The Chase Sapphire Preferred Card, The Holy Grail of Travel Cards

February 19, 2013


I’ll be the first to admit that I was late to the credit card points game. I’ve had a couple different over the past 2 years. Some I hated, some were decent. But then one day Brad said I should apply for the Chase Sapphire card and my life changed forever.



I’m literally OBSESSED with it. It has turned into my every day card. I use it for groceries, for dining, and for bills. Anything I can charge to it, I do. I'm a bit of a points whore that way. There is a couple of main reasons I love the card:

  • It’s metal. Yes metal. It has some heft to it. But I constantly get compliments on it. People are always saying how nice it is and ask me what kind of card it is (basically it makes you a Rockstar). If a credit card could be considered sexy, it would be sexy. You know what? It’s fucking sexy! You also won't be able to cut it or shred it, so have fun trying to destroy your old one.
  • Someone answers the phone when I call. Let me reiterate...when I call the number on the back of the card...a real live human picks up the phone. I don’t have to go through 24908234 prompts before talking to someone. I love it.
  • Double points on travel. Yes that is correct. Anytime you use the card to book a flight anywhere, or a hotel, or a cruise, or a rental card, or a taxi, you get 2x the amount of points!
  • They have been nothing but amazing to me. I had one issue with my card number getting stolen and used at Burberry in Las Vegas (go figure, thieves know where I would actually shop), and they cancelled my card, went over my transactions for the past couple of weeks to see if any were out of the ordinary and overnighted a new card to me. The guy was actually upset that it was a Saturday night and I wouldn’t actually get the card until Monday.
  • No foreign transaction fees. Considering I’m an American with an American credit card and I live in Canada this is ESSENTIAL. I get the exact conversion rate on all of my purchases that day. No service fees, no nothing.
  • Double points on dining. I eat out a lot. I’d say more than 75% of my purchases are on food. So getting doubles points just for doing my normal spending and becoming a fatass? Duh.
  • Chase Ultimate Rewards. The Chase rewards itself isn’t anything to write home about. They tend to raise their point values for award travel purchases, but they also give you a 20% bonus back in points. But they offer 1:1 point transfers to some big guys like United (which I use), British Airways, Southwest and Ritz-Carlton. The point transfers are also instant.
  • Sign up bonus. There are a couple links out there with different offers. Here is the best one I found. 40K points when you spend $3000 in the first 3 months.
  • 7% point dividend year end payout. That means, they already gave me points for my spending the past year, and they are now going to give me an additional 7% of what I spent as a bonus! Why? They don't have to do that? Oh right, they're amazing.

What it really boils down to, is how well they treat me. Chase has been nothing but amazing and I have not a single bad thing to say about their Sapphire customer service. They've given me free bonus points when a transaction didn't go through. They've handle every single question I could throw at them. There are more benefits to the card, you can check them out here. I even just found out myself that they have a couple different Price Protection, and Return Protection options! (This card keeps getting better and better) I’ve recommended multiple people to the card (they don’t offer a referral bonus so I’m doing this with zero gain for myself). I’ve even called them up, literally just to talk to someone about how much I love the card (actually that has happened more than once. Not joking). I’m more than willing to be a Sapphire Preferred spokesman (Did you hear that Chase?) So if you have any questions, let me know!

UPDATE

Chase now offers a referral bonus of 5,000 for every person that signs up. Here is my referral link: Here



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