Amex Green Card vs. Chase Sapphire Preferred: Which card is right for you?

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Editor’s note: This is a recurring post, regularly updated with new information and offers.

American Express has long been a dominant player in premium cards like The Platinum Card® from American Express, but is mostly overshadowed by Chase in the mid-tier space.

However, the American Express® Green Card has a competitive set of mid-tier perks and bonus categories for a reasonable annual fee. So, how does it stack up against the fan-favorite Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card? Read on to find out.

The information for the American Express Green Card has been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.

Card

Chase Sapphire Preferred

3 points per dollar on dining at restaurants worldwide, online grocery purchases, and select streaming services

2 points per dollar on all other travel

1 point per dollar on everything else3 points per dollar on restaurants, takeout and delivery services, transit (including trains, buses, ferries and subways) and travel

1 point per dollar on other purchases

Sign-up bonus75,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first three months from account opening40,000 bonus Membership Rewards points after spending $3,000 on purchases in the first six months of card membership.Benefits$50 annual Chase Travel hotel credit

10% anniversary points boost

DoorDash DashPass subscription (activate by Dec. 31)

Six-month complimentary Instacart+ membership (activate by July 31) and up to $15 in Instacart statement credits each quarter (through July 31)

Annual reimbursement for a Clear Plus membership when you pay with your card ($189 value)

Up to $100 in LoungeBuddy statement credits each calendar year mex Green Card vs. Chase Sapphire Preferred Welcome offer

The welcome bonus is an important part of any decision to apply for a new credit card.

The Chase Sapphire Preferred offers a stellar bonus of 75,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 in the first three months from account opening, worth $1,538 according to TPG valuations.

The Amex Green is offering new applicants a bonus of 40,000 Membership Rewards points after spending $3,000 on purchases in the first six months of account opening. According to our valuations, this bonus is worth a total of $800.

Like most Chase cards, the Sapphire Preferred is restricted by the 5/24 rule, meaning you’ll automatically be rejected if you’ve opened five or more cards across all issuers in the last 24 months.

Winner: Sapphire Preferred. The Amex Green card has a lower spending requirement, but its welcome bonus value is also much lower.

Both of these cards come with modest annual fees — $95 on the Chase Sapphire Preferred and $150 on the Amex Green Card  — so you shouldn’t expect the long list of perks you’d find on more premium cards that carry higher fees. Still, they each come with some solid perks.

The best perk of the Sapphire Preferred is Chase’s incredible travel and baggage insurance coverage. These are benefits you hope to never have to use, but if you do, they can save you hundreds of dollars.

In addition, the card comes with a $50 annual hotel statement credit for reservations booked through Chase Travel℠ and a complimentary year of DashPass (when you activate by Dec. 31).

The Amex Green Card offers much more focused benefits, but if you max them out each year, you’ll more than recoup the card’s annual fee. Cardmembers receive an annual credit of up to $189 when using their Amex Green Card to purchase a Clear Plus membership and another annual credit of up to $100 for LoungeBuddy access.

The Clear Plus credit covers your out-of-pocket cost for a standard membership and can be a great tool for breezing through airport security as TSA PreCheck lines get longer around the country. Meanwhile, the LoungeBuddy credit should be good for about two passes a year, making this a great option for infrequent travelers who don’t already have a Priority Pass membership from another card.

Winner: Tie. Both cards have a long list of benefits that will come down to personal preference.

Earning points with the Amex Green Card vs. Chase Sapphire Preferred

One of the reasons the Chase Sapphire Preferred is so popular is the simple and generous bonus categories it offers. Cardholders earn 3 Ultimate Rewards points per dollar spent on dining and at least 2 points per dollar spent on travel, with no annual caps. Even better, these categories are defined broadly to include things like public transit, parking garages, food trucks and other places that you might not expect to trigger bonus points.

The Amex Green, on the other hand, earns 3 points per dollar worldwide on travel, restaurants and transit — including flights, hotels, campsites, tours, car rentals, ride-hailing, buses, subways, third-party travel websites and amextravel.com. This works out to a 6% return based on TPG’s valuations, and it’s worth noting that the Amex Green Card is one of the only Amex cards to offer a broad travel bonus category.

Amex has had some issues in the past with bonus points not coding correctly, especially for transactions processed by third-party payment processors such as Square and Stripe.

Winner: Amex Green. The Amex Green Card offers a higher earning rate all travel.

Redeeming and transferring points with the Amex Green Card vs. Chase Sapphire Preferred

Chase has a clear edge when it comes to hotel redemptions, thanks to its partnership with World of Hyatt. Transfers to all of Chase’s partners and most of Amex’s occur at a 1:1 ratio, so the loyalty programs offering the best value will have the cheapest award rates.

You can get a night at a Hyatt property from just 3,500 points, and a standard room at their most premium property will set you back 45,000 points. By comparison, a night at a top-tier Marriott property (which is a transfer partner of both Chase and Amex) goes all the way up to 150,000 points.

When it comes to free flights, both programs offer the ability to transfer points to popular frequent flyer programs such as Singapore KrisFlyer, British Airways Executive Club, Virgin Atlantic Flying Club and Air France-KLM Flying Blue. Chase’s biggest unique advantages come with Southwest and United. Although Southwest uses a revenue-based award-pricing scheme, Companion Pass holders can still get great value by transferring their Chase points to Southwest.

DONNA DOTAN/HYATT

In addition to transfer partners, the Chase Sapphire Preferred offers a 25% bonus when redeeming your points directly through the Chase portal. This gives you a minimum redemption value of 1.25 cents per point.

You won’t be able to book an aspirational first-class suite this way. Still, if you’re like TPG credit cards writer Ryan Wilcox and often need to be on a specific flight that doesn’t have any award availability, this extra flexibility can be invaluable.

Meanwhile, Amex has a few key partners that can prove valuable. Avianca LifeMiles and Aeroplan, for example, both offer great rates on long-haul premium cabin Star Alliance awards. ANA also offers great rates on Star Alliance awards (though you have to book round-trip tickets), and it’s one of the only airlines to offer a decent round-the-world award program these days. You can also transfer Membership Rewards points to Delta SkyMiles to take advantage of one of that carrier’s flash award sales.

Winner: Sapphire Preferred. Its points are worth slightly more than the Amex Green’s.

Related: Redeem your Chase Ultimate Rewards and American Express Membership Rewards for maximum value

Should I get the Amex Green Card or Chase Sapphire Preferred?

Both the Chase Sapphire Preferred and Amex Green are mid-tier travel cards, but they’re still very different. The question of which is better comes down to personal preference: do you prefer a card with lots of travel protections and benefits (Sapphire Preferred) or one with annual credits to effectively bring down the annual fee (Amex Green)?

Bottom line

The Sapphire Preferred‘s travel protections and benefits win out against the Amex Green, but it also has fewer credits to offset your annual fee. Meanwhile, the Amex Green comes with up to $289 in annual statement credits, $139 more than it charges for the annual fee. Whichever you decide is better for you, you’ll make a valuable addition to your wallet with one of these cards.

To learn more, read our full reviews of the Amex Green Card and the Chase Sapphire Preferred.

Apply here: Chase Sapphire Preferred