The current offer for the Chase Sapphire Preferred® card is the best one you’ll find. Enjoy this phenomenal chance to earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. This is worth $750 in travel when you redeem through the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal. See below for more info to about the card and to earn your Chase Sapphire Preferred bonus!
Additionally, transferring points to one of Chase’s transfer partners will often times be extremely beneficial. Utilizing the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal will earn you more value for your points. For example, you can get up to $1,200 in value with 60k points.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® isn’t just a regular everyday spending card but it’s for international travel as well with no foreign transaction fees! Plus, earn 2x points on travel and dining at restaurants worldwide!
Points earned will go far as you receive 25% off travel redemption through the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal. There is an annual fee of $95. However, this is minimal when you take advantage of the benefits of this card.
*Keep in mind Chase offers bonuses for their Checking/Savings accounts also.
Table of Contents
- 1 Chase Sapphire Preferred Bonus
- 2 How The 60K Bonus Points Are Worth Up To $1,200
- 3 Earning The 60,000 Bonus Points
- 4 Chase Sapphire Preferred Card Benefits
- 5 Chase Sapphire Preferred Card Pitfalls
- 6 Earn Ultimate Rewards Points
- 7 Redeem Ultimate Rewards
- 8 Other Chase Sapphire Preferred Benefits
- 9 Earning Ultimate Rewards Points
- 10 Redeeming Ultimate Rewards Points
- 11 Travel Protection
- 12 Purchase Protection and Extended Warranty
- 13 Editor’s Alternative Choice Pick
- 14 What About Other Travel Rewards Credit Cards?
- 15 Pair with Chase Sapphire Checking
- 16 Bottom Line of the Chase Sapphire Preferred Bonus
- 17 What’s the Competition?
Chase Sapphire Preferred Bonus
 |
| Bonus Available | 60,000 Points when you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months. |
| *Bonus Value | $1,200 |
| Ongoing Rewards/Benefits | Earn 2X points on travel and dining at restaurants.
Earn 1 point per dollar spent on all other purchases. |
| Foreign Transaction Fees | No |
| Credit Needed | Excellent Credit |
| Annual Fee | $95 |
How The 60K Bonus Points Are Worth Up To $1,200
To earn the 60,000 bonus points, you must spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. If you think you will have a hard time meeting that spending requirement, we’ll list a couple of options below.
With the Chase Ultimate Rewards program, you will have the choice to redeem your points through multiple vehicles such as cash back, gift cards, or travel. If you choose to redeem your points for cash back or gift cards, the yield will only be valued at 1%, or $600 for the 60k points. Booking travel (airfare, car rentals, cruises, hotels) throug the Ultimate Rewards program will net you 25% more value resulting in $750 worth of travel for your points.
This bonus offer is great, but this card isn’t if you aren’t a frequent traveler or a diner, where you can earn 2 points per dollar. Any purchases made outside of this category will only be worth 1 point per $1.
The Dining category will include fine dining and casual dining locations. The Travel category includes airlines, hotels, motels, timeshares, car rental agencies, cruise lines, travel agencies, campgrounds, discount travel sites, and operators of buses, taxis (Uber and Lyft counts), passenger trains, limousines, ferries, toll bridges and highways, and parking lots and garages.
If Dining and Travel aren’t your highest spend categories, check out the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card may be a better option for you with its 2% earning rate on all purchases.
A great combination to consider is using this card in tandem with the Chase Freedom card. Because they both earn Ultimate Rewards points, you can pool them together. The Chase Freedom card earns 5% cash back on categories that rotate every quarter, so you have a variety of options to redeem points using your cards.
It is important to note that the 25% more value on travel is only available on the Sapphire Preferred Card, so having both covers all of your needs.
Lastly, one of this card’s most noteworthy benefits is its ability to transfer your points over to partner airline and hotel loyalty programs at a 1:1 rate. Leveraging your rewards can earn up to 2 cents per points making the 60k bonus worth nearly $1,200.
