The Best Travel Credit Card for Credit Scores Under 700

Getting into the credit card game when your credit score is under 700 isn’t always the easiest task. Luckily, there are some quality cards available for you when you’re just starting out and either building or rebuilding your credit score. When it comes to credit scores under 700, I usually recommend the Chase Freedom for Chase Freedom Unlimited to travelers.

Update: Some offers are no longer available — click here for the latest deals!

Have some credit history

Chase doesn’t always like to approve you for their cards until you have some level of credit history established. The Chase Freedom card was my first credit card and I opened it after holding a retail Macy’s card for close to one year. So I’d recommend trying to first have at least one year of credit history. Some folks get lucky and get approved for a Freedom for their first credit card so it can be done, it’s just going to be much more difficult and those people are typically the exception to the rule.

If you can, look into being added as an authorized user to an older account, especially if it’s on a Chase card. I was once able to help a client with a credit score around 680 get approved for both Chase Freedom cards when the only accounts on their credit report were two authorized user accounts (one was on a Chase card). In other words, the Freedom cards were their first cards in their name but the authorized user accounts helped establish some credit history for them.

Another option is to open a Chase checking account and utilize that account to build up a relationship with Chase. If you have limited credit history, the existence of that account could tip your odds so that you end up getting approved. If you could combine a Chase checking account with a year’s credit history and a score in the upper 600s, you probably stand a good chance at getting approved.

What credit score needed for the Freedom?

While you don’t need a 700 credit score or above to get approved, I’d still try to apply only when my score is in the upper 600s. This would be somewhere in the 670s, 680s, or maybe 670s. You can still get away with a score lower than that from time to time (sometimes much lower), but your odds will start to shrink substantially the lower you go, so I’d generally make my target score about 680 for the Chase Freedom.

If you’re new to credit scores read my article on credit score basics to help you get up to speed.

Why the Chase Freedom?

I recommend the Chase Freedom and Freedom Unlimited as two of the best credit cards for a number of reasons.

No annual fee

Annual fees give a lot of people anxiety, especially newcomers. With this card you don’t have to worry about ever paying an annual fee and can allow it to age your accounts as long as possible.

Bonus earning potential

The Freedom earns 5X on rotating categories each quarter and allows you to earn up to 7,500 points by spending up to $1,500 on these categories. Typically the categories consist of merchants you regularly use like grocery stores, gas stations, restaurants, and Amazon. Thus, it’s a great way to earn a lot of cash back.

The Freedom Unlimited on the other hand earns 1.5X on all purchases, so you don’t have to worry about keeping track of the rotating categories and will just earn an unlimited 1.5X points on every dollar purchased on your card.

Sign-up bonus

You don’t often come across cards that have solid bonus point earning potential, no annual fee, and still come with a sign-up bonus. These cards offer you $150 in cash back for only spending $500. If you catch them at the right time, you might even get lucky and find a higher sign-up bonus. They also sometimes offer bonuses for adding authorized users, which can be easy ways to pocket extra Ultimate Rewards.

It paves the way….

One of the main reasons I recommend going with one or both of the Chase Freedoms is that it paves the way for you to eventually get on board with more premier cards, such as the Chase Sapphire Preferred or the Sapphire Reserve. Those cards have higher sign-up bonuses, better earning perks, and more valuable benefits.

But best of all those cards allow you to transfer your points to travel partners, such as United, Southwest, Marriott, and also allow you to redeem Ultimate Rewards through the Chase Travel Portal at rates like 1.25 cents per point and 1.5 cents per point.

Being able to transfer your Ultimate Rewards to travel partners and redeem them at rates like 1.5 cents per point through the Chase portal greatly expands your redemption possibilities and opens up the potential for obtaining more value from your points.

If you can open up a Chase Freedom and successfully manage that card for 6 months to a year while driving up your credit score, then you’ll increase your odds for getting approved for a card like the Sapphire Preferred or Reserve. Also, you’ll already have Ultimate Rewards in the bank just waiting to be transferred to travel partners. (If you didn’t want to save your points you could always redeem them for cash back in the meantime.)

Going this route also ensures that you won’t be excluded form being approved for these cards due to 5/24, which is a restriction that does not allow you to be approved for certain Chase credit cards if you’ve opened 5 or more new accounts within the past 24 months. Following this route allows you to get on board with these Chase cards before it’s too late.

Daniel Gillaspia

Daniel Gillaspia is the Founder of UponArriving.com and creator of the credit card app, WalletFlo. He is a former attorney turned full-time travel expert covering destinations along with TSA, airline, and hotel policies. Since 2014, his content has been featured in major publications such as National Geographic, Smithsonian Magazine, Forbes, CNBC, US News, and Business Insider. Find his full bio here.

The Citi Hilton Reserve vs Amex Hilton Surpass 2017

The Citi Hilton Reserve and Amex Hilton Surpass are two of the most valuable hotel credit cards. They offer two different, yet very valuable bonus offers and either one could be ideally suited for you depending on your travel plans. With the Amex Hilton Surpass now offering a free anniversary night along with a 100K sign-up bonus, it’s a good idea to compare both cards to see exactly what they offer.

Update: Some offers are no longer available — click here for the latest deals!

Sign up bonuses

The Amex Hilton Surpass offers 100K Hilton Honors points after you spend $3,000 within your first 3 months. It also comes with a free weekend night award after your first anniversary, so you’ll have to wait one year to receive it and pay the annual fee two times.

The Citi Hilton Reserve offers 2 free weekend nights after making $2,500 in purchases within the first 4 months of account opening and often comes with a $100 statement credit after you spend $100 or more on your first hotel stay within the Hilton Portfolio within the first six months of account opening.

So which is offer is more valuable?

The answer requires knowing how much value can be had in the free weekend night certificates.

How valuable are Hilton weekend certificates?

Per the terms of the credit card, the“[w]eekend night certificate is valid for one (1) weekend night standard accommodation, double occupancy, subject to availability, at properties in the Hilton Portfolio.” Note: there are several exclusions where these certificates cannot be used. Here is the list of excluded properties.

Standard room redemptions can still be very valuable. For example, the Conrad in the Maldives has standard room awards for 95,000 Honors points per night. Thus, if you used two weekend nights at this hotel you’d be getting 190,000 Honors points worth of value from them. In case you were wondering, the cash value for two nights could be $1,800 or more, so you’re getting a ton in value!

So which sign-up bonus is more valuable?

Since weekend night certificates can be used for even the top Hilton properties, the Citi Hilton Reserve offers significantly more potential value for its sign-up bonus. After all, with the Amex Surpass you’re only offered 100,000 Honors points so you’d at best be able to cover one night at a top hotel.

But that’s not the end of the comparison because the best value often depends on your redemption strategy.

Here are some reasons why you might not go with the Reserve.

Lower tier properties

If you wanted to stay at a lower tier Hilton property (around 10,000 to 20,000 points per night) and really stretch your points, I’d consider the Hilton Honors Card from American Express. It’s currently offering 80,000 points and comes with no annual fee. While 20,000 short of 100,000 points, you won’t have to worry about an annual fee and can always look into upgrading this card to the Surpass after you’ve had it for one year. (Citi also offers a no annual fee card that offers points.)

Mid-tier properties

If you needed to cover multiple nights at a Hilton mid-tier property requiring around 30,000 to 40,000 points, then the Surpass will offer you more flexibility than the Reserve since you’ll be able to cover more nights and you’ll get the added flexibility of being able to redeem for nights during the week. Plus, you wouldn’t be “losing out” on potential value by redeeming free nights for mid-tier properties.

Multiple nights at a top property

If you’re planning on staying at a top Hilton property like the Conrad in the Maldives for several days, then the Amex Surpass could be a much better fit, especially if you’re a couple.

For example, let’s assume you were wanting to plan an adventure nearly two years in advance. You and your partner could sign up for an Amex Hilton Surpass today and each earn the 100K bonus. This means that in one year’s time you’d have at least 200K Honors points and then two free weekend nights. The flexibility of the points + free nights would allow you to cover four consecutive nights at a top hotel. That’s potentially $3,600 or more in value for paying $300 for two years worth of annual fees and it offers you the added flexibility of using points.

If you both had jumped on the Reserve, however, you’d be stuck with four weekend certificates and while those would be very valuable they wouldn’t help you with a consecutive night stay.

Other combinations could include a Reserve with either a no-annual fee Amex or Cit Hilton card but in either of those situations, you’d need a total of at least three cards to even come close to covering four nights and you’d probably still need a fourth card. Thus, with this new bonus offer and anniversary night, the Amex Surpass definitely has a strategic advantage over the Reserve in certain circumstances.

