Don't Ignore These Chase Sapphire Preferred Benefits! (Part 1: Shopping Benefits)

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If you're ignoring these benefits, you could be missing out on hundreds of dollars of perks.

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Today we're discussing the often ignored shopping and purchase benefits on the Chase Sapphire Preferred card.

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Welcome back to Points for Normal People.

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I'm Katie and I'm here because I know that travel costs add up, especially for a family, but I believe that travel isn't just for the rich.

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That's why, on Points for Normal People, I share the tips and tricks that my family has been using for over a decade to help you use your everyday expenses and credit card welcome offers to supercharge your travel points so that you can pay for entire family vacations every year.

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Today we're going in-depth into the benefits on the Chase Sapphire Preferred card that are often ignored, focusing on the shopping-related benefits.

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By the end of the episode, you'll have a good understanding of how to take advantage of these benefits and easy habits that you can develop to start saving even more money with your card.

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I'm focusing on the Chase Sapphire Preferred in this episode because I believe it to be the best beginner card for points on the market.

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I discussed this more in episode four, which is all about how to pick the right cards for points.

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Go back and listen if you skipped it.

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The Chase Sapphire Preferred is also the first card listed in my three-year plan.

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Now, the Sapphire Preferred has an annual fee of $95, and for some newcomers to points, that's hard to swallow.

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There are plenty of cards out there with a $0 annual fee.

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So what's the point?

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Well, the biggest point is earning points.

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The kind of points you're earning with a Sapphire Preferred are really valuable.

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Chase gives you the ability to transfer your ultimate rewards on this card to partners like Hyatt or United.

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To transfer your ultimate rewards on this card to partners like Hyatt or United, you will need to have a chase card with an annual fee to transfer your ultimate rewards to airline and hotel partners, and the Sapphire Preferred, with its $95 annual fee, is tied for the lowest annual fee that you can pay while still having this ability to transfer your points to partners.

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We'll talk about this more later in the season when we go into ultimate rewards and how you can keep earning them forever.

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But this ability to transfer points to airlines and hotels isn't the only benefit.

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In fact, there are a lot of additional benefits, many of which are forgotten or hard to even learn about, and that's what I want to discuss today how to get even more value from your Chase Sapphire Preferred.

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I'll talk about the benefits and then I'll also talk about simple habits that you can develop to take advantage of them.

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Next week I'll be going into the travel-related benefits.

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Originally I wanted to do this all in one episode, but frankly, there are too many benefits and I wanted to keep my promise to keep these episodes to be short and easy to follow, so today I want to focus specifically on the shopping and purchase-related benefits.

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These are the benefits that you can start using right away when you get your card.

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First let's talk about Chase offers.

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Chase offers are kind of hidden away on the app and the website, but are a way that you can save money on purchases.

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They function like a retroactive coupon and usually are for cash back at a certain retailer a certain retailer.

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Chase, of course, doesn't want to make this easy for us, so they require you to opt in to any given offer before you're eligible for savings.

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But some of the offers are pretty decent, so it's worth learning how to access them and having a simple habit to add them to your cards.

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Here are some examples of offers I just pulled off of my chase offers that I have on my cards.

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20% cash back on Kindle books.

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5% cash back at some local restaurants that we actually go to, including.

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I just found this on there our favorite Indian restaurant, which is a local restaurant, was on there for 5% cash back 5% cash back at Allbirds.

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10% cash back on Lyft.

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5% cash back on Southwest Airlines.

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15% cash back at Jersey Mike's or Burger King.

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10% cash back at Midas.

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That's just a small sampling.

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I just wanted to show you that they're pretty varied.

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Now, like any coupon, you aren't saving money if the coupon causes you to spend more money than you intended, but when these offers match with purchases you make anyway, it's a great way to save.

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So here's how you can find them and opt in to start using these.

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You'll need to do this via the Chase app or by logging in to their website.

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To find them from the app, you'll log in and then scroll all the way down to the bottom of the screen.

