Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card review: Good for budget-conscious travelers
Editors’ take: The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is an excellent choice for occasional travelers, offering a generous sign-up bonus and strong ongoing rewards rates and travel credits, all for a reasonable annual fee.
Great for maximizing travel rewards
Annual Fee: $95
The average credit score for members who have matched with this card or similar cards is 715
The average credit limit for members who have matched with this card or similar cards is $17,513
Explore more about this card:
Here’s the average credit limit of members who matched their Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card or similar cards.
% of members by credit limit range
The average credit limit for members who have matched with this card or similar cards is $17,513, with $5,000 being the most common.
Here’s the average credit score of members who matched their Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card or similar cards.
% of members by credit score range
The average credit score for members who have matched with this card or similar cards is 715, with 810 being the most common. Note this is just one of the deciding factors when it comes to getting approved.
This content is curated by Intuit Credit Karma’s Editorial team using data from members who were approved for this card or similar cards, or who self-matched this card or similar cards. Intuit Credit Karma receives compensation from third-party advertisers, but that doesn’t affect our editors’ opinions. Our third-party advertisers don’t review, approve or endorse this content. Information about financial products not offered on Credit Karma is collected independently. Our content is accurate to the best of our knowledge when posted.
Member stats
Updated daily
25.2%
Average credit utilization (or what percent of the card’s credit limit is being used) of members who matched with this card or similar cards.
41 years
Average age of members who matched this card or similar cards.
$122,981
Average annual income of members who matched this card or similar cards. Note: Income may be estimated for some members by Credit Karma and may differ from members’ actual incomes.
Pros and cons
Image: yesBig sign-up bonus
Image: yesModest annual fee
Image: yesGood rewards rates for travel and dining at restaurants
Image: ConNo access to airport lounges
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card review
Updated September 30, 2026
This date may not reflect recent changes in individual terms.
Written by: Ben Luthi
Edited by: Liza Carrasquillo, Editor, Credit Cards
Is the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card worth it?
Editors’ take: The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is an excellent choice for occasional travelers, offering a generous sign-up bonus and strong ongoing rewards rates and travel credits, all for a reasonable annual fee.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is an excellent mid-tier travel card for people who are just getting started with travel rewards.
It lacks the premium travel benefits that come with top-tier travel cards, but it still offers access to a long list of travel partners. The card’s rewards rates also make it easy to earn points on things like travel, dining, gas, groceries and even select streaming services.
While this card does come with a $95 annual fee, you can generally offset it through hotel credits and partner benefits.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card at a glance
- Annual fee: $95
- Sign-up bonus: 75,000 bonus points when you spend $5,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening
- Editors’ estimated welcome bonus value: $863
- Standout benefit: Up to $100 in statement credits each anniversary year for hotel stays booked through Chase Travel℠
- Standout rewards rate: Earn 5 points per $1 spent on Chase Travel
- Foreign transaction fee: $0
Pros
- Big sign-up bonus potential
- Good rewards rates for travel, dining, gas, online groceries and streaming services
- Valuable hotel and TSA PreCheck/Global Entry/Nexus statement credits
Cons
- No premium travel perks
- Low base rewards rate
- Charges an annual fee
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card best perks and features
Potential for a large sign-up bonus
As a new cardholder, you can earn 75,000 bonus points when you spend $5,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. According to Credit Karma’s estimated standard valuations for the card, that’s worth about $863 toward travel.
If you can comfortably hit the spending requirement within the allotted timeframe, that’s a great potential welcome bonus.
Excellent rewards rates within a strong rewards program
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card offers a variety of ways to earn points for category spending, which can help you take advantage of that high-value redemption potential:
- 5 points per $1 spent on Chase Travel (your first $100 spent on hotel stays will be credited back to you, but you won’t earn points on that spending)
- 3 points per $1 spent on dining purchases
- 3 points per $1 spent at gas stations and on EV charging
- 3 points per $1 spent on vacation homes at top brands
- 3 points per $1 spent on top streaming services
- 3 points per $1 spent on online grocery services (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- 2 points per $1 spent on all other travel purchases
- 1 point per $1 spent on all other purchases
Solid mid-tier travel insurance and statement credits
While you won’t get any luxury benefits like airport lounge access or flexible travel credits, the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card offers enough value to offset its annual fee for people who travel a few times a year. The card offers the following valuable and easy-to-use credits:
- Up to $100 in statement credits each anniversary year for hotel stays booked through Chase Travel. If you stay at a hotel even one or two nights a year, this credit alone will offset the $95 annual fee.
- Up to $120 in a statement credit every four years toward an application fee for Global Entry, TSA PreCheck or Nexus. These programs can make it easier to travel through airports, especially if you’re traveling internationally.
Another standout travel benefit is the card’s auto rental coverage. Many travel credit cards come with secondary auto rental coverage, meaning your personal or rental insurance would have to kick in first before you can take advantage of the card’s insurance. The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card provides primary auto rental coverage, so you won’t have to use your personal insurance before taking advantage of this perk.
This card also comes with the following travel protections that could save you money:
- Trip cancellation and interruption insurance
- Trip delay reimbursement
- Baggage delay insurance
- Lost luggage reimbursement
- Emergency evacuation and transportation
- Travel accident insurance
- Roadside assistance
Limited-time promotions that can help offset the first-year annual fee
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is primarily a travel card, but it also adds a few lifestyle perks to the mix. These perks can help offset the card’s annual fee for the first year you have it, giving you time to determine how well the card fits with your spending and travel habits.
