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The Chase Sapphire Preferred card and Capital One Venture card are both excellent for beginners in the points and miles world. The question is, which do you choose?
Chase Sapphire Preferred
The Chase Sapphire Preferred card is the best starter travel card for those who want to open several new cards each year to rack up points for travel. The current offer is 60,000 Chase Ultimate Reward points after spending $4,000 in the first 3 months of having the card.
The card has a modest annual fee of $95. It comes with many benefits. Each year offers a $50 annual hotel credit. The card no foreign transaction fees. it provides trip cancellation insurance, purchase protection, and extended warranty. This card earns 5 points per dollar on travel booked in the Chase portal and 2 points per dollar on other travel purchases. It earns 3 points per dollar on restaurants, 3 points per dollar at drugstores, 3 points per dollar on select streaming services, and 1 point per dollar on everything else.
This Chase Sapphire Preferred welcome bonus is worth $750 when used to book travel in the Chase travel portal. If you learn the advanced technique to transfer to travel partners, then this bonus can easily be worth $1200. I transferred 24,000 Chase Ultimate rewards points to Hyatt to save almost $700 in Savannah.
Many people start with this card because of the Chase 5/24 rule. Chase bank, who offers many valuable travel cards, will only approve you for a credit card if you have opened fewer than 5 credit cards in the last 24 months. For more details, see this post. Chase points can be very valuable, but it often takes time to learn the tips and tricks to get the most value out of them.
Capital One Venture Card
The Capital One Venture card is the best beginner travel card for those who want to dabble into points and miles but who want to keep it simple. The current higher-than-normal offer is 75,000 Capital One miles after spending $4,000 in the first 3 months of having the card.
This card also has a $95 annual fee. It comes with a $100 Global Entry or TSA pre-check credit (every 4 years). The Venture card earns 2 miles for every dollar spent and 5 miles per dollar spent on hotels or rental cars in the Capital One travel portal.
This elevated Venture Card welcome bonus is worth at least $750 when used for travel purchases made in the Capital one travel portal or directly with an airline or hotel. This card can be especially valuable for people who want a simple travel card for domestic travel. It can also be great for those who want to reimburse themselves for Disney tickets. This is because you can simply “erase” travel purchases with your points. In this case, each point erases 1 cent of a travel purchase. You also have the option to transfer points to parter programs like British Airways and Wyndham hotels, which allows the possibility of getting more value for each point spent. It also provides no foreign transaction fees and extended warranty on purchases.
Which will you choose?
Because of the Chase 5/24 rule, there is an opportunity cost to starting with the Venture card. It means you would only be eligible for 4 Chase cards instead of 5 for the following 24 months. But if you don’t want to apply for 5 new cards in that time, then the Venture card can be a perfectly good place to start.
Given that both cards require the same amount of spending in 3 months and have the same annual fee, which card is more appealing to you?
FAQs
Can I get the Chase Sapphire Preferred (CSP) if I am an authorized user on someone else’s CSP card? Yes, you can get the CSP card if you are not the primary account holder on a Sapphire card and you do not have 5 cards opened in the last 24 months. Your authorized user account will look like 1 card in your name on your credit but you can call and ask Chase to ignore it if necessary.
Can I open the Venture card if I already have a Venture X card? Yes, Capital One allows you to hold two cards that earn Capital One miles. However, they won’t approve you for more than one card in a 6 month timeframe.
When will the Chase Sapphire Preferred offer end? The 60,000 point welcome bonus offer is the typically available welcome bonus. If you have time to wait, you may consider holding off in case Chase increases the welcome bonus later this year.
When will the increased Capital One Venture card offer end? We don’t know yet. My affiliate link always has the current offer, and I will update this page when the offer end date is known. You can subscribe to my email list to be in the know about new and ending offers.
Which card is better? That depends. I’ve already said the Venture card is better for those who want to keep their free travel process simple or cover Disney tickets. The Chase Sapphire Preferred is better for those who want to book Hyatt or Marriott hotels; it is also a great starting place for those who want multiple Chase cards in a two year period.
Which card is better for hotels near national parks? The jury is still out on this question. I have a feeling that the Capital One Venture Card is the better card for national park lovers because of the abundance of Choice Hotels and Wyndham Hotels (both Capital One transfer partners) in more rural areas. Hyatt Hotels and Marriott Hotels have relatively few hotels outside of major cities (Chase transfer partners). That being said, Chase also partners with IHG, and Holiday Inn Express can be found in many towns! I think both are solid travel cards for those with national parks high on their list.