so a ton of people including myself have been using credit card points to travel the world almost completely for free and pretty much every single one of us would tell you that at some point we've used credit cards from a popular setup called the chase Trifecta now you might have heard people talk about the chase Trifecta and how valuable it can be but in this video I don't want to tell you why you should just consider getting the three credit cards in this setup I want to tell you why I think every single person out there with good credit needs to get these three cards at least once in their lifetime and I can confidently guarantee that with a chaser effecta anyone can earn a minimum of one thousand dollars back or even potentially more from their normal spending habits with very little effort so let's get right into the video here now for anyone unfamiliar the Chase Drve Factor consists of two no annual fee Chase credit cards which are the freedom flex and the freedom unlimited and then the third card in this Trifecta is going to be either the 95 per year staff I preferred or the 550 per year Sapphire Reserve because Chase is only going to allow you to hold one of those two sapphire cards at a time now if you're someone that's very against paying Annual fees for credit cards then just stick with me here before you click on way and that's because I'm going to tell you why paying an annual fee for One credit card in this setup is very much worth it and why it's actually not even a permanent thing since you can basically get rid of that fee after one year so I'll explain how now I've got four reasons why I think it makes sense for everyone to get the chase Trifecta so let's go over these cards first starting with the Chase Freedom unlimited because I think this card is going to be the most straightforward credit card in the setup and it's also probably where I'd suggest most people begin with their Trifecta now the freedom unlimited gets three percent back on dining three percent back at drugstores five percent back on travel ebook through Chase and then the main selling point with this credit card is that it actually gets unlimited 1. 5 back on all other purchases so really the purpose of this card in the chase Trifecta is to act as what's called a catch-all card that you can basically use for any miscellaneous spending that doesn't fall under a higher points earning category on any other credit card you have in your wallet you also get some basic purchase protections along with some other travel insurance coverages that are just okay but get better as we move up onto the sapphire cards that we'll talk about in a minute for welcome bonuses these are going to vary over time but I'll tell you that typically the base offer on the freedom unlimited has been something like 200 cash back after spending 500 bucks in the first three months but right now as of the filming of this video Chase has also been offering a limited time bonus of five percent back on grocery spending excluding Target and Walmart and that's gonna be on up to twelve thousand dollars of spending in your first year for a possible additional 600 in cash back which is really really good now speaking of cashback the important thing to remember here if you're new to Chase credit cards is that both the freedom unlimited and the freedom Flex are advertised as earning cashback on Chase's website but when you read the fine print it actually says cashback rewards are tractors points and each one dollar in cashback rewards earned is equal to 100 points so really those two no annual fee Freedom cards are earning Chase Ultimate Rewards points which can then easily be converted to cashback or what you can do is combine those points within your Chase account with other cards that also earn Ultimate Rewards points and then you can use some features on those other cards like the sapphired or the sapphire Reserve to redeem for travel in ways to get you even more value than regular cash back so I'm going to refer to all these cards as earning points for the rest of this video and because Chase says that 100 Ur points converts to one dollar cashback that gives each point a base value of one cent per point if we want to turn that into cashback or in other words the freedom unlimited categories really could also be read as 3x points per dollar on dining 3x points per dollar at drug stores 5x points per dollar on travel book through Chase and then 1. 5 x points per dollar on all other purchases now we'll talk more about these points and why I think this setup is still worth it whether you want to redeem these points for cash back or travel but next year let's look at credit card number two in this Chase Trifecta and that's going to be the freedom Flex so this is almost the same card as the freedom unlimited except for a couple of things so the freedom Flex also earns Ultimate Rewards points by getting 5x points per dollar on travel that you booked for Chase 3x points per dollar on dining 3x points per dollar at drugstores but then this card only gets 1X points per dollar on all other purchases however the main selling point of the freedom Flex is that this card is going to give you the additional feature of earning 5x points per dollar in rotating quarterly categories that chase is going to change up every three months and you can earn that 5x back on up to fifteen hundred dollars of spending per quarter for a maximum of 7 500 points per quarter so 7 500 points per quarter is a possible additional 30 000 chase points per year and at a one Center Point value for cash back that's worth 300 or potentially more when we redeem those points for even more value for travel instead in the chase Trifecta setup now you do need to activate this 5x back feature for every new quarter after Chase announces what this new rotating categories are going to be by going into your Chase account and then clicking a button and of course you also have to actually keep track of these categories as they change so that's why I said that the freedom unlimited is more of a straightforward card because you don't really have to activate anything or keep track of anything but if you can remember to do those things then I think you can really earn more on the Flex compared to the unlimited and just to give you an idea of some of these categories currently in q1 of 2023 it was 5x back at grocery stores Target and fitness club memberships and then for Q2 of 2023 the 5x categories are going to be Lowe's and amazon.
