Update: Somebody mentioned that application links regularly do not work during the weekend, so the Chase Sapphire no annual fee card will most likely be sticking around. It is strange that the Fairmont offer is redirecting though.
Chase looks to have made a number of changes to it’s credit card line up. Below we have a look at those changes:
- Chase Sapphire Preferred no longer has a 7% annual dividend. This has been replaced by primary car rental insurance. Existing cardholders will have their 7% dividend paid out in February of 2015 and again in 2016 according to MMS. Trip cancellation and interruption coverage is also doubling.
- The Chase Fairmont card is no longer available. Chase has removed most mentions of it from their website and all the applications redirect to http://creditcards.chase.com/
- Similarly the Chase Sapphire (no annual fee) card no longer has working application links. These don’t redirect so we’re not sure if this is an intentional change from Chase or not.
- Chase Freedom is also back up to $175/17,500 points from $125/12,500 points, read our coverage of this here.
Our Thoughts
I actually see the Chase Sapphire Preferred change as an upgrade, keeping the card past the first year and paying an annual fee is not worth it. Unless you’re getting an insanely highly return on your airline/hotel points you’d be better off using a cash back card that earns at a high rate on every day purchases, for restaurant spend and other category bonuses you’re even better off going with another card. Not many cards come with primary rental insurance (the only one I can think of are the United cards from Chase) so this could be a useful benefit for those who are renting.
The Chase Fairmont card being removed is a real downer, I hope this is only a temporary removal or another card company plans to pick up the Fairmont relationship instead (hopefully somebody who is generous with approvals and doesn’t already have a bunch of awesome sign up bonuses). This was one of the most underrated sign up bonuses for a hotel card, giving you two free nights at any Fairmont location and a card we had plan to give more attention to in the near future.
The Chase Sapphire no annual fee being removed is a bit of a nothing change to be honest, if you downgrade your Sapphire Preferred you should be doing it to a Freedom card anyway so you can increase the amount you can spend in the 5% categories (this is an easy way to get multiple Freedom cards).
Overall these changes are pretty disappointing, Chase was smart to add a benefit whilst removing one to make it seem like a net positive. I’d take this opportunity to evaluate whether paying the annual fee on the Chase Sapphire Preferred is really your best option, chances are it isn’t. Hopefully this motivates more of you to research more and find the best card combination for your unique situation.
What do you think of these changes? Let us know in the comments.
Thank you MMath….I think I’ll transfer my UR pts to his account and close my card. I only about 55k left in there and only 12k in the Citi TY. I’ll just gift card the TYout and close it tomorrow before the next $125 fee hits. Maybe not the best use of the pts, but I’d rather just get rid of it. I think I should apply for the Freedom instead of downgrading the next time the bonus goes up a little??
I downgraded my wife from the CSP to the Chase Freedom after the first year to use strategically for the 5x categories and kept my CSP and made my wife an authorized user since a majority of my non-MS spend is dining and travel expenses (restaurants, metro, taxis, hotels, flights, rental cars). Make sure the value you’re getting from the 2x UR points less the $95 fee exceeds that of the 2% Fidelity with no fee, though. You probably need at least $10K of 2x spend per year assuming $0.015/UR for the CSP to be worthwhile.
But CSP also increased the value of your freedom card points. You should take that into consideration too.
This +1000. I get annoyed every time I see a blogger buck the trend by bashing the CSP.
The way I see it, unless you are willing to sign up for a new premium Chase card every year, you need to pay at least one annual fee per year to be able to trade points for miles. So you need the Ink Bold, Plus, or CSP.
The problem with the Ink cards is that they are identical to the no-fee Ink cards in every way other than the bonus category limit. Since you can have more than one no-fee (Cash+Classic) it’s pretty easy to move past those limits with the no-fee cards. And, moreover, I wouldn’t want to spend more than 50K a year at Office Supply stores because that would probably draw too much attention. Sure there are a few other benefits to the premium Ink, but nothing noteworthy.
With the CSP, at least you get something that a no-fee card holder doesn’t–a 7% dividend (at least for the next two years). Sure, it’s not the end of the world–especially if you already get 10% on the Freedom–but it can be useful when you are getting 2x. More useful than the Ink’s benefit.
What am I missing? What premium Chase card is more worth paying the annual fee on? Or are you suggesting we just churn Chase annually.
Well you have two options:
1. Transfer your points over to a partner you plan to use anyway
2. Cycle through the three cards that can transfer with
Admittedly option #1 makes your Freedom points less valuable as you can’t transfer those, but I don’t think it damages it by $95/yr. I currently do #2. There are three Chase cards that can transfer UR points and it looks like you can churn Chase cards every 2 years, so I don’t really see the point in not doing that.
If you’re happy paying the annual fee, great. I don’t think it’s worth it personally, but I put the majority of my spend through bonused categories anyway where I get 5% cash back which I value at a lot more than 1 or even 2 chase points.
My husband and I have both paid the fee for four years….they never waive it. I’m thinking I should transfer my UR pts to him and then cancel mine and apply for a Freedom. Or should the Freedom be in the same name as the CSP so the pts can be transferred without issue? We are over 1k in annual fees for cards. I think it’s defeating my purpose.
$1,000 in annual fees per year is way way to much. What cards do you currently have open? I’d recommend scaling back to only no annual fee cards and at most one or two cards with an annual fee.
There are some cards where the annual fee is worth it (e.g the IHG card with it’s free anniversary night) but $1,000 is a lot of money.
Three Exec..and I paid the $250 for each one (still trying to meet spend on the third) one Citi TY (will cancel), two USAir, two Citi AA, IHG, Marriott, SPG and two CPS. Yeah, I’m WELL over 1k. Shoot.