Chase J.P. Morgan Ritz-Carlton Rewards Visa Signature Review (before August 2016)
Updated August 8, 2016. This review is NOT being updated. Please visit our updated review for the Ritz-Carlton Visa Infinite.
The Facts
The Math
If you can make use of the $300 annual airline credit, the effective annual fee on this card becomes a very reasonable $95. For that, you receive Lounge Club membership (for primary cardholder and authorized users), three Ritz-Carlton club-level upgrade certificates, Ritz-Carlton & Marriott Gold with $10K annual spending, and other great features such as primary rental card coverage, waived foreign transaction fees, and embedded EMV chip. However, we won't recommend using this card for your purchases other than Marriott/Ritz-Carlton and/or the $10K to maintain Gold status, because generally the rewards are worth less than 1 cent per point and you'd better off with a 2% cashback card (such as Citi Double Cash or Fidelity Visa) or a high earning miles/points card (such as Amex SPG, Amex EveryDay Preferred, etc.)
To see how JPM Ritz-Carlton Visa competes with other cards with similar annual fees, please check out our featured review Comparing High-end Cards covering Amex Platinum, Amex Delta Reserve, Chase United MP Club, JPM Ritz-Carlton, JPM Palladium, Citi Executive/AA, Citi Prestige, Diners Club Elite, CNB Crystal, and MasterCard Black Card.
The Conclusion
After the May 2014 enhancement, we have recommended this card to travelers very strongly - we would even pay the annual fees while keeping it in the drawer most of the time! It is currently rated #1 Best Credit Cards for Perks and #3 Best Credit Cards for Protection.
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The Facts
- Annual Fee: $395
- Signup Bonus: two free nights at any Tier 1-4 Ritz-Carlton hotel, after you spend $4,000 within 3 months of new account opening. The free night certificates will expire after 12 months. Keep in mind that you can't redeem these certificates at 13 top-tier (Tier 5) properties including The Ritz-Carlton in Bachelor Gulch, Naples, Miami South Beach, Miami Bal Harbour, Miami Key Biscayne, New York Central Park, Grand Cayman, St. Thomas, Tokyo, Kyoto, Hong Kong, Shanghai Pudong, and Dubai. However, there are still some amazing properties that are Tier 1-4, such as the ones in Laguna Niguel (rates from $449 per night), Half Moon Bay (from $495), San Fransisco (from $399), Washington DC Georgetown (from $369), Aruba (from $359), and Vienna (from $360). Historical best bonus of this card: (a) 140,000 Ritz-Carlton points; (b) 70,000 Ritz-Carlton points with the first year annual fee waived.
- Direct Application Link
- Rewards: 5x Ritz-Carlton and Marriott (over 4,000 hotels worldwide), 2x airfare, car rental and dining, 1x everywhere else. You also receive 10% annual points bonus every year - this essentially makes the earning rate 5.5-2.2-1.1.
- Best Use of Ritz-Carlton Rewards points: Since the Ritz-Carlton is part of Marriott International, Ritz-Carlton points are essentially Marriott points. You may redeem points for hotel stays or upgrades at over 4,000 Marriott brand hotels worldwide, including Ritz-Carlton, EDITION, JW Marriott, Autograph Collection, Marriott, Renaissance, AC Hotels, Moxy, Courtyard, Fairfield, Residence Inn, SpringHill Suites, TownePlace Suites, Gaylord, and Marriott Vacation Club. You may also transfer Marriott points into frequent flyer miles, but the transfer rates are not very attractive. For example, the best rate you get for United miles is 2.24:1 (112K points = 50K miles) and for Alaska, American, British, Delta etc. is 2.8:1 (140K points = 50K miles). The best value when redeeming Marriott points is the hotel+air travel package where you get 7 free nights plus 35K to 132K airline miles. Even though the charts look very complicated, this option essentially allows you transfer points to miles at 1:1.1 for United Airlines or 1:1 for 12 airline partners (including Alaska, American, British, Delta, etc.), when you book a 7-night awards stay. Undoubtedly, this is an extremely valuable option; however, the problem is that you need a lot of points for one single redemption (200K to 540K).
