This is why you should have one of the two Chase Sapphire cards

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Chase issues two ‘Sapphire’ cards – the Chase Sapphire Reserve® and the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, and if you like to travel, if you enjoy playing the miles and points game, and if you like being able to earn valuable points with relative ease, you should probably have one of these cards in your wallet … but not necessarily just because of what these cards offer on their own

Here are a few things you need to know about these cards:

The earning rates

Both cards offer good earning rates for travel and dining, and the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card even offers a good return on online grocery spending.

The Chase Sapphire Reserve® earns:

• 10 points/dollar on hotels and car rentals booked through Chase Travel℠.*
• 10 points/dollar on Lyft rides (through March 2025) – link.
• 5 points/dollar on flights booked through Chase Travel℠.*
• 3 points/dollar for spending on travel that isn’t made through Chase Travel℠.*^
• 3 points/dollar for spending on dining worldwide.
• 1 point/dollar for eligible spending in all other categories.

*After the first $300 is spent on travel purchases annually.
^Chase’s “travel” category is very broad so you’ll earn 3 points per dollar on everything from airfare, rental cars, and hotel bookings through to car parking, tolls, and ride-sharing services.

The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card earns:

• 5 points/dollar on travel purchased through Chase Travel℠.º
• 5 points/dollar on Lyft rides (through March 2025) – link
• 3 points/dollar on dining worldwide.
• 3 points/dollar on online grocery spending.#
• 3 points/dollar on select streaming services.
• 2 points/dollar on all travel that isn’t booked through Chase Travel℠.^
• 1 point/dollar for eligible spending in all other categories.

ºHotel purchases that qualify for the $50 Anniversary Hotel Credit will not earn 5 points/dollar
^Chase’s “travel” category is very broad so you’ll earn 2 points per dollar on everything from airfare, rental cars, and hotel bookings through to car parking, tolls, and ride-sharing services.
#Excludes Target, Walmart, and wholesale clubs

Both cards earn Ultimate Rewards points which can be transferred to other loyalty programs …

… and which can be used to buy travel directly (through the Chase portal) so you don’t have to worry about blackout dates or award availability.

Both cards also offer a good set of benefits for cardholders (like primary rental car cover, cover and, in the case of the Chase Sapphire Reserve®, a $300 travel credit, Priority Pass membership, and great trip delay protection, but as great as all of these benefits are, none of what I’ve discussed so far is the main reason I think most people should hold one of the Sapphire cards.

One of the biggest benefits of holding one of the Sapphire cards is that they open up the option for cardholders to improve their earnings from three of the best $0 annual fee cards around.

3 cards that the Sapphire cards make better

Chase Freedom Flex℠ credit card

This a card that comes with a $0 annual fee and which offers the following earning rates:

• 5% cash back on spending made in specific categories every quarter (on up to $1,500 of spending – 1% cash back thereafter).
• 5% cash back on travel purchased through Chase’s travel portal.
• 3% cash back on dining (includes take-out and delivery).
• 3% cash back on spending at drugstores.
• 1% cash back on eligible spending in all other categories (with no cap).

On its own, the cash back that this card offers can represent a great return on spending, but for holders of a Sapphire card, this cash back can be made considerably more valuable.

Someone holding one of the Sapphire cards alongside a Chase Freedom Flex℠ credit card can choose to take that cash back in the form of transferable Ultimate Rewards Points (1% cash back = 1 point), and as I value Ultimate Rewards Points at 1.5 cents each (based on the return that I get from them with little effort), someone with this card pairing could be said to be getting an effective return of between 1.5% and 7.5% when they use their Chase Freedom Flex℠ credit card.

That’s a 50% uplift in value, and those are pretty amazing effective earning rates for a card that comes with no annual fee.

The Chase Freedom Unlimited®

This card has a $0 annual fee and offers the following earning rates:

• 5% cash back on travel purchased through the Chase Travel℠ portal
• 3% cash back on dining (includes take-out and delivery)
• 3% cash back on spending at drugstores
• 1.5% cash back on eligible spending in all other categories (with no cap).

These earning rates makes the Chase Freedom Unlimited® one of the better cash back cards around, but combined with a Sapphire card it gets even better.

Just as with its sister card, the cash back earned through the Chase Freedom Unlimited® can be converted to Ultimate Rewards points if you also hold a Sapphire credit card, and that would see this card’s effective earnings boosted to between 2.25% and 7.5% (based on a value of 1.5 cents per point). Again, that’s a 50% uplift in what the card offers.

The Ink Business Cash® Credit Card

This is one of our three favorite business cards and as a standalone card, it’s great. Paired with a Sapphire card, it becomes even greater.

The Ink Business Cash® Credit Card charges a $0 annual fee and offers fantastic earnings opportunities.

5% cashback on the first $25,000 spent in combined purchases each year on:

• Office supply store purchases
• Internet services
• Cable services
• Phone services

2% cashback on the first $25,000 spent in combined purchases each year on:

• Gas station spending
• Dining

1% cashback on all other eligible spending (no cap).

It also offers primary rental cover protection (when renting for business), purchase protection, and extended warranty protection too.

As with the other cards already mentioned, the cash back that the Ink Business Cash® Credit Card offers can be converted to Ultimate Rewards points (1% cashback = 1 point) when it’s paired with one of the Sapphire cards, and as with the other cards mentioned, the value you can extract gets boosted to between 1.5% and 7.5% (based on Ultimate Rewards points being valued at 1.5 cents each).

Bottom line

I could make quite a few reasonable arguments as to why you should hold the Chase Sapphire Reserve® or the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card based purely on the earning rates and the benefits that these two cards offer, but the best reason to have one of these cards in your wallet is that they turn very good $0 annual fee cards into cards that no miles and points enthusiast should be without – how else can you get a $0 annual fee card to return an effective rebate of up to 7.5%?