Credit Card Review: Chase Sapphire Preferred

With the annual fee hitting my Chase Sapphire Preferred card for the 1st time since signing up, I decided to determine if this card is worthy to keep in the arsenal of credit cards I carry.

Pros:
-No foreign transaction fees (typically ~3% with most cards)
-Chip + Signature capabilities for international use
-Primary car rental insurance protection
-Ultimate Reward points (flexible transfer partners: Hyatt, United, British Airways and Singapore are the best transfer partners)
-2X points on travel and dining restaurants (includes bars)
-Apple Passbook compatible

Apple Passbook Ready!

Cons:
-No airport lounge access
-$95 annual fee (must spend enough to justify, >$5,000 annually)
-Mediocre website and customer service

Conclusion:
I’ve decided to keep this card for another year as the annual point dividend bonus of 7% will post to my account and I eat out frequently due to frequent travel. Next year (2016) when the dividend bonus expires as a perk I will most likely downgrade to the no annual fee version of the Sapphire card. It’s still the best overall card if you don’t primarily intend to use your points for hotel redemptions.

Sturdy and Nice looking Card!

Get 40,000 bonus points with Chase Sapphire Preferred when you spend $4,000 in first 90 days of opening the card.

Apply before 6/30/2015 at https://applynow.chase.com/FlexAppWeb/renderApp.do?PID=CFFD2&SPID=FCCP&CELL=6RLJ&MSC=1510803101

Be sure to add an additional card member for 5,000 bonus points as well. There is no annual fee for the additional card member.

Hint: With 50,000 points you can redeem your points for 2 roundtrip tickets to Hawaii from the West Coast on Alaska Airlines when booking through British Airways Avios which is a transfer partner 🙂