Chase Sapphire Preferred Travel Rewards- WORTH THE $95 if your mustacian?

[BeanCounter]

 We charge about $2,000 per month on our CC for convenience. Is switching to the Chase Sapphire preferred and paying the $95 a year fee worth it? We currently have a Citi Card that offers $300 cash back annually for no fee.

[ditkanate]

It's worth it to get the initial signup bonus even if you end up cancelling the card, which if you do within 30 days of when the fee hits they refund it.  You can also call them in that 30 day window and downgrade to a different card that doesn't have an annual fee. 

[ketchup]

The $95/yr fee is waived for the first year, too.  I got mine in February and I'll probably keep it past the first year as it's my only card that provides *primary* rental car coverage.  If it didn't or I didn't care about that, I'd probably dump/downgrade it after year 1.  It depends on how much value you derive from its (numerous but often narrowly appealing) benefits.

[boarder42]

you should be churning cards with that kinda spend.

[BeanCounter]

you should be churning cards with that kinda spend.

meaning we should be changing our cards around during the year to achieve different bonuses? I haven't looked into this much to understand exactly how it works because it seems like a lot of work.

[solon]

Spending $2000/mo should yield $20/mo cash back. $20/mo is $240/year. Is it worth spending $95 to earn $240? You decide.

[dividendman]

you should be churning cards with that kinda spend.

meaning we should be changing our cards around during the year to achieve different bonuses? I haven't looked into this much to understand exactly how it works because it seems like a lot of work.

Haha, what? Your alias is BeanCounter.... this should be right up your alley!

[ditkanate]

you should be churning cards with that kinda spend.

meaning we should be changing our cards around during the year to achieve different bonuses? I haven't looked into this much to understand exactly how it works because it seems like a lot of work.

Absolutely.  Even if you don't use the Sapphire points on travel, the 50,000 signup bonus is worth $500.  And you'd meet the minimum spend in 2 months at $2k / month.  There are other ways to hit the minimum spend to get bonuses if you don't have enough normal spend to hit them.  There's a whole internet rabbit hole you can fall down with churning CC's and bank accounts.  Depends on your interest level and organizational skills.  But it is definitely worth the time. 

[BeanCounter]

It's worth it to get the initial signup bonus even if you end up cancelling the card, which if you do within 30 days of when the fee hits they refund it.  You can also call them in that 30 day window and downgrade to a different card that doesn't have an annual fee.

Cool. Downgrading may make sense to me.

Found an article on credit card churning. I might be able to do six months on old card and six months on the Chase card and get higher rewards without much pain.

[BeanCounter]

you should be churning cards with that kinda spend.

meaning we should be changing our cards around during the year to achieve different bonuses? I haven't looked into this much to understand exactly how it works because it seems like a lot of work.

Haha, what? Your alias is BeanCounter.... this should be right up your alley!

Oh it is. I'm just still in the 'stache building phase so full time jobs and kids eat up most my time!! 1-2 more years though and I can spend all the time I want counting my own beans instead of someone else's.

[boarder42]

you should be churning cards with that kinda spend.

meaning we should be changing our cards around during the year to achieve different bonuses? I haven't looked into this much to understand exactly how it works because it seems like a lot of work.

Haha, what? Your alias is BeanCounter.... this should be right up your alley!

Oh it is. I'm just still in the 'stache building phase so full time jobs and kids eat up most my time!! 1-2 more years though and I can spend all the time I want counting my own beans instead of someone else's.

this takes little to no time to do.  esp if you have 2k that could be churned per month.

1. sign up for card -10mins
2. receive card
3. put spending on card
4. meet minimum spend
5. cancel card - 10 mins
6 repeat with new card.

[LifeHappens]

The $95/yr fee is waived for the first year, too.  I got mine in February and I'll probably keep it past the first year as it's my only card that provides *primary* rental car coverage.  If it didn't or I didn't care about that, I'd probably dump/downgrade it after year 1.  It depends on how much value you derive from its (numerous but often narrowly appealing) benefits.

Can vouch for this benefit 100%. I had TWO separate incidents where my rental car was hit in a parking lot, involving two different rental companies last year. I submitted my paperwork to the insurance agency and it was handled within a month each time. No money out of pocket.

Since spend a bit, I second Boarder's advice. I'm not a super travel hacker, but DH and I each get 2-3 new cards every year for travel bonuses.

I've also found the Chase portal quite reasonably priced for booking travel. I was concerned they would inflate prices so they could "give" you the bonus $0.20 per point, but their prices are comparable to what you find on the major travel portals.

[frugaliknowit]

Optimally, you use up the 50K points before the annual fee is due, then dump the card...

I got mine last August, flew from Chiacago to Vancouver, then flew Chicago to NY (had to pay about $60,,,), now drained, will dump, then look for another card.

[catccc]

The part of churning that takes time is vacation planning.  At least for me.  I spend a lot of time trying to use all those bonus points in a way that maximizes their value.  You could just cash out and be done with it, rather then spending oodles of time reading blogs to maximize point value, though.

We don't spend nearly that much so we need to time expenses to get our minimum spend in.  I've decided we won't be doing any manufactured spend, so timing card application takes a bit of thought.

All in all, I think it's a good thing to do if you can stay on top of details, like hitting min. spend requirements, cancelling cards timely, etc.