Ultimate Rewards Airline/Hotel Point Transfer Partners
| Airline Transfer Partners | Hotel Transfer Partners |
| Aer Lingus AerClub | IHG Rewards Club |
| British Airways Executive Club | Marriott Bonvoy (Previously Marriott Rewards) |
| Flying Blue AIR FRANCE KLM | The Ritz-Carlton Rewards |
| Iberia Plus | World of Hyatt |
| JetBlue TrueBlue | |
| Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer | |
| Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards | |
| United MileagePlus | |
| Virgin Atlantic Flying Club |
Earning The 60,000 Bonus Points
Meeting the $4,000 spending requirement in your first 3 might be tough, so give you some ideas on how to quickly meet it, here are some options:
| • Plastiq - Using Plastiq allows you to pay for your personal expenses such as rent, tuition, mortgage, auto lease etc. Although they charge a 2.5% processing fee for using your credit card, this will contribute to the card bonus that you will receive. There is also a referral program that allows you to earn "Free-Free Dollars" that goes towards processing fees as well. |
| • Funding Checking Accounts - When it comes to funding a checking account, opening your initial deposit with a credit card is the usual way to go about it. However, if you want to have more opportunities, you should open a checking account that offers a sign-up bonus. This allows you to work towards bonuses from not one but two different sources instead. Banks like Chase, Huntington Bank, TD Bank and BBVA offers credit card funding, and for your opening deposit, you can often fund anywhere from $50-$1000 with a credit card, depending on the bank. |
| • Gift Card Purchases With Using a Credit Card - Another way to acquire the bonus is using your credit card to purchase gift cards. Buying a a gift card or an individual merchant card typically do not require a purchase fee and are used towards leisure, so gift cards are ideal. However, gift cards such as a Visa or American Express do incur purchase fees because they can be spent anywhere, but gift cards that are specifically for a certain online shopping site such as Amazon or eBay don't. |
| As for a Citi Credit Card, you should call customer service and ask them to lower your Cash Advance limit to $0 before making any purchases because Citi tends to read gift card purchases as a Cash Advance. Ideally, you should do this with any card just to be safe. Lastly, there is such thing as a discounted gift card which can be purchased on Raise or eBay. If you use a credit card often for everyday purchases, it can build your credit score that will contribute towards paying for things such as bills and taxes. |
| |
Chase Sapphire Preferred Card Benefits
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is the go-to card for these reasons:
- A big bonus. Earn 60,000 Chase Sapphire Preferred bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. That’s $750 toward travel when you redeem through the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal.
- 2x points on both travel and dining. Earn 2x points on travel and dining at restaurants and 1 point per dollar spent on all other purchases worldwide. You’ll get 2 points for each $1 you spend on airfare, train tickets, hotel stays and dining at restaurants, including fast food. Plus, Chase has a pretty wide definition of what counts as travel and dining. Surprisingly, these include Uber rides, highway tolls, airport parking, ferries, and campground fees.
- 25% off travel redemptions. Enjoy 25% points off when redeeming your points on travel, online at Chase Ultimate Rewards portal. This means, each point is worth 1.25 cents when you book travel through the Ultimate Rewards portal. For example, if you book a $500 airfare using the Ultimate Rewards portal, it would only require 40,000 points. Savings add up pretty quickly. Thus, the Sapphire Preferred is popular for those who like saving money while traveling.
- Easy point transfers. Squeeze even more value out of your points by transferring them to a participating travel program. Transfer points with no fees at a 1:1 value to airline and hotel transfer partners.
- No foreign transaction fee. The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card does’t charge any foreign transaction fees that many other credit cards do, making it an excellent card to use for traveling abroad. For international travelers, you’ll want a rewards card that has no foreign transaction fee, smart chip technology, and worldwide acceptance. Conveniently, the Chase Sapphire Preferred® card has all three of these features.
