Is the Chase Sapphire Preferred Worth Its Annual Fee?

The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card has a number of value benefits included in its $95 annual fee. Since Chase offers no-fee credit cards like the Chase Freedom Unlimited®, you may be wondering: is the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card worth it?

In this article we’ll help you decide if the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is worth its annual fee given all of its benefits.

» Learn more: The best travel credit cards right now

What benefits come with the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card?

The first step to deciding if the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is worth its annual fee is to know what benefits are offered by the card. You should always check with Chase on the current benefits before applying for the card, but current Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card benefits include:

• Welcome bonus: Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. That's $750 when you redeem through Chase Travel℠.

• Annual $50 in statement credits for hotels booked through Chase.

• 5 points per dollar spent on travel booked through Chase and 2 points per dollar spent on all other travel purchases.

• 3 points per dollar on online grocery purchases – excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs.

• 3 points per dollar spent on dining.

• Trip cancellation and trip interruption insurance.

• 10% anniversary bonus points.

• And more.

As you can see, the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card offers cardholders a number of benefits that, for the right person, could make the annual fee well worth the cost.

» Learn more: The best Chase transfer partners — and which to avoid

The annual fee is worth it if:

• You pay for travel on your card: The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card offers trip cancellation and trip interruption insurance where you can be reimbursed up to $10,000 per person and $20,000 per trip if your trip is canceled or cut short due to sickness, severe weather, or due to another qualifying reason. Although you can pay for travel insurance with other companies, and sometimes for less than $95, being covered by simply purchasing travel on your Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card without any additional steps can help bring you ease of mind and justify the card’s annual fee.

• You dine out or order delivery often: The annual fee on the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is worth it if you order from restaurants on a regular basis, as you’ll earn 3 points per dollar spent on restaurants (both for dining in and delivery).

• You know how to (or are willing to learn how to) get the most value out of Chase’s transfer partners: Chase has 14 transfer partners, including United Airlines, Emirates, Hyatt and Air Canada. You can receive an enormous amount of value for your Chase Ultimate Rewards® points if you’re able to take advantage of these programs. For instance, you can transfer 70,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards® points to Air Canada’s Aeroplan and purchase a one-way business class ticket on Swiss Air Lines between Zurich and Los Angeles (which can cost over $7,500 if paid for in cash).

The annual fee is not worth it if:

• You won’t purchase travel or dining on the card: Although there are benefits you can get from the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card that are unrelated to travel, such as 3 points per dollar spent on online grocery purchases and select streaming purchases, the card is generally most valuable to cardholders who take advantage of travel and dining benefits.

» Learn more: Chase Ultimate Rewards vs. AmEx Membership Rewards transfer partners

The bottom line

The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card offers a host of benefits to cardholders, particularly those who use the card to purchase travel or who use it on dining. Cardholders who are willing to research valuable redemption opportunities with Chase’s travel partners, such as United, Air Canada, Hyatt and Emirates, can get outsized value for the card if they are able to use the points on an otherwise expensive redemption.

Before applying for the card, be sure to review the current benefits offered and consider how you’ll use it. Depending on how you use the card, you may easily be able to get enough value from it each year to make it well worth the $95 annual fee.