Key takeaways
- The Chase Sapphire® Card and Citi Strata PremierSM Card each offer access to popular travel rewards universes: Chase Ultimate Rewards and Citi ThankYou points.
- Citi Strata Premier offers excellent earning in more everyday categories, but Sapphire Preferred offers better value when redeeming points for travel through the issuer’s travel portal.
- In both cases, the cards are more powerful when combined with other cards that earn points in the respective rewards programs.
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Both the Citi Strata PremierSM Card and the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card offer healthy rewards and helpful benefits without charging an exorbitant annual fee. Still, you may find that one of them better fits your travel credit card needs than the other.
While these two rewards cards share some similarities, the Citi Strata PremierSM Card is better at helping you rack up points on everyday purchases. In comparison, the Chase Sapphire Preferred offers a more impressive suite of cardholder benefits, especially when it comes to travel insurance and purchase protection.
Read on to see which top rewards credit card aligns better with your spending patterns and financial goals.
Main details
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Citi Strata Premier vs. Chase Sapphire Preferred highlights
Welcome bonus winner
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Both cards offer generous welcome bonuses, but their values vary depending on how you redeem them. With the Citi Strata Premier, you can earn 75,000 Citi ThankYou points after spending $4,000 within three months of account opening. In the meantime, Chase’s welcome offer with the Sapphire Preferred is 60,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points after spending $4,000 within three months of account opening.
While the offers aren’t exactly the same, their values can be similar based on how you actually use your rewards. The Citi Strata Premier’s bonus is worth $750 when redeemed for 1-cent redemption options like gift cards or travel through the Citi portal. But if you transfer your points to a high-value Citi travel partner, your points could be worth about 1.6 cents apiece, according to Bankrate’s latest points and miles valuations. That means your Citi welcome bonus could be worth about $1,200.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred’s welcome bonus, on the other hand, is only worth $600 if you redeem for easy options like gift cards or statement credits. However, it’s worth $750 when you book travel through Chase’s portal, thanks to the card’s 25 percent points boost for travel redemptions through Ultimate Rewards. If you transfer 60,000 points to the right Chase travel partner, we estimate, per Bankrate’s valuations, that your points could be worth around 2.0 cents each. This makes your bonus worth about $1,200.
What does all this mean? For the most part, the value of these bonuses depends quite a bit on how you redeem your rewards. The Citi Strata Premier bonus will leave you with more rewards overall if you plan to redeem for gift cards, whereas the bonus offers on the cards may tie if you plan to redeem for travel through a portal or transfer to airline or hotel partners for a premium travel redemption.
Rewards rate winner
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While the Chase Sapphire Preferred offers bonus rewards in a few regular spending categories, the Citi Strata Premier is a much more rewarding card for everyday purchases. The fact it offers an even more robust rewards rate for hotels, car rentals and attractions booked through CitiTravel.com also gives it a boost when it comes to travel-related spending.
Case in point: the Citi Strata Premier offers you 3X points on restaurant, supermarket, gas station and EV charging purchases — all standard everyday spending categories. That’s in addition to the 10X points you can earn on hotels, car rentals and attractions booked through CitiTravel.com. Plus, you’ll earn 3X points on all air travel and hotel stays booked outside the Citi portal, along with 1X points on all other purchases.
Meanwhile, the Chase Sapphire Preferred offers 5X points on travel booked through the Chase portal, along with 5X points on Lyft rides through March 2025. It also offers a lower rate of 2X points on other travel purchases, although this rate is more inclusive than Citi’s 3X points on only air travel and other hotel purchases.
When it comes to everyday spending, the Chase Sapphire Preferred matches the Citi Strata Premier’s 3X rate on dining, but doesn’t offer extra rewards on gas, EV charging or in-store grocery purchases — they’re all just 1X points categories.
Sapphire Preferred does offer 3X points on select streaming services and online grocery purchases (excluding Walmart, Target and wholesale clubs). However, these categories aren’t enough to make up for the everyday earning power on the Citi Strata Premier.
Annual fee winner
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Both cards charge an annual fee of $95, which is considered low in the world of travel credit cards. While you may hesitate to sign up for a card with a yearly charge, you’ll see a substantial return on your investment during your first year if you spend enough to earn either card’s welcome bonus (provided you pay off your card in full each month to avoid paying interest).
Plus, if you take full advantage of either card’s rewards and benefits, the annual fee will likely still be worth paying in subsequent years.
Both Sapphire Preferred and Citi Strata Premier offer an annual hotel credit. In the case of Citi Strata Premier, you can receive a $100 hotel credit when you spend $500 on a single hotel stay booked through the Citi portal. That alone offsets the fee. For Sapphire Preferred, you receive up to $50 statement credit each year toward any hotel stay booked through Ultimate Rewards.
Additionally, Sapphire Preferred cardholders receive a points bonus each year equal to 10 percent of spending in the previous year. Therefore, if you spend $10,000 on the card in a year, you’ll receive 1,000 bonus points.
And, if those extra perks aren’t enough, there’s always regular earning to help offset the fee. For example, if you spend at least $61 per week on gas, groceries or dining out with your Citi Strata Premier Card, you’ll earn enough points (9,516 annually, worth $95 in rewards) to make up for the annual fee. The same is also true if you spend $1,900 annually (9,500 points) on Lyft rides or travel booked through the Chase portal with your Chase Sapphire Preferred.
