Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card Expired

Marriott points suck. It was better before but now a decent Marriott room is like 15K++ and usually more like 25K a night. Versus Hyatt where most Hyatt Place will be 8K a night.
Type in a search for Marriott and Hyatt points value. Marriott is about .08 cents. Hyatt is 2 cents, more than 2.5x the value.
Math wise, 80k Chase points can be 80k Hyatt points which equal 200k Marriott points.
The only thing better about the Marriott is a bigger footprint around the world.

No, it is worse than the 80K CSP.

1. Not all points are the same value. This is something that many people don't pay attention to, and credit card companies love to take advantage of with certain signup offers. In particular, Marriott points (which is what the Marriott card earns - not Chase points) are significantly LESS valuable than Chase UR points. They are roughly similar value for ongoing non-category spend, but I would argue that neither card is very good as a 'daily driver' absent special circumstances.

2. The smart play is to get the Sapphire Preferred, hold it for a year, and either close it or downgrade it to a $0 fee Freedom Unlimited (or Freedom Flex if allowed). You get the 80k point bonus, only pay 1 annual fee, and can end up long term with a better general-purpose card if that's what you want.

3. Short answer - Closing a credit card does not have a significant impact on credit scores for most people/circumstances. Longer answer - Closing a credit card is reflected on your credit report in 2 ways - Open vs. Closed accounts, and your overall credit limit across all open accounts (which affects utilization):

After closing a card, that card is displayed on your credit report as a closed account, which is simply a neutral indicator as long as the card was closed in good standing. When calculating the average age of your credit accounts, the FICO scoring models actually continue to count those closed cards for 10 years after closure - and the closed cards continue to 'age' during that time. That portion of your score isn't affected at all, until 10 years have passed, at which time the effect shouldn't be much assuming you have gotten/held other cards over the course of the preceding decade.

NOTE: Credit Karma and other similar services (including some bank-provided services) use what is called a Vantage Score (aka FAKO score) rather than a legit FICO score. No known lenders actually use Vantage in making lending decisions - its main purpose is showing a score to people who want to see their 'credit score'. Vantage calculates Average Age of Accounts differently, ignoring all closed cards at the moment that closure is reported. That means that if you use one of their 'estimator' tools to see the effect of closing a card, the result will not actually be indicative how your legit FICO score will be impacted, and people with a number of closed cards/other loans will see a deflated Vantage score compared to their FICO.

Closing a card will remove whatever that card's credit limit was from the overall credit limit across all of your card accounts. The absolute amount of your credit limit doesn't really matter, but how that limit interacts with your reported card balances - your credit utilization - does. If you pay off your cards in full each month, then your utilization is likely low enough that closing a card won't impact utilization and won't lower your score. IF you are carrying balances from month to month, then closing a card may impact your credit score, if closure causes the ratio of balance to available credit to increase. Once you pay down those balances and improve your utilization ratio, that particular score penalty will go away.

I'm not after the points for hotels. I'm after the points for cash back. 2x points on every day purchases and 100k bonus points for 3k spent in 3 months sounds like a better deal for an average joe trying to simply take advantage of a promo offer, am i right?

For everyday purchases, not including category purchases, is it not 2% cash back? If I have the option to get 2% cash back on all other purchases + 100k bonus points for 3k spent in 3 months that sounds like a better deal. Also, do these offer include bonus points + regular points on the first x amount spent to get the bonus? Or is it only bonus points?

even if the person banks with Chase? Or, is having a bank account with them not a consideration for a credit card?

And what is your strategy for cashing out those Marriott hotel points? Again, you realize that offer is giving 100k Marriott points, not Chase points, right?

The offer in the chase app isn't very clear and I assumed it was the same rewards as my other 2 chase cards. Perhaps I didn't read your comment well enough, however I was at work. So, it appears this deal is better for someone like me. Do you get your normal 1x rewards on all purchases on that first 4,000$ or only your bonus 80,000 points? I'd assume you get your normal rate as well, is that right? Also, one last question, does the 5/24 rule apply to credit cards only? Or any line of credit?

You'll get the regular points in addition to the 80k bonus, so you'll have 84k points minimum.
5/24 is for opened credit cards.

100k bonus with 3k spent in first 3 months sounds better than 80k bonus with 4K spent in first 3 months. Also, 2x points on everyday purchases vs 1x points on everyday purchases. What am I missing?

Does anyone know if you can still get the 80k bonus from a referral link? I had my friend send me a link but it only shows 60k.

What the best ways outside of doing plastiq and buying egc / giftcards to get the $4k spending. Any suggestions are appreciated TY.