Chase Sapphire Preferred

• The 75,000-point welcome bonus requires $5,000 in 3 months - that's roughly $1,667/month, which is a real ask for a $95 card, so map out your actual spend before you apply and make sure the timing is genuinely there rather than panic-buying gift cards in month three.
• The 3x on online groceries deliberately excludes Target, Walmart, and wholesale clubs - meaning if those are where most of your grocery dollars actually go, the elevated rate is more gap-filler than workhorse, and the 1x reality check is worth knowing before you build a spend strategy around it.
• The $50 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit sounds like free money, and it mostly is - but it ONLY applies to hotel stays booked through Chase Travel, not direct, not Expedia, not anywhere else, so if you're someone who always books direct for status or flexibility, this benefit quietly doesn't exist for you.
• The Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver is PRIMARY coverage up to $60,000 - which is the meaningful distinction here, since primary means the card pays out first without involving your personal auto insurance, and that's genuinely better than what you'll find on a lot of cards at this fee level.
• NO foreign transaction fees - this card is completely clean to use abroad, which matters because international travel is exactly where you'd want to be earning transferable points without a 3% surcharge quietly trimming every transaction.
• The DashPass benefit is complimentary for 12 months, then auto-enrolls at the current monthly rate - the $10 monthly promo credit through December 2027 helps offset it if DoorDash is already in your rotation, but if you activate and forget, you'll be paying for a subscription that snuck up on you, so set a calendar reminder before the free year closes.
• The 10% anniversary points bonus is real but modest - if you put $25,000 on the card in a year, that's 2,500 bonus points, which is a nice footnote but not a reason to concentrate spend here over a higher-earning category card, so treat it as a quiet annual thank-you rather than a core part of the math.

The Chase Sapphire Preferred is the OG travel rewards card that still punches above its $95 annual fee weight — 75K points after $5K spend, 5x on Chase Travel, 3x on dining and groceries, plus real insurance protections and 1:1 transfer partners. If you're graduating from cashback or just entering the points game, this is your starting pistol.