Foreign transaction fee winner
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Neither card charges foreign transaction fees on purchases made outside of the United States. That means you can travel abroad with either option without worrying about incurring additional costs.
Which card earns the most?
The card that earns you the most depends on what you spend your money on. So, let’s take a look at a possible spending scenario. Keep in mind, however, that what you earn isn’t necessarily as important as the value when you redeem your rewards.
Citi Strata Premier vs. Chase Sapphire Preferred spending example
Lets say you opt for the Citi Strata Premier Card and spend the following in a given month:
- $200 on gas
- $800 on groceries
- $100 dining out
- $500 on a plane ticket
- $500 on hotel accommodations
Since everything but hotels booked through Citi earns 3X points, you’ll receive 4,800 points on these purchases. You’ll also earn 5,000 additional points on $500 in hotel spending through the Citi portal, bringing the total monthly rewards on the Citi Strata Premier to 9,800. If you redeem these rewards for gift cards or travel through Citi, the value works out to $98.
Now, let’s say you make the same purchases using your Chase Sapphire Preferred, with the exception that you buy groceries online instead of in-store. Let’s also say you purchase all of your travel through the Chase portal. You’ll receive a total of 7,900 points in that case, which is worth $79 at a 1-cent-per-point value.
If you then redeem these points toward travel through the Chase portal, however, they’ll be worth 1.25 cents each. This makes the total monthly rewards haul worth $98.75.
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Why should you get the Citi Strata Premier?
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Citi Strata Premier benefits extend beyond its rewards program — most notably its $100 annual hotel discount on a single hotel stay of $500 or more (excluding taxes and fees) when you book through ThankYou.com or 1-800-THANKYOU.
You can also enjoy Citi Entertainment, which gives you access to VIP packages and presale tickets for in-demand concerts, performances and sporting events. Finally, you’ll benefit from World Elite Mastercard perks such as a complimentary ShopRunner membership, a $5 Lyft credit after you take three rides in a month (for up to $60 in credit annually) and more.
Also remember that the Citi Strata Premier includes several travel insurance benefits for cardholders. These include trip delay protection, trip cancellation and interruption coverage, protection for lost or damaged baggage and rental car protection.
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The best travel rewards strategy involves holding multiple credit cards and using them strategically to maximize your earning or redemption options.
For the Citi Strata Premier, that could mean adding the Citi Rewards+® Card or even the Citi Double Cash® Card (the “cash back” can be redeemed as ThankYou points) to your wallet as well.
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You can maximize the value of your points by transferring them to one of Citi’s airline and hotel partners. However, other redemption options include:
- Travel through the Citi portal
- Direct deposits
- Statement credits
- Personal checks
- Shopping with points at eligible retailers (like Amazon and BestBuy)
- Gift cards
- Charitable donations
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You’ll need good to excellent credit to qualify for the Citi Strata Premier. That means your FICO credit score should be between 670 and 850 when you apply.
Why should you get the Chase Sapphire Preferred?
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You’ll get more benefits with the Chase Sapphire Preferred than with the Citi Strata Premier. For example, you’ll get trip cancellation and interruption insurance, an auto rental collision damage waiver, baggage delay insurance, trip delay reimbursement, travel and emergency assistance services, purchase protection and extended warranty coverage.
After each cardmember anniversary, you’ll also get up to $50 in statement credits on hotel stays purchased through Ultimate Rewards. You’ll also earn a generous anniversary points bonus that’s equal to 10 percent of your total spending from the previous year.
Additionally, you’ll get a complimentary one-year subscription to DoorDash DashPass, which includes $0 delivery fees and lower service fees on eligible orders (though you must activate by Dec. 31, 2027), as well as a $10 monthly credit for qualifying non-restaurant DashPass purchases. The value of this credit alone can offset the card’s annual fee if you take advantage of it every month.
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As with Citi Strata Premier, Sapphire Preferred is just one option in the universe of cards that earn Chase Ultimate Rewards points. If you truly want to maximize your rewards earning possibilities, you’ll want more than one Ultimate Rewards card at your disposal.
Excellent options to combine with Sapphire Preferred include the Chase Freedom Unlimited® and Chase Freedom Flex®*, both of which offer rewards on more everyday purchases. There are also a number of Chase business cards that combine well with Sapphire Preferred.
Remember that points under Sapphire Preferred are worth 25 percent more when redeemed for travel through Chase. That means the points earned with those other cards can be moved under your Sapphire Preferred to make them worth even more. Of course, moving points to a Chase Sapphire Preferred account also makes them eligible for point transfers to airlines and hotels, including high-value World of Hyatt redemptions.
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While your most lucrative option is to transfer your points to a Chase airline or hotel partner, you can also redeem for:
- Travel through the Chase portal
- Chase Pay Yourself Back
- Cash back
- Statement credits
- Gift cards
- Merchandise (including Apple product purchases)
- Chase Experiences
- Shopping with points on Amazon or via PayPal
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Like the Citi Strata Premier, the Chase Sapphire Preferred requires a good to excellent credit score.
The bottom line
If you want a rewards card that maximizes the value of your everyday expenses and travel purchases, the Citi Strata Premier Card could be a great addition to your wallet. But if you’re more interested in getting value for travel booked through a portal, the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card is likely a better fit.
Remember, though: there’s no rule that says you can’t have both. With both cards in your wallet, you can be handsomely rewarded for just about any purchase.
Information about the Chase Freedom Flex has been collected independently by Bankrate.com. The card details have not been reviewed or approved by the card issuer.
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