Benefits and offers mentioned in this post may have changed.
Chase Sapphire Reserve Changes Confirmed & NONE Are Guaranteed Long Term
The Chase Sapphire Reserve changes have been confirmed by Chase. There is one good thing to take away from this confirmation but it is mostly bad. The worst thing is that none of these new “perks” are confirmed long term. That doesn’t mean that they couldn’t ended up extending them or adding new ones but it seems a little makeshift to add $100 to the annual fee without having anything set in stone long term.
Confirmed Chase Sapphire Reserve Changes
Chase reached out to TPG to confirm these changes. Here is the breakdown:
- The $100 annual fee increase is confirmed and goes into effect January 12, 2020.
- One free year of Lyft Pink. Yup just one so far, not an ongoing perk…
- Earn 10X per points on Lyft rides.
- The DoorDash credits will be in a lump sum which is so much better than smaller monthly credits. But the credits are currently only guaranteed for 2020 and 2021.
That is it folks. For $100 you get $60 in food credits and one year of Lyft Pink…
Sounds like a great deal, no?
What Is Good About These Chase Sapphire Reserve Changes?
So where is the silver lining? The fact that current cardholders get the perks before paying the higher annual fee is good. It gives you a chance to try the perks before paying the higher fee. I think most people will stuff their face with $60 in “free” food and then downgrade their card when it comes time to pay.
I discussed earlier today if it makes sense to grab the Chase Sapphire Reserve now to lock in the lower annual fee and get the added perks at the lower fee. Be sure to punch in your own figures in the calculations to decide if it is.
Final Thoughts
I am sorry but these “credits / perks” make Amex’s Uber and Saks credit look like the Mona Lisa compared to Chase. When did Chase start bowing down to American Express and picking up the table scraps and grabbing the second class partners. They are simply copying American Express’ terrible playbook and simply doing it worse.
Chase , if you wanted to increase the fee then why not match the American Express Gold card’s 4X earning on restaurants or add in a 2X grocery earning option? You could have done that, got more revenue from the annual fee and wouldn’t have a mass cardmember exodus. But no Chase, you want breakage in these perks or to lull us to sleep when you drop the perks all together in a year or two.
The Chase Sapphire Reserve went from mainstream popularity to the toilet water stream overnight. Way to go Chase, you firmly planted your flag in the worst move of 2020 discussion and it is only the 8th day of this new year.
Benefits and offers mentioned in this post may have changed.
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Jacob states that nobody here is making min wage so another $100 should not make a difference. I have Delta Reserve, Amex Business Plat, Citi Prestige, and Chase SP all raising fees $100 per card. I don’t look at it as a one-year thing either. In 5 years thats 2K. I should add that several of those cards has taken away perks and benefits while raising the fees. Delta Reserve, taken away bonus points for spending, Citi Prestige too many to list, Amex Plat you cant get those travel credits as in the past and the Wework perk is gone. For me I am definitely dumping Citi Prestige. Its not worth it. The Doordash thing is actually a sort of scam to the customer. They want to raise you $100 and tell you these great new perks. You are basically buying the perks from them but they got them from the providers for little to nothing hoping you stay as a customer. Then one yr later they pull them. Chase spent so much to promote the SP then starts pulling things away. They think customers are suckers. For now Ill hold it.
WeWork got extended a year by Amex, I am pretty sure.
I do not like increases either, but 10 ppd on Lyft makes CSR worthwhile for a LOT of city-dwellers. $4 a day average alone pays back the extra $155 over CSP. If you live in the country or burbs, yeah, likely not a good deal. But clearly they are targeting city-dwellers with that and DoorDash. With our 2 crap vehicles, I like the Roadside Assistance also, especially now that Amex dropped that. Used it 3x in 13 months 2018-19.
But highly dependent on personal circumstances.