Bonus categories

The Amex Surpass earns the following rates:

12X on Hilton purchases
6X at U.S. restaurants, at U.S. supermarkets, and at U.S. gas stations.
3X for all other eligible purchases on your Card

The Citi Reserve offers slightly less rewarding bonus categories.

10X on Hilton purchases
5X at U.S. restaurants, at U.S. supermarkets, and at U.S. gas stations.
3X for all other eligible purchases on your Card

Keep in mind that while the bonus categories on the Reserve aren’t the best, if you spend $10,000 in one calendar year on your Reserve, you can earn a free weekend night. While the Surpass doesn’t have that benefit, it does offer 500 Hilton Honors Bonus Points when you use your Card to both book online and pay for your Hilton stay. (I’d take the potential for a free night over the 500 point bonus any day.)

Foreign transaction fees

Unfortunately, the Amex Surpass does not waive foreign transaction fees but the Citi Reserve does, so it definitely has an international advantage.

Annual fee

The Hilton Reserve’s annual fee is $95 while the Amex Surpass has a lower fee of $75. Both annual fees are not waived.

Gold status and fast track for Diamond status

Both cards offer automatic Hilton Honors Gold status and allow you to earn Hilton Honors Diamond status when you spend $40,000 on eligible purchases on your Card in a calendar year and you can keep Hilton Honors Diamond status through the end of the next calendar year.

Final word

Both cards can offer you substantial value but you should definitely think about your travel goals before applying since each card can offer its own unique advantages in certain situations.

Daniel Gillaspia

Review: IHG Rewards Credit Card 2017

The IHG Rewards Credit Card probably doesn’t get as much attention as it deserves but that shouldn’t stop you from applying. As you’ll see, it comes with a solid sign-up bonus, a great free night anniversary perk, and a very low annual fee that make this card worth holding onto. Here’s a review of the IHG Rewards Credit Card.

60,000 sign-up bonus after only $1,000 in spend (not the highest offer)
5,000 bonus points when you add your first authorized user and make your first purchase in the first three months from account opening
Automatic Platinum Elite status
$49 annual (that’s waived the first year)
Free anniversary night that’s good for any IHG property
5X per $1 spent at IHG properties
2X per $1 spent at gas stations, grocery stores & restaurants
Automatic 10% point rebate on redemptions
No foreign transaction fees
NOT affected by Chase 5/24

Signup bonus

60,000 sign-up bonus after only $1,000 in spend

Many value IHG points around .7 cents per point, so the standard sign-up bonus value could be put around $420. However, many applicants have success with getting matched to the higher 80,000 offer (that often requires $2,000 in spend). This is usually done by sending a “secured message” to Chase requesting to be matched to a better offer but there are also other creative ways to find an 80,000 offer. If you earned the higher 80,000 offer that’s easily $560+ worth of IHG travel.

And finally, there have been targeted offers going our for 100,000 points. Many of these offers are broken up so that you have to spend $2,000 for 80,000 points and then another $6,000 for 20,000 additional points. I’m not big on spending $6,000 for 20,000 IHG points, but I’d definitely go for 80,000 points for $2,000 spend.

And don’t forget you can tack on an additional 5,000 IHG points for adding an authorized user.

Platinum Elite status

Platinum Elite status is the mid-tier status for IHG and will offer you the following benefits:

Free Internet Access
Priority Check-In
50% Bonus Earnings on Top of Base Points
Elite Rollover Nights (if you go over the minimum of nights required for Platinum or Spire elite status, those nights can count toward the next year but will expire after that year)
Complimentary Room Upgrades (not known for giving the best upgrades)
Platinum Elite and Spire Elite members are guaranteed one guest room for personal use for reservations made at least 72 hours prior to the date of arrival (exceptions apply)

IHG Platinum status might be the easiest mid-tier status to earn and because of that I believe it’s been a little devalued and doesn’t offer a lot. Unlike Hilton or Marriott mid-tier, there’s no breakfast perk or even lounge access. The 50% bonus on base earnings is really nice but there’s not much else.

IHG doesn’t have a great reputation for offering upgrades for Platinum Elites and it usually just means a nicer room. You can tell this by checking out the terms and conditions, which read:

Platinum Elite and Spire Elite members will be offered a complimentary upgrade, as determined by the hotel, which might include rooms on higher floors, corner rooms, newly renovated rooms, or rooms with preferred views. The upgrade will be offered at time of check-in, based on availability, and will only apply to the member’s personal guest room. The hotel is not required to upgrade members to suites or specialty rooms. Upgrade benefits will not apply to rooms booked as a Reward Night reservation.

It’s a bummer that upgrade benefits don’t officially apply to rooms booked as reward nights, but that doesn’t mean they don’t happen. For example, in Japan at the InterContinental Tokyo Bay, I was upgraded to a Deluxe Corner Room from a standard room on an award stay.

What’s nice about the Platinum status is that you can use it to help you make your way to top-tier Diamond status with Hilton Honors. Read about how I did that here.

Annual fee

This card comes with a low annual fee of $49 and it’s usually waived the first year. This is one of the lowest annual fees for any hotel card from a major chain, so that’s a big plus for the card.

Free anniversary night

If there’s only one perk that makes this card worthwhile then this is it.

There’s no restriction for redeeming your free night certificates for certain categories so this is one the most valuable free night certificates available, especially since it only requires a $49 annual fee. All you need to find is standard award availability and you can book a free night.

This presents with you many opportunities to come out way on top. For example you could stay at a hotel like the InterContinental Bora Bora, where rates can approach $1,000 a night!

The free night will be available for redemption on your account renewal anniversary date (after you pay your annual fee) and is valid at any of the hotels in the IHG Rewards Club Family of Brands but must be redeemed (and the stay must be completed) within 12 months from date of issue.

Also, it’s a great card for each partner in a relationship to get their hands on (preferably around the same time), since you can then cash out big time on a two night trip while only paying $98 a year.

Bonus categories

5X per $1 spent at IHG properties
2X per $1 spent at gas stations, grocery stores & restaurants

These bonus categories are pretty standard for a hotel card. If I were in need of IHG points, the 2X at gas stations and grocery stores might be tempting but given the value of IHG points, I wouldn’t put my spend on those categories just for the sake of earning IHG points.

These earnings would stack on top of what you would earn from staying at IHG properties. For example, you would earn 10 IHG Rewards Club base points per eligible $1 USD spent at most IHG properties including:

Crowne Plaza Hotels & Resorts
Hotel Indigo
Holiday Inn Hotels & Resorts
Holiday Inn Express hotels
InterContinental Hotels & Resorts

So as a Platinum Elite member, if you spent $100 with this card on an eligible IHG property you would earn:

1,000 base points
500 bonus points via elite status
500 bonus points vis credit card spend

And you can’t forget that you’ll get an automatic 10% point rebate on redemptions, so in effect, you’re earning 10% more. So $100 would earn you 2,000 IHG points which factoring in the rebate would come out to 2,200. At .07 cents per point, that’s a 15.4% return which isn’t too bad.

However, if you had used a card like the Sapphire Reserve, you’d net more value using it on IHG hotel stays. For example, the $100 stay would net you 300 Ultimate Rewards. At 2 cents per point, that’s 6%. If you add that to the 1,500 IHG points (base points + elite bonus points) and factor in the rebate to those points (150), that comes out to 11.5%.

So in total, with the Sapphire Reserve, you’d net about a 17% return versus the roughly 15% return with the IHG Rewards Credit Card. Just something to think about.

No foreign transaction fees

Pretty standard for hotel rewards cards to do away with these now.

Not affected by 5/24

One of the biggest features of the IHG card is that it is NOT affected by Chase 5/24 rule. This makes it a lot easier to seek approval for this credit card and makes it more appealing in my opinion.

Final word

Overall, the IHG Rewards Credit Card is a solid hotel card. What it lacks in elite status perks offered, it makes up for with a valuable free anniversary night, solid sign-up bonus, and low annual fee. I think this card is a keeper that should earn a permanent place in many wallets.

Daniel Gillaspia

The Case for the Citi Expedia+ Voyager Credit Card

The Citi Expedia+ Voyager Credit Card almost never gets any attention. That’s mostly because Citi has many more valuable credit cards offered, and I think a lot of travelers are not interested in Expedia as a loyalty program or online travel agency (for good reasons like utilizing elite perks at hotels, etc.). However, this card could be a valuable tool to supplement your other cards with if you think you might be staying at +VIP properties on any upcoming trips, and here’s why.

