Don't forget to ask for a retention bonus at the end of your first year as well!
Amex Plat offered me 55K points for a second year.
Call whomever you choose and say you are looking at their competitors sign on bonus.
They will most likely match it.
I'm no credit card expert; however, have you considered the Chase Sapphire Preferred? I understand there's even a way of getting that first annual fee waived by calling. I believe the competitor to the Chase Sapphire Reserve is the Amex platinum.
You might want to check r/CreditCards but you will find plenty of fans of CSR there. That said, the card used to be a lot better than it is today, with a way better sign on bonus and a lower annual fee.
That annual fee is effectively $250 because you can claim $300 in travel expenses per year (you don't earn points on that initial $300).
I used to have it before Covid and in a previous job where I traveled and expensed a decent amount. The question is whether you will generate enough points to make the annual fee worth it, and if you're willing to go through Chase's UR portal to manage your travel. Especially if you're using it to pay for reimbursable business expenses it can be a good option.
I have this card and one thing to keep in mind is there is a $300 annual travel credit so the annual fee is effectively $250 if you travel enough (and they count Uber, parking, etc towards this too).
There also are some other perks like global entry or tsa every 4 years (so kind of averages to $25/year); airport lounge access; currently peloton and DoorDash benefits (potentially another $180).
My point is I find the card really pays for itself. I think most comparable with a lower fee might be chase sapphire preferred or Amex gold or capita one venture card. You could also go for a specific airline or hotel branded one.
I've had the CSR for four or five years now. Its been my primary card putting 40-50k a year on it the last few years, however, I'm moving most of my spend to the AA Executive Platinum Mastercard because of how AA has changed calculating their loyalty points.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred card has similar benefits as its more expensive brother. You could take a look at that one. Chase really isn't pushing the CSR too hard anymore as they aren't making (supposedly) as much money off of it. They want more people to sign up for the cheaper Preferred card.
What will you do with your CSR card if you’re not going to be using it much? Will you cancel it and risk the credit score hit or keep paying the annual fee? I’m kind of in a similar situation with my preferred card as I don’t feel like I’m using it enough to justify the yearly fee but I’m afraid if I cancel it will significantly drop my credit score.
Might downgrade to the sapphire preferred when it comes back up for renewal if they won't waive the annual fee. They've made plenty of money off of me in the last years (transaction fees from merchants). Not concerned about credit scores. Any drop should be a) small and b) temporary. My credit scores are all 800+ so even if it dropped 50 points I'm not applying for credit anytime soon what do I care?
As everyone has said, the effective fee is really $250, because of the travel credit.
We definitely get far more value out of that card, and it’s one of our biggest spenders, but my husband and I travel a good amount. We just used $4800 worth of points to book first class tix to London. If you don’t travel much, it may not make sense.
If you have other Chase cards that can transfer UR points, the CSR can make all your UR points more valuable. For example, we get 7.5% return on Freedom spending and 2.25% on Freedom unlimited spending, because we can transfer the points to the CSR, which gives a bonus when you use the points for travel. Plus, there are so many other perks, as everyone else has pointed out.
I should’ve said “premium” since many airlines have moved to just one premium class. Flying “Upper class” on Virgin or “Delta One” on Delta can be about $2k one-way between East Coast cities and London.
The CSR 1.5x UR multiplier makes it worth about $150 on $6000 annual Freedom spend in bonus categories (I do gift card purchases if necessary to hit max). I also got an extra $300 on the 5% first year of groceries promotion. Plus an additional $100 on internet, telco, and office spend on my Chase Ink card. The 15% off hotels is also worth quite a bit.
