The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card and Bilt Mastercard® are popular credit card options for those seeking travel rewards and benefits.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred is one of the most popular travel rewards cards because it offers nice welcome bonus and extra points on travel and dining, which can be transferred to airline and hotel partners or redeemed directly for travel at a rate of 1.25 cents per point through Chase Travel℠. The Sapphire Preferred also offers great travel and purchase protections for a card with a $95 annual fee.
The Bilt Rewards Mastercard lets you earn valuable travel rewards on rent payments without fees while offering bonus points on dining and travel purchases. This no-annual-fee card stands out for its unique rent payment feature and strong travel benefits like rental car coverage and trip protection.
This article will compare each card based on several factors to help you make an informed decision on which card is the best to add to your wallet.Reviews: Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card and Bilt Mastercard®.
Overview: Sapphire Preferred vs Bilt Rewards
- Earn 75,000 bonus points after you spend $5,000 on purchases in the first 3 months.
- 5x Points on Travel Booked Via Chase
- 3x Points on Dining and Eligible Delivery Services
- 2x Points on All Other Travel Purchases
- 10% Anniversary Points Boost
- Trip Delay and Trip Cancellation Insurance
- Primary Rental Car Insurance
- $95 Annual Fee
Welcome Bonus
Chase Sapphire Preferred:
Let’s begin with one of the most attractive aspects of the Chase Sapphire Preferred: the welcome bonus. Currently, new cardholders can earn the following welcome bonus:
Earn 75,000 bonus points after you spend $5,000 on purchases in the first 3 months.
Bilt Rewards Mastercard:
The Bilt Mastercard® stands out in an interesting way when it comes to welcome bonuses. Unlike most rewards credit cards, you won’t find a traditional sign-up bonus offering a set number of points after meeting a spending requirement.
The card makes up for this by offering unique bonuses in other ways. Many new cardholders receive an email offering 5x points on all purchases up to $10,000 within the first five days of card membership – potentially netting you 50,000 Bilt points right off the bat.
Earning Points
Chase Sapphire Preferred:
The Chase Sapphire Preferred earns Ultimate Rewards points and offers bonus points on spending in several categories:
- 5 points per dollar on travel booked through Chase Travel;
- 5 points per dollar on Lyft purchases (through March 2025);
- 5 points per dollar on Peloton equipment and accessory purchases of $250 or more (through March 2025, with a limit of 25,000 bonus points);
- 3 points per dollar on dining, including eligible delivery services, takeout, and dining out;
- 3 points per dollar on online grocery store purchases (excludes Target, Walmart, and wholesale clubs);
- 3 points per dollar on select streaming services;
- 2 points per dollar on all travel not booked through Chase Travel; and
- 1 point per dollar on all other eligible spending.
Bilt Rewards Mastercard:
The Bilt Mastercard® earns the following rewards when you have at least five posted transactions per billing cycle:
- 5 points per dollar on Lyft purchases.
- 3 points per dollar on dining.
- 2 points per dollar on travel purchases.
- 1 point per dollar on rent payments without any transaction fees, up to a limit of 100,000 points per year.
- 1 point per dollar on everything else.
Winner:
It depends. If you are a renter, the Bilt Mastercard is the winner because you can earn many points easily by paying your rent without any additional fees. If you are not a renter, the Chase Sapphire Preferred has a slight edge because it offers 3x points on select streaming and online grocery.
Card Benefits
Chase Sapphire Preferred:
The Chase Sapphire Preferred offers nice benefits, including:
10% Points Bonus: You will earn bonus points equivalent to 10% of your total spending in points earned with your Chase Sapphire Preferred Card during the past account anniversary year. For example, if you spent $10,000 during your cardmember year, you would receive an additional 1,000 points ($10,000 * 10% = 1,000 points).
$50 Hotel Credit: The Chase Sapphire Preferred card offers up to $50 in statement credits every account anniversary year if you book your hotel stays through Chase Travel.
DashPass Membership: This card offers a one-year DashPass membership for free, which includes DoorDash and Caviar, offering unlimited deliveries with free delivery fees and reduced service fees for eligible purchases. The offer must be activated by December 31, 2027. Once the free membership is over, you will be automatically enrolled in DashPass at the prevailing monthly rate.
Instacart Membership: Have your groceries delivered to your doorstep with a complimentary 6-month Instacart+ membership plus a $15 credit once every quarter. Enrollment is required by July 31, 2024.