I don’t get the criticism as being universally bad. For those who use Lyft, this is a big improvement. Never used DoorDash, but I’d happily pay $100 for 15% off all Lyft rides (if you spend $15/week, you come out ahead) plus 10x UR points, which is worth another 15% given that the Reserve Card gives you 1.5 cents/point. As for the complaints that it’s only guaranteed for a year, so is the payment of my annual fee. In a year, Chase and I can both re-evaluate.
Chase does offer travel insurance on other cards, but if you read the fine print, the value of the Reserve benefits are substantially higher. I’ve switched to Chase for almost all of my travel charges because Amex offers no travel insurance (surprisingly, IMO given that Amex has always branded itself as the card for the traveler).
To me, when combined with the $300 travel credit, the Chase Reserve card is a no brainer even at $550.
American Express added travel insurance this year. They still don’t have primary car rental insurance included (you can add it for $20 a rental) but they do have travel insurance on their cards now.
Here is the article on their new insurance
https://milestomemories.boardingarea.com/amex-travel-insurance/
All this fussing about an additional $100 in annual fees to me sounds like a discussion among a bunch of minimum wage earners who can barely afford to pay for a cup of coffee. A long time ago, $100 was a lot of money. Not anymore. I know most, if not all of you make much more than minimum wage, so it is not a real hardship to you. Since I do a lot of personal international travel, just the travel insurance benefits alone are worth more than $150 + $100.
You can get very similar travel benefits for $95 with multiple Chase cards. This is about value – what the entire hobby is about. The card is now less valuable…
$100 is tough for many people. Let’s remember for a minute that not everyone has money to spare.
$100 also matters to anyone who cares about the value of things they’re paying for. If you don’t care that you’re paying more for something than the real value it holds, that strikes me as odd.
One change is guaranteed long term – the higher annual fee.
Death and taxes are solid runners-up…..
All truths! 🙂
This is the 2020 version of “The New Coke” debacle of 1985 (for those who are too young: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Coke).
So, now…. the “New Chase Sapphire Reserve!”
(Interesting quote from Wikipedia’s article on “The New Coke”: “The fiasco led Bill Cosby to end his long time advertising for Coca-Cola. Cosby claimed that his commercials praising the superiority of the new formula had hurt his credibility.”)
Bill Cosby would go on to do that all on his own!
Ok completely confused so NOW which are the 6 best credit cards? I have 6 k to spend on a surgery and taxes do I do Southwest? Or Capital One? I go back and for to Hawaii and Miami and have lots of miles for overseas on American. I saw the Life points on Avianca too I have to grab something GOOD in the next few days! HELP!
If you are looking for a welcome offer and are under 5/24 you can still grab a Sapphire Preferred which offers a better welcome offer versus the Reserve. I would only do Southwest if you plan on going for the Companion Pass personally…although the referral offers are 75K now so if you could use the points that may make sense.
I have loved my Chase Sapphire reserve because I travel a great deal and it more than paid for itself each year for the past three years. However I am not sure about this extra $100. Perhaps it’s time to grab another platinum card.
It does make the decision to keep or cancel quite a bit harder. I think it was close to borderline for a lot of people at $450.
@Mark I enjoy your website/podcast. Have learned a thing or two, which I appreciate. But this response is reactionary, unhelpful and generally not up to your usual standards. Couple notes:
(1) No credit card rewards are set in stone. Banks can change the terms of their cards whenever. You’re sufficiently familiar with the Citi Prestige to know that. The fact that Chase offers a one or two year program is not something to complain about, especially since we have no idea if the programs will be better or worse two years from now.
