Credit Card Thread - Now with a Beginner's Guide to free travel/FAQ

The preferred or the reserve?

 

Did you stop reading the thread in July?

 

which one should i use. i was debating that

 

yes

 

https://www.valuepenguin.com/chase-sapphire-reserve-vs-chase-sapphire-preferred

i'm not trying to pay that extra money for reserve and i don't need to hang out in fancy airport lounges

 

I'd go with the reserve if you can handle the $450 annual fee up front.

Just saw your other post. You can also redeem the points for 1.5x value with the reserve.

Also you can double dip on the travel credit

 

I'm assuming you can spare the extra $55 towards the annual fee (net of the $300 travel credit); Reserve is a no-brainer.

 

Lol. If that's all you take from that then just go ahead and do whatever

 

It's effectively $50 extra with the annual travel credit. The extra points you earn on dining and travel cover that extra cost

 

Apply in a chase bank for a bigger bonus

 

FYI, I downgraded from the Sapphire to Freedom Unlimited and they automatically refunded my pro-rated annual fee. Wish I had done it sooner, but I thought someone posted ITT that they wouldn't do that.

 

In the long-term, cardholders who spend at least $2,750 each year on travel or dining will generally be better off with the Chase Sapphire Reserve℠. If you subtract the $300 annual travel credit from its $450 annual fee, it effectively reduces down to $150. At that point, it’s only $55 higher than what you pay for the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card. If you spend $2,750 on travel with the Chase Sapphire Reserve℠ you’ll get $55 more in rewards than if you used the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card. The same is true if you charge $22,000 to your card annually in non-travel and non-dining categories.

 

I spent like at least 10k probably closer to 20k on travel and dining last year. Guess I'm getting the reserve

 

IIRC, it was only for those cards who were less than a year old.

 

Lots of people posted in here about them prorating the fee imo

 

Do it in branch if possible

That article you posted is super long term too. It's years before CSP would catch up to CSR ever if you never utilized the CSR benefits at all just because of bonus, redemption and double dipping travel credit

It's the biggest no brainer in the game

 

Can't beat the 100k points bonus and 3x travel and dining on the reserve.

 

approved for CSR-being mailed to me. Is that annual fee just charged to my account or I need to pay them from my checking?

 

It'll be posted to your statement.

 

can you spend that $300 annual credit pretty much as soon as you get the card? + if you spend $4000 in first 3 months then you get $750 towards travel. So can you use those together for a total of $1050 towards travel after first 3 months if you meet spending requirements?

 

As you charge things that count towards the credit (air, lodging, Uber, etc.) it'll automatically apply it.

 

As said above, the travel credit is used as you pay for things that qualify. For example, on your account, you might see a $26 charge from Uber, then right next to it you'll see -26 listed as travel credit and that happens up to the $300.

The $750 worth of travel you get is based on booking travel through the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal. You can go in there and search for flights/hotels and it'll pull them up as would happen on the airline's website. You can then select to purchase your chosen flight with points, and if it were a $200 flight it would say "or 13,333 points" (200/.015). So combining the two total values, yes you can receive $1,050 in total travel benefits.

 

Do travel items deducted as part of the $300 travel credit count towards the $4000 signup minimum or do I have to spend $4300?

 

Go to a branch and get double the points. 100,000. Which is $1500

 

Yes, as do tsa pre and global entry. But not the annual fee

 

Yes they count towards the minimum spend. The $450 annual fee does not

 

One thing I find very strange is that Chase doesn't count in-flight purchases as a 3x item. This is true at least for American and Southwest.

 

Sweet, I'm over halfway there less than a month in. I've been putting every single possible thing on this card to make sure I hit the minimum. I'm kind of upset my vrbo rental isn't showing up as travel though. I want those points.

 

I think someone in here ran into that issue before, something with the way VRBO is coded or something weird like that. I know AirBnb correctly gets the triple points

 

It doesn't make any sense. Why would I rent a house if I weren't traveling? Maybe I can call about it and get them to give me the 3x points.

 

ok so the 300 will get sucked out as i spend money on uber etc. I was hoping I could save that and use that plus the $750 and just have over 1k towards flight/hotel rooms for a vacation i'm trying to take soon

 

Many people have tried and failed. Vrbo's at fault

 

What does it matter

 

The only time I've seen Chase respond but people have complained on Reddit. Worth a shot though

 

You're saving $300 regardless. What difference does it make how it's applied?

 

This is probably half-baked, but couldn't you theoretically rent your own house and pocket $300 (less taxes, fees, etc. that you owe VBRO)? Maybe they are trying to preempt that scam.

 

$300 is my tolls for the year. Quite nice.

 

And you couldn't do that with Airbnb that definitely does count?

 

Yeah, you could. Good point. Like I said, half-baked.

 

I applied and was approved for the citi double cash card this morning. I plan to use this as my primary card replacing my capital one quicksilver card.

 

What kept you with that card so long?

 

Vrbo would love that scam. Free money for them

 

International fees and a trip to the British Virgin Islands last June.

 

I had been wondering about that vs. Freedom Unlimited vs. Double Cash for a while as my non-category (restaurant, travel, 5x) card for a while

 

So freedom unlimited card seems the same as capital one quicksilver card. Both have international fees.

Edit: the quicksilver card doesnt have international fees.

 

At least now i can regularly use the citi double cash card and if i take a trip abroad i will still have the quicksilver card.

 

but if you have CSR, that 1.5% on the Freedom Unlimited becomes 2.25% in travel redemption

 

Nice. I dont fuck with travel/airline/hotel reward points. I just keep it simple with cash back.

 

thats pretty silly when you can transfer them sometimes if youd like and get a better value

 

pretty fired up about getting the CSR. ready for that thing to come in and start using it. hoping i notice a substantial difference compared to my crappy wells fargo visa. was too busy to go in branch. i should look and see how much i spent on that visa last year. it was a ton. and i felt like the point system was crappy