- Ritz-Carlton Benefits: (1) Three certificates for club-level room upgrades at Ritz-Carlton hotels each year. Since Ritz-Carlton Club Lounge access is not offered for free to any Ritz-Carlton or Marriott elites and you have to pay quite a premium for it (mostly $200 to $400 per night for two guests), this benefit could be quite valuable. (2) $100 hotel credit for each stay of two+ nights at Ritz-Carlton hotels, which can be combined with club-level upgrades. (3) Complimentary Ritz-Carlton Gold status for the first year and can be maintained with $10K spending per account year thereafter, and Ritz-Carlton Gold is essentially the same as Marriott Gold. Marriott Gold is normally achieved by staying 50 nights a year and can be very valuable - you get an upgrade to a better room (suites and Ritz-Carlton club-level rooms are excluded), complimentary lounge access or continental breakfasts at JW Marriott, Autograph Collection, Renaissance and Marriott hotels (resorts are excluded), and free internet. (4) Starting May 2014, you will also receive Ritz-Carlton & Marriott Platinum status if you spend $75,000 each account year. However, we wouldn't recommend spending that much to achieve the Platinum status because a) the earning rate on general spending is not that great and b) the extra benefits for Platinum over Gold don't justify an extra $65K spending.
- Other Benefits: $300 airline incidental credit each calendar year, similar to Amex Platinum's. The difference is that you don't need to designate a single airline like with Amex but you will need to call J.P. Morgan to get credit (Amex has it set up automatically). If you make use of this benefit, your effective annual fee becomes $95. Complimentary Lounge Club membership for unlimited airport lounge access for you plus one guest. The authorized users on your account will receive Lounge Club memberships as well. Please see our featured review to learn more about airport lounge access. No foreign transaction fees with an embedded EMV chip. Primary rental car collision damage waiver - please see our featured review on credit cards that come with primary rental car insurance for details.
- Other Facts: Even though Chase is the issuer of the card, the Ritz-Carlton card is advertised as a J.P. Morgan product to enjoy higher level of customer service. When the Ritz-Carlton card was introduced, it contained some metal, just like Sapphire Preferred, and thus was heavier than regular plastics. The chipped version of the Ritz-Carlton card pushes this even further - it is completely made of metal and feels twice as heavy as before.
- The History: When the card was introduced in mid 2011, the bundled lounge membership was Priority Pass Select which covered 600+ lounges worldwide. In early 2012, Priority Pass Select was replaced by Lounge Club which had reduced coverage (around 350 lounges at that time). In May 2014, Chase enhanced the Ritz-Carlton card by increasing the airline incidental credit to $300, adding the potential Ritz-Carlton & Marriott Platinum status, and 10% annual points bonus.
The Math
If you can make use of the $300 annual airline credit, the effective annual fee on this card becomes a very reasonable $95. For that, you receive Lounge Club membership (for primary cardholder and authorized users), three Ritz-Carlton club-level upgrade certificates, Ritz-Carlton & Marriott Gold with $10K annual spending, and other great features such as primary rental card coverage, waived foreign transaction fees, and embedded EMV chip. However, we won't recommend using this card for your purchases other than Marriott/Ritz-Carlton and/or the $10K to maintain Gold status, because generally the rewards are worth less than 1 cent per point and you'd better off with a 2% cashback card (such as Citi Double Cash or Fidelity Visa) or a high earning miles/points card (such as Amex SPG, Amex EveryDay Preferred, etc.)
To see how JPM Ritz-Carlton Visa competes with other cards with similar annual fees, please check out our featured review Comparing High-end Cards covering Amex Platinum, Amex Delta Reserve, Chase United MP Club, JPM Ritz-Carlton, JPM Palladium, Citi Executive/AA, Citi Prestige, Diners Club Elite, CNB Crystal, and MasterCard Black Card.
The Conclusion
After the May 2014 enhancement, we have recommended this card to travelers very strongly - we would even pay the annual fees while keeping it in the drawer most of the time! It is currently rated #1 Best Credit Cards for Perks and #3 Best Credit Cards for Protection.
© 2016 DrCreditCard.net All rights reserved.