- Complimentary one-year Apple TV subscription when you activate by Dec. 31, 2026 ($156 value)
- Complimentary DoorDash DashPass membership for 12 months when you activate by Dec. 31, 2027 ($120 value)
- 5 points per $1 on Lyft rides through Sept. 30, 2027
- 5 points per $1 on eligible Peloton equipment and accessory purchases over $150 through Dec. 31, 2027
What are the drawbacks of Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card?
No premium travel perks
Mid-tier travel credit cards don’t generally give you a string of premium benefits like airport lounge access or elite status with hotel brands, and the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is no exception.
If you travel frequently and want to elevate your trip experiences, it’s worth comparing this card’s perks to what you could get with a card like the Chase Sapphire Reserve® or American Express Platinum Card®.
Low base rewards rate
The card has a lot of categories that earn elevated rewards rates, but even if you spend a lot in those areas, most of your expenses will likely earn the card’s base rewards rate of just one point per $1 spent.
You might not earn as much as you think in those categories with elevated rewards rates, either. For example, the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card offers three points per $1 spent on online grocery services, excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs. But, if you prefer grocery shopping in person, then your grocery purchases would earn only one point per $1 spent.
Depending on your situation, it could make sense to pair the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card with a flat-rate rewards card that offers more than one point per $1 on purchases to ensure that you’re always maximizing your rewards.
Charges an annual fee
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card has a $95 annual fee. If you take advantage of the hotel credit, you’d be able to offset that cost each year.
That said, you won’t get as much value from this card if you don’t like the idea of booking through the card’s travel portal or staying in hotels. Plus, the annual fee is still an expense you’ll need to fit into your budget.
Is the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card worth the annual fee?
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is generally worth its $95 annual fee if you can take advantage of enough perks or earn enough rewards points to offset it. If you’re a casual traveler, this should be relatively easy to do.
For example, let’s say you spend $2,000 a year on travel booked through the Chase Travel portal, with at least $100 of that going to a hotel booking. Because you don’t earn points on the money offset by the hotel credit, you’d earn five points per $1 on $1,900 worth of travel. You’d earn a total of 9,500 points, worth $95 when redeemed at just 1 cent per point.
In this example, you not only earned enough points to offset the fee, but you also used a travel perk that could offset it, as well.
If you’re still not sure you’d get enough value from the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card relative to its annual fee, compare it to other Chase credit cards before you apply.
How to redeem points for the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Chase Ultimate Rewards points are worth an average of 1.15 cents each, according to Credit Karma’s estimated standard valuations. If you’re a seasoned cardholder who likes to maximize the value you get from a credit card, you could earn an estimated average of 1.68 cents per point.
You’ll generally get the most value out of your points by redeeming them for travel. Most travel redemptions give you 1 cent per point, but some bookings qualify for a points boost of up to 1.5 cents per point. You’ll also have the option to transfer your points to 10 frequent flyer programs and four hotel loyalty programs, most at a 1:1 ratio. But note that Chase can change these ratios at its discretion.
You can also redeem your rewards for cash back, gift cards and select merchandise, as well as statement credits for individual purchases. These redemption options have a minimum value of 1 cent per point, but you can sometimes get a higher rate, depending on what promotions are available.
Use Credit Karma’s Cards Optimizer tool to help you get the most value out of your cards.
Other cards to consider
- Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card: Consider this option if you want a simpler rewards program that maximizes your miles on all spending.
- Citi Strata Premier® Card: This card can be a good choice if you want travel perks and more flexible grocery rewards.
- Chase Sapphire Reserve®: This card may be a better choice for frequent travelers who want luxury perks.
Credit Karma’s methodology
Credit Karma uses qualitative and quantitative measures to review travel and premium credit cards. Our goal is to help you understand a card’s most useful features — and where it may fall short compared to other options.
We take into account factors such as unique rewards and benefits, ease of redeeming rewards, fees and rates, transfer partners, lounge access and rewards rates.
Credit Karma editors have also built some proprietary metrics to measure the value of rewards credit cards.
Our point valuations estimate how much rewards programs are worth. We look at both the value you could get by redeeming your points directly through a credit card issuer, as well as the value you could get by transferring your points and miles to an airline or hotel rewards program.
Instead of just telling you how many miles you could earn, the editors’ estimated bonus value multiplies the sign-up bonus by the reward program’s point valuations to tell you how much we believe they’re worth.
Our goal is that these metrics will help you decide whether the card’s rewards and benefits are worth it for you.
FAQs about the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Chase doesn’t publicly disclose a minimum credit score requirement for the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card. Most of our members who report having the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card or similar cards have good or excellent credit scores. But credit scores alone don’t generally guarantee approval — lenders often look at other factors, like your debt-to-income ratio, and have their own internal rules for determining eligibility.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is a great choice for casual travelers, or even as a beginner card for people who are just starting to get into travel rewards. But if you’re a frequent traveler or someone looking for more luxury perks a premium travel card may be a better fit.
The main differences come down to cost and benefits. With the Chase Sapphire Reserve®, you’ll pay a relatively high annual fee, but you’ll also get premium travel perks like lounge access and a long list of other travel and lifestyle credits. The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, on the other hand, has a more affordable annual fee and fewer perks, which is better suited for casual and budget-conscious travelers.
No. It’s not required to be an existing Chase banking or credit card customer to get approved for the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card.
If you no longer want the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, consider switching to a card with no annual fee, like the Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the Chase Freedom Flex®. Depending on your situation, you may be able to downgrade your Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card to one of these cards.