Time to cancel my Ink Plus card... 5X points on office supplies and cable/telecom services 2X points on gas and hotels
that 100,000 points bonus is pretty sick - worth $1,500. But I have found beyond the bonus, in the long run I am better off with a 2% cash back card. I have so many Jet Blue and AA miles that I never use I'd rather just have cash.
What if you already have the preferred? Applying for this card would not be treated as an upgrade, correct?
Yes they have an upgrade option, but your credit line needs to be at least $10,000 to meet Visa Infinite's minimum requirements. You wouldn't get the 100k bonus points though if you decide to upgrade. The other option you would have if you did want the 100k bonus is to apply for the card and then "downgrade" your Sapphire preferred to another card such as the Chase Freedom. Here's a link with more info. http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2016/08/22/upgrading-card-to-sapphire-reserve/
I caved in and got this card. Aside from the 100k points, you end up in the positive in terms of your monthly fee. You apparently get 2 $300 credits since you get one for this year and one for next year with only 1 annual fee. So that's $600 in credits for a $450 monthly fee. Not to mention global entry if you need that as well.
I believe the credit triggers when you've made the appropriate travel purchase. E.g. buy a $500 plane ticket and you should get the $300 credit against it the next day.
I wonder if there is a quarterly limit to how much you can spend like on the Chase Freedom ($1,500). Like right now I get 5% off restaurants this quarter but only up to $1,500 worth of purchases. So they max me out at $75 cash back. Reason I ask is if I spend $10k on a trip on summer I want to get 30,000 points and not get capped at some dollar amount.
As soon as you make any travel related payment(s). And once Jan 1 rolls around you can get the reimbursement again.
There isn't a cap as far as I can tell. I travel for work and you can bet I'll be charging as much as I can from work to this.
Doubtful. The Sapphire Preferred isn't capped on dining. It wouldn't make sense to limit category spending when the annual fee is so high. They probably correctly know that someone spending $10k on travel/dining is probably not the guy carrying 6 cards in their wallet trying to max out category spending. Someone $10k on travel probably spends upwards of $100k per year on CC's and puts it all on one card (e.g. takes the 1% UR on the other $90k in spending). The hobbyist part of the high-annual fee CC clientele (Citi Prestige/Amex Platinum/CSR) is probably not a big enough profit loss to try and slap category caps on the other ones.
I use my Amex Blue for everything. I don't air travel much, so the airline points don't appeal to me. Blue card has been great. Have almost $1000 in cash back sitting in there.
I got it because 3x on travel and dining is pretty much what I use my cc for. eating..and traveling..lol
I don't think this answers my question or maybe it just went over my head. I have my preferred card already and have almost 100k points on it. Can I actually apply for the reserve or would I get rejected because I have the preferred already? Would they force me to upgrade rather than considering me a new applicant? I don't want to downgrade without using my points on my preferred or transferring then somehow.
Just want to point out to the people saying they don't travel so prefer their rewards as cash back... Chase Ultimate Rewards can be redeemed as cash back or through gift cards as well. You don't HAVE to use them. You don't get value reduced by taking them as cash back/gift cards, but you do get value enhancement by taking them as travel rewards.
If that's the case then there's no reason to keep it beyond the first year. Get the signup bonus, 2 x $300 travel credits and then cancel before the 2nd year's annual fee comes due and switch back to a 2% CB card.
The only downside to cancelling is that it can negatively impact your credit. However, Chase allows you to combine your points onto any card you want. We combine all of our chase points onto the Sapphire preferred card to use for travel because of the bonus on each point that way, but you don't have to.