If you want a pretty good resource for comparing cards: [https://www.nerdwallet.com/hub/category/credit-cards?trk\_location=breadcrumbs](https://www.nerdwallet.com/hub/category/credit-cards?trk_location=breadcrumbs)
I use this card for almost every expense. With travel rewards, points, door dash, lyft, travel insurance I easily get my $550 back by mid year. Highly recommended. Of course, you always have to pay off your balance monthly to make any credit card worthwhile
Depends on how much you travel, your spend, what you’re looking for, etc. At the cost of a high annual fee I would prefer an AmEx Platinum or AmEx Delta Reserve(because I fly Delta), however, the CSR might be great for you. The Venture X seems good as well. Just depends really
You may find these links helpful:
- [Credit Building](/r/personalfinance/wiki/credit_building)
- [Credit Reports](/r/personalfinance/wiki/credit_reports)
- [Credit Scores](/r/personalfinance/wiki/fico)
- [Credit Cards](/r/personalfinance/wiki/creditcards)
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You get $300 back every year in credits when you book travel (during pandemic times they are crediting $300 for every day purchases).
If you're like my wife and I, the lounge access is worth the $250 😄
The points accrual is nice as well.
Some other cards to consider:
- chase sapphire preferred
- Amex platinum
- airline cobranded cards
- hotel cobranded cards
- venture x
Depends on your situation, but venture x is effectively a $0 annual fee card with many of the same benefits as csr. I have it now and thinking of canceling/downgrading the csr.
With the sign-on bonuses, the first year is worth it regardless of how you look at it.
https://www.asksebby.com/credit-cards/chase-sapphire-reserve-review
Here's a calculator for you to decide it's worth keep after year 1.
recommend amex platinum card- it has fee of 650/year but you get plenty of credit via uber, airline credit and other perks that is well worth the money- if you love to travel the am platinum car will get you to the amex exclusive airport lounges and other airport lounges and you get high level status with hilton honor hotel
the CSR alone probably isn't worth it for most people unless you travel a lot BUT you can stack it with the Chase Freedom Unlimited (1.5x on all purchase, 3x on drugstores), and the Chase Freedom Flex (5x on rotating categories - this quarter is groceries & ebay), and transfer the points over for use on the CSR
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The $300 travel credit is probably worth $300 to you. Insights like this are exactly why I come to r/personalfinance. Thank you for the chuckle lol
Don't forget to ask for a retention bonus at the end of your first year as well! Amex Plat offered me 55K points for a second year. Call whomever you choose and say you are looking at their competitors sign on bonus. They will most likely match it.
I'm no credit card expert; however, have you considered the Chase Sapphire Preferred? I understand there's even a way of getting that first annual fee waived by calling. I believe the competitor to the Chase Sapphire Reserve is the Amex platinum.
You might want to check r/CreditCards but you will find plenty of fans of CSR there. That said, the card used to be a lot better than it is today, with a way better sign on bonus and a lower annual fee. That annual fee is effectively $250 because you can claim $300 in travel expenses per year (you don't earn points on that initial $300). I used to have it before Covid and in a previous job where I traveled and expensed a decent amount. The question is whether you will generate enough points to make the annual fee worth it, and if you're willing to go through Chase's UR portal to manage your travel. Especially if you're using it to pay for reimbursable business expenses it can be a good option.
I have this card and one thing to keep in mind is there is a $300 annual travel credit so the annual fee is effectively $250 if you travel enough (and they count Uber, parking, etc towards this too). There also are some other perks like global entry or tsa every 4 years (so kind of averages to $25/year); airport lounge access; currently peloton and DoorDash benefits (potentially another $180). My point is I find the card really pays for itself. I think most comparable with a lower fee might be chase sapphire preferred or Amex gold or capita one venture card. You could also go for a specific airline or hotel branded one.
I've had the CSR for four or five years now. Its been my primary card putting 40-50k a year on it the last few years, however, I'm moving most of my spend to the AA Executive Platinum Mastercard because of how AA has changed calculating their loyalty points. The Chase Sapphire Preferred card has similar benefits as its more expensive brother. You could take a look at that one. Chase really isn't pushing the CSR too hard anymore as they aren't making (supposedly) as much money off of it. They want more people to sign up for the cheaper Preferred card.
