Here’s what I wish I’d known before canceling my Chase Sapphire Preferred
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BLUEPRINT
Published 6:39 a.m. UTC July 4, 2024
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During the heart of the pandemic, I logged into my Chase account and felt a jolt of surprise when I saw the $95 annual fee for my favorite travel credit card, the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card. At the time, my only “travel” consisted of curbside pickup runs, so I decided to try to get my money back.
As a credit card journalist, I know you can often get an annual fee removed from your bill if you immediately call the card company to cancel or downgrade to a no-annual-fee card. So I called to change from my Chase Sapphire Preferred, not giving much thought to the travel benefits I’d lose.
The Chase representative suggested I switch to the no-annual-fee Chase Sapphire card, a little-known card not available to new cardholders. I agreed to the product change and used the card without noticing much difference — until I took a long trip to South America and got hit with foreign transaction fees.
Here is my cautionary tale about downgrading a card without taking a full inventory of the benefits you’ll be losing — and how you can avoid making my silly mistake.
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Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
The Chase Sapphire Preferred card is a winner for travel
Before I downgraded, my Chase Sapphire Preferred served as my go-to travel card for many years, with a solid slate of benefits that more than made up for the annual fee. Once I realized my mistake, I upgraded back to the card again because it’s one of the best travel credit cards on the market for moderately frequent travelers.
I don’t travel quite enough to justify a premium travel card like the Chase Sapphire Reserve® or The Platinum Card® from American Express, but the Chase Sapphire Preferred is a perfect fit for me. Why do I like the card so much?
The Chase Sapphire Preferred card has loads of travel and dining benefits, including:
- A solid welcome bonus of 60,000 points after spending $4,000 on purchases in the first three months of account opening.
- A good rewards structure with bonus categories for travel and dining purchases.
- Excellent travel coverage, including trip cancellation/delay and delayed luggage coverage.
- Primary auto rental collision damage waiver in the U.S. and abroad.
- Purchase and extended warranty protection.
- No foreign transaction fees.
The card earns Chase Ultimate Rewards® points, one of the most flexible point currencies on the market. These points can be redeemed through the Chase Travel℠ portal or transferred to one of Chase’s airline or hotel partners for potentially better value.
The card served me well on many international trips, including vacations to Argentina and Spain with my husband and a solo language-learning trip to Guatemala. With its top-notch travel protections, I always used it to buy plane tickets and rent cars in the U.S. and abroad, enjoying the peace of mind that comes from having primary auto rental insurance coverage on a card.
And, in my international travels, I saved hundreds of dollars by not paying foreign transaction fees.
My silly mistake in downgrading my Chase Sapphire Preferred
When I downgraded my Chase Sapphire Preferred to the plain Chase Sapphire card, I had one thing on my mind: getting a credit back for my $95 annual fee.
Because this was 2020 and we were right in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, I was barely leaving home, except to pick up groceries or stock up on cleaning products and hand sanitizer. International travel seemed like a distant memory.
For that reason, I didn’t ask the Chase representative much about what benefits I’d be giving up by trading my Chase Sapphire Preferred for the more basic version of the card. I didn’t ask about rewards earning rates, which are a little lower, and I definitely didn’t think to quiz her about foreign transaction fees.
I got my money back, and I was happy with the downgraded card — until I got to South America and started using the card for dining out, groceries and other daily expenses.
My trip to Uruguay and getting surprised with fees
In late 2021, my husband and I were finally able to take a dream trip that got postponed by the pandemic: A year in Uruguay. We had both fallen in love with the tiny country, known for its beaches and sunsets, on a side trip from a previous Argentina vacation.
There was a flurry of activity to get ready for such a long trip, including getting our house ready for Airbnb guests, that credit cards weren’t top of mind. In fact, I forgot I had downgraded my Chase Sapphire card.
We got to Uruguay and settled into our apartment, hitting the local pet store to buy a bed and food for our dog, buying a bunch of household items and of course exploring the capital city of Montevideo as tourists. We visited museums, tasted Uruguayan wine and hit plenty of parillas — grill restaurants where Uruguay’s famous beef, cheese and vegetables are grilled to smoky perfection.
Unfortunately, each time we handed over our plain Chase Sapphire card, we were getting hit with foreign transaction fees since the downgraded card did not have the same “no foreign transaction fees” benefit as the Chase Sapphire Preferred. My October statement included two pages of foreign transaction fees ranging from 10 cents to $3.75. By the time I noticed the fees the following month, they totaled over $70 all told.
I immediately called Chase and upgraded back to the Chase Sapphire Preferred card. For me, the annual fee is worth it. Turns out, I ended up paying almost as much in foreign transaction fees as the price of the annual fee on the Sapphire Preferred card. I’ve kept the upgraded card ever since, and don’t intend to downgrade again.
I’m now getting ready for my next international trip, to Mexico, and I’ve learned from my mistake. The Chase Sapphire Preferred will be my go-to credit card for that trip. And I’m also shopping for a backup credit card with no foreign transaction fees since it’s a good idea to carry at least two no-foreign-transaction-fee cards in case one gets lost or stolen during a trip.
A good travel card can be a safety net when traveling. Here are 11 Chase Sapphire Preferred travel benefits you should know
Final verdict
It’s a good idea to do regular surveys of your credit card portfolio, looking at the annual fees, benefits and main purpose for which you use the card.
Downgrading a card when you’re not getting enough value from the rewards and perks to make up for the annual fee can make more sense than canceling the card.
By downgrading, you keep your credit line with the card issuer, which can help to keep your credit strong. That’s because the available credit you have on any given card affects your credit utilization, the amount of available credit you’re using, and thus your credit score.
But it’s important to make sure you won’t be losing an important benefit you rely on, and to fully understand what your new downgraded card does — and doesn’t — offer, especially before you take it on a major international trip.
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