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You'll see a title that says Chase Offers.

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When you click on it, you'll be able to see your Chase cards and the offers you can add to each card.

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You can also find them if you log into your Chase account from a computer.

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On a computer, you'll log in and then you can see them on the right-hand side, about halfway down your screen.

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Again, look for a header that says Chase Offers.

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Chase does require you to opt in to every offer that you might want to use, so you have to click the little plus sign to add the offer and then keep in mind that there are different offers for your different chase cards, so you might need to toggle down to see your different chase cards and the offers with each one.

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So how can you easily take all of these cash back offers and distill them into savings in just a few minutes a week?

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Well, first, to set your expectations, there is unfortunately no way to completely automate this.

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So if you want to take full advantage of Chase offers, you'll need to log on once a week.

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You can slightly automate the process by signing up for an account with Card Pointers.

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Card Pointers Plus, which costs $60 a year, can run in the background of a browser so that anytime you log into Chase's website it will automatically add all the Chase offers available for all your Chase cards.

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But again, this costs $60 per year and you'd still have to start the habit of logging into the Chase website from your computer or phone each week to trigger CardPointers to add them from your computer or phone each week to trigger card pointers to add them.

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I think for most people starting off, it's just as easy to start that tiny habit of checking your Chase app or the Chase website for offers that might pertain to you and then just adding them.

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There's no disadvantage to adding every single offer just in case, or you can choose to add the ones that you know match places that you might be shopping.

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You won't necessarily use all of these Chase offers that you add, but I think almost everyone can find offers that they will benefit from in the course of a year.

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Keep in mind that these offers change each week and that's why I recommend finding a time to do this each week.

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The amount that you save each year thanks to Chase offers will really vary per person, but it's an area that a lot of people ignore or they miss out on deals because they aren't in the habit of regularly adding these offers to their carts.

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This is, frankly, something I haven't been very good about for myself, but I'm trying to establish.

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Habits are easiest to establish if you attach them to something that you're already doing.

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So for me, my plan is to scroll through and add these chase offers each week while I'm waiting for my son at his taekwondo lesson.

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Maybe there's a specific day you have to wait for a pickup or for a train or for a bus.

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Maybe there's a time each week that you already look over your bills and statements.

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That would be a good time to start doing it.

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The specific time doesn't matter so much, but if you can take a minute each week to do this, you can start taking advantage of some of these offers.

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The Chase Sapphire Preferred also has some great protection benefits for purchases you make with your card.

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If you go along with points and credit cards, you may get cards that double up on some of these benefits.

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But I want to explain them here for this card, because for a card with an annual fee of $95, these are some great benefits.

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First, extended warranty.

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If you buy an item with your Sapphire card, this benefit automatically extends the manufacturer's warranty by one year.

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If you're a person that buys those extra warranties Amazon is always trying to sell or who's tempted to buy them you don't have to do that anymore.

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If an item you buy has a warranty, this extends it by a year.

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So if the item only has a three-month warranty.

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You now have a warranty of one year and three months.

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Here's the catch this benefit will only be active if you still have the card open when you need to make a claim on the extended warranty, when you need to make a claim on the extended warranty.

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That's why it is important that you pick one card in your household that has this benefit and that you plan to keep long-term Use that card when you buy an item that has an extended warranty and that will be useful.

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We have used this benefit a few times.

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Our biggest claim was on a washing machine.

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We have a rental property and had purchased a new washing machine and after about 22 months it stopped working.

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This was past the one-year manufacturer's warranty, but still barely within the extended warranty period.

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Per the instructions in our benefit guide, we filed a claim and we had a technician come out.

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If you do end up having an item you need to claim, I recommend you go and read the benefit booklet to make sure you're filing correctly and following the steps correctly.

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The technician said the price to fix it was more than the original cost of the washing machine, so we ended up getting a check for the whole purchase price of the washing machine and the visit from the technician was covered as well.

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This doesn't have to be on big ticket items only.

