Chase Sapphire Preferred vs. Chase Freedom Flex

The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card (Review) and the Chase Freedom Flex℠ (Review) are designed with two different kinds of spenders in mind.

The Sapphire Preferred targets those who travel at least several times a year, while the Freedom Flex caters to customers who spend money on a wide variety of purchases. But your choice doesn’t have to be permanent. If you get the Freedom Flex and decide the Sapphire Preferred might actually suit you better, you can upgrade to it, and vice versa.

However, these cards can work together to produce a higher return for your spending. So if you don’t feel like choosing, you could always grab both. But if you’re torn between which card would work best for you, I’m sure we can help with that decision.

Chase Freedom Flex℠

Details

Annual Fee$0

Regular APR14.99% – 23.74% Variable

After you’ve earned your points, you can redeem them through Chase Ultimate Rewards for a 25% bonus, something the Freedom Flex doesn’t offer.

The transfer options are another great aspect of the Sapphire Preferred. Points transfer in a 1:1 ratio, which is excellent considering some other major reward programs, like American Express Membership Rewards, sometimes skimp on the transfer rates. Your partner points could be worth much more than 1 cent, giving you access to more potential value from the card. It opens up plenty of other redemption options for your rewards.

The welcome bonus is also typically larger than the Freedom Flex’s.

Chase Freedom Flex℠

The Freedom Flex doesn’t share the Sapphire Preferred’s travel focus, and instead earns on a wide array of purchases. And while its focus isn’t travel, it does still earn 5% cash back for it through Chase Ultimate Rewards. That’s more than what the Sapphire Preferred offers, however, you won’t receive a travel redemption bonus or gain access to any point transfer options. And the Sapphire Preferred earns on all travel, not just what you book through Chase Ultimate Rewards, giving you a lot more flexibility.

That being said, the Freedom Flex is more suited to the general spender. The potential rewards could very easily outweigh the Sapphire Preferred’s. There are several more rotating 5% reward categories to accompany the static categories, as well.

These rotating categories cover a lot of ground, with the 2020 categories including things like gym memberships, streaming services, Amazon purchases, and more. And despite the $1,500 spending limit, it’ll still yield plenty of cash back, so that doesn’t really take away from the Freedom Flex’s potential. Even with the limit, the categories push the reward potential of the Freedom Flex far past what the Sapphire Preferred can offer.

However, there is a way you could use both cards to increase your earnings even more. But we’ll get into that a bit later on.

Here are the quarterly 5% bonus categories for 2021, compared to what was offered in 2020:

Redeeming

Although each card earns Chase Ultimate Rewards points, the redemption options are quite different.

The Freedom Flex only features basic redemption methods, like statement credits and gift cards, with no transfer options. Each point with the Freedom Flex will be worth 1 cent at the most. The Chase Sapphire Preferred has the Freedom Flex beat in this regard.

With the Sapphire Preferred you can transfer your points to net a higher cash back equivalent. If you can find a value of 2 cents or more, you’d get a cash back equivalent of at least 10% for Lyft rides and 4% for travel and dining.

Or you could redeem your points for travel expenses through the Chase Ultimate Rewards travel portal for a 25% bonus. That’d make each point worth 1.25 cents.

The airline and hotel partners that you can transfer points to from the Chase Sapphire Preferred, all at a 1:1 rate, are:

The Freedom Flex is cut off from those options and offers no redemption bonus. Instead, you can:

• Redeem for statement credits
• Redeem for gift cards
• Redeem for travel through Chase Ultimate Rewards
• Use your rewards for purchases via Chase Pay
• Transfer your rewards to another Chase card, as we explain in a following section

How Much Would You Earn?

One of the best ways to compare these cards is by looking at each one’s earning potential.

Here are some examples of annual spending, breaking down some of the more useful bonus categories for each card. Each point for the Sapphire Preferred is valued at 1–2 cents. The Freedom Flex’s rewards are just expressed as cash back.

For travel spending, we’re assuming you can book through Chase Ultimate Rewards with the Freedom Flex. If you can’t, you’ll earn less in rewards for this category.

In addition to the categories above, with the Freedom Flex you’ll also gain a rotating selection of 5% categories, up to your first $1,500 spent per quarter, then you earn 1%. That means for three months you’ll earn 5% cash back on the following categories with the Freedom Flex, and then 1% for the remaining nine months. The rewards values are calculated with this in mind.

We’ll look at a few examples from the 2020 selection of categories:

Now let’s see the total rewards, side by side, after subtracting the Sapphire Preferred’s annual fee:

As you can see, if you were to redeem your rewards through normal means with the Chase Sapphire Preferred, they couldn’t hold a candle to the Freedom Flex’s cash back. Even if you were to transfer your points to Chase’s travel partners with the Sapphire Preferred, you could earn a higher cash back equivalent with the Freedom Flex.

