Deal of the Day: Get a $50 cash bonus with the Discover More Card. Discover also offers cash back rewards up to 5%, a 0% balance transfer for up to 12 months, and no annual fee. Check out our Discover More $50 bonus review or get more details from Discover at www.discover.com/bonus50.
Chase Sapphire(SM) Review
If you’re alive and have access to a television set, then you’ve probably heard of the Chase Sapphire(SM). I’m pretty sure a law recently passed in the United States that requires every cable TV channel to air 500 daily commercials for the Chase Sapphire(SM), but the details in those commercials are a little fuzzy. Because the card starts you out with 10,000 bonus points and carries no annual fee, we thought it was worth reviewing.
Unlike other banks during the recession, JP Morgan Chase remained somewhat stable. While Bank of America and Citibank continue to report losses and layoffs, Chase has stayed out of the spotlight, performing business as usual. This of course is not to say that Chase has sailed along during the recession unscathed, but they were well positioned enough to maintain a level of strength throughout. Strong enough is Chase, that they’ve introduced a new group of credit cards that includes Chase Freedom(SM) (a cash back card), Slate(SM) from Chase (a 0% Intro APR card), and now Chase Sapphire(SM) (a points credit card).
Looking at the reward structure for the Chase Sapphire(SM), it’s fairly straightforward as 100 points is generally equal to $1 in rewards, making the card a 1% rewards card. Chase recently decided to configure a one stop shop for rewards called Chase Ultimate Rewards where all Chase cards generate the same rewards points that can be combined and redeemed for merchandise, cash back, travel and more. The Chase Sapphire(SM) has the following opportunities available for rewards points:
- Earn $100 in rewards – that’s 10,000 bonus points after your first purchase!
- Redeem points for travel, gift cards, merchandise, cash back and more
- 2X points earned on airfare booked through Ultimate Rewards & 1 point for every dollar spent on all other purchases
- Points never expire and there are no limits on how many points you can earn
- 24/7 Dedicated service advisors (No voice recording)
- Premier travel and purchase protection benefits
- All of this for no annual fee!
In addition to the standard rewards program, Chase Sapphire(SM) offers 10,000 bonus points after your first purchase. Essentially, Chase is giving you a $100 bonus reward after your first purchase, which is certainly a nice chunk of change! The points are credited six to eight weeks after your first purchase, so if you don’t see them right away, not to worry, they will be there.
In regard to balance transfers, the Chase Sapphire(SM) offers no introductory offer. If you are looking to transfer balances, check out our list of 0% balance transfers for 12 months or our more complete list of balance transfer offers.
Since October of 2008, credit card issuers have continued to scale back rewards and introductory offers while increasing APR’s and fees. Recent legislation has limited the ways in which a credit card issuer can cost you more money, however this also means that issuers like Chase, Citibank, Discover and others need to find other ways of becoming profitable. It’s going to be rare in the near future to find a credit card that offers free cash for signing up and backs it with a pretty low APR so you should take advantage of the Chase Sapphire(SM) now, while the offer is still around.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
The Sapphire Card also includes the new set of Blueprint tools which allow you to customize how you pay your balance off, and what items you pay off first. Although this sounds like a marketing gimmick at first we actually found the tools to be quite useful, especially the Split tool which allows you to take a larger purchase and create a custom repayment plan for it. Basically you select how much you want to pay each month and it will calculate how long repayment will take and track your progress.
I actually had a discussion about this card with a Chase pesonal banker some time ago. It is a nice card, but if you look beyond the hard sell, there is a long ways to go before it can match the Citi Premier Pass World Elite rewards card where not only you get points for the $s you spend on airfare, but you also get points for the actual miles flown. And the flier doesn’t even have to be you as long as the flight is booked on your card.
Arohan, the Citi Premier Pass is a really good card. The big difference to me is that there is no annual fee for the Sapphire card while Citi Premier Pass has a $75 annual fee. So you just have to evaluate how you’ll use the card to determine if the annual fee makes sense.
Yeah it looks like credit card rewards are going to take a backseat once the new credit card laws take effect on Feb 22nd.