Chase Sapphire Preferred Card Pitfalls
You may not like the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card due to these reasons:
- The annual fee. The annual fee is $95. These annual fees are common for rewards cards, such as the Sapphire Preferred® card, but if you’re one of those cardholders who prefer credit cards that don’t have them at all or if you’re not a big spender to justify the annual fee, this may not be the best card for you. However, if you dine out regularly at restaurants and/or travel a lot, then consider the Sapphire Preferred® card since you’ll receive 2x points on travel and dining.
- No introductory APR on purchases. This card doesn’t offer an introductory interest rate, one of the reasons many consumers sign up for new cards. However, if you’re responsible and consistently pay off your balance in full each month, then you should consider the Sapphire Preferred® card. If you tend to carry a balance, you may want to look into a credit card with low interest rates.
- High credit score requirement. Because the benefits are pretty grand with this card, the application process is quite selective. You’ll need good to excellent credit to qualify.
Earn Ultimate Rewards Points
Enjoy earning 2X points on travel and dining at restaurants and 1 point per dollar spent on all other purchases worldwide with your Chase Sapphire Preferred® card.
Plus, when you shop through the Ultimate Rewards shopping portal, you can earn up to 10 points per dollar at nearly 300 top online retailers.
This by far is one of the best travel cards out there with how easy it is to earn bonus points. You also never have to worry about being charged a foreign fee when you are traveling abroad! So, enjoy your food when traveling, knowing you’re earning points for future travel redemptions.
Your points do not expire as long as the credit card account remains open and you can use your points for airfare and other travel purchases without restrictions.
Redeem Ultimate Rewards
With the bonus points the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, that’s a significant amount of points to cash out! The best way to utilize your points is to redeem them for travel rewards.
As a Sapphire Preferred cardmember, you get 25% off whenever you redeem your points for airfare, hotels, car rentals and cruises through the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal. For example, instead of using 30,000 points ($300) to buy a plane ticket, you now pay 22,500 points ($225). Simply put, 1 point is equivalent to 1.25 cents when redeeming through the Ultimate Rewards travel portal.
You can also convert your points to frequent flyer miles for airline and hotel partners at a 1:1 ratio.
Subject to change, airline partners include:
- Aer Lingus AerClub
- Air France/KLM Flying Blue
- British Airway Avios
- Iberia Plus
- JetBlue TrueBlue
- Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
- Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards
- United Airlines MileagePlus
- Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
Subject to change, hotel partners include:
- World of Hyatt
- IHG Rewards Club
- Marriott Rewards
- Ritz Carlton Rewards
Finally, you can redeem your points for cash back or gift cards. This option is easiest since you won’t have to find the best travel deals or wait for the best time to transfer your points to Chase’s partner programs.
However, these options will generally be valued at 1 cent per point. Though, gift cards may vary. Choose gift cards from over over 75 partner retailers, restaurants, and gas stations.
Other Chase Sapphire Preferred Benefits
- 24/7 Concierge Service: Enjoy free 24/7 concierge service with your card. Whether you want to make a reservation, finding tickets, plan out your travel, or buying a perfect gift, simply give them a call and ask for help with their superior customer services.
- 24/7 Dedicated Customer Service: Talk to a real customer service and be connected immediately without pressing “#,” guaranteed! Simply call up the number on the back of your card and you can speak with a real, live person.
- Travel Insurance: The card comes with free travel insurance services such as trip cancellation insurance, auto rental collision damage, travel accident insurance, lost luggage reimbursement, and more.
- Purchase Protection: Other non-travel benefits include zero liability for unauthorized purchases and automatic extended warranties. Also receive refunds of up to $500 per item and $2,500 per year if the price on your purchase drops in the first 90 days and you are no longer eligible for a refund from the seller. There is no preset spending limit, giving you more flexibility on your spending.
- No Foreign Transaction Fees: One of the best perks, there is $0 foreign transaction fees on international purchases.
- Chip & Signature Technology: With chip technology, traveling internationally with your Sapphire Preferred is much easier.