com you can see other common categories like restaurants months PayPal gas stations and some other good things like that you can also pretty much get the same sign up bonus offers going on for the freedom Flex like we talked about with the freedom unlimited earlier so that's gonna be a base offer of 200 cashback which is really earned in the form of 20 000 Chase Ur points after spending 500 bucks in the first three months and then again there's also sometimes special bonus offers going on for a limited time like right now where you can get 5x back on groceries for your first year now other benefits on the freedom Flex are pretty similar to the freedom unlimited but the freedom Flex also offers an additional cell phone protection benefit that actually protects you against theft and damage which is pretty nice to see a few other things to note are that the freedom flex and the freedom unlimited also both charge a three percent foreign transaction fee whereas the sapphire cards that we're going to talk about next year both have no foreign transaction fees and then both of these Freedom cards also offer some limited time partner benefits with Brands like doordash Lyft and instacart but now moving on to the two sapphire cards in this Chase Trifecta setup first we have the Chase Staff I preferred which comes in with a 95 annual fee and this is just a small fee that's really not so bad because it again I'm going to explain how you can usually avoid paying that after just one year but for the sap I prefer this card currently has a welcome offer of 60 000 chase points after spending four thousand dollars in the first three months and by the way these offers are always changing so feel free to go ahead and check out the affiliate links that I'll have down below to see the most up-to-date information if you want to learn more about any one of these credit cards and actually help to support this channel for completely free so thank you to anyone that uses those links again those points here on the staff I preferred are the same Ultimate Rewards points earned by the freedom unlimited and the freedom Flex as well so Chase basically allows customers to combine these points all under the same account which is one of the big reasons why this setup works so well together but for the welcome bonus like I said you could redeem those same sixty thousand chase points for cash back at a value of one cent per point that would give you 600 cashback that you can deposit straight in your bank account compare that six hundred dollars in minimum value to the 95 annual fee and it's easy to see that no matter what you're coming out ahead in value by a lot in the first year and if you throw in the 20 000 points from the sign up bonus on the freedom Unlimited and then the 20 000 points from the bonus on the freedom Flex as well that's gonna be 100 000 chase points worth one thousand dollars of cash back at one cent per point but actually with the staff I preferred it has a feature that gets you 25 more value for your chase points by redeeming those points for travel through the chase portal so instead of getting one cent per point for one thousand dollars in cash back we would get 1. 25 cents per point for travel in that portal which gives us 1 250 in value so my argument is that when we get those two Freedom cards and then the one Sapphire card like the preferred in this situation with the chase Trifecta we're able to get at least one thousand or twelve hundred fifty dollars in value from just the sign up bonuses alone and we're only paying ninety five dollars with one of those cards so whether you prefer cash back or travel you're getting a great deal that's hard to pass up no matter what when you compare that to some of the other credit card offers out there that's not even considering the much higher upside value of those points with the many great one-to-one travel partners that chase has on their website and that's gonna include programs like United Southwest British Airways Virgin Atlantic and Hyatt which is a personal favorite of mine but to finish looking at the sapphire preferred you're also going to get a 50 Hotel credit every single year when you book a hotel say through Chase and that's going to help to bring down what we call your effective annual fee from 95 per year to just 45 the staff I preferred also has some decent Point multipliers because it's going to get you 5x points per dollar on travel book through Chase 2x points per dollar on any other travel booked outside of Chase which covers a broad range of expenses and then you also get 3x points per dollar on dining 3x points per dollar for online groceries 3x points per dollar on select streaming services and then 1X points per dollar on all other purchases now I know there's a lot of overlap with points multipliers on these cards like the fact that they all are in 3x points on dining but really to me the chase Trifecta is more about The Upfront value and then the Simplicity when it comes to earning and redeeming points so in my Chase Drve Factor setup I use the freedom Flex mainly for the rotating 5x Point per dollar categories I use the freedom unlimited as my catch-all card to earn 1. 5 x points per dollar on all my miscellaneous spending and then I have the staff I preferred which I use for streaming and then these smaller random travel expenses I have like Easy Pass OR parking but my staff I preferred is mostly used for the Transfer Partners that it gives me access to because I have a lot of chase points saved up from both me and my fiance from both personal and business spending I also like the staff I prefer because it has no foreign transaction fees and it comes with better travel protections including things like primary auto rental coverage and that could save me upwards of 20 to 30 bucks per day when I'm renting cars but if you want to spend a little bit more on the 550 per year Sapphire Reserve in your Chase Trifecta instead then you'll get a few different benefits on that card so first there's the same base welcome offer of 60 000 chase points after spending four thousand dollars in the first three months and again these offers are always changing so feel free to check out the affiliate links that I'll have Down Below in the description but now with this Sapphire Reserve you get a 50 points boost feature which would turn the potential combined 100 000 points from all the signup bonuses on these three cards into fifteen hundred dollars worth of travel books or chase at a 1.