Update: Some offers are no longer available — click here for the latest deals!

The features

25,000 Expedia points after spending $2,000 in the first 3 months (redeemable for $350 towards VIP hotel stays)
4 Expedia+ bonus points per $1 spent on eligible Expedia purchases including flights, hotels, activities and travel packages
2 Expedia+ bonus points per $1 spent on purchases for dining out and entertainment, including tickets to concerts, movies and sporting events
1 Expedia+ bonus point per $1 spent on other purchases
$100 Annual Air Travel Fee Statement Credit can be used toward airline incidentals on qualified airlines, Wi-Fi carriers or for either the Global Entry or TSA Pre✓® application fee
Expedia Gold status
Anniversary Bonus of 5,000 Expedia+ bonus points after you spend $10,000 in the prior year.
$95 annual fee

Sign-up bonus

The 25,000 points isn’t the most valuable sign-up bonus available, but $350 worth of travel at select hotels is nothing to scoff at, especially when you consider the $100 travel credit.

$100 statement credit

Right off the bat this statement credit should catch your eye. This is a card with a $95 annual fee offering a $100 statement credit. That means for many people this is essentially a no annual fee credit card although you could even turn a $5 profit on it each year.

The $100 statement credit is per calendar year so that give you the potential to add on another $100 in value to this card.

You should note that there are some limitations:

Airline incidental fees must be separate charges from airline ticket charges and include purchases such as checked bags, inflight entertainment or refreshments, inflight Wi-Fi, or other qualifying purchases that meet the eligibility requirements.

And it only works on qualified airlines.

Qualified airlines include: AirTran Airways, Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Frontier Airlines, JetBlue Airways, Southwest Airlines, United Airlines, US Airways, and Virgin America Airlines.

So this will be used for domestic airlines but this isn’t even as restrictive at American Express’ airline credit that limits you to a single domestic airline.

Some people online have had success with gift card purchases so consider that. But considering how easy it is to rack up $100 in incidentals for many people, this is an easy way to completely negate the annual fee and a rare find on a $95 card.

How much are Expedia points worth?

Expedia points don’t hold a constant amount and their value depends on what type of travel you’re redeeming for. For example, I’ll take a look at both flight and hotel redemptions.

Flight redemptions

For flights, your points will be worth approximately .62 cents per redemption. So compared to other frequent flyer programs, this is very poor. In addition, there are certain restrictions for using points for airfare, most notably:

Points must cover the full value of the flight, including taxes and fees
Flights booked with Expedia+ points can’t be canceled or changed

Keep in mind that you’ll be earning miles on your flights since this still will register as a paid flight, so you could argue that the points are a little bit more valuable.

Hotel redemptions

While Expedia points aren’t so great for airfare, they can get much better value for hotels. For standard hotels, you’ll get about .71 cents per point. This isn’t great although it’s right on par with what you would get for using American Express Membership Rewards for hotels when using their travel portal, so you can’t hate too hard on them for it.

Where the value really is at for Expedia points (and for this card) is +VIP properties.

When you redeem your points for these hotels, you get 1.4 cents per point. That’s almost tied with the Chase Sapphire Reserve’s redemption value in the Chase Travel Portal at 1.5 cents per point.

Bonus category spending

As stated, the Voyager earns:

4 Expedia+ bonus points per $1 spent on eligible Expedia purchases including flights, hotels, activities and travel packages (These must be purchased through Expedia and hotels must be pre-paid)
2 Expedia+ bonus points per $1 spent on purchases for dining out and entertainment, including tickets to concerts, movies and sporting events

If you’re planning on staying at a +VIP property, then this card is arguably more valuable than the Chase Sapphire Reserve with bonus earning potential on certain categories. And no, I’m not crazy, let me explain.

For example, if you booked a $100 flight through Expedia you’d earn 4 Expedia+ points with the card. However, you’d also earn 1 point per $5 spent on the flight on top of a 30% bonus rate as a Gold member. So that’s 426 points. There’s often promos for using the App to book where you get 2X or 3X the points, so it’s possible your earning could be much higher but let’s just go with 426.

At 1.4 cents per point, that’s about 6% back, which is very competitive to what you’d earn back with the Chase Sapphire Reserve. For example, if you value Ultimate Rewards at 2 cents per point, you’d come out with the same 6% back with the Chase Sapphire Reserve but if you used your Ultimate Rewards in the Chase Travel Portal, you’d only be getting 4.5% back.

Of course, the Reserve also comes with some great travel protections, so you’d always have to factor in what you’d be losing and obviously you’re losing the prospect of transferring points to Ultimate Reward partners.

The point is that the Sapphire Reserve offers some of the best value for a rewards credit card and comes with a $550 annual fee, so the fact that the Expedia+ Voyager card, with essentially no annual fee, could even compete with the earning rate on the Reserve should (in certain scenarios) should be taken into consideration.

Also, I’d have to do some math to determine if it would be worth it for hotel purchases. Since you earn airline miles with airfare purchased through Expedia you don’t lose much, but losing out on hotel points and cash back portal rebates, may be a tougher sell. I’ll update with a closer look later.

The Voyager’s 2X on dining would be inferior to the 3X on the Reserve and likely 2X on other cards like the Sapphire Preferred and Premier Rewards gold Card (unless you were only going to book travel through their respective portals). 2X on entertainment is decent since not many cards offer that except for other Citi cards like the Premier and Prestige.

Overall, there’s opportunities to maximize value with this card in certain circumstances and since you can always do a part pay with points on hotels, you don’t have to worry about stranded points.

+VIP properties

The major catch to maximizing value with Expedia is obviously that you’re limited to +VIP properties. But many top properties are +VIP properties. For example, there are many well-known major chain luxury properties that fall into this category including: The Venetian Resort Hotel & Casino in Las Vega and The Cove Atlantis, Autograph Collection, Bahamas

The list could go on. Personally, however, I like to book chain hotels directly with the hotel chain so that I can earn points and stays and enjoy elite perks with my status with the hotel.

Cancun Hotel — Sandos Luxury Resort in Cancun, Mexico.

So when I choose to use Expedia points to book hotels, they are usually +VIP boutique hotels or hotels that are members of loyalty programs that I know I won’t frequent. You’d be surprised to find out how easy it is to find solid +VIP boutique hotels, too. Just this past summer, I stayed in an all-inclusive property called the Sandos Luxury Resort in Cancun, Mexico that I booked through Expedia and it was a fantastic hotel experience. I didn’t earn any nights or points with a major hotel chain, but I shaved off a lot of the price by redeeming Expedia points at 1.4 cents per point.

If you’re interested in finding more +VIP properties, you can search for more here.

Gold benefits

Expedia is sort of like Hilton Honors in that its points aren’t the most valuable but its always offering a lot of ways to earn bonus points. With Gold status, you’ll earn 30% more points for eligible booking and 250 bonus points for +VIP Access hotel bookings.

Two additional benefits are a dedicated customer service line and room upgrades plus flexible check-in and check-out (which basically means early and late checkout available). The dedicated customer service agent is a major plus here because sometimes Expedia customer service can be brutal with very bad waiting times. It’s nice to have the possibility for upgrades and flexible check-in and check-out, but I’m not sure how often those benefits are honored compared to other loyalty programs.

And finally you can get spa vouchers and free drinks at certain properties. At one of our other stays in the Caribbean at the Grand Roatan Caribbean Resort, we received two rum punches for free due to our Gold status. And on another stay a couple of years ago in Europe, we received a spa certificate.

Roatan, Honduras — Grand Roatan, a +VIP hotel in the Caribbean.

Final word

Expedia is always a go to for me when I’m not able to find a property to a major chain that I’m loyal to and have status with. Usually this is Marriott, SPG, Hilton, and even IHG. It’s not uncommon in places like the Caribbean to struggle to find those properties so Expedia comes in handy in those situations.

Since the annual fee can be offset so easily for this card I think it’d be worth getting for whenever the time arises to stay at a VIP+ hotel. I probably wouldn’t put my daily spend on this card unless I was working toward a specific goal of staying at a VIP+ hotel, and even then I’d probably only put airline and certain hotel purchases on it, since I’d earn more value on my dining with other cards.

All things considered, though, this card holds at least $450 worth of travel with essentially no annual fee and that makes it a contender in my book.