No Foreign Transaction Fees: You’ll save money on every purchase while traveling internationally since this card doesn’t add the typical 3% surcharge that many other cards impose.
Travel Benefits
Primary Rental Car Insurance: When you rent a car and pay with this card, you’ll receive comprehensive coverage including damage and theft protection. Simply decline the rental company’s collision damage waiver and charge the entire rental to your card to activate coverage. This insurance covers damage, theft, and valid loss-of-use charges worldwide.
Trip Cancellation & Interruption Insurance: This protection reimburses you for non-refundable, prepaid travel expenses if you need to cancel before departure or cut your trip short due to covered situations like severe illness or weather events. Coverage activates when you pay for your trip with the card, but it’s important to note that reimbursement only applies for specific covered reasons rather than any cancellation.
Trip Delay Insurance: When your trip is significantly delayed due to covered reasons like equipment failures or severe weather, this protection reimburses you for reasonable expenses including lodging, meals, toiletries, and medication. The coverage activates when you pay for travel with your card and extends to family members on the same itinerary, though you’ll need to seek reimbursement from the travel carrier first.
Lost Luggage Reimbursement: Your checked luggage gets extra protection against loss, theft, or damage beyond the basic compensation offered by carriers when you pay for travel with this card.
Baggage Delay Insurance: Missing luggage doesn’t have to derail your trip – this coverage steps in to reimburse you for essential purchases when your checked bags are delayed by airlines, trains, or other carriers. You can grab the necessities you need, from a fresh outfit to personal care items, while waiting for your bags to arrive.
Purchase Benefits
120-Day Purchase Protection: Get 120 days of protection against damage, theft, and even loss of your purchases – one of the longest windows available. This premium coverage automatically applies when you pay with your card.
Extended Warranty Protection: Your purchases gain an extra year of warranty protection when bought with this card, extending manufacturer warranties of three years or less without the inflated prices of store warranty plans.
Bilt Rewards Mastercard:
The Bilt Mastercard® offers nice benefits for a no annual fee card, including:
Primary Rental Car Insurance: When you rent a car and pay with this card, you’ll receive comprehensive coverage including damage and theft protection. Simply decline the rental company’s collision damage waiver and charge the entire rental to your card to activate coverage. This insurance covers damage, theft, and valid loss-of-use charges worldwide.
Cell Phone Protection: When you use your card to pay your monthly phone bill, you’ll receive valuable coverage against damage or theft of your device.
Trip Delay Insurance: When your trip is significantly delayed due to covered reasons like equipment failures or severe weather, this protection reimburses you for reasonable expenses including lodging, meals, toiletries, and medication. The coverage activates when you pay for travel with your card and extends to family members on the same itinerary, though you’ll need to seek reimbursement from the travel carrier first.
90-Day Purchase Protection: Your new purchases are covered against damage and theft for 90 days when you use your card. This protection helps safeguard your eligible items right from the moment you buy them.
Trip Cancellation & Interruption Insurance: This protection reimburses you for non-refundable, prepaid travel expenses if you need to cancel before departure or cut your trip short due to covered situations like severe illness or weather events. Coverage activates when you pay for your trip with the card, but it’s important to note that reimbursement only applies for specific covered reasons rather than any cancellation.
Referral Program: Earn 2,500 Bilt points for each friend who gets approved for the Bilt Mastercard using your referral link, plus receive a 10,000-point bonus for every fifth successful referral. You can earn rewards for up to 50 total referrals, meaning significant earning potential through sharing the card with friends and family.
No Foreign Transaction Fees: You’ll save money on every purchase while traveling internationally since this card doesn’t add the typical 3% surcharge that many other cards impose.
Winner:
Chase Sapphire Preferred. It has better trip protections, a $50 hotel credit, and an extended warranty. But the Bilt Rewards offers many valuable benefits that no other no-annual fee offers.
Annual Fee
Chase Sapphire Preferred:
The Chase Sapphire Preferred has a $95 annual fee, which may give some people pause. However, as a frequent traveler, I’ve found that the card’s benefits and rewards can easily offset this cost.
Think about it this way: if you take advantage of the welcome bonus and redeem those points for travel, you’ve already recouped the annual fee many times over. Plus, the ongoing rewards and perks like travel insurance, hotel credit, and no foreign transaction fees can save you money and provide peace of mind during your trips.
Bilt Rewards Mastercard:
The Bilt Mastercard® has no annual fee for both primary cardholders and authorized users, making it one of the best no-fee cards available.