However, the value range for the Sapphire Preferred assumes you’re getting between 1 cent per point at the low end and 2 cents per point at the high end. And while 2 cents is a good number to aim for, you could find an even higher value, which would increase your return. That said, the Freedom Flex will most likely still prove the more rewarding card.

And there’s a way to boost those rewards even higher.

How Do the Benefits Compare?

While these two cards have the same issuer, they belong to different card networks.

The Sapphire Preferred is a Visa Signature, while the Freedom Flex is a World Elite Mastercard.

And because benefits are doled out by both the credit card issuer and the network, the Chase Freedom Flex and the Chase Sapphire Preferred share a few of their benefits but also have some discrepancies.

One of the larger discrepancies lies within their rental car insurance coverage. While both cards share this benefit, they come from different providers meaning the terms vary.

The coverage provided by the Chase Sapphire Preferred is primary, while the Freedom Flex provides secondary coverage to its cardmembers. That means if an accident happens the Sapphire Preferred would cover everything, without having to go through your own private insurance provider. Secondary coverage only kicks in after your own insurance has been exhausted.

The Sapphire Preferred also has some travel protections and perks that the Freedom Flex doesn’t. Cardholders will get the Luxury Hotel & Resort Collection, trip delay reimbursement, baggage delay reimbursement, and lost luggage reimbursement. So it’s safe to say the Sapphire Preferred is better suited for travelers. It also features a longer DoorDash membership (known as a DashPass).

The Freedom Flex, which is better suited for a general spender, features benefits like monthly Lyft credits, 5% cash back at Boxed Wholesale, and cell phone protection.

You can see the complete list of benefits for each card below:

How Do the Terms and Fees Compare?

There are a few differences within the terms that you should be aware of. First off, the Freedom Flex features an intro 0% APR for purchases, meaning your new purchases won’t accrue interest for 15 months.

You can avoid interest with the Sapphire Preferred, too. It, like most cards including the Freedom Flex, has a grace period. So as long as you pay your statement balance in full each month, the purchases you made during the previous billing cycle won’t accrue interest.

Another other important difference here is in the annual fees. While the Freedom Flex doesn’t ask for one, the Sapphire Preferred costs $95 per year.

And because the Sapphire Preferred has a focus on travel, there’s no foreign transaction fee to worry about. The Freedom Flex does carry a foreign transaction fee, so if you’re traveling overseas, just be aware you’ll be charged for every purchase you make in foreign currency.

How Can I Get the Most Out of These Cards?

For those of you who don’t want to pick between the two, these cards actually work quite well together.

Use the Freedom Flex for everything it’ll earn more rewards on, and the Sapphire Preferred where it would be more lucrative.

If you end up raking in the rewards with the Freedom Flex, you can actually transfer them to the Chase Sapphire Preferred. That way, you’d gain access to both the 1:1 transfer rate and the redemption bonus for travel of the Sapphire Preferred.

By transferring your points from the Freedom Flex to the Sapphire Preferred, you’d get both an impressive array of bonus categories and the potential to increase the value of your points. Learn more about transferring Chase Ultimate Rewards points here.

If you earn 5% cash back with the Freedom Flex and then move the rewards to the Sapphire Preferred, you can then transfer the points to one of Chase’s travel partners. From there, you could find a per-point value of 2 cents or more. That would boost your cash back equivalent to 10% or more for the 5% categories, and 6% or more for the 3% categories.

The Verdict

Both the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card (Review) and the Chase Freedom Flex℠ (Review) are excellent cards, but one might be better for you depending on your spending habits.

If you’re one for adventures, the Sapphire Preferred would suit you well. It was built with travelers in mind, so if you’re often on the move, it’d be a good choice.

The Freedom Flex is better for people who spend on a variety of different things. It’s kind of a jack-of-all-trades card, and does most of them very well. But if you were to book all of your trips through Chase Ultimate Rewards, the Freedom Flex would also be a great choice for travelers.

When it comes time to redeem your points, the Sapphire Preferred has the advantage. But when it comes to earning rewards, the Freedom Flex outperforms the Sapphire Preferred.

After the annual fee is taken care of, from the calculations above the Chase Sapphire Preferred earns $153.50–$402.00 per year, based on $15,850 in annual spending. In comparison, the Freedom Flex earns $547.50 in rewards. Even with the Sapphire Preferred’s transfer options, the Freedom Flex wins by a landslide.

If you don’t feel like choosing, you could use both. Using them together will increase your reward potential and let you access the Sapphire Preferred’s redemption options, meaning you could get the best of both worlds.

Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card

Our rating

Min. credit levelGood

Details

Annual Fee$95

Regular APR15.99% – 22.99% Variable

Chase Freedom Flex℠

Details

Annual Fee$0

Regular APR14.99% – 23.74% Variable

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