Daniel Gillaspia

Review of the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card

The Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card is often shamed and overlooked for other travel cards offered by Chase, Citi, and American Express, but that shouldn’t be the case. The truth is that the Venture card is actually a great option for many people and it can help lower your traveling costs to about as close to zero as they can reasonably get. Here’s a review of the Capital One Venture card and some insight into how to maximize its use.

Update: Some offers are no longer available — click here for the latest deals!

How do the “miles” work?

Unlike Chase, Citi, and Amex cards, where you earn points that are transferred to frequent flyer or hotel rewards programs, the Capital One Venture works a lot differently. For this card, you earn “miles” (which are really just points) through spending at a rate of 2 miles/per dollar spent. So if you spend $3,000 you earn 6,000 miles.

These miles can then be redeemed at one cent per mile after you make a qualifying travel purchase. So for example, let’s say you booked a hotel for a total of $400. You would then log in to your online account after the charge posts in order to use the Capital One “Purchase Eraser” feature. You’d then select to have your miles credited to your account for that $400 hotel stay and if you had at least 40,000 miles, the statement credit would be applied to your account within 2 to 3 business days, cancelling out your hotel expense.

This method of redeeming is perfect for individuals who don’t like to deal with the hassle (or perceived complexity) of transferring points to loyalty programs. With this type of card, you simply make a travel purchase (without any regard for availability restrictions) and redeem your points. It’s very simple.

Time frame

You have to redeem your statement credit within 90 days from the date of purchase. That doesn’t mean that your miles expire, just that you won’t be able to get reimbursed for a charge if you wait longer than 90 days from the date that it posts to your account.

A lot of people don’t know this but you can actually call and request an extension for up to 6 months on this time restriction. Of course, it’s always better to play it safe and redeem within 90 days, but at least there’s an option for you in case you find yourself in a bind.

No minimum redemption amount!

One of the best perks of the Capital One Venture card is that there is no minimum requirement for redemptions. This is a huge benefit because it allows you to use this card to cover random travel expenses you will incur as you travel, such as parking, taxis, busses, etc. If you’re truly trying to travel for free, the Capital One Venture is one of the best cards to supplement your other “heavy hitter” travel credit cards with.

If you want to make partial redemptions for expenses the minimum requirement is $25 (or 2,500 points). For example, if you wanted to redeem points to cover part of the cost of a hotel stay, you’d have to be redeeming at least 2,500 points. This minimum requirement is still extremely reasonable considering the minimum redemption requirement for cards like the Arrival Plus.

Redeeming miles for the same purchase

Some people have had success with redeeming miles for the same purchase over and over again. So if you have 30,000 miles and one $100 purchase, you could theoretically redeem against that purchase three times and basically earn a $200 statement credit that would apply to any purchase. I haven’t personally tested this out, so I don’t know if this “glitch” still remains live.

One thing that I know you can do is redeem in segments on the same purchase. So for example, let’s say you were redeeming your miles for a $300 hotel stay. You could redeem 20,000 miles for that purchase one day and then a month later redeem an additional 10,000 miles for the remaining $100 for that purchase.

Booking travel with miles

You can also book air fare, hotels, and car rentals with your miles. The value works out to the same at 1 cent per point but you’ll just need to do research to make sure that whatever you’re booking is a good deal.

What constitutes “travel” for the Capital One Venture?

Just like some other cards like the Chase Sapphire Preferred or the Citi Thankyou Premier, the travel category for the Capital One Venture is quite broad.

Here are the terms taken straight from Capital One’s website:

Purchases made from airlines, hotels, rail lines, car rental agencies, limousine services, bus lines, cruise lines, taxi cabs, travel agents and time shares are generally considered to be travel purchases and availability for redemption is based on the merchant category code assigned to them by the merchant.

It all comes down to how the merchant codes the purchase. You can pretty much always expect purchases on things like airlines, hotels, and rail lines to properly code as travel but things get a little bit muddled when you try to redeem on things like campground purchases, so sometimes you might have to do a little bit of research to see how a merchant codes a purchase.

Redeeming for non-travel items

You can also redeem your miles for cash in the form of a check or account credit, gift cards and more. The redemption rate remains at 1 cent per point for gift cards and charitable redemptions but if you’re trying to redeem for a check or statement credit, it drops down to .5 cents per point (not worth it in my opinion).

Sign-up bonus

The current sign-up bonus is for 40,000 miles for spending $3,000 within 3 months.

That means that once you hit the minimum spend you’ll have earned 46,000 miles. Since these miles are redeemed at 1 cent per point for travel that means you’ll earn the equivalent of $460 worth of statement credit that can be applied against your travel purchases.

Bonus earning potential

The Capital One Venture card doesn’t earn extra points for special categories like dining but it does earn 2X miles on every single purchase.

Capital One usually pulls Transunion

One of the drawbacks to this card is that Capital One will often pull from all 3 credit bureaus, which is not so great for those who are already pretty deep into the game with lots of inquiries. To help mitigate the damage, you can always freeze one of your credit bureaus. I know of at least of a couple of people who have frozen their Experian report for about $11 (and another $11 to unfreeze it) and still got instantly approved for their card. It takes about 1 minute to freeze your report and if you’re adverse to getting hit with more inquiries, it’s at least something to think about.

Benefits

The Venture comes with a number of nice (although pretty standard) travel benefits.

No foreign transaction fees
Fraud coverage
Security alerts
Travel upgrades and savings
24 hour concierge service

Since this is a Visa Signature card, it also comes with all of the Visa Signature benefits, some of which include:

Purchase protection
Lost luggage reimbursement
Auto rental insurance
Travel accident insurance
Roadside dispatch

Annual Fee

$59, waived the first year

This means that you would need to earn at least 5,900 points to cover the annual fee (with travel reimbursements). That comes out to $2,950 of spending to break even with this card which isn’t bad but if you’re thinking about long-term earnings, you should consider the opportunity cost.

Just to break even on this card you’d potentially be forgoing hitting a $3,000 spend requirement on a different card that that would provide you with much more value. Also, if you’re interested in business class or first class award redemptions, you’re going to have to spend much, much more on your Capital One Venture card than on a card like the Chase Sapphire Preferred to earn anywhere near the miles needed for those redemptions.

Final Word

Overall, the Capital One Venture card is a great for two subsets of travelers. The first are those travelers who don’t like the hassle of transferring points and dealing with award availability and redemptions. Although I think the hassle is definitely worth the trouble, not everyone feels that way and for those people, a card like the Venture will be helpful.

The second subset of travelers that will benefit from this card are those looking to cover random travel expenses that otherwise couldn’t be covered with other types of credit cards. However, beyond utilizing the $460 earned from obtaining the sign-up bonus, I don’t think this is a card that you would want to hold on to in the long-term and you’d probably want to eventually consider downgrading it to a no-annual fee credit card.

Daniel Gillaspia

Review of the Amex EveryDay Preferred Credit Card

[Offers contained within this article may no longer be available]

The Amex EveryDay® Preferred Credit Card is a card that a lot of people tend to sleep on. It’s not quite the travel card as the Premier Rewards Gold Card but it offers a tremendous potential for earning Membership Rewards with its 50% monthly bonus in points earned. Here’s a review of the Amex EveryDay® Preferred and some things to consider when applying for the card.

Transfer Partners

American Express cards like the Amex EveryDay® Preferred earn you Membership Rewards. They are generally considered one of more valuable reward currencies and these points can be transferred to several different airline and hotel partners. Below is a list of the eligible travel partners.

Airlines

These partners do not have all have the same transfer ratios as you can see below:

Delta Skymiles
Club Premier AeroMexico
Aeroplan Air Canada
Flying Blue (Air France/KLM)
MilleMigilia Club Alitalia
ANA
Asia Miles
Avios British Airways (250 points = 200 Avios)
Emirates Skyrewards
Hawaiin Airlines
Iberia Plus
JetBlue
KrisFlyer Singapore Airlines
Virgin America (200 points = 100 Elevate points)
Virgin Atlantic

Hotels

Best Western Rewards
Choice Privileges
Hilton HHonors (1,000 points = 1,500 HHonors points)
SPG (Starwood Preferred Guest) (1,000 points = 333 Starpoints)

There are a few things to keep in mind about Membership Rewards:

Bonus transfers are occasionally offered allowing you to transfer your points to partners for higher ratios. Check this thread for a history of these transfer bonuses.
Your Membership Rewards cannot be freely transferred between you and any friend or family members
They don’t expire as long as you remain a cardholder

Redeeming Points

If you don’t decide to transfer your Membership Rewards to other travel partners you can always utilize them for travel redemptions or purchases.