Earning Ultimate Rewards Points
Earning points with the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is pretty straightforward. You get 2x points on travel and dining at restaurants worldwide and 1x point per dollar spent on all other purchases. Dining at restaurants include fine dining establishments as well as fast food restaurants. For travel, Chase also has a pretty wide definition of what counts as travel, including:
- Airlines
- Hotels and motels
- Timeshares
- Campgrounds
- Car rentals
- Cruise lines
- Travel agencies and discount travel sites
- Trains, buses, limos, and ferries
- Tolls, bridges, and highways
- Parking lots and garages
Redeeming Ultimate Rewards Points
Redeem your Sapphire Preferred points through Chase Ultimate Rewards portal for travel, gift cards, cash back, and more. If you redeem through Chase Ultimate Rewards portal for travel, you’ll get 25% off airfare, hotels, car rentals, and cruises.
Transfer points to participating frequent travel programs with no transfer fees at full 1:1 value. You can find the full list of travel partners in the next section.
If you’re looking to earn even more points for travel, you can use your Chase points from your other Chase credit cards. Since the Sapphire Preferred® doesn’t give you bonus points in other categories, like gas or groceries, consider maximizing your rewards by supplementing it with the Chase Freedom® Card. Earn 5% cash back, up to $1,500, in combined purchases in bonus categories each quarter. 5% categories rotate every three months. Use the Freedom card for the bonus categories, and then pool your reward points from both cards.
Travel Protection
When you use your Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card to make travel arrangements, you’ll get a variety of card benefits as highlighted:
- Travel Insurance: You are eligible to receive up to $500,000 in travel accident insurance, plus emergency assistance services via phone 24/7. Get up to $3,000 reimbursement if you or your family’s luggage is lost or damaged. If your baggage is delayed after you arrive at your destination, you can be reimbursed for essentials, like toiletries and clothes, for up to $100 per day for five days. If your trip is delayed for more than 12 hours, each ticketed person in your family can receive up to $500 total reimbursement for meals and hotel stays if you aren’t reimbursed by another source.
- Trip Cancellation/Interruption: If you’ve paid for your trip with the card, you have added protection if your trip is interrupted by weather or you or a family member gets sick. Get reimbursed up to $10,000 per trip for your non-refundable, pre-paid travel expenses, including airfare, hotel, and tours.
- Car Rental Insurance: The Sapphire Preferred® card offers primary collision and damage insurance for most rental cars when you pay the entire car rental fee in full and decline the rental company’s collision and damage insurance. Most other credit cards offer just secondary insurance, so this is a great card benefit.
Purchase Protection and Extended Warranty
In addition to travel benefits, you’ll also receive some shopping benefits:
- Purchase Protection: On most purchases, you will be reimbursed up to $500 if the item is damaged or stolen within 120 days from purchase.
- Extended Warranty: An additional one year warranty will be added to eligible purchases made with the card for items that come with an initial warranty of three year or less.
- Price Protection: You’ll also get price protection for up to 90 days after the date of purchase. If you find a lower advertised price within that time, you can be reimbursed the difference, up to $500 dollars per eligible purchase with a maximum of $2,500 per year. However, purchases must be made in the U.S.
Editor’s Alternative Choice Pick
 The Wells Fargo Propel American Express® Card offers 30K bonus points when you spend $3,000 in purchases in the first 3 months – that’s a $300 cash redemption value. You'll earn 3X points for: • eating out and ordering in • gas stations, rideshares and transit • travel including flights, hotels, homestays and car rentals • 1X points on other purchases This card comes with no annual fee. |
What About Other Travel Rewards Credit Cards?
