The $95 annual fee that made Chase Sapphire Preferred a starter travel card is gone.
New applicants now face a $150 charge each year, a 58% jump that quietly took effect and is just now landing in renewal notices and Reddit threads.
Existing cardholders are being told their rate holds until their next anniversary, which gives them a few months to decide whether the card still earns its keep.
Here's the uncomfortable part: the math that made this card famous was never that complicated.
You paid $95, got a $50 hotel credit, and the fee effectively dropped to $45.
What you actually get for $150 The welcome bonus is still generous — currently advertised at 60,000 points after spending $4,000 in the first three months.
That's worth roughly $750 toward travel when redeemed through Chase's portal, or more if you transfer to airline and hotel partners.
So does 3x points on dining, 2x on travel, and the 25% redemption boost for travel booked through Chase.
Do the arithmetic and your real out-of-pocket cost lands around $100 a year.
Whether that's worth it depends entirely on whether you're actually using the points.
The people who should probably keep it are the ones who transfer points to partners like United, Southwest, or Hyatt.
Those transfers routinely stretch a point to 1.5 or 2 cents of value, which turns a modest bonus into real money.
If you're cashing points out at 1 cent each through the portal, the new fee eats a much bigger share of your rewards.
Who should walk away If your points sit untouched for months, or you signed up mainly for the sign-up bonus and never looked back, this is a clean exit point.
Downgrading to the no-fee Chase Freedom Unlimited keeps your account history intact, which matters for your credit score.
You don't have to close the card to stop paying.
One caution: canceling a card you've held for years shortens your average account age and can ding your score.
If you're considering the Sapphire Reserve instead, that fee sits at $550 with a $300 travel credit, so it's a different scale entirely.
And store-branded cards with no annual fee still exist if you just want cash back on groceries and gas.
The bigger picture Annual fees across travel cards have been climbing for two years, and issuers keep testing how much customers will absorb before they balk.
Chase is betting that transfer partners and a strong bonus outweigh the sticker shock.
That bet works for some households and not others.
Run your own numbers before the renewal date, not after.
Add up what you earned in points last year, multiply by a realistic redemption value, and subtract the fee.
If the answer is under $50, you're paying for a card that isn't paying you back.
The honest take: a $150 fee isn't outrageous for someone who travels regularly and uses transfer partners strategically.
For everyone else, it's a subscription to a rewards program they're not using.
Final Thoughts
Check your last year of statements before you decide — the card should earn its fee, not the other way around.