Updated

May 22, 2023, 11:16 PM UTC

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The Chase Sapphire Preferred is a terrific choice for credit card rewards beginners and experts alike. Chase; Insider

• The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is a great entry-level card if you're new to credit card rewards.
• You can earn 80,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first three months from account opening — worth $1,440 based on Insider's valuations 
• The Chase Sapphire Preferred pairs well with other cards that earn Chase Ultimate Rewards® points.
• Read Insider's guide to the best rewards credit cards.

It may seem odd to recommend a card that is outperformed by other cards in the same family in virtually every meaningful way. 

Yes, the bonus points the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card earns on travel purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards®, dining, and all other travel purchases are dwarfed by the $550-a-year Chase Sapphire Reserve®'s 5x total points on air travel and 10x points on hotels and car rentals purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards (after earning the $300 travel credit) and 3x points on all other travel and dining purchases.

Yes, the 1.25 cents per point value you'll get with the Chase Sapphire Preferred when booking through the Chase Ultimate Rewards travel portal can't match the Reserve's powerful 1.5 cents per point.

But here I am, telling you that the Chase Sapphire Preferred is the best travel rewards credit card for people new to points and miles.

We're focused here on the rewards and perks that come with each card. These cards won't be worth it if you're paying interest or late fees. When using a credit card, it's important to pay your balance in full each month, make payments on time, and only spend what you can afford to pay.

Chase Sapphire Preferred offers great value

The Chase Sapphire Preferred has one major thing going for it: It's cheap. At $ 95 a year, the Sapphire Preferred is a premium card packed with tons of potential at an entry-level price. 

With the Sapphire Preferred, you can currently earn an increased welcome bonus of 80,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first three months from account opening. This offer will soon disappear, as it's being removed by May 25 at 9 a.m. ET — so now's the time to apply if you're interested.

With the Sapphire Reserve, the welcome bonus offer has the same minimum spending requirement in the first three months, but you'll earn fewer points.

That small fee grants access to a bevy of impressive benefits for such an inexpensive card which includes, but is certainly not limited to, primary car rental insurance, trip cancellation insurance, and trip delay reimbursement. More recently, the card added a 10% anniversary points bonus and up to $50 in credit toward hotels booked through Chase.

Additionally, the card earns Ultimate Rewards points, which are one of the top currencies in the points and miles world. Like most other bank points, their value is enhanced because of their flexibility — you can transfer the Ultimate Rewards points in your Sapphire Preferred account to several travel partner loyalty programs.

Or, as mentioned earlier, you can use those points to book travel reservations through Chase's native booking portal. When doing so, your points are worth 1.25 cents each, which provides a hefty discount compared to booking directly with cash.

The Sapphire Preferred earns flexible points, which can be hugely valuable

If you're new to booking travel reservations with points and miles, you should know that flexible currencies like Chase Ultimate Rewards points are great because you have so many options for using them. According to Insider's points and miles valuations, Chase points are worth 1.8 cents apiece, on average, when you transfer them to airline and hotel partners.

Many newcomers to the points and miles world start their journey by identifying an airline or hotel program they frequently use, then applying for that specific airline or hotel's credit card, thinking those cards would provide significant value. They're not wrong, necessarily, but the points and miles earned through co-branded cards are generally less valuable than transferable points (although, as with most things to do with credit rewards, that measure is somewhat subjective).

Read Insider's points and miles valuations to find out what your airline miles, hotel points, and credit card rewards are worth.

Flexible points are more valuable because when you earn points with a specific program, like Southwest Rapid Rewards, for example, they typically can not be moved or redeemed elsewhere. There are, of course, a few exceptions to this. However, bank points, like those earned with the Sapphire Preferred, offer much more flexibility, which makes them more valuable by nature.

For example, let's say I earn 80,000 Southwest Rapid Rewards points with a Southwest credit card. I may find some great deals, redeeming those points for fares that would have otherwise cost quite a bit in cash. But, if I'm determined to only keep a few credit cards in my portfolio, those points can come at a moderately high opportunity cost.

In contrast, let's say I earn 80,000 points using the Chase Sapphire Preferred. If I need to fly on a route serviced by Southwest that costs, say, 15,000 Rapid Rewards points, I can transfer my points from Chase directly to Southwest to cover the cost. Now, I have 65,000 points left over to use as I wish. I could use my remaining points for different airline or hotel program transfers or bookings, depending on where my travels take me — or even for non-travel redemptions.

This is how I typically use my points, transferring between various travel partners as the need arises.

The Sapphire Preferred is easy to combine with other Chase cards

Another reason I like the Chase Sapphire Preferred is that it plays along nicely with other Chase Ultimate Rewards point-earning cards.

In addition to the Sapphire Preferred, I also have the Chase Freedom® card (no longer available to new applicants), which offers 5% cash back (5x points) on quarterly rotating categories, up to $1,500 each quarter you activate, as well as the Chase Freedom Unlimited®, which earns me at least 1.5% cash back (1.5x points) on my purchases.

Chase allows cardholders to combine points from their accounts. So, when my points post to each of my accounts each month, I transfer them to my Sapphire Preferred account.

I'll use my Sapphire Preferred for dining and travel purchases, my Chase Freedom card for those specific, rotating categories, and my Chase Freedom Unlimited for everything else. This ensures that, at minimum, I'll always be earning 1.5x points on every purchase, sometimes more, and those points will be put to good use when they are finally moved to my Sapphire Preferred account.

One day, I'll probably end up getting the Reserve

I will likely upgrade to the Reserve at some point in the future. Because Chase currently requires four years to pass before a cardholder is eligible for another Sapphire product welcome bonus, I'll simply upgrade to the Sapphire Reserve instead of fully closing my Sapphire Preferred account.

Because of my travel habits, the Sapphire Reserve would have likely given me more value than the Sapphire Preferred. But I didn't know at the time. I didn't know if I would figure out how to easily navigate points transfers and other loyalty intricacies. I didn't know if I would travel enough to take full advantage of all of the Sapphire Reserve's perks. I know now that I have a decent handle on the broad strokes of the points and miles world.

I also know that because I opted to start with Chase Sapphire Preferred, it was an inexpensive education. I'll get the card's premium sibling soon, but for now, I'll enjoy and continue to get great value out of my Sapphire Preferred.