Latest news with #creditcards
CNET
11 hours ago
- Business
- CNET
Chase Sapphire Reserve Launches New $250 Apple Perk. I'm Not Falling for It
Chase/CNET The Chase Sapphire Reserve®* was updated earlier this week and now includes a number of new annual credits and other features, including an Apple Plus and Apple Music membership, valued at $250 annually (ends June 22, 2027). Chase also upped the card's annual fee. It now costs $795 annually, so you'll have to do more legwork to get enough value from the card to cover the cost. That likely means the average credit card user won't even want to consider this as an option. Which is fair. In my opinion, you shouldn't need to redeem dozens of credits, sign up for several complimentary subscriptions, only book flights and hotels when your points are boosted, or feel like you have to buy a Peloton to make sure you're getting enough value to justify a card's annual fee. The new credits and features sound great on paper, but to me, they just mean more work. There are some important changes to the card's rewards, too. It has a larger welcome offer and new rewards rates, and, less excitingly, Chase is changing how it values the card's points. But we'll get to that. I'm sure some travel experts and credit card aficionados will disagree and could easily get plenty of value from this card, but for credit cardholders like myself who would rather have a more automated, streamlined experience, it just doesn't seem worth the extra effort. Here's everything new with the Chase Sapphire Reserve. What does the new Chase Sapphire Reserve look like? Chase has changed the card's rewards and how much they're worth when it's time to redeem. New and old rewards compared New rewards Old rewards 8x points for all travel booked through Chase Travel 10x points for booking hotels and rental cars through Chase Travel 4x points on flights and hotels booked directly 5x points on flights booked through Chase 3x points on dining 3x points for all other travel 1x point for everything else 1x point for everything else These changes are good. Dining rewards seem like a no-brainer on a travel card, and it's something I was surprised to not see on the card originally. Also, not needing to always book through Chase Travel opens more travel and earning opportunities. The card also includes a higher welcome offer: 100,000 bonus points and a $500 Chase Travel℠ credit for spending $5,000 in the first three months from account opening. However, Chase is also changing the value of the rewards you earn with its new Points Boost program. You used to be able to redeem your points for travel through Chase at a bonus value of 1.5 cents per point. Now, you'll earn 2 cents per point, but only with rotating boosted redemption flights and hotels. And if you redeem your points for any nonboosted flight or hotel, they'll only be worth 1 cent each. You can still transfer your points at a 1:1 ratio to Chase's travel partners. This is clearly less flexible than the card's previous reward program, and will likely cause cardholders to miss out on value they would've otherwise secured. What if there are no boosted flights or hotels for when and where you're looking to travel? You'll either need to wait or have less of your trip covered. Or, you could transfer your points where they could be worth more -- but again, that takes more work than simply redeeming through your card issuer's portal for a small bonus, as it was before. The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card* now uses the Points Boost program as well. New annual credits The card is also gaining a handful of new annual credits: $500 The Edit℠ credit. The Edit is Chase's new collection of over 1,100 hotels. You get $250 from January to June, and the other $250 from July to December. The Edit is Chase's new collection of over 1,100 hotels. You get $250 from January to June, and the other $250 from July to December. $300 dining credit. Again, split in half -- $150 for January through June, and the other $150 for July to December. Again, split in half -- $150 for January through June, and the other $150 for July to December. $300 StubHub credit. $150 for January through June, $150 for July to December. Ends Dec. 31, 2027. $150 for January through June, $150 for July to December. Ends Dec. 31, 2027. Apple Plus and Apple Music membership , worth $250 annually. Ends June 22, 2027. , worth $250 annually. Ends June 22, 2027. $120 Peloton credit. You get $10 monthly statement credits for a Peloton membership through Dec. 31, 2027, for a maximum of $120 annually. Plus, you'll earn 10x rewards on Peloton equipment purchases. Those are the new credits; there are a number of others, too. You can see them all on Chase's page. The issuer says the card offers more than $2,700 in value, but you'll really need to work to achieve that. For those who spend $75,000 in travel on the card in a calendar year, you'll unlock a $500 Southwest travel credit plus A-list status, IHG Diamond Elite Status and $250 in statement credits for The Shop at Chase. That's a high spending threshold that only the most well-off traveller will likely be able to reach, and it doesn't seem like a great return on investment. And a higher fee Lastly, the card now costs $245 more than it did a month ago. The annual fee for the Chase Sapphire Reserve now sits at $795, one of the highest on the market. While the credits offered can surpass the price of the card, you'll need to do the work to use everything it has to offer. That means buying and using a Peloton, checking the Points Boost program, ordering DoorDash, using Lyft and taking advantage of the new dining credit and two travel credits, and on and on. It's a lot of