Earlier this year Chase made some changes to the popular Chase Sapphire Reserve card. The changes themselves weren’t that significant. However, Chase hasn’t changed the card much at all since releasing it in late 2016, so that alone makes the changes fairly important.
Overall, the changes to the Chase Sapphire Reserve card are fairly minor. Chase is adding some benefits with DoorDash and Lyft and raising the annual fee to $550. I broke down these changes in detail in an earlier post. What I found is that the new benefits in the first year more than cover the increased annual fee. So, if the Chase Sapphire Reserve is your only/primary credit card, you’re in luck. One thing to note is that it remains unclear if Chase will extend the Lyft and DoorDash partnerships in perpetuity. If those benefits go away the value proposition of the card will diminish.
While the Chase Sapphire Reserve card remains a great option for many, I’m not sure it’s right for me anymore. Don’t get me wrong, I love the card and have been very happy with it over the years. Sadly though, I just don’t think I can justify carrying the card at the higher annual fee given other cards currently in my wallet. Now, I don’t know your personal situation, but I’ll walk you through mine and outline why I think it’s finally time to get rid of the Chase Sapphire Reserve card.
Is It Worth Keeping My Chase Sapphire Reserve Card?
For starters, I don’t see myself getting very much value from the added Lyft partnership. Sure, 10X on Lyft rides, discounts, and flexibility are great, but I don’t use Lyft all that often. In fact, I looked back all of my 2019 spending on Uber/Lyft and spent under $900 on both.
If I were to move all of that spend to Lyft I’d end up saving and earning points for a combined $300. Now, that $900 is actually a bit high since at least three of those purchases were $100+ rides that I took for work. Even so, that alone easily justifies the increase in the annual fee for at least the first year.
However, going forward I expect to only spend about $600 on ride sharing services. In that case, I’d only save/earn about $180. Sure, that seems like a great deal, but that also assume that I only spend on Lyft which is just unrealistic considering some cities do not have Lyft. Also, a goal of mine for 2020 is to use ride sharing services less often.
Additionally, I’m also going to completely ignore the DoorDash benefit. Why? I have an agreement with myself that if I’m going to order take out that I have to go pick it up. I also find then when I order delivery I end up ordering more than I need to justify the added cost. Also, I find it hard enough to already use the GrubHub benefit offered from the American Express Platinum card. So, while the DoorDash benefits are valuable, I personally don’t see myself getting any value from them.
Fair Enough, But What About The Other Card Benefits?
Sure, let’s not forget the other benefits still offered from the Chase Sapphire Reserve card. For starters, a complimentary Priority Pass membership. This is a great benefit that I actually get a lot of use from. However, I also get a Priority Pass membership from my American Express Platinum and Citi Prestige cards. So, for me, this benefit is worthless.
Next, the 3X points on Travel and Dining. Again, on their own these are great benefits offered by a very rewarding credit card. However, again, for me personally I get 5X points on dining from the Citi Prestige card and 5X Airfare and Hotels from the American Express Platinum card. That basically leaves ride sharing (see above) and public transportation in the travel category. While I do use public transit for $100/month, that now comes out of my paycheck as pre-tax dollars. Doing this I save about 30% on public transportation which is far better than the 3X points I’d get back from the Chase Sapphire Reserve card.
Sure, there are other reasons to keep the Chase Sapphire Reserve card. For example, the card still offers fantastic rental car coverage, but I don’t use personal rental cars all that often. When I do, I typically use them for work and have to pay for them with my corporate card.
What I’m trying to say is that I don’t get any unique value from the Chase Sapphire Reserve card anymore. That’s not to say it’s not still a fantastic card. I’m not also saying that you should close the card. Instead, I’m just showing why I can no longer justify paying the $550 annual fee.
What’s Next?
For the time being I’m going to make sure to use the full $300 annual travel credits offered from the card. Likewise, I’m going to link the card to my Lyft account to make sure when I do use Lyft, that I’m getting credit. For the time being, I’m going to hold off activating my Lyft Pink or DoorDash DashPass memberships. When I read the fine print for the Chase Freedom card I learned that by activating these benefits you are signing up for a monthly subscription. Once the trial period ends, you are auto-enrolled and have to pay on your own. I personally hate structures like this and try to avoid them at all costs. So, for now, I’ll pass on both.
In September my annual fee should post to my account. Shortly before (more likely after) that fee posts, I’m going to call Chase to downgrade the card. I don’t want to cancel it outright as it is one of my older card accounts. However, for the reasons listed above, I just can’t justify paying a higher annual fee. Most likely I will downgrade to either the Chase Sapphire Reserve card or the no annual fee Chase Sapphire card. I want to maintain an Ultimate Rewards account because I do transfer my Chase Freedom cash back into Ultimate Rewards points. So, I can’t yet afford to abandon the Chase Ultimate Rewards ecosystem just yet.
Final Thoughts
And there you have it. The card that really got me excited about credit cards is finally leaving my wallet. Actually, if we’re honestly, the card has been sitting in my sock drawer since I receive my Citi Prestige card in the mail a few weeks ago. See, I only have 6 card slots in my wallet and two of those are taken up by a transit card and my photo ID. That leaves just 4 slots for credit cards and they are all spoken for.
For now, I’ll continue to carry the American Express Platinum card, American Express (Rose) Gold card, Citi Prestige card, and Citi Premier card. I expect to make some further adjustments to those cards as well. I will most likely product change the Citi Premier card to a Citi Double Cash card in a few months. Next, I’ll have to really evaluate the viability of keeping the American Express Gold card given the addition of the Citi Prestige card to my wallet.