Membership Rewards can be redeemed in the following ways:

Between .5 and 1.0 cent per point for gift cards
0.6 cent per point for a statement credit/charge.
1.0 cent per point on air fare
0.7 cent per point on hotels, cruises, and vacation packages.

Aside from maybe using them for air fare to earn or maintain elite status, I personally do not think these are good redemption rates. However, depending on the circumstances (no availability with travel partners, short on cash, etc.), it might make sense for you to redeem your points through the Amex travel portal.

Sign-up Bonus

The standard offer for the Amex EveryDay Preferred

Get 15,000 Membership Rewards points after you use your new Card to make $1,000 in purchases in your first 3 months.
- This is the standard public offer
Get 30,000 Membership Rewards after you use your new Card to make $2,000 in purchases in your first 3 months.
- This offer comes around occasionally, often via Google Chrome Incognito.
Get 50,000 Membership Rewards after you use your new Card to make $2,000 in purchases in your first 3 months!
- Highly targeted offer that only some have received in the mail.

If you already hold an American Express card, your chances of receiving the 50,000 offer in the mail are very slim. Thus, the 30,000 offer is probably going to be your best bet but there’s no way of knowing when it might come around again.

One bonus per lifetime

You need to know that American Express has a once per lifetime rule for receiving sign-up offers for its cards. There are some exceptions to this and you can read more about them in the American Express application rules article.

Bonus Category Earning

This is where the Amex EveryDay® Preferred Credit Card really shines and in my opinion, it might just be the top earning travel rewards credit card, especially if you max out the supermarket categories. Let’s take a look at its bonus earning potential.

3x points at US supermarkets (On up to $6,000 in purchases per year)
2x points at US gas stations
1x points on other purchases

These are decent bonus categories. The two notably missing categories are dining and travel purchases, but those categories can be covered with cards like the American Express Premier Rewards Gold Card or the Chase Sapphire Preferred®.

What really makes this card such a high earner is that when you use your card 30 or more times on purchases in a billing period you get 50% more points on those purchases!

The additional 50% bonus can absolutely earn you a killing. In fact, over at The Points Guy, they ran an analysis of the earning potential of this card versus the Premier Rewards Gold Card and Platinum and the Amex EveryDay® Preferred outperformed them in every scenario in terms of earning Membership Rewards!

Now, Im pretty sure those calculations (from 2014) did not factor in the 2x on dining on the Premier Rewards Gold Card and I don’t think they factored in the potential for 4x on airfare. Thus, it’s definitely possible that the Premier Rewards Gold Card might out earn the Amex EveryDay® Preferred based on some of the spending habits.

But still, the Amex EveryDay® Preferred is one of the best all-around daily spending credit cards (“daily drivers”) and is likely the best for earning Membership Rewards for someone who will max out the supermarket 3X earnings and obtain the 50% bonus each month.

Amex Offers

Amex Offers are promotional offers that are available to all Amex cardholders. Some of these offers will essentially provide you with free money, often giving you back $5-$15 off purchases at different online retailers. If you used consistently and effectively, you can easily save yourself $100-200 a year on items you would’ve likely purchased anyway.

No interest for the first 15 months

0.0% introductory APR for the first 15 months. After that, your APR will be 13.24% to 22.24%, based on your creditworthiness and other factors as determined at the time of account opening

Foreign Transaction Fees

2.7% on international transactions

Annual Fee

$95, not waived the first year

Downgrading

The Amex EveryDay® Preferred can be downgraded to the no annual fee Amex EveryDay®. The Amex EveryDay® earns:

2x points at US supermarkets on up to $6,000 per year in purchases(then 1x)
1x points on other purchases.
If you use your Card 20 or more times on purchases in a billing period you get 20% more points on those purchases

So you lose out on 50% bonus (reduced to 20%), 3X on supermarkets (reduced to 2x), and lose out completely on the 2X on gas. However, with no annual fee and the ability to hold on to and earn Membership Rewards, downgrading to the Amex EveryDay® is a solid choice if you don’t want to continue to the pay annual fee.

Final Word

The Amex EveryDay® Preferred is a top points earning rewards card. However, since the card doesn’t earn bonus points for dining or travel, it’s highly recommended that you supplement this card with one that does, such as the American Express® Premier Rewards Gold Card or the Chase Sapphire Preferred®. Having at least one of those cards will provide a traveller with complete bonus category earning potential along with superior benefits, such as better travel and purchase protection.

Daniel Gillaspia

Chase Sapphire Preferred vs The Citi Thankyou Premier Card

[Offers contained within this article may no longer be available]

Both the Chase Sapphire Preferred and the Citi Thankyou Premier Card are two cards that offer pretty exceptional opportunities for earning and burning points toward travel. In this article, I am going to compare the two against each other by looking at things like travel partners, sign-up bonuses, bonus categories, retention offers, and so on.

While I compare the two cards to each other, don’t think of this as necessarily a “one or the other” decision if you’re thinking about applying for them, as these cards can most definitely be used together to earn points toward a variety of travel partners.

Tip: Use WalletFlo for all your credit card needs. It’s free and will help you optimize your rewards and savings!

1. Transfer Partners

The first consideration for any credit card comparison is always what can the points be used for? After all, even the biggest sign-up bonus can turn out to be a headache if you don’t have any practical way to redeem them once you earn them. The good news is that both of these cards allow you great flexibility when redeeming your points.

If you’re not familiar, the Sapphire Preferred earns “Ultimate Rewards” (URs) and the Citi Thankyou Premier earns “Thankyou Points” (TYPs). These are just like American Express’s Membership Rewards, which all allow you to earn points and then transfer them to travel partners as you desire.

So here’s a rundown of the travel partners available for URs and TYPs:

Chase Ultimate Rewards

Airlines

British Airways Executive Club
Korean Air SKYPASS
Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards
United MileagePlus
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club

Hotels

Hyatt Gold Passport
IHG® Rewards Club
Marriott Rewards
The Ritz-Carlton Rewards.

Citi Thankyou Points

Airlines

Asia Miles (Cathay Pacific)
EVA Air
Eithad Guest
Flying Blue (Air France, KLM)
Garuda Indonesia Frequent Flyer
Malaysia Airlines Enrich
Qantas Frequent Flyer
Qatar Airways Privilege Club
Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
Thai Airways Royal Orchid Plus
Virgin America Elevate (Get 500 Elevate points for 1,000 pts)
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club

Hotels

Hilton HHonors (Get 1,500 HHonors Bonus Points for 1,000 pts)

Both programs have a lot to choose from but for me, I tend to value the Chase partners a little more. The reason is that I live next to a United and Southwest hub and so I have quick and easy access to their routes from Houston airports. Also, I like using British Airways Avios and URs offer a 1:1 transfer ratio to British Airways.

Citi, on the other hand, has more airlines to choose from and has some of the best airlines out there, like KLM, Air France, Etihad, Qatar, etc… While these are some of the best airlines in the world, I only tend to book with many of the Citi partners on special occasions, like when I’m planning a real extravagant trip. For the majority of my trips I’m headed out of Houston on United, Southwest, or American Airlines. Thus, Citi partners are less of a “go-to” option for me.

However, depending on your travel goals and plans, Thankyou points might be a better fit for you. And that’s what you should really consider. Think about the destinations you’re interested in visiting for your next few trips. Think about what airline hubs are close to you. Think about whether you’re interested in splurging on extravagant first class suites or keeping it simple in economy. All of these considerations will help you narrow down which transfer partners are a better fit for you.

2. Sign-up Bonus

Chase Sapphire Preferred

40K to 50K (currently 60K) when you spend $4,000 in the first 3 months
An additional 5K for adding an authorized user.

Citi Thankyou Premier

40K to 50K (currently 40K) when you spend $3,000 in the first 3 months.

Both bonuses are pretty close to each other, depending on when you catch them. Now, just about everyone in the “points scene” values URs a little more than Thankyou points so 50K in Thankyou Points may not necessarily be more valuable than 45K-50K in URs. Generally, it seems that URs are valued close to 2 cents per point, while Thankyou Points tend to trail while being valued at about 1.5 to 1.8 cents per mile.

The valuation methods of these points can be debated over and over but I believe that the exact valuation of these points you go by isn’t as important as how much you value the transfer partners when valuing the points. Don’t get me wrong, these valuations can be good guide posts to make sure you’re not redeeming points at a ridiculous low rate but for me, the intended purpose and need for the points is what I generally focus on.

