Is CSP practical?

[Reincarnated]

Hey all.

I was wondering, is CSP more of a prestigious card made of steel or do people actually get it for travelling?

I know it does give 20% off travel, BUT that's only when you have enough points to cover the cost. I would imagine that points would take a very long time to accrue, even wirth a Chase Freedom card, so wouldn't that only be let's say 1 vacation flight per year? PLUS you're going to have to pay $95 per year anyways.

The only way this card makes sense is to get it for the bonus points welcome bonus then get rid of it within a 2-3 year span so it's actually worth not paying the annual fee.

Am I totally wrong or is there something I'm not getting?

[H14]

In general, yes most travel cards will require high annual spend on them to get good use. 

Aside from the rewards though, you get no FTF, and chase has plans to roll out chip + pin cards eventually if you might be travelling to Europe. Plus Visa Signature perks. 

[mongstradamus]

There is also transfer partners that is what biggest advantage of csp, where it is something like 2 points per cent 

[bigblue7722]

CSP is the only card I will ever have with an AF. Idk theres just something about it. Maybe because its heavy? I like being able to transfer the points from the freedom. It is my first visa sig card. I wouldnt pay like 175 for it like prg thats just crazy. 95 is still a little high but still worth it for me. I wish it was 2 points back on everything though. That would make it near unbeatable. 

[DaveSignal]

The annual fee is for the flexibility.  The card allows you to transfer points from other Chase cards and directly to airlines, trains, and hotels.  The best use for the rewards are by transfering to the partners.   With this option, if you do a little research with the airlines, you could get 2 cents per UR point (sometimes much more).  There are not many other travel cards that offer this kind of value while still having the option to transfer to multiple different partners, ie: you can fly with United for one trip and then with British Airways the next time.  How often you can use the rewards depends on the points required for the flights that you want in addition to how much you spend with the card.

[takeshi74]

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@Reincarnated wrote:

 Is CSP practical?

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I find it practical.  YMMV.

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@Reincarnated wrote:

I know it does give 20% off travel

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As mentioned above, most find better value per point by transferring versus redeeming for travel via the UR portal.

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@Reincarnated wrote:

I would imagine that points would take a very long time to accrue, even wirth a Chase Freedom card, so wouldn't that only be let's say 1 vacation flight per year??

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@Reincarnated wrote:

Am I totally wrong or is there something I'm not getting?

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Spend varies from person to person so you can't assume that everyone has your level of spend. Generally speaking, travel cards are better suited for higher amounts of spend.

[hot4u]

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@bigblue7722 wrote:

CSP is the only card I will ever have with an AF. Idk theres just something about it. Maybe because its heavy? I like being able to transfer the points from the freedom. It is my first visa sig card. I wouldnt pay like 175 for it like prg thats just crazy. 95 is still a little high but still worth it for me. I wish it was 2 points back on everything though. That would make it near unbeatable. 

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Don't forget you get your 7% Dividend on Points earned for the year.

http://thepointsguy.com/2014/01/how-soon-will-i-see-my-chase-sapphire-preferred-annual-points-divide...

[Open123]

It's practical if you value their transfer partners, need a card to use abroad and spend at least $20K on the card.

[Flyersfan12]

I only recently finished my Chase trifecta, but since doing so I have absolutely loved the combo. CSP in conjunction with freedom gains a lot of points, and I love the benefits from the CSP which are slightly longer than say my AMEX for purchase protection. I calculated my practicality even with my lower spend on how I could accumulate points to make a few trips a year and it really was not as hard as I thought it wouldn be. Freedom accumulates very quickly, and whenever I need to buy something I usually check the UR store which gives me extra pts on normal purchases. The best part is that a lot of the stores I shop at also allow in store pick up which is great for same day purchases. 

Like others have said the value to me was the 20% off travel which most of the time is already the annual fee for me, and when I transfer to certain airlines it becomes an even better value and I save even more. It is a great card. The one thing that I was a little dissapointed in and I know it sounds childish is that I feel like my card is not as heavy as some other CSP users cards I have felt in the past. I believe it is metal, but it almost feels plastic and it is only slightly heavier than the plastic ones as well. I wonder if it is just in my head that it's thinner and lighter now. 

[eagle2013]

CSP is also the only card I'll have with an AF.

A little known tibit if you do some online shopping is the UR mall, which can give you additional UR points per dollar from various retailers. The best thing is that you don't have to use a Chase card in order to get the addtional points. I splurged and purchased a purse from Nordstrom that was already marked down on clearance. At that time, Chase UR mall was running a promotion for 8 points per $ on Nordstrom purchases. That one purchase netted me 2400 additional UR points which I value at least 1.25 cpp depending on where I want to transfer them too. The UR mall makes the CSP even more valuable to me!