Here’s how the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card stacks up against the Capital One® Venture® Rewards Card, another good travel rewards credit card with a $0 intro annual fee for the first year; $95 after that.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card offers 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. That's $750 toward travel when you redeem through Chase Ultimate Rewards®! You'll earn 2X points on travel and dining at restaurants worldwide; 1 point per dollar spent on all other purchases. And when you redeem your points for airfare, hotels, car rentals and cruises through Chase Ultimate Rewards, you'll get 25% more value! |
 The Capital One® Venture® Rewards Credit Card offers a one-time bonus of 50,000 miles once you spend $3,000 on purchases within 3 months from account opening (equal to $500 in travel). Named ‘The Best Travel Card' by CNBC, 2018. You're able to earn 2X miles on every purchase, every day. Plus earn 10X miles on thousands of hotels, through January 2020; learn more at hotels.com/venture. This card does come with a $95 annual fee, however, there is a $0 intro annual fee for the first year. Enjoy no foreign transaction fees and receive up to $100 application fee credit for Global Entry or TSA Pre?®. |
Pair with Chase Sapphire Checking
In addition to earning your Chase Sapphire Preferred bonus, compliment your experience with the Chase SapphireSM Checking account.
Bottom Line of the Chase Sapphire Preferred Bonus
Again, this is the best offer I’ve seen for the Chase Sapphire Preferred® all year long. Though the $95 annual fee seems like a drawback, the extra reward benefits and bonus points you earn when you sign up will far outweigh it.
Believe me, you’ll want this card since it’s made out of real metal. It will leave quite the impression to your friends and family!
The great Chase Sapphire Preferred bonus will allow you a chance to redeem for extravagant traveling through the Ultimate Rewards portal. You also can snag other great offers if traveling isn’t what you want to pursue with your earned points.
For more of what Chase has to offer, see our list of the latest bank promotions from Chase Bank or other credit cards from Chase! For a more extensive list, see our full list of credit card promotions for all your credit card needs!
(Visit Chase for more details)
See rates and fees here.
What’s the Competition?
 The Chase Freedom® Card offers a $150 Bonus after you spend $500 on purchases in your first 3 months from account opening. You'll earn 5% cash back on up to $1,500 in combined purchases in bonus categories each quarter you activate and an unlimited 1% cash back on all other purchases. You cash back rewards do not expire as long as your account is open and there is no minimum to redeem for cash back. This card has no annual fee and you'll get a free credit score that's updated weekly with Credit JourneySM. |
| PROMOTIONAL LINK | OFFER | REVIEW |
| Chase Total Business Checking® | $200 Cash | Review |
| Chase Premier Plus CheckingSM | $300 Cash | Review |
| Chase Total Checking® + Chase SavingsSM | $350 Cash | Review |
| Simple High-Yield Checking | $500 Cash | Review |
| Discover Bank Online Savings | $200 Cash | Review |
| Chase College CheckingSM | $100 Cash | Review |
| You InvestSM by J.P. Morgan | $625 Cash | Review |
| TD Bank Beyond Checking | $300 Cash | Review |
| TD Bank Convenience CheckingSM | $150 Cash | Review |
| Discover Cashback Debit Account | $360 Cash | Review |
| Huntington Bank Unlimited Plus Business Checking | $750 Cash | Review |
| Huntington Bank Unlimited Business Checking | $400 Cash | Review |
| Huntington Bank Business Checking 100 | $200 Cash | Review |
| UFB Direct High Yield Savings | 2.15% APY | Review |
| CIT Bank Savings Builder | 2.10% APY | Review |
| Betterment Everyday Savings | 2.04% APY | Review |
| E*TRADE | $2,500 Cash | Review |
| Ally Invest | $3,500 Cash | Review |
| TD Ameritrade | $600 Cash | Review |
Disclaimer: This content is not provided or commissioned by the credit card issuer. Opinions expressed here are author’s alone, not those of the credit card issuer, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the credit card issuer. This site may be compensated through the credit card issuer Affiliate Program.
opening savings account for initiating credit card purchases: In order to make transactions qualifying as purchases, one can open up savings accounts funded via credit card for upto $500 as initial opening deposit, multiple times at banks like wellsfargo, usbank. Is there a list of banks that provide this capability ?
good article