So with that in mind, I’d say that both cards offer strong bonuses (especially when at the 50K mark) and you should consider how those bonuses will fit into your intended travel plans more than simply how one bonus edges out the other by a few points.

Restrictions for applying for these cards

Just as a reminder, here are a couple of rules to consider when applying for these cards.

The Chase 5/24 Rule

If you have more than 5 new credit card accounts opened up in the last 24 months, you’ll almost always be rejected for this card. Thus, you may want to apply for the CSP before this rule kicks in and that should be a factor in your decision to apply.

The Citi 8/65 Rule

This rule states that you can’t apply for more than 1 Citi card in 7 days (8 to be safe) and no more than 2 Citi cards (including business cards) in 60 days (65 to be safe). Make sure you abide by these rules because in my experience Citi does not depart from these rules very often, if it all.

3. Bonus category earning potential

Chase Sapphire Preferred

2X on Travel (This covers a broad range of expenses from tolls, parking, bus fairs, train tickets, and of course, air line tickets. Also, 3X points can be earned via the Ultimate Rewards Travel partner)
2X on Dining

Citi Thankyou Premier

3x on Travel (this also covers an extremely broad range of expenses like the CSP but is even a little bit broader!).
3x on Gas
2x on Entertainment (This includes movie theaters, some sport events, museums, tourist attractions, amusement parks, and more)
2x on Dining

It’s pretty clear that the Premier offers more opportunities for earning points in bonus category spending and so it really wins out in this category. (But see the below about utilizing the “Chase Trifecta.”)

Redeeming points for travel

When you redeem your URs for travel purchases, such as airfare, hotel stays, car rentals and cruises through Chase Ultimate Rewards you get 20% off. When you redeem your Thankyou Premier points for travel purchases you get 20% off, as well. This seems like a wash but using Thankyou Points for flight redemptions can actually become more lucrative .

If you also have the Citi Prestige card you can transfer your Premier points to the Prestige and redeem those points toward American Airlines miles at a rate of 1.6 cents and 1.33 cents for any other airline.

This is a pretty decent rate of redemption but it also requires the use of an additional card to take advantage of the benefits. And if we want to include other cards into the discussion, I really think the CSP blows away the Premier due to the earning potential in bonus category spending with the “Chase Trifecta,” essentially turning the CSP into a card that earns 5x phone bills, television, office supply stores, internet, and on rotating categories like groceries and dining.

Chase Ink+ Freedom Sapphire Preferred — The Chase Trifecta

4. Annual Fees

The annual fees on both of these cards are identical, $95 waived the first year. Another thing that you can do with these cards is downgrade them to annual fee free cards. You’ll just have to make sure that you still have a card like the Citi Prestige or the Chase Ink+, if you still want to take advantage of the travel partners.

5. No Foreign Transaction Fees

Both cards boast no foreign transaction fees.

6. Retention Offers

Retention offers can definitely be hit-or-miss, but here are some of the common retention offers that users can get for each card:

Citi Premier: Spend $1,000 in 6 months and get 5K TYP.
Chase Sapphire Preferred: $95 statement credit (Chase can be a bit stingy on offering this)

7. Downgrading

One thing often overlooked when comparing credit cards is your ability to downgrade the credit to an annual fee-free card once you feel like you’ve gotten what you wanted from the card. This helps increase your average age of accounts and saves you a little bit of $ each year.

The Chase Sapphire Preferred can be downgraded to an annual fee-free Sapphire (non-preferred) or even a Chase Freedom. The downside is that you lose out on the ability to transfer your URs to travel partners, unless you also have the Chase Ink+.

The Citi Premier can be downgraded to the annual fee-free Citi Preferred. However, you’ll need the Prestige or Chairman if you still want to transfer to any travel partners.

Conclusion

Overall, I really see these cards as complimentary cards. I have both and use both to earn miles on airlines for different purposes. The Sapphire Preferred is my “daily driver,” and the card I use most often with everyday expenses, but the Citi Premier comes in handy when I want to load up on TPs with gas and entertainment expenses and when I’m trying to book an exotic first class experience on certain airlines.

As stated already, think about your personal travel goals and plans and you’ll be able to see which card is right for you and don’t be afraid to go with both!

Daniel Gillaspia

Chase Sapphire Preferred vs Chase Freedom Card

For traveling, the Chase Sapphire Preferred (CSP) is easily a superior card to the Chase Freedom but the two cards offer different perks that, depending on your goals, might make one or the other better suited for you. Also, these two cards compliment each other very well and are one of the best duos currently out there for travel rewards when used together. Here is a comparison of the two cards with a focus on how the two cards can help you achieve more when traveling.

1. Transfer Partners

The biggest difference between the Freedom and the CSP is that you can’t transfer the Ultimate Rewards (UR) earned with your freedom to any of the UR travel partners. It’s a little confusing but the UR points earned on the CSP (or the Ink+) are considered premier and can be transferred 1:1 to any travel partner. However, UR points earned on cards like the Freedom or Ink Cash can only be redeemed for cashback. This is a very important difference if you’re wanting to take advantage of travel perks because it essentially renders the Freedom useless as a travel card in terms of transfer ability.

However, you can transfer UR points earned on your Freedom card to your CSP UR account. Thus, the Freedom is a great companion to have with the CSP, especially when you consider the bonus point potential as shown below.

2. Sign-up Bonus

The standard bonus for the Chase Sapphire Preferred is around 40K to 50K, with an additional 5K for adding an authorized user. In order to qualify for the bonus, you have to spend between $3K-$4K within the first three months of getting your card, depending on the offer you get.

Tip: sometimes if you apply in-branch, the spending requirement is lower than the requirement found online.

The Freedom bonus is a lot less lucrative. The best offer that you could ever find is a 30K + 5K offer but it seems that the bonuses seem to normally be around 10-20K for about $500 spend in the first 3 months. Keep in mind these Freedom offers are advertised in dollars since the points can only be redeemed as cash back without CSP or the Ink+.

Tip: if you sign up for a Chase card and earn a sign-up bonus that later increases within 90 days, simply call Chase or send them a secure message and request the additional bonus points as a courtesy. In my experience, they will almost always honor your request.

3. Bonus spending

Both cards earn 1X points on all spending outside of bonus categories but they have very different bonus earning rates.

Freedom: 5X Rotating Bonus Categories

If you don’t know what 5X means, it means that you get 5X the points per dollar spent (i.e, 5% cash back) on certain categories each quarter up to a maximum number of dollars spent ($1,500). The categories usually rotate are:

Dining
Movies, Groceries
Kohls, Gas Stations,
Amazon

Thus, each quarter you can earn up to 7,500 points based purely on bonus categories. Here’s one thing that some people find annoying about Freedom — you have to manually activate the bonus categories each quarter… it is a bit of a “first world” problem but it would be nice if Chase didn’t make you do so.

To activate your bonus categories all you have to do is go to this Chase page and enter in your card information and zip code and you should be able to activate your bonus category about two weeks prior to the category kicking in. You can also sign up to get SMS reminders here. In the end, it’s really not a big deal to have to activate your bonus categories but it is something to be mindful about.

CSP: 2X

The CSP doesn’t boast the 5x bonus earning categories but it does earn the following:

2X on Travel: This covers a broad range of travel expenses (probably the broadest out of any credit card) from tolls, parking, bus fairs, train tickets, air line tickets, and even campgrounds. Also, 3X points can be earned via the Ultimate Rewards Travel partner. Unfortunately, gas is not one of the 2x travel categories.
2X on Dining

Obviously, the bonus categories on the cards differ but again, I have to reiterate that getting both of these cards is ideal. The way I look at it is that the CSP with the Freedom (which has no annual fee) acts like one single card that offers 2X dining, 2X travel (3X in UR travel portal), and 5X in rotating categories of gas, dining, Amazon, etc. That’s a pretty awesome combination and it can get even better with the Ink+!

4. Annual Fee

Freedom

Free!
In addition, the Freedom boasts a 0% Intro APR for the first 15 months!

CSP

Usually waived first year, $95 after.

I love free cards, and it can be tough to find rewards cards with no annual fee, especially cards that are really worth applying for. The Freedom is definitely one of the fee-free cards that I intend on keeping open forever.

Tip: if you’re not a fan of paying any annual fees at all, keep in mind that you can apply for the CSP and within a year cancel your card or downgrade the CSP to the standard Chase Sapphire or even the Freedom. However, when you downgrade, you will lose the ability to transfer your UR to valuable travel partners.