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It's valid for headphones, backpacks, shoes, anything that comes with a warranty of three years or less.

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There are some exceptions, like boats, automobiles, trailers, computer software and used items.

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Notably, a refurbished item will be covered as long as it has a warranty with it, so this can give you additional peace of mind if you choose to buy a refurbished item.

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What habit can you establish to take advantage of this benefit?

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If you have multiple credit cards with an extended warranty benefit, pick one card, one card that you plan to keep long term, and use that one as much as possible for purchases of items that have a warranty.

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This will make it much easier for you to file a claim if necessary and make sure your important purchases are on a card that you still have.

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Purchase protection is another perk that most people aren't aware of that the Sapphire Preferred has.

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Purchase protection is different from extended warranty protection and protects you if you made a new purchase and then that item is damaged or stolen within 120 days of purchase.

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On the Sapphire Preferred this is up to $500 per item.

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I've also used this benefit before and I used it when my new phone got stolen from me in Thailand.

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This was during the time when our family was traveling full-time and I had bought a new phone.

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Before we left on our trip, we were at a crowded festival and my daughter got burned and I slipped my phone into my pocket to help her and instantly I felt someone lifted out.

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Honestly, that whole experience is probably one of our worst days of travel ever as a family, because I felt so vulnerable and my daughter's burn was pretty bad and it was just so frustrating that at that moment my phone got stolen.

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But the good news is, at least I didn't have to pay for a new phone.

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That's because it was within 120 days of my phone purchase.

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So when I went to look at what I needed to do to file a claim, I needed a police report.

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This was actually harder than it seemed and I ended up having to go to file a claim.

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I needed a police report.

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This was actually harder than it seemed and I ended up having to go to three police stations to get that police report.

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But I did it and I filed my claim and I got a check for the full price of my phone back and even better, the phone was then on sale for Black Friday, so I bought the same phone, but cheaper.

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The exclusions for purchase protection are pretty similar to the extended warranty exclusions.

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Things like cars and boats, but also plants and animals are excluded, as well as antiques and collectibles.

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Just knowing that you have these extended warranty and purchase protections is the first step.

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Then it's just a matter of filing your receipts so you know which card paid for which item if you need to file a claim later on.

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The last benefit I want to mention is one that's currently set to expire on July 31st 2024.

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It's a $15 per quarter benefit at Instacart.

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I hope this benefit will be extended and if it is, I will make sure to note that in the show notes.

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So if you're listening after July 31st 2024, be sure to check down there to see if this is current.

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This is actually one of my favorite little perks on the Sapphire Preferred.

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If you're not familiar with Instacart, it's a delivery service where a shopper goes to a store and then delivers items to your house.

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Delivery service where a shopper goes to a store and then delivers items to your house.

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$15 per quarter means that the year is divided into four quarters and each quarter you can earn a $15 statement credit if you spend $15 or more at Instacart.

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These credits don't carry over, they are per quarter.

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So between January 1st and March 31st you can get a $15 statement credit and then on April 1st it resets and you get another $15 statement credit and on July 1st it resets and on September 1st it resets again.

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You also get a six-month trial of Instacart Plus, which lowers your service fees and delivery fees.

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Now, instacart does inflate prices on many stores and there is typically a service fee.

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If you get your items delivered, there may also be a delivery fee, and then you are also expected to tip the driver.

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So how is this even worth it?

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Well, I can tell you.

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I consistently find that I save time and money by using this perk.

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So here are some tips to make sure you're actually saving by using this $15 credit.

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The first way is to use additional coupons.

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Your $15 statement credit from Chase is not a coupon.

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That means you can use any Instacart coupons and, as long as your total is $15 or more, you'll see the $15 statement credit when you get your Sapphire Preferred statement If you paid for your Instacart charge with your Sapphire Preferred card.

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This means you can double up on savings by pairing an Instacart coupon and a statement credit.

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The same principle applies with the Chase offers where, because those are a retroactive statement credit, you could use a coupon for those places and also later get your Chase offer percentage back.