Winner:
Bilt Rewards. It offers a lot of benefits and rewards all for no annual fee.
Redeeming Points
Chase Sapphire Preferred:
The Chase Sapphire Preferred earns Ultimate Rewards points, one of the most flexible currencies in the rewards space. You can redeem them for statement credits, gift cards or purchases through Chase Travel, where the standard rate is one cent per point.
Sapphire Preferred cardholders also get access to Points Boost, which raises that value to between 1.25 and 2 cents per point on select bookings. You'll see 1.5 cents per point on stays booked through The Edit by Chase Travel, and 1.25-1.75 cents toward select flights depending on the airline and class of service.
Still, transferring to airline and hotel partners tends to deliver the most value. The Sapphire Preferred gives you access to all 14 of Chase's partners: Aer Lingus, Air Canada Aeroplan, Air France KLM Flying Blue, British Airways, Emirates, Hyatt, Iberia, IHG, JetBlue, Marriott, Singapore KrisFlyer, Southwest, United, Virgin Atlantic, and Wyndham.
Nearly all of these transfer at 1:1. World of Hyatt is the exception on this card: transfers moved from 1:1 to a 4:3 ratio, a real downside if you lean on Hyatt the way many cardholders do.
Even so, Hyatt's fixed award chart can produce outsized value. A Park Hyatt Maldives redemption starts around 33,400 transferred points, well below the cash rate of $1,000-plus a night. And moving 72,500 points to Virgin Atlantic can get you into ANA first class between the West Coast and Japan, a seat that would otherwise run into the thousands of dollars.
Bilt Rewards Mastercard:
Bilt points are one of the most flexible rewards currencies out there, and the best way to use them is by transferring to airline and hotel partners. Bilt works with 24 programs total, covering 17 airlines and seven hotel brands, and most transfers land in your account within minutes.
Here are the current transfer partners:
Accor (3 to 2), Aer Lingus, Air Canada, Air France-KLM, Atmos (Alaska + Hawaiian), Avianca, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Emirates, Etihad, Hilton, Iberia, IHG, Japan Airlines, Marriott, Preferred Hotels (1 to 2), Qatar Airways, Southwest, TAP Air Portugal, Turkish Airlines, United, Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Red, World of Hyatt, Wyndham
A few of these partners deserve special attention. Alaska's Atmos Rewards is a standout, since it's not offered by any other major transferable currency, and it opens up sweet spot redemptions on American Airlines and other oneworld partners. World of Hyatt is another favorite, and it's otherwise only available through Chase Ultimate Rewards, so Bilt gives you a second path to those points. Emirates Skywards and Japan Airlines Mileage Bank round out the list of partners you won't find elsewhere among the big transferable currencies.
Watch for Bilt's monthly Rent Day promotions too. These often include transfer bonuses of 50% or more to select partners, and they can make an already strong redemption even better.
If travel partners aren't your thing, Bilt still gives you solid options. You can redeem points toward a home down payment at 1.5 cents each, which is a rare perk among rewards programs. The Bilt Travel Portal lets you book flights, hotels, rental cars, and activities at 1.25 cents per point.
Steer clear of using points for rent, Amazon purchases, or fitness classes. Those redemptions typically max out around 1 cent per point or less, which is a fraction of what you can get through transfers.
Winner:
Bilt. It already has Chase’s four most valuable partners (Hyatt, United, Aeroplan, and Iberia), plus several other good options like Alaska Airlines and Turkish Airlines. Additionally, Bilt occasionally offers amazing transfer bonuses during their Rent Day promotions, which I have taken advantage of in the past to get 125% bonuses to Air France Flying Blue and Air Canada Aeroplan.
The Verdict
The best card for you will depend on if you pay rent or own a home.
If you pay rent each month, the Bilt Mastercard® is the best option. Personally, I use a combination of the Bilt Mastercard for rent, dining, and travel, the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card (review) for everyday spending and airport lounge access, and the American Express® Gold Card (review) for groceries and dining.
But if you don’t pay rent, the Chase Sapphire Preferred® is an excellent option for a solid travel rewards credit card with only a $95 annual fee.
- Earn 75,000 bonus points after you spend $5,000 on purchases in the first 3 months.
- 5x Points on Travel Booked Via Chase
- 3x Points on Dining and Eligible Delivery Services
- 2x Points on All Other Travel Purchases
- 10% Anniversary Points Boost
- Trip Delay and Trip Cancellation Insurance
- Primary Rental Car Insurance
- $95 Annual Fee