(2) While the $300 Chase travel credit is so broad and easy to use that it’s pretty much universally appreciated, it is unrealistic to think that ALL perks and benefits of a card will appeal to everyone and it’s not fair to expect that. The first time you get a card with priority pass it’s great, but the next time it’s close to worthless. Some people care about credit card extended warranty protection, others care only about maxing out points earned. People who live in urban centers and who ride-share a lot will probably REALLY like 10x points on Lyft rides. No other way to earn 10x UR points per dollar on anything, right? Spend $100 per month on Lyft and you’ve earned a Hyatt Cat 3 free night at the end of the year, right? That’s not bad at all and a lot of people are already spending that much or more on ride-share. Plus, in addition to the 10x UR points, anyone who takes the time to link accounts also gets Hilton points and Delta points for those same Lyft rides. Any other way to earn three prime time points currencies on the same dollar spend that you’re aware of?
(3) I’ve never ordered food from Doordash and doubt I will but I have to think that I could order dinner for two with $60 so seems like Chase provided an actual, real, give-it-a-try credit as opposed to the annoying little by the month Amex food coupons/credits. Not sure why Mona Lisa got dragged into the review but the general gist of your Chase/Amex comparison seems mostly inaccurate.
(4) This was an effective annual rate $150 card. Now it’s an effective annual rate $250 card for some. But for folks who use Lyft/Doordash a lot, it may now be more of a negligible annual fee card. Regardless, Chase points are valuable, pretty easy to earn, quite easy to use, and the only pionts currency with a legit 1.5 cent floor on value.
The sky is not falling. There will be no mass (net) exodus from the CSR. I suspect that applications are pouring in from folks who want to sign up before 1/12. Hopefully some of them are cutting through the gloom and doom and clicking on your referral link. The CSR continues to be a really great travel card.
Nothing is set in stone for sure but when you have a fee increase and try to sell it with new “perks” that are only good for a year or two I don’t think that is a great move.
My comparison between Amex and Chase is because Amex has the bigger named partners. 10X UR points on Lyft is nice but you can get 20% off using a free SoFi money card. I would take the 20% off over 10x points personally so that isn’t all that great.
And sure Amex credits are annoying with it being $15 per month but $200 is a whole heck of a lot better than $60. At least there is away to come out ahead on the fee increase with Amex…you are coming out behind with this one from Chase no matter how you slice it up. (Amex has $300 per year total in credits offered since the increase)
I think there will be quite a few downgrades of the card personally but only time will tell.
Thanks for listening and reading Gus and for the comment.
I think it’s probably more healthy for people to think of credit card perks as being good for only a year or two. We made plans around the Chase IHG cert and almost got hosed when they downgraded it, but the massive public backlash resulted in a reversal that allowed us to stay on plan for a really great stay in Asia. We also had some plans around the Citi Prestige but that became such a cluster that we just dumped it. So really, we all have to revaluate every 6 or 12 months anyway as part of the hobby. And if the CSR perks aren’t to one’s liking now, maybe they will change for the better in a couple years.
Sure, 20% off a Lyft is better than 10x UR points in pure dollars. However, if one is willing to accept the indignity of participating in a program called ‘Lyft Pink’ you’re supposed to get 15% off all Lyft rides with no monthly fee. So pretty close. Plus, some people get to expense a lot of their Lyft rides. In that case, the discount is worth getting for the benefit of the company but the 10x is going into the personal account–a great result.
We’ll respectfully disagree about Amex Credits vs Chase Credits, I just wasn’t seeing how you could whip out the Mona Lisa on Chase when Amex is offering $15 a month at the Cheesecake Factory. 🙂
Final point, I was totally depressed about the change in Amex incidentals that occurred last year so that we can no longer use them for Delta gift cards. As you know, a family with two Aspires has a lot of annual incidental airline credits, so I felt like our value proposition really changed for the worst on that card. But then we unexpectedly had to cancel family flight tickets (for reasons that no travel insurance would have covered) – Waited for January 2, canceled, Amex credits showed up the day after the cancellation fees posted. So we got our points, fees and taxes back for no out of pocket charge. My point there is, sometimes credits that don’t look great at first end up working out over the course of time.
CSR is still a good card (especially for those with no business cards). Hope some folks who use a lot of ride-share will click your link to apply before the fee goes up.
