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Application Link: Chase Sapphire Reserve
Tomorrow marks the day we’ve been expecting for a while now — the Chase Sapphire Reserve online bonus will drop from its current offer of 100,000 points after you spend $4,000 in the first three months. Through the rest of today and much of tomorrow, though, you’ll still be able to earn the full 100,000-point bonus when you sign up for the card here. If you’ve been considering adding CSR to your wallet, now’s the time to act.
I addressed a bunch of outstanding questions in my Facebook Live chat last night (which you can catch in full above), but if you still have some doubts about whether the card is the best fit for you, I wanted to run through some of our top coverage over the past few months to help ease your concerns.
Concern #1: The card comes along with a $450 annual fee.
Yes, $450 is an awful lot to pay for one credit card each year, but the Chase Sapphire Reserve offers a tremendous incentive that helps offset this fee each year. Each calendar year, you’ll receive a $300 annual travel credit — remember that your $450 fee is billed based on the cardmember year, so if you sign up now you’ll get the $300 travel credit this year (2017) and in your first billing period of 2018 (which may hit in December of this year). This credit applies to flights, hotel stays, car rentals and so much more, and it posts within a day or so of your charge.
Concern #2: I don’t think I can spend $4,000 within the first three months.
If you’re certain you won’t be able to take advantage of the bonus right now, it makes sense to wait — the card will still be worthwhile even after the bonus drops to 50,000 points, and you should still be able to get the 100,000-point offer when you apply in a Chase branch by March 12. While visiting a branch certainly requires much more effort than applying online, it’s worth the extra work if you’ll be in a better position to spend the $4,000 later this winter. That said, it’s also worth pointing out that the out-of-pocket spend is actually $3,700, rather than $4,000, since the $300 you spend on travel that’s offset by the annual credit will count toward the bonus. And the credit posts almost instantly — it’ll appear on your account within a day or two of the charge — so you won’t have to worry about paying for the first $300 spent on flights, hotels, car rentals and other covered charges. That said, the $450 annual fee does not count, so be sure to keep that in mind.
Concern #3: I don’t know what to do with the points.
I value Ultimate Rewards points at 2.1 cents each — more than the points you’ll earn from other programs, like Amex Membership Rewards and Citi ThankYou. You’ll get the most value when transferring points to some of Chase’s 11 travel partners — I used 95,000 of mine to fly Korean Air from Bali to Seoul to New York, a flight that would have cost me $7,200 if paying cash. You have a variety of options through Ultimate Rewards partners, with your 100,000 points covering four nights at the incredible Park Hyatt Maldives, four round-trip United flights within the US, Singapore Suites from New York-JFK to Frankfurt and on to Singapore and countless other valuable redemptions.
Concern #4: I already have more credit card points than I know what to do with.
The Ultimate Rewards points you’ll earn with Sapphire Reserve are even more powerful than those you’ll earn with other Chase cards, and the transferrable points offered by competing products. The reason? Each point is worth 1.5 cents toward any travel booked through the Chase Portal. So while you can get a bit more value out of them by transferring to, say, an international first-class flight, you have so much more flexibility if you’re willing to redeem your points at 1.5 cents apiece, instead. With so many options you shouldn’t have any trouble getting great value from the points you earn with Reserve.
Concern #5: I already have Global Entry, so I have no use for the $100 credit.
One of the Reserve card’s many benefits is a $100 credit for Global Entry or an $85 credit for TSA PreCheck issued every four years. This is a standard benefit of several premium cards, including The Platinum Card from American Express and Citi Prestige. Though you can get a credit for TSA PreCheck, we recommend signing up for Global Entry, since PreCheck is included as part of that program. If you have another premium card or you already have Global Entry, you might think you won’t have any use for this benefit. However, this $100 credit can be used to cover the application fee for someone else, so you can gift it to a friend, family member or colleague, instead. You’ll be eligible for a new credit every four years.
Concern #6: The card isn’t worth having after I collect the 100,000-point bonus.
Chase Sapphire Reserve is an absolute no-brainer when you’re earning 100,000 bonus Ultimate Rewards points, given that those are worth at least $1,500 toward a huge variety of travel purchases. But what about in year 2? Considering your most likely alternative is the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card, we did the math to see when it makes sense to keep Reserve after the first year. Since you’ll earn 3 points per dollar spent on travel and dining with Reserve, compared to 2 with the Preferred card, based on our calculations you’ll need to spend $2,619.05 in a cardmember year in order to come out ahead with Reserve, which breaks out to just $218.25 per month. Many cardholders spend several times that amount on travel and dining — there’s a very good chance you fall within that category, too.
Bottom Line
As you may have gathered from what I covered above, the Chase Sapphire Reserve offers tremendous value, even well after the first year. That said, there’s no reason not to take advantage of the 100,000 bonus points — if you’re thinking about signing up, be sure to get your application in by tomorrow! Also, note that while you may not be approved instantly, you do not need to call Chase to confirm your application. As long as you sign up under the 100,000-point offer, you’ll be eligible for that bonus once you’re approved, even if you don’t get a notification until a few days after the elevated bonus is pulled.
Source: thepointsguy.com