homework. If you don't use enough of the extra perks, you'll likely be on the hook for at least part of its annual fee. Should you get this card? In short, I think there are people who will find this card worth it, particularly those with higher-than-average travel budgets (and perhaps some sort of assistant to help them keep track of everything), but for the average traveler or credit cardholder, they are more likely to leave value on the table and be stuck with a high annual fee. There's just so much offered here, which is great, but the change in how points are valued, how much additional work you, as the cardholder, have to do annually to make the card's $795 fee actually worth the cost, doesn't add up to me. But again, I probably view credit cards a bit differently than most card experts. I like the easy route, the one that guarantees value without any financial corrosion or work beyond my usual routine. So I'll happily stick with my Sapphire Preferred, which offers way less, but only costs $95 each year. I use it for my dining and travel expenses, redeem my points for trips home through Chase Travel and take advantage of its annual $50 hotel statement credit. There may not be countless annual credits, memberships and subscriptions, but I barely need to do any additional work -- and definitely don't need to overspend -- to realize its value versus how much it costs me annually. *All information about the Chase Sapphire Reserve and Chase Sapphire Preferred has been collected independently by CNET and has not been reviewed by the issuer.
Wall Street Journal
21 hours ago
- Business
- Wall Street Journal
It's a New Era for Capital One. Amex and Chase Are in Its Sights.
Capital One Financial COF 1.19%increase; green up pointing triangle once featured gnarly barbarians threatening high interest rates in its ads. More recently, it has featured Taylor Swift at an airport lounge. But the real work is now happening behind the scenes, as the credit-card giant embarks on its own new era.
Yahoo
21 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Capital One Financial Corporation (COF): A Bull Case Theory
We came across a bullish thesis on Capital One Financial Corporation on Pacific Northwest Edge's Substack by David. In this article, we will summarize the bull's thesis on COF. Capital One Financial Corporation's share was trading at $206.36 as of June 24th. COF's trailing and forward P/E ratios were 17.34 and 13.48, respectively, according to Yahoo Finance. A technician inserting a credit card into a point-of-sale machine for identity authentication. Capital One's acquisition of Discover Financial Services marks a transformative moment in the credit card and payments landscape, positioning the company as a direct rival to American Express in a way never seen before. While Capital One was already a dominant issuer in the credit card space—earning 86% of its Q1 2025 profits from credit cards—the acquisition grants it ownership of a full payment network for the first time. This vertically integrated model mirrors that of American Express, which has long benefited from higher interchange fees due to its dual role as both network and issuer. Discover, although more broadly accepted than AmEx, lacked premium appeal. Capital One now controls both models and is positioned to scale aggressively. This move gives Capital One an economic moat that's nearly impossible to replicate due to the complexity of establishing a reliable and widely accepted payments network. CEO Richard Fairbanks emphasized their strategy to grow the Discover network globally, slowly increasing international acceptance before ramping up brand investment. With the infrastructure in place, Capital One can now issue co-branded rewards cards, shift more volume onto its own network, and potentially serve as a network provider for other institutions. Despite issuing new stock to fund the acquisition, Capital One's strong history of buybacks and high free cash flow remains intact. The moat created by owning a network, combined with network effects and switching costs, significantly enhances Capital One's competitive position. In short, this acquisition elevates Capital One from a narrow-moat issuer to a formidable, wide-moat competitor with room to take share and grow earnings. Previously, we covered a on Capital One Financial Corporation by Stock Analysis Compilation in December 2024, which highlighted the long-term earnings upside from cost synergies via Discover's network. The company's stock price has appreciated by approximately 17% since our coverage. This is because the thesis began to play out. The thesis still stands as integration remains underway. David shares a similar view but emphasizes Capital One's emerging network moat and global ambitions. Capital One Financial Corporation is not on our list of the 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 93 hedge fund portfolios held COF at the end of the first quarter, which was 89 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the risk and potential of COF as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and have limited downside risk. If you are looking for an extremely cheap AI stock that is also a major beneficiary of Trump tariffs and onshoring, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock. READ NEXT: 8 Best Wide Moat Stocks to Buy Now and 30 Most Important AI Stocks According to BlackRock. Disclosure: None. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
People with this money habit are happier and calmer — no matter how much they make
