Interesting phone call from Chase

[mmduluth]

As some of you may have read in my previous post, I received a secure message from Chase saying they would like to upgrade my standard Chase Freedom card to the Chase Freedom Visa Signature. This sounded fine to me. Today, I got a phone call saying that their message contained incorrect information and that they would like to product change me to the Chase Sapphire in my choice of either Visa Signature or World Mastercard. The way I see it, it is basically the same card but I will lose my 5% categories. Is there any advantage to me doing the product change? If there is, I'm thinking that I can make up for the categories by getting a Discover More card as I get at least 1 preapproval from them a week and they soft my report sometimes more than once a month. My question with that is, do you have to meet the spending threshold before you earn the 5% like you have to to earn the regular 1%? Thank you all in advance.

[jason86423]

The 5% bonus categories are outside of the standard accrual for calculation purposes.

Discover's 0.25% cash back scheme is awful..mine is Sock Drawered except for the 5% bonuses

[mmduluth]

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@jason86423 wrote:

The 5% bonus categories are outside of the standard accrual for calculation purposes.

Discover's 0.25% cash back scheme is awful..mine is Sock Drawered except for the 5% bonuses

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That's why I haven't applied for one yet despite all of the offers but if I take the Sapphire upgrade, that could make up for the lost categories.

[jason86423]

I'm not too fond on the point accumulation of the Sapphire, but with it being a signature it gives you more card benefits that what the freedom does.  Discover redemption for cash deposits to your checking / savings account starts at $50 another drawback as Freedom is $20 min.

If you shop online and use the ultimate rewards mall the points do add up quickly.  At Christmas I ended up with almost 2500 bonus points that posed on my Jan 3rd Ultimate rewards statement.

You could always look at Citi Dividend as a fill in also as that has some 5% categories.  PenFed's reward card is ok, 5% on gas but there is a new version based on Pts coming out in February.

Tough choice but if you are not fully utilizing the bonus categories on Freedom I'd say go for it.  Maybe at the same time you can get some bonus points out of chase along with the upgrade

[Anonymous]

Did they stop offering the Freedom as a Visa Signature? If its available I would ask to switch into that instead of Sapphire since Chase started reporting CLs on their Signature cards. The 5% rotating categories on Freedom are far superior to the 2% you get on restaurants with Sapphire. Citi Forward gets 3-5% on restaurants depending on what you redeem points for. If its Sapphire Preferred, you also get 2% on travel expenses but there is a $95 AF which I'm sure people who don't travel frequently can't justify paying.

[mmduluth]

I asked if they could just upgrade my Freedom to the Signature version and they said that they would have to get back to me on that. I was under the impression that in order for you to have the Signature version, your CL had to be 5k and up and mine is at 3k. I do like some of the perks of the Signature, although I'm not sure how often I would use them.

I'm not impressed with Discover's rewards system at all, but have not thought about any other cards having categories.

[jason86423]

I found something that might interest you if you decide to upgrade to Sapphire.

http://creditcardforum.com/content/best-cash-back-credit-cards-4/

[Anonymous]

Are there any perks besides the concierge service? I wonder if its good, considering the non-signature BOA card I used to have also had concierge service and it was far from useful.

[mmduluth]

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@jason86423 wrote:

I found something that might interest you if you decide to upgrade to Sapphire.

http://creditcardforum.com/content/best-cash-back-credit-cards-4/

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Thank you for this. I didn't realize there were so many options out there. I wish Citi had better categories. From my reading around here, it looks like they are giving out pretty good limits lately. It's a hard decision. If they will upgrade my Freedom to the Signature I'll take that. I don't mind opening a new accont though so if I could find something comparable I would just do that. I mostly only take advantage of the categories for gas.

I know someone (PenFed?) has  a 5% gas card but I'm not sure how hard it is to get approved for someone with low income like myself, and if you have to be a member to even apply.

[jason86423]

Not sure where you stand - Average Age of Accounts, Income, any baddies but the Blue Cash Everyday from Amex might be an option also.  It has 3% back at Grocery Stores, 2% gas and dept stores and 1% everywhere else with no caps and no AF.  Amex revolvers are more difficult to obtain but grow over time.