I think the changes will work for some people for sure. If they live in a big city and use scooters or bikes often or use rideshare often.
I think a majority of people it will end up simply costing them more money. I know a lot of people were barely hanging onto the card as it is. Since it’s launch, when it used to be the best for dining and travel, it has been surpassed for earning multiple times over. The program has lost numerous valuable travel partners. The value of the card and program has diminished for a few years straight now and then they throw and increase on top. I think all of that put together make this a hard one to keep in my book.
Everyone has to make their own judgement on it though for sure. Weigh the benefits to you etc. I would say the Aspire & the CSP together for about the same cost gives you everything you get from the CSR and more…
That’s good analysis. I just wanted to note that the changes weren’t bad for everyone. And I agree, if I had to chose, I’d take Aspire and CSP over just CSR. UR’s are currency but the perks of the Aspire actually provide our family with a substantially better travel experience.
Agreed Gus this will work for some for sure. I do think the CSP and Aspire makes a compelling alternative for sure. Thanks for the good discussion Gus.
Everyone tweet to Chase how unsatisfied you are and that you will most likely drop the card when your annual fee comes due since these benefits are mostly meaningless to you. I tweeted to Chase and if many people do the same hopefully it will make them reconsider or at least start offering regular retention offers on the reserve. These new “benefits” suck!!!!!
Suck they do Daniel, suck they do.
I would only use services like lyft or doordash when on vacation. And not even sure then so not worth it for me. Sadly.
I have been hearing from quite a few people that don’t have the services in their area to take advantage of either program. That makes these tough to get any value out of for sure.
I just renewed in December and already got my $250 travel credit. I don’t see a Sapphire card in my wallet next December, at least not now. If I can score a decent retention bonus or equivalent points, I’ve had a good run, 200,000 UR points. I may stay. Guess we’ll have to see.
At least you get a long time to give everything a test run and see if it works for you.
Disappointing to say the least. What perks or benefits would make you keep the card with the $100 increase in annual fee? Trying to determine card strategy and if this one even makes sense any more!
Typo: Goes into “effect” not “affect”
After these confirmations, I’ll grab the DoorDash and downgrade. I have a few months left before the AF hits but this is ludicrous. Citi Prestige nuked many of their benefits.. and now this?
Can’t justify keeping this anymore.
Way to go Chase!
Thanks Mike, I will update
Who can we contact at Chase to voice our displeasure in these adjustments? If anyone knows, please share and thanks.
It seems that ($100-$60) =’s minus $40.00. This is nothing more than a cash grab. Besides, Lyft is pro nut job while Uber is pro Trump. We have been asked by our employer to only use Uber in an attempt to maintain the American way of life. Unreal. Makes AMEX platnum look like a great deal
I don’t follow the politics of rideshare services, but it sounds like you are working in an insane asylum.
You should. Didnt you see what happened to CEO after he was appointed to the transportation comittee? Its scary to see what the Leftys are doing.
Wait, isn’t Uber pretty much an unprofitable ponzi scheme fond of mis-classifying employees to get out of paying benefits that’s been exposed as a hotbed of shocking misogyny and abuse? Is that “the American way of life” they’re maintaining?
(To be sure, Lyft is guilty of much of the same, but “rideshare service = AMERICA” is a level of dementedness I apparently can’t access.)
Amex is so restrictive with the credits, its awful. I hate these changes by Chase, but no way I’d touch Amex.
They are restrictive for sure but I think their partners are better compared to these. And you also know that they are supposed to be there long term. Who knows what happens in 2021 with Chase.
Has Chase ever offered anything for retention offers? I’ll almost certainly still pay this because of how much travel spending I do and how many points I have banked up – but would hope I might be able to get at least a small token of points or fee offset.
They have but it is rare…not sure if ever on the CSR though
Not so fast, my friend. ONE of these changes is guaranteed to last.
Yeah.. the annual fee.
Haha you got me Brutus!