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I regularly open my Instacart app and find pretty good coupons listed for specific stores.

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I have seen $20 off a purchase of $50 at Costco or $10 off a $35 purchase at Petco as some examples.

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If you're brand new to Instacart, you can use my referral code and save $10 on your first purchase at Instacart.

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Next, you can check for stores that offer pickup instead of delivery.

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This will vary by your region, but cuts out the delivery fee and tip.

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You can choose to shop at stores that are clearly marked as in-store prices.

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In my area this includes Walgreens, petco, cvs, michaels and even the Dollar Tree.

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Typically, when I shop via Instacart, I start by looking at what coupons I have in my account.

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Then I'll see what I can buy at those stores that I actually need anyway.

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By the time it takes off my coupon, I'm usually at about the price it would be if I were to buy it in the store, but I've saved myself the hassle of going into the store and I've also saved myself on not getting upsold on anything in the store.

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If you love shopping, this might not appeal to you, but it certainly does appeal to me.

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Again, I'm not talking huge savings here, but when you pair your Instacart credit with a coupon, you'll usually save a little bit of money and you'll save some time.

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Another great time to use this benefit is when you're on a trip.

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If you're staying at a hotel, you can get Instacart grocery delivery to your hotel lunch supplies or chips or drinks, so that you're not paying hotel prices for snacks.

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Sometimes, after a long trip, I will order Instacart from Aldi while we're taxiing to the gate.

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I just order the essentials we like to have and they're waiting for us on the doorstep when we get back from our trip.

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If you, like me, become a more regular shopper at Instacart, you can also buy $100 Instacart gift cards at Costco a few times a year for only $80.

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So you can lock in a 20% discount up front For your action items.

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Today.

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I want you to start using some of these benefits.

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If you have a Sapphire Preferred, if you don't have one yet and you're interested in signing up, I will link my affiliate link below.

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If you don't have one yet and you're interested in signing up, I will link my affiliate link below as a reminder.

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I keep my resources, like my podcast, my course and my guides, free, and all I ask is that, if you find my content helpful, that you use my affiliate links when you decide to sign up for a credit card.

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I only share the best offers, even if they don't earn me a commission.

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But when you're able to use my affiliate links instead of just googling a card to sign up, it's a way that you can support me and allow me and my team to keep creating more free resources.

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So how can you start habits to make using these benefits easy?

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First, think of a time that you're going to start checking Chase offers every week.

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You can even send me a message on Instagram or Facebook if you want to tell someone what your time is.

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Writing down a goal makes you 42% more likely to achieve it, so I'm happy to hear from you if that will help you.

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We'll also start a thread in our Facebook group if you want to share when you plan to add chase offers every week.

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Maybe the time that someone else is sharing will be a good time for you too and help motivate you.

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And, of course, if you don't feel like checking for Chase offers and it seems like an extra hassle to add them, don't do it.

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It's not hugely important, but it can definitely save you money when it matches your spending.

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A semi-automated way to do this would be to get the Card Pointers Plus app or extension, but again, that does cost $60 and may or may not be worth it for you.

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Next, pick one card that you're going to use for extended warranty and purchase protection.

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If you have a spouse or partner, make sure you know what you're using for purchases of this kind, so you're on the same page.

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You could even start an email folder or file folder for receipts to make it easy to file a claim if something happens later.

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And last, if you're listening, before July 31st 2024, you can still get two times of using your Instacart benefit.

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If you've never used it before, I'll link my referral link in the show notes, which should give you $10 off your first purchase.

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If you haven't grabbed my free beginner's guide how to slash travel costs with points, you can also find that in the show notes.

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Thanks so much for spending time with me today.

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I look forward to seeing you next time.

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We'll continue to unlock these secrets of travel points together.

Don't Ignore These Chase Sapphire Preferred Benefits! (Part 1: Shopping Benefits)

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Don't Ignore These Chase Sapphire Preferred Benefits! (Part 1: Shopping Benefits)

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