For example, I book on Kayak, OFTEN, and Chase has issued the credit for 3rd party bookings without fail. 

So now you're down to $250 of the AF left to "defeat" before it starts paying you back. Next, it's 3x points on dining and travel and 150% points value booking through Chase Travel Rewards.

I run about $20-25k through my CSR every year. How much do you think you'd be charging in a given year? 

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The spend that much isn't significant right now as I am busy meeting MSRs on other cards (at a much higher return). If I'm not meeting MSR, dining, groceries, and travel should be on this card.

I most likely will apply to the following cards throughout the year (roughly in this order in 2021):

1. US Bank Altitude Reserve

2. Additional Chase business card - CIC probably or CIP

3. World of Hyatt

4. Perhaps another business travel card

5. CFF is on the possible radar if I plan to garden for awhile

[Citylights18]

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@randomguy1 wrote:

Hey - I just wanted to add, I had to re-enroll my DoorDash for the CSR even though the credit number is the same. Upon re-enrolling, the $60 DoorDash credit is given per calendar year. So by enrolling now, I have $60 to use for 2020 and then will have $60 to use in 2021.

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I was considering the CSR upgrade and double dip on the $60 dollar DoorDash credit for 2020 and 2021.

But the end of the day I just felt I'd rather move my CSR AF to 4/1/21 than eat $550 now. 

[randomguy1]

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@Citylights18 wrote:

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@randomguy1 wrote:

Hey - I just wanted to add, I had to re-enroll my DoorDash for the CSR even though the credit number is the same. Upon re-enrolling, the $60 DoorDash credit is given per calendar year. So by enrolling now, I have $60 to use for 2020 and then will have $60 to use in 2021.

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I was considering the CSR upgrade and double dip on the $60 dollar DoorDash credit for 2020 and 2021.

But the end of the day I just felt I'd rather move my CSR AF to 4/1/21 than eat $550 now. 

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My AF was countered by the .25 difference in redemption of points and the travel credit alone.  The math worked for me so I had a statement credit with PYB to pay for the $550 AF. 

[MrT_521]

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@NoHardLimits wrote:

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@randomguy1 wrote:

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Is getting more than 1.5 CPP difficult rn?

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If you want more than 1.5 cents/point in redemption value, you will most likely need to transfer the UR points into one of the transfer partner programs.

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This is technically true, but anyone considering this needs to be aware of a few things. Basically, you get higher redemption rates by transferring to partners for premium tickets because the cash prices of premium tickets are high. Even though you can get redemption rates of 3x, 5x, or even higher, you will still use a lot more points than if you use your points to pay for tickets at the 1.5x redemption rate.

Here is an example. Let's say you want to fly from JFK or EWR to LHR. An economy ticket might cost $450. It will take 30,000 UR points to pay for it in the Chase Travel portal. A business class award ticket on the same flight(s) might be 60,000 points. Therefore, you will use 60,000 UR points. The business class ticket's cash price might be $1,800. This means that you got a 3x redemption rate by transferring your UR points to a partner and booking the business class award ticket. However, you still used twice as many points (60K vs 30K), even though the redemption rate was twice as high (3x vs 1.5x).

Now, I'm not saying that it's not good value. It is, for many people. However, the way I read about this here and on other travel forums make it sound like you are wasting your points if you don't transfer to travel partners because of the high redemption value. In reality, higher redemption does not automatically mean better value. For some people it does, but not for everyone.

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@randomguy1 wrote:

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My AF was countered by the .25 difference in redemption of points and the travel credit alone.  The math worked for me so I had a statement credit with PYB to pay for the $550 AF. 

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 This is valid. I'm a big fan of the CSR. Chase has made it quite valuable in spite of no travel this year. The extra 0.25x multiplier over the CSP makes your decision a good one, IMHO.

I have had the CSR for 2.5 years now. My wife just got the Citi Prestige. For the next couple months we'll be using that whenever possible to meet MSR. Its multipliers through the end of the year are pretty good too. Fortunately I've already pretty much used up the CSR's credits for the year, so we can "ignore" it for now. However, once MSR for the Prestige is reached, we'll likely cater to CSR, all else being equal. To us, UR points are more valuable than TY points.