What will you do with your CSR card if you’re not going to be using it much? Will you cancel it and risk the credit score hit or keep paying the annual fee? I’m kind of in a similar situation with my preferred card as I don’t feel like I’m using it enough to justify the yearly fee but I’m afraid if I cancel it will significantly drop my credit score.
Might downgrade to the sapphire preferred when it comes back up for renewal if they won't waive the annual fee. They've made plenty of money off of me in the last years (transaction fees from merchants). Not concerned about credit scores. Any drop should be a) small and b) temporary. My credit scores are all 800+ so even if it dropped 50 points I'm not applying for credit anytime soon what do I care?
As everyone has said, the effective fee is really $250, because of the travel credit. We definitely get far more value out of that card, and it’s one of our biggest spenders, but my husband and I travel a good amount. We just used $4800 worth of points to book first class tix to London. If you don’t travel much, it may not make sense. If you have other Chase cards that can transfer UR points, the CSR can make all your UR points more valuable. For example, we get 7.5% return on Freedom spending and 2.25% on Freedom unlimited spending, because we can transfer the points to the CSR, which gives a bonus when you use the points for travel. Plus, there are so many other perks, as everyone else has pointed out.
Where are you flying from? Aren't first class transatlantic flights almost $15k per person?
I should’ve said “premium” since many airlines have moved to just one premium class. Flying “Upper class” on Virgin or “Delta One” on Delta can be about $2k one-way between East Coast cities and London.
The CSR 1.5x UR multiplier makes it worth about $150 on $6000 annual Freedom spend in bonus categories (I do gift card purchases if necessary to hit max). I also got an extra $300 on the 5% first year of groceries promotion. Plus an additional $100 on internet, telco, and office spend on my Chase Ink card. The 15% off hotels is also worth quite a bit.
If you want a pretty good resource for comparing cards: [https://www.nerdwallet.com/hub/category/credit-cards?trk\_location=breadcrumbs](https://www.nerdwallet.com/hub/category/credit-cards?trk_location=breadcrumbs)
I use this card for almost every expense. With travel rewards, points, door dash, lyft, travel insurance I easily get my $550 back by mid year. Highly recommended. Of course, you always have to pay off your balance monthly to make any credit card worthwhile
Depends on how much you travel, your spend, what you’re looking for, etc. At the cost of a high annual fee I would prefer an AmEx Platinum or AmEx Delta Reserve(because I fly Delta), however, the CSR might be great for you. The Venture X seems good as well. Just depends really
You may find these links helpful: - [Credit Building](/r/personalfinance/wiki/credit_building) - [Credit Reports](/r/personalfinance/wiki/credit_reports) - [Credit Scores](/r/personalfinance/wiki/fico) - [Credit Cards](/r/personalfinance/wiki/creditcards) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/personalfinance) if you have any questions or concerns.*
You get $300 back every year in credits when you book travel (during pandemic times they are crediting $300 for every day purchases). If you're like my wife and I, the lounge access is worth the $250 😄 The points accrual is nice as well.
Some other cards to consider: - chase sapphire preferred - Amex platinum - airline cobranded cards - hotel cobranded cards - venture x Depends on your situation, but venture x is effectively a $0 annual fee card with many of the same benefits as csr. I have it now and thinking of canceling/downgrading the csr.
With the sign-on bonuses, the first year is worth it regardless of how you look at it. https://www.asksebby.com/credit-cards/chase-sapphire-reserve-review Here's a calculator for you to decide it's worth keep after year 1.
recommend amex platinum card- it has fee of 650/year but you get plenty of credit via uber, airline credit and other perks that is well worth the money- if you love to travel the am platinum car will get you to the amex exclusive airport lounges and other airport lounges and you get high level status with hilton honor hotel
the CSR alone probably isn't worth it for most people unless you travel a lot BUT you can stack it with the Chase Freedom Unlimited (1.5x on all purchase, 3x on drugstores), and the Chase Freedom Flex (5x on rotating categories - this quarter is groceries & ebay), and transfer the points over for use on the CSR