I’m in the market for a good travel rewards card. Everyone talks up the Chase Sapphire, but the Barclaycard really catches my eye: 2x points on every purchase (not just travel and dining), slightly lower annual fee, plus you have to either book through Chase’s portal or shuffle points between loyalty programs to really get the most out of the Chase. But what’s keeping me from applying for the Barclaycard are the user reviews online claiming terrible customer service when things go wrong, which is more than they should. Wonder if anyone uses/has used this card and is willing to vouch for how they treat their customers. Or, I guess if you’re a Chase user, how you like their reward system. Thanks!
If you are a Costco member, their new Citi card has 4% back on fuel purchased there, 3% back on travel and dining, 2% off on Costco purchases and 1% off on everything else. No annual fee unless you include the Costco membership.
I have both of those cards and have used the rewards. Of the two, I prefer the Barclaycard Arrival because of its generous signup bonus, ease of redeeming rewards and the fact that they give you 10% of your rewards straight back when you redeem them. I don’t know anything about their customer service because I have never had a problem with it.
The Chase Sapphire is fine too but I just don’t find myself using it as much. My hobby is screwing credit card companies for everything they have and Chase is the strictest bank when it comes to that (that may be to their credit but it doesn’t help my goal of having them pay for as much of my stuff as possible).
Why not get them both if you have good credit? If you don’t want to pay the annual fee, they will switch you to free versions of the cards after the first year if you call to cancel. The rewards levels are less on the free versions but still pretty good.
Good point, Shagnasty. Though Barclay’s just axed the no-fee Arrival MC, alas.
Have you had occasion to use either card out of country? Any issues there?
I just received the Chase Sapphire card, the bonus for sign up is pretty good. I haven’t used it outside of the country yet though.
The good thing for me is that the miles can be transferred to SkyPass directly, which allows me to use fewer points for airline tickets.
Another good thing about the Sapphire card is that if I go through their site before shopping online, I can get bonus miles for each purchase. For instance, purchasing at Lowes offers 4Xs the points.
I have both the Chase Sapphire Preferred, and the Barclay Arrival Plus.
I think the Chase card is better, because I can use the points in smaller parcels, usually by transferring them to Southwest Airlines for flights. The Arrival Plus redemptions have to be in tranches of at least 10,000 points, which requires something like $5000 of purchases on the card. That’s a little chunky for me.
One positive feature of the Arrival Plus card (I thought) was that it’s a chip and pin card. Oddly, that didn’t turn out to be the case. In a 18 day trip in Norway and Sweden last month, I used a PIN twice, both times on the Arlanda Express train to and from the Stockholm airport. The rest of the time the machines asked for a signature.
I’d look at the Chase Sapphire Reserve card. Sure, it has a $450 annual fee, but you can get $300 of that back in redeemed travel expenses, and it has a 100k sign-up bonus.
Do you mean the Chase Sapphire Preferred or the Chase Sapphire Reserved?
I have the Preferred and I like it. The signup bonus is really good, and I always make back the annual fee in cashback/flights. Also, the CSP gives you primary car insurance on rentals.
That said, don’t pick the CSP for the Visa Signature “concierge.” It sucks.
The Sapphire Preferred. That’s the one I ended up going with. Thanks all for the replies!
I didn’t even know about the Chase Sapphire Reserve until you mentioned it. I looked it up and it is an incredible deal. 100K miles + $300 in travel benefits greatly offsets the cost of the $450 annual fee. You also get access to airport lounges plus lots of other benefits.
I may have to go for that one too as soon as I need more miles. I will cancel it after the first year after I get the miles just like I always do but that one is definitely worth it as long as you have a great credit rating and can charge $4000 to it in less than three months and pay it off immediately. That last part is the key to winning on all of these deals. Do not carry a balance and you can cancel as soon as you take their generous goodies and they try to charge you a fee again. It is the easiest game in the world to win as long as you play it that way and there are constant offers just like it that pop up all the time. I haven’t paid for a personal plane ticket in years.
For cards like that with the $450 annual fee, can you get out of the fee if you cancel before a year, or do you have to pay the fee at least one time? The 100K miles is an awesome deal.
For the Chase Sapphire Reserve, you have to pay for the first year but you still get a $300 credit towards any travel and 100K miles. That is still an awesome deal. However, I have gotten plenty of others in the 50K mileage range with the fee waived for the first year. I just cancel after the first year and pay nothing. It depends on your needs and desires but getting free plane tickets and travel is very easy if you just meet the terms, pay it off immediately and then cancel.
I don’t sign up for any cards with less than a 50,000 mile bonus offer but new ones pop up all the time. All you have to do is cycle between them. I have so many miles now that there is no realistic way for me to even use them all.
Contrary to popular belief, that type of credit card cycling helps and does not hurt your credit score. I monitor mine every week and I am up to an 830 out of 850 today despite screwing every credit card company in existence out of every freebie they decided to offer. I always cancel after the first year after I take the bonus and rarely pay anything although $150 ($450 - $300 credit) net for a Chase Sapphire Reserve with 100K miles would be definitely worth it. You are talking 3 - 5 domestic tickets or one first-class international ticket for $150 when it all shakes out.
Re: Chase Sapphire Reserve card. Churning cards might not hurt your credit rating, but Chase has reportedly stuck to a new policy of not approving applicants who’ve opened up in excess of 5 cards in 2 years.
P.S. Just got mine this week. They overnighted it. 