5. Purchase and Travel Protection

I’m always surprised at the number of cardholders who aren’t aware of the protections that come when purchasing items with their cards, especially when cards have some great benefits like both the Freedom and the CSP. The Freedom — especially the Visa Signature Freedom — actually has some pretty solid protections that compare to the CSP. You’ll notice that key differences are no primary car rental insurance and that many of the totals for policy limits are cut in half for the Freedom when compared to the CSP. Note: these below lists are NOT exhaustive.

Freedom

Covers your new purchases for 120 days against damage or theft up to $500 per claim and $50,000 per account.
Extends the time period of the U.S. manufacturer’s warranty by an additional year, on eligible warranties of three years or less.
Coverage is provided for theft and collision damage for most cars in the U.S. and abroad. In the U.S., coverage is secondary to your personal insurance you already have.
VISA SIGNATURE VERSION: If your trip is canceled or cut short by sickness, severe weather and other covered situations, you can be reimbursed up to $5,000 per trip for your pre-paid, non-refundable travel expenses, including passenger fares, tours, and hotels.
VISA SIGNATURE VERSION:If you or your immediate family members’ checked or carry-on bags are damaged or lost by the carrier, you’re covered up to $3,000 per passenger.
VISA SIGNATURE VERSIONWhen you pay for your air, bus, train or cruise transportation with your card, you are eligible to receive accidental death or dismemberment coverage of up to $500,000.

CSP

Covers your new purchases for 120 days against damage or theft up to $500 per claim and $50,000 per account.
Extends the time period of the U.S. manufacturer’s warranty by an additional year, on eligible warranties of three years or less.
If a card purchase you made in the U.S. is advertised for less in print or online within 90 days, you can be reimbursed the difference up to $500 per item, $2,500 per year.
You can be reimbursed for eligible items that the store won’t take back within 90 days of purchase, up to $500 per item, $1,000 per year.
Car rental coverage is primary and provides reimbursement up to the actual cash value of the vehicle for theft and collision damage for most rental cars in the U.S. and abroad.
When you pay for your air, bus, train or cruise transportation with your card, you are eligible to receive accidental death or dismemberment coverage of up to $500,000.
If you or your immediate family members’ checked or carry-on bags are damaged or lost by the carrier, you’re covered up to $3,000 per passenger.
If your trip is canceled or cut short by sickness, severe weather and other covered situations, you can be reimbursed up to $10,000 per trip for your pre-paid, non-refundable travel expenses, including passenger fares, tours, and hotels.
If your common carrier travel is delayed more than 12 hours or requires an overnight stay, you and your family are covered for unreimbursed expenses, such as meals and lodging, up to $500 per ticket.

7. Foreign Transaction Fees

The CSP has no foreign transaction fees which although is becoming more standard in rewards cards, it still really nice to have and can add up in savings over time. The Freedom, on the other hand, has a 3% foreign transaction fee.

8. Customer Service

One of the best perks of the CSP is that when you call the number on the back of your card, you’re almost always greeted within seconds by a live representative. The Freedom has the customer service that’s standard with Chase and while in my experience it’s not horrible, it’s not the same as the CSP.

9. Appearance

The Chase Freedom card isn’t an ugly card at all — it’s just not really anything special. One thing I do like about the card is that it has a lime green outline on the outside rim of the card. This makes it easy to quickly identify the card when it’s in your wallet.

And of course, the CSP is on a level on its own with its metal material and sophisticated look and appeal. It’s always fun to get remarks about your credit card and something just feels good about paying with metal. I really think that in terms of appearance the CSP is one of the best-looking/feeling cards available to the masses.

Until you start getting into Centurion card territory or other ultra-elite cards, the CSP is probably one of the best looking cards out there. Because the CSP card is metal, however, I’ve noticed that it can collect streaks or scratches that are a bit more noticeable than what typically occur on a plastic card. This is yet another reason why having both the CSP and the Freedom can come in handy. You can elect to use your Freedom in non-bonus spending like your everyday trips to walmart or CVS. You can still transfer the UR points to your Sapphire and in the meantime you can preserve your CSP so it remains as pristine as possible.

10. Getting Approved

I don’t like giving too much advice about getting approved for cards because there are simply too many variables that go into a credit card application approval decision. I can give a few basic pointers, though.

For the CSP you’re going to need good credit, usually over a 700 and even better if 720 or higher. It really helps if you have established some history with Chase, whether through banking or another credit card, although history with Chase by no means necessary. Because the CSP only comes as a Visa Signature, the minimum credit line for the card is $5,000.

For the Freedom, you can be in the 600s and still have a decent shot at getting approved. Again, your approval odds will depend on other things like utilization, payment history, average age of accounts, etc. so it’s hard to really give any kind of prediction. You can also try the pre-approval feature on Chase’s website to see where you stand but remember being “pre-approved” does not mean you are guaranteed approval.

It is possible to apply and get approved for both of these cards at the same time. However, if you don’t have established credit or a great credit score, most people would probably recommended applying for the Freedom first and then using that card for at least 3 months to establish some history and spending habits with Chase and then going for the CSP — this is especially true if you have no previous history with Chase.

One important thing to know is that Chase will combine hard pulls to credit bureaus so if you apply for two cards at the same time you only get dinged for one pull.

Don’t apply for more than 2 Chase cards in 30 days

One word of caution: applying for more than 2 Chase cards in 30 days almost always results in denials. There are ways to state your case in a reconsideration call to get credit shifted over from other cards but you’re still taking a chance that Chase may not budge on granting your request.

5 accounts in the past 24 months (5/24 Rule)

If there’s one bit of advice I can give it’s that you need to have fewer than five new credit card accounts opened in the last two years to stand a good chance at getting these cards. ~~It is possible to get them with more than five new cards but those approvals tend to be the outliers based on my research~~. It’s generally recommended for you to apply in branch if you have more than five new accounts in the past 24 months. And remember, it’s credit card accounts that matter. Car loans, mortgages, etc. shouldn’t factor into that decision.

Daniel Gillaspia

Chase Sapphire Preferred vs AMEX Premier Rewards Gold Card: The Best Travel Card?

Two of the best travel rewards credit cards out available right now have to be the Chase Sapphire Preferred and the American Express Premier Rewards Gold Card. I’ve got both of them and figured I’d give my own personal take on these cards.

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Transfer Partners

Membership Rewards

The Premier Rewards Gold Card will earn you Membership Rewards that can be transferred to a variety of travel partners listed below:

Airlines

These partners do not have all have the same transfer ratios as you can see below:

Delta Skymiles
Club Premier AeroMexico
Aeroplan Air Canada
Flying Blue (Air France/KLM)
MilleMigilia Club Alitalia
ANA
Asia Miles
Avios British Airways (250 points = 200 Avios)
Emirates Skyrewards
Hawaiin Airlines
Iberia Plus
JetBlue
KrisFlyer Singapore Airlines
Virgin America (200 points = 100 Elevate points)
Virgin Atlantic

Hotels

Best Western Rewards
Choice Privileges
Hilton HHonors (1,000 points = 1,500 HHonors points)
SPG (Starwood Preferred Guest) (1,000 points = 333 Starpoints)

There are a few things to keep in mind about Membership Rewards:

Bonus transfers are occasionally offered allowing you to transfer your points to partners for higher ratios. Check this thread for a history of these transfer bonuses.
Your Membership Rewards cannot be freely transferred between you and any friend or family members but you can transfer them to authorizes users’ rewards accounts.
They don’t expire as long as you remain a cardholder

Tip: Use WalletFlo for all your credit card needs. It’s free and will help you optimize your rewards and savings!

Chase Ultimate Rewards

The Sapphire Preferred earns “Ultimate Rewards” that can all be transferred at a 1:1 ratio to a variety of travel partners listed below.

Airlines

British Airways Executive Club
Flying Blue (Air France/KLM)
Korean Air SKYPASS
Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards
United MileagePlus
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club

Hotels

Hyatt Gold Passport
IHG® Rewards Club
Marriott Rewards
The Ritz-Carlton Rewards

Which reward program is better?

Both programs have their strengths and weaknesses and lots could be written in a comparison between the two but here’s a brief look at some of the key highlights of the travel partners.

Membership Rewards

ANA – Super cheap redemptions, such as 88,000 miles in business class to Europe and very reasonable prices to other destinations like Asia (Japan), South America, Africa, etc.
Aeroplan – Good redemption rates to places like Europe and an easy way to avoid surcharges on Star Alliance partners, such as United Airlines.
Delta – Amex has several Delta credit cards making it easy to top off.
MilleMigilia Club Alitalia – Sometimes a little hassle involved with redeeming but excellent redemption rates to many places, such as South American and Africa.

