Is the chase sapphire preferred worth it for me?

[rgd51]

I use the chase freedom unlimited as my main card with Amazon and target cards for purchases at those places. Roughly half my freedom unlimited spend is dining since much of my shopping is done with Target and Amazon. I take a few road trips a year on average and usually stay in rather inexpensive hotels that I book through the Chase travel portal for 5% cash back as the chase price is usually the same or lower than what the hotel quotes me directly on when I call said hotel to check their rate and compare it to the chase portal. This means I will have no difficulty using the $50 annual hotel credit. For the purchase that I am claiming the hotel credit on, is it only the first $50 that doesn't earn rewards or is it the entire purchase?

I don't fly too often and when I do fly it's typically domestic and not with one of chases travel partners. I'm not loyal to a particular hotel chain so I likely wouldn't make much use of the transfer partners. The 10% anniversary bonus would also probably take another $20 or so off the annual fee which at 1.25 cents per point would make my effective annual fee around $20. The way I'd most likely redeem my UR points is through the Chase travel portal at 1.25 cents per point or the pay yourself back option at 1.25 cents per point if I have any eligible purchases for whatever categories they are considering. Is this card worth getting if points are redeemed at 1.25 cents per point and the effective annual fee is as low as I just listed? I am over 5/24 but in the just for you section on the mobile app I am pre approved for an $11,000 credit line at 16.74% APR.

[Hoben02]

 No, the card is designed for the travel crowd it doesn't make sense to put non travel spend on the card in fact the cfu is a better tool for that. Sounds like you cn get all the features you want on the cfu and if you don't use the chase transfer partners I don't see any benefit

[SouthJamaica]

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@rgd51 wrote:

I use the chase freedom unlimited as my main card with Amazon and target cards for purchases at those places. Roughly half my freedom unlimited spend is dining since much of my shopping is done with Target and Amazon. I take a few road trips a year on average and usually stay in rather inexpensive hotels that I book through the Chase travel portal for 5% cash back as the chase price is usually the same or lower than what the hotel quotes me directly on when I call said hotel to check their rate and compare it to the chase portal. This means I will have no difficulty using the $50 annual hotel credit. For the purchase that I am claiming the hotel credit on, is it only the first $50 that doesn't earn rewards or is it the entire purchase?

I don't fly too often and when I do fly it's typically domestic and not with one of chases travel partners. I'm not loyal to a particular hotel chain so I likely wouldn't make much use of the transfer partners. The 10% anniversary bonus would also probably take another $20 or so off the annual fee which at 1.25 cents per point would make my effective annual fee around $20. The way I'd most likely redeem my UR points is through the Chase travel portal at 1.25 cents per point or the pay yourself back option at 1.25 cents per point if I have any eligible purchases for whatever categories they are considering. Is this card worth getting if points are redeemed at 1.25 cents per point and the effective annual fee is as low as I just listed? I am over 5/24 but in the just for you section on the mobile app I am pre approved for an $11,000 credit line at 16.74% APR.

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I'm no expert but it seems to me to be worth it for you, since you can transfer all your Chase Freedom UR's to your Sapphire account, bumping up their value by 25%.

[rgd51]

The potential risk is that the AF could be increased and things like the hotel credit and anniversary bonus could be dropped. The card I really want most is the freedom flex but I'm over 5/24 until late October and in the just for you section I'm only pre-approved for the sapphire cards.

[jcooks]

To answer your question about earning 5x while redeeming $50 hotel credit, you will not get 5x on the hotel stay.  When I first got my card, I was going to purchase an all inclusive stay for 2 for a week through the travel portal for 5x, until I found this out.  The 5x would have been worth more than at 5x than a $50 hotel credit.  I ended up booking a weekend stay through the Chase Travel Portal and it did NOT get 5x on any amount over $50.  The all inclusive was also then paid via points when I got the 100k SUB back in November.

[rgd51]

At this rate it seems like not the right card for me since I prefer cash back anyways. Has 5/24 been relaxed on the freedom flex? Any idea why I'm over 5/24 and pre approved for the sapphire cards but not the flex?