My new Chase Reserve card will pay for my Global Entry renewal next year. Cha-ching! (Image: CBP)
You’ve been hiding under a rock if you’ve not heard all the hoo-hah about the new Chase Sapphire Reserve card by now. (Or maybe you’ve just taken a sabbatical 😉 )
Chase introduced the new card last month and it now appears to be one of the most successful card launches ever. So successful in fact that the bank ran out of the plunky metal cards and is sending temporary plastic ones instead.
I’m not a credit card churner or gamer. When I get one, I typically hold on to it for years because I just don’t have the time to keep up with every new card bell or whistles that comes out. Right now, I have a total of five active credit cards (three in my wallet and two in my desk drawer).
Is it time for me to get another card? Yes. So, soon I will have six cards because I’ve just been approved for the new Chase Sapphire Reserve card. It’s that good.
You can redeem Chase Ultimate Rewards points to lounge around on a Korean Air A380 (Chris McGinnis)
1> I can’t resist the 100,000 point sign up bonus. And those are 100,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points…one of the most valuable currencies out there because they can be redeemed or transferred with so many top shelf travel suppliers. (Such as United, Air France/KLM British Airways, Korean Air, Southwest, Hyatt, Intercontinental, and Marriott). With a 50% bonus for booking travel with Chase Ultimate Rewards, that 100,000 points translates into $1,500 in travel. Not bad!
2> Since I put all our household expenses on a single card, I’ll easily be able to reach the $4,000 dollar spend threshold within three months of getting the card– that’s just $1,333 per month.
Earn 3 points per dollar spent on dining out and travel (Photo: Chris McGinnis)
3> In our household, we spend a lot of money on travel and dining out— with the Reserve card, you get THREE points per dollar spent on those purchases. That’s significant. One downside is that you earn just one point per dollar spent on everything else.
4> I can afford the $450 annual fee (which is not waived in the first year). Chase makes it easy to swallow this bitter pill with an annual travel credit of $300. That brings the cost down to a still pricey, but easily digestible $150, especially when you consider what I’d pay for this card’s benefits. For example, my Global Entry card expires next year. With the Reserve card, Chase offers a $100 credit toward Global Entry or PreCheck. This card offers primary rental car protection and includes generous trip cancellation, delay and luggage insurance.
My new Reserve card provides access to 600 airport clubs, like the VIP Lounge at Barcelona El Prat Airport- which served bugles on my last visit! (Chris McGinnis)
5> It also provides access to hundreds of airline lounges in the US and abroad, saving me from having to pony up steep per-visit fees when I’m stuck at a faraway airport– and not flying business class.
So I’m convinced that this card works for me. What about you?
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I heard that some people are still able to get the card even with the 5/24. Perhaps apply by phone?
I’m in a similar situation–not a frequent traveler but definitely feel like the card is worth it. It arrived last week and I’ve been spending on it since then to meet the $4000 spend! I am not a card churner and had been eyeing the Hyatt card with its free night. Glad I hadn’t pulled the trigger on it. (I got two Chase SW cards last year for the companion pass.)
I would love to get the card, but am blocked by the Chase 5/24 rule. Hopefully it is still available with the current signup bonus next April.
This card is an awesome addition to the Chase family of cards. Let me compare here the overall value difference between the Chase Sapphire Reserve (CSR) and Chase Sapphire Preferred (CSP). I will take my own spending analysis as an example. I am not a huge traveler, I travel once in a while with family or buy tickets to my parents to travel. I sat down to do the Math to see if it makes sense for me to apply for this card (I already have CSP card). Let me admit the fact that I also have Chase Freedom and Freedom Unlimited cards and my wife and I know which card to use when to earn maximum Ultimate Reward (UR) Points.
Let’s look at my spending closely. The first thing I analyzed was my expenditure over the past 4 years (I referred to year-end summaries) and I found that I have consistently spent around $350 on “Transit” which included- Parking (street and occasional airport), E-Z Pass tolls, occasional river cruise, occasional Uber etc which I am sure will do every year. So this pattern of my spending qualifies for the $300 “Travel Credit”. This takes away around 65% of $450 annual fee that the CSR has. Needless to say that the person reading this is ready to use the UR points ONLY FOR travel.
Then I looked at the UR Points that I earn from my Freedom and Freedom Unlimited card. In the worst case scenario every year I earn 175K from Freedom (We religiously use this card only for 5% cash back categories only and nothing else) and 220K from Unlimited card (I use it for all other expenditure other than Travel and Dining for which I used CSP).
Let me break it down further to see if it makes sense for me to apply for CSR card with my low travel spending. Let me assume that I have CSR card with me for the next 1 year. I spend around $2300 on dining outside which will earn 6900 UR Points with CSR card and even if I spend around $350 bare minimum on travel it will earn me 1050 UR points (this is the worst case scenario). Once I add this up it gives me a total of 47400 UR Points ($474). If I use this for my occasional Travel via Chase Portal the value is up by 1.5 times which is $474 X 1.5 = $711. Let’s take away the remaining annual fee out of this ($711-$150) which gives us the net gain of $561 which is awesome!! Let me add my wife as an authorized user so the net will go down to $ 486 ($75 annual fee for an authorized user) which is nothing less than awesome and even in the worst of the worst case scenario where you do not even qualify for $1 of Travel Credit in one of those years (extremely unlikely) you will not spend anything out of pocket. Happy?? 🙂
Now let’s do the same math with one of my favorites Chase Sapphire Preferred. If you do the math as above with 2 points earning per $ spent on travel and dining I would have earned 4600 UR points for dining outside and 700 UR points on travel. Let’s put everything together, which gives me $448 ( $220+ $175+ $46+ $7). Now let’s redeem this for travel, remember Chase Sapphire Preferred gives is 1.2 times more value. So $448 X 1.2= $537. Now let’s look at the net value by taking away the annual fee of $95 which gives me $446. This card does not charge for authorized user.
Conclusion: There is no question that Reserve card has superior benefits compared to Preferred. Here I conclude that for anyone like me who does not travel much at all and have Freedom and Freedom Unlimited cards (both earn UR Points) the overall net benefit is more with $450 annual fee CSR card when compared to lower fee CSP card (Please see the math above).
Now guys! Do the Math and check if you could have CSR instead of CSP without spending even a $ more. Don’t be scared or discouraged by $450 annual fee. Of course needless to say that if you don’t travel much, you need to have both Freedom and FreedomUnlimited cards and know when to use which of these 3 cards. All you need is these 3 cards!!
Hmmmm. You tempt me. I have a diners club (Master card) and have since 96. It is my primary. Spend about 8-13k a month on it. The only reason I’ve kept it (it isn’t a bad card let me say) is the primary rental car coverage and with the sapphire having primary coverage it is quite tempting.
Just got my card last week. Even as an infrequent traveler, I’ll get my moneys worth out of it.
I’d been thinking about an Amex Platinum but was uncertain that I’d recoup the annual fee. With Chase offering the one time 100k points and annual $300 travel reimbursement, the deal is sealed.