They say money can't buy happiness — but how you handle it just might. A surprising new study has found that one financial behavior is consistently linked to lower anxiety and greater life satisfaction. The research — published in the aptly named journal Stress and Health — controlled for income, meaning you don't need to make bank in order to enjoy the mental health benefits. It seems that good fiscal management — meaning regularly saving money and paying off your credit cards on time — is the true key to bliss. The findings were based on the data of over 20,000 Australians over the course of 20 years and used the Mental Health Inventory-5 — a scientifically validated screening instrument for anxiety and depression — to calculate results. A 1% uptick in saving habits was linked to a 0.475% improvement in mental health scores, while a 1% increase in consistent credit card payments led to a 0.507% boost, which is more significant than it sounds. Most importantly, people who made the same amount of money but had different fiscal management styles showed very different levels of happiness and peace of mind. While many studies have shown a correlation between income and life satisfaction, this study is unique in that it indicates good financial habits — rather than a fat paycheck — can significantly improve mental health. These results held steady through major economic upheavals, including the 2008 financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic. The researchers believe being fiscally responsible can help reduce 'financial strain' — that constant background stress of not knowing if you can cover bills, emergencies or unexpected costs. It can also have an unpleasant domino effect. 'When individuals are financially strained, they often can't save as much or invest, so they miss out on growth and meeting those goals they might have set for the future,' study co-author Rajabrata Banerjee, a professor of applied economics at the University of South Australia, said in a statement. 'People can also become reliant on borrowing to meet their basic needs, and this can lead to high interest payments and continuous debt cycles.' The researchers also hope these findings might inspire people to take actionable steps to control their financial — and, subsequently, mental — health. 'That's why healthy financial behavior is important to build stability and long-term security, allowing goal achievement, independence and access to opportunities, as well as reduced stress and good mental health,' he said. Interestingly, the benefits were more pronounced for men when it came to saving habits — though both genders saw improvements across multiple measures of well-being, including emotional resilience and social functioning. The researchers also looked at whether the relationship worked the other way around — that is, if poor mental health led to worse financial decisions — but found almost no evidence of that. So go ahead and set up that auto pay — because clearing your balance leads to a balanced mind.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Customer satisfaction with bank, credit card digital experience is ‘plateauing'
This story was originally published on CX Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily CX Dive newsletter. Customers in the United States are marginally more satisfied with their bank and credit card digital experiences this year than last year, according to a J.D. Power report released last month, which surveyed nearly 16,800 people. 'If we look over time since when we first started doing this, there has been improvement, but we're kind of plateauing out in terms of average improvement across all of the different banks and issuers,' Sean Gelles, senior director of banking and payments intelligence at J.D. Power, told CX Dive. 'There's not a lot of breakout experiences, and the differences are narrowing between the best and the worst experiences.' Satisfaction with banking apps increased nearly 2.8% from last year to 669 on a 1,000-point scale, while satisfaction with credit card apps is up 1.5% to 659. Banks and credit card issuers have focused on providing reliable experiences via their mobile app or websites so customers don't have to call customer service or visit a branch, Gelles said. But as laggards have improved their execution of these basics, the digital experience offered by financial institutions is starting to look alike. 'No one's really getting worse, but the ones at the bottom are getting better, and that's creating a kind of situation where we have a lot of the apps and websites starting to be very similar,' Gelles said. The modular study — which looked at satisfaction with U.S. banking mobile apps, online banking websites, credit card mobile apps and credit card websites — found that a few banks performed slightly better than the rest. Bank of America ranked the highest for satisfaction with its banking mobile app among national banks, Capital One took the top spot in online banking satisfaction among national banks, and American Express came in No. 1 in credit card mobile app satisfaction and online credit card satisfaction. The best performers made navigation intuitive, embedded strong security features, and made it easy to search and dispute transactions, Gelles said. 'They all tend to be very good with security. So that's not just about allowing the customer to easily modify their security settings, but also customers trust that they're actually being secure with that information, and that probably stems from better communication of the security features,' Gelles said. A previous pain point was multifactor authentication, but that has since improved, Gelles said. 'We're now seeing customers are actually willing to kind of trade some added friction if they're going to get better security.' Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