5 Cent per point value but you do also get access to the exact same one-to-one Transit Partners as a staff I preferred so that's still going to be the better bet to get the most value you for your points to me though because both the preferred and the reserve have the exact same one-to-one Transfer Partners I think the preferred is going to be the better value option personally for the lower annual fee and I think for most people like beginners that might be new to the whole Chase Trifecta thing that cheaper staff I preferred is most likely the better fit for you too now there is also a 300 annual Travel credit on the sapphire Reserve which gets applied to pretty much any travel spending you put on this card and that does easily help to lower the effective annual fee from 550 per year down to just 250 which is a bit more manageable for Points categories on the reserve you get 5x points per dollar on flights booked through Chase 10x points per dollar on hotels and car rentals book through Chase 3x points per dollar on other travel 10x points per dollar on Chase dining 3x points per dollar on normal dining 1X points per dollar on all other purchases and then other benefits are gonna include things like priority pass select membership for airport lounge access a credit to cover the cost of global entry or TSA pre-check primary auto rental coverage and the best travel insurance coverage out of all the possible cards in this Chase Trifecta setup again though I think for most people it's better to get the cheaper staff I preferred instead because actually you can always upgrade to the reserve after your first year if you really feel like that card's more worth it to you but that brings me to the four reasons why I think the chase Trifecta makes sense for pretty much anyone out there to get so reason number one is that the annual fees are not permanent so in addition to having the option to upgrade from the 95 staff I prefer to the 550 Sapphire Reserve if you qualify you can also downgrade from either one of those cards with Annual fees into one of the no annual fee Freedom cards after a year so to me the ideal strategy to test out the chase Trifecta to see if it's a good fit would be to get the freedom unlimited and the freedom Flex cards first save up all the points you earned from sign up bonuses and spending there and then eventually get the 95 per year Sapphire preferred and that larger sign up bonus you have to pay that 95 annual fee one time up front and then wait until a year passes before you can downgrade but during that first year you can take advantage of redeeming those points at 1. 25 cents per point for travel in the travel portal or maybe for two to three cents per point or even more by transferring those points out to the partner programs but then if you really don't like the card after one year you can downgrade to another Freedom Card and even if you already have a freedom unlimited or a freedom Flex you can still downgrade to a second one of those cards the benefit there is this basically allows you to keep that same account open which is good for your credit score and the age of your credit because now there's no annual fee attached to that account so that account can age forever and still help your score but you still get that higher signup bonus in the first year the second reason the Chase Drve Factor makes sense for everyone out there is that the signup bonuses are great value and they're really easy to get and again across all three cards you're going to be able to get around 100 000 points with the sign up bonuses alone and then even more points for doing all the spending to meet those minimum spend requirements to get the bonuses so like I said that's worth a thousand dollars for cash back at one Center per point one thousand two hundred fifty dollars for travel in the chase portal at 1. 25 cents per point with a preferred or fifteen hundred dollars at 1.
5 cents per point on the reserve or by learning how to transfer chase points like a pro like I show you how to do in some other videos that I have here on my channel that I'll link to down below you can get even double or triple that value all just paying one ninety five dollar annual fee on the staff I preferred and then you can downgrade that to no annual fee after just one year the third reason to get the chase Trifecta is that chase points in my opinion have the best balance of good value and being easy to use compared to other credit card points currencies from other issuers so for example you always have a solid one cent for point value option for cash back on Chase credit cards but other issuers like American Express for example only give you sixty percent of that value or 0. 6 cents per point for cash back on some of their cards now even though transferring points is always the best option to get the most value I understand that some people are just beginners and it kind of takes a little bit of time to get the hang of things with redeeming points and if the goal is just to use credit card points to travel for less but understanding Transit Partners is what's holding you back and having the ability to get 1. 25 cents per point for travel in the portal on the preferred or 1.
