Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card vs Chase Sapphire Reserve®
Both cards live in the same family, earn the same currency (Chase Ultimate Rewards), and Chase makes you choose between them. You can't hold a Sapphire Preferred and a Sapphire Reserve at once, and taking a Sapphire bonus locks you out of another for 48 months. Right now both dangle a 100,000-point sign-up bonus and both charge $0 in foreign transaction fees, so the decision comes down to two things: the annual fee ($95 for the Preferred, $795 for the Reserve) and whether you'll actually use everything the Reserve piles on top.
| Spec | Chase Sapphire | Chase Sapphire |
|---|---|---|
| Annual fee | $95/yr | $795/yr |
| Welcome bonus | 100,000 points bonus | 100,000 points bonus |
| Base rate | 1x | 1x |
| Top earn rates |
|
|
| Foreign tx fee | None | None |
| Statement credits | 3 credits | 9 credits |
| Rewards | Chase Ultimate Rewards | Chase Ultimate Rewards |
Choose Chase Sapphire Preferred®
Go with the Preferred if you want travel rewards without a big yearly bet. The $95 fee is easy to clear: the $100 credit for hotel stays booked through Chase Travel covers it by itself, and up to $10 a month back on DoorDash grocery and retail orders is extra. You earn 5x on travel booked through Chase Travel and 3x across a wide everyday spread: dining, gas and EV charging, vacation home rentals like Airbnb and Vrbo, select streaming, and online grocery. That's a stack of 3x categories the Reserve doesn't match (its 3x is dining only). The sign-up bonus (100,000 points after $5,000 in the first 3 months, worth about $1,250) is strong for a card at this price, and a $120 Global Entry/TSA PreCheck/NEXUS credit every four years rounds it out. If you're spending on normal life and don't want to babysit a pile of credits, this is the pick.
Full details →Choose Chase Sapphire Reserve®
Go with the Reserve if you travel enough to earn the top rates and you'll use its credits. It pays 8x on travel booked through Chase Travel, 4x on flights and hotels booked directly, 3x on dining worldwide, and 5x on eligible Lyft rides through Sept 30, 2027. Its 100,000-point bonus (after $6,000 in the first 3 months) is pegged at about $2,000, versus about $1,250 for the Preferred. Then the credits: $300 annual travel, up to $500 a year on prepaid stays through The Edit, $300 on Exclusive Tables dining, $300 on StubHub and viagogo, $300 on DoorDash, $120 in Lyft credit, $120 toward a Peloton membership, and up to $288 in Apple TV+ and Apple Music. The catch is the $795 fee plus the fact that most of those credits are tied to specific programs and split into semiannual or monthly chunks, so you only come out ahead if your spending fits how Chase parcels them out.
Full details →Verdict
Take the Preferred for strong everyday earning and travel perks at $95, and step up to the Reserve only if you travel heavily through Chase and will genuinely burn through its $795 fee with the travel and lifestyle credits.