Chase Ultimate Rewards

Korean Air – Super cheap redemptions, such as at 80,000 miles in business class to Europe and some of the best prices to Hawaii, South America, and the Caribbean.
British Airways – the 1:1 transfer ratio is superior to Membership Rewards and BA can be great for short-haul flights around the country or even getting to Europe and other places.
Southwest – Very cheap routes available to get around the country. If you obtain the Companion Pass and you essentially double the value making them a super-economical way to get around the US and Caribbean; miles can be quickly obtained with Chase Southwest cards.
United – Tons of flight options with huge network around the US and globe; miles can be quickly obtained with Chase United cards.

Membership Rewards and Chase Ultimate Rewards

Two partners overlap each program:

Singapore Airlines – Also a transfer partner of Citi; Singapore Airlines has a tremendous business class and first class products and some very reasonable redemption rates.
Flying Blue – Also a transfer partner of Citi; great way to book with SkyTeam partners to places like Europe.

A lot of people seem to favor Ultimate Rewards over Membership Rewards and value them a little higher. Aside from hotel partners, though, I’d put Membership Rewards right up there with Ultimate Rewards and argue that the winner would just depend on one’s personal circumstances.

Sign-up Bonus

The standard sign up bonus for the Chase Sapphire Preferred ranges from 40K to 50K, with an additional 5K for adding an authorized user. The sign-up bonus for the Premier Rewards Gold Card can range from 25K to 75K. The spend requirement for the Sapphire Preferred is typically higher at $4,000 while the Premier Rewards Gold Card’s spend requirement can fluctuate from $1,000 to $3,000.

I think I’d give the nod to the Sapphire Preferred since it seems like the standard offer is usually higher than the standard offer from the Premier Rewards Gold Card (the offers above 25K are usually targeted and the 75K offer is a highly targeted offer that is very rare).

Bonus category earning potential

Which card earns better bonus category earnings will obviously depend on your personal spending habits.

The cards earn the following rates:

Chase Sapphire Preferred

2X on Travel (This covers a broad range of expenses from tolls, parking, bus fairs, train tickets, and of course, air line tickets)
2X on Dining worldwide

Premier Rewards Gold

3X on Airline Tickets (4X through the Amex Portal)
2X on Dining (at US restaurants), Groceries, and Gas
$100 Airline credit for incidentals

If you spend a lot on airfare, groceries, and gas, it’s possible that the Premier Rewards Gold Card will be the better earner for you. However, the travel category on the Sapphire Preferred is very broad so it all depends on how you spend most of your money.

Bonus Point Potential with Additional Chase Cards

One of the major reasons I prefer the Sapphire Preferred over the Premier Rewards Gold Card is that you can supplement your earning with great no annual fee cards.

The Chase Freedom has no annual fee and rotating 5X bonus categories for things like gas, restaurants, Amazon, and other stores.
The Chase Freedom Unlimited has no annual fee and it earns 1.5X on every single purchase.
The Chase Ink+ (which can be downgraded to the Ink Cash with no annual fee) has 5X bonus categories on things like phone lines, cable, internet, and office supplies. The Ink+ also has 2X on gas and hotels.

Thus, the bonus earning potential with the combo of the Sapphire, the Freedoms, and the Ink cards are truly tremendous and if you go with the Ink Cash, it essentially transforms the Sapphire Preferred into a super card with a $95 annual fee that blows the Premier Rewards Gold Card out of the water from a bonus points standpoint.

You can combine the Premier Rewards Gold Card with the no fee Amex EveryDay and earn 2X at supermarkets up to $6K per year (in addition to a 20% monthly bonus), but you can’t put together the same type of no annual fee combination like you can with Chase cards.

Tip: Use WalletFlo for all your credit card needs. It’s free and will help you optimize your rewards and savings!

No Foreign Transaction Fees

Both cards have no foreign transaction fees which is really nice if you have travel abroad a lot because those foreign transaction fees can add up pretty quickly.

Purchase Protection

The purchase protection on both are pretty similar but the Premier Rewards Gold Card definitely edges out the Sapphire Preferred with its purchase protection up to $10,000! Here’s a breakdown of some of the highlights of the purchase protection plans of the cards. (Note: the list below is not comprehensive, to read up on all of the benefits, check the links below.)

Sapphire Preferred

Covers your new purchases for 120 days against damage or theft up to $500 per claim and $50,000 per account.
Extends the time period of the U.S. manufacturer’s warranty by an additional year, on eligible warranties of three years or less.
If a card purchase you made in the U.S. is advertised for less in print or online within 90 days, you can be reimbursed the difference up to $500 per item, $2,500 per year.
You can be reimbursed for eligible items that the store won’t take back within 90 days of purchase, up to $500 per item, $1,000 per year.

Premier Rewards Gold

Covers your new purchases for 90 days against damage or theft up to $10,000 per claim and $50,000 per account.
Extends the time period of the U.S. manufacturer’s warranty by an additional year, on eligible warranties of five years or less.
You can be reimbursed for eligible items that the store won’t take back within 90 days of purchase, up to $300 per item, $1,000 per year.

Travel Protection

Again, there are many similarities in the benefits for travel protection between these cards but I think I’d give the nod to Sapphire Preferred for the reason they offer primary rental car insurance and seem to offer better coverage for lost luggage and delays in travel. The below list is once again not comprehensive and only includes more info on CSP as Chase has a much more convenient way to access the terms of its protections.

Sapphire Preferred

Car rental coverage is primary and provides reimbursement up to the actual cash value of the vehicle for theft and collision damage for most rental cars in the U.S. and abroad.
When you pay for your air, bus, train or cruise transportation with your card, you are eligible to receive accidental death or dismemberment coverage of up to $500,000.
If you or your immediate family members’ checked or carry-on bags are damaged or lost by the carrier, you’re covered up to $3,000 per passenger.
If your trip is canceled or cut short by sickness, severe weather and other covered situations, you can be reimbursed up to $10,000 per trip for your pre-paid, non-refundable travel expenses, including passenger fares, tours, and hotels.
If your common carrier travel is delayed more than 12 hours or requires an overnight stay, you and your family are covered for unreimbursed expenses, such as meals and lodging, up to $500 per ticket.

Premier Rewards Gold

Car rental coverage is excess
Travel accident insurance of no more than $250,000 (death, dismemberment, etc.)
Will pay a benefit for the Replacement Cost, up to $500, for each Covered Person on a Covered Trip for Loss of checked Baggage.

Annual Fee

The annual fee for the Sapphire Preferred is $95 while the annual fee for the Premier Rewards Gold Card is $195, both are waived for the first year.

Obviously paying an extra $95 sounds like less of a bargain but remember that the Premier Rewards Gold Card has the annual $100 airline statement credit, which essentially reduces the fee to $95. And actually, the statement resets after the beginning of the year so if you time it right, you can actually get $200 in airline credit before your annual fee hits.

Customer Service

Amex has great customer service but the customer service for the Chase Sapphire Preferred is pretty outstanding as well. For example, when you call in for the Premier Rewards Gold Card you have enter in your credit card info and go through the motions to speak with someone but for the Chase Sapphire Preferred, a live representative picks up the phone almost always immediately when you call. As for receiving your card or a replacement, both providers will overnight your cards so that’s always nice. I’m not sure one beats out the other for customer service, but I do really like both in this regard.

Appearance

It’s a little silly to value a credit card based on how it looks but I don’t think there’s anything wrong in taking a little pride in how your cards look. The Premier Rewards Gold Card is a sparkly gold card with the signature American Express signage. It look prestigious and it’s one of my favorite to pull out of my wallet. However, the Chase Sapphire Preferred is on another level in my opinion. The card is made of metal and has a heavy feel to it that other instantly recognize and often comment on. The card even reads on the back, “Contains Metal DO NOT SHRED.”

It has a pretty dark blue design with embossed numbers on the back. There’s also no indication of Visa on the front of the card, which sometimes results in a couple of seconds of confusion/intrigue for cashiers when you hand them your card. So while the PRG is nice and sparkly, the Sapphire wins out on prestige appearance due to its metal composition and sleek design.

The Verdict

I think that for me the better card is the Chase Sapphire Preferred. However, if I didn’t have the Ink and the Freedom cards, then it wouldn’t be so clear. Still, I value Membership Rewards a lot so I think there’s plenty of value in the Premier Rewards Gold Card and that’s why I hold both of these cards.

Daniel Gillaspia

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