The Chase Trifecta vs Capital One Duo

So after some recent updates on both Chase Sapphire cards, a lot of credit card people like myself are kind of divided about if the Chase Trifecta is still worth having in late 2026. And if you're someone who's against the Chase Trifecta, then chances are you prefer a setup from a different issuer, like maybe the Capital One Duo instead. Now, both these setups are super popular and each can be very good depending on what stage you're at in your credit card journey. But in this video, I want to settle the debate right now about which of these two setups I think is actually the better overall option. So I'm going to compare everything you need to know about these setups from their sign bonuses, their multipliers, their benefits, and everything in between, including all the downsides to having them as well. But to start things off here, let's first establish which credit cards make up these setups and the annual fees you can expect to pay. So the Chase Trifecta is going to consist of three credit cards, the no annual fee Chase Freedom Unlimited, the no annual fee Chase Freedom Flex, and then your choice of either the $95 Chase Sapphire Preferred or the $795 Chase Sapphire Reserve. Now, technically, you actually can have both Sapphire cards at the same time now, and that might be something worth doing if you're looking to test them out while taking advantage of signup bonuses, but long-term, I think you only need to have one Sapphire card. So we're going to assume that most people are only choosing one. Then for the Capital One Duo, this is typically going to consist of the no annual fee Capital One Saver card, as well as the $395 Capital One Venture X. And you can substitute the $95 Venture card here in place of the Venture X, but honestly, the Venture X just offers more benefits and the $395 annual fee is super easy to offset. So most people tend to pair the Venture X with the Saver card in a Capital One Duo. Now in terms of signup bonuses next year, this is where I'd make the argument that most people should be trying out both the Chase Trifecta and the Capital One Duo at some point in their credit card journey. And that's because the bonuses that both issuers are offering across these cards are pretty generous. And the reality is that Chase and Capital One are competing against each other for your business, so you might as well let them do that and then earn a bunch of points and miles while deciding which setup you like better. So over on the Chase side of things, both the Chase Freedom Unlimited and the newly updated Chase Freedom Flex usually have pretty decent offers going on. But at the time of filming this, with the Chase Freedom Unlimited, you can earn a $200 bonus after you spend $500 on purchases in your first three months from account opening. The Freedom Flex, on the other hand, is currently running a limited time offer that's slightly better than this because, again, Chase just updated this card a bit with a new look. But the important thing to keep in mind here is that even though Chase markets these cards as cashback, you're actually earning ultimate rewards points, which can be more valuable when combined with one of the Chase Sapphire cards. Now, for the Sapphire Preferred card, at the time of filming this video, you can earn 75,000 points after you spend $5,000 of purchases in the first three months from account opening. And then on the Sapphire Reserve, you can earn 100,000 points after you spend $6,000 in the first three months. Now those are all great offers, but they can vary from time to time. So if you want to check out what current offers are running on these cards at the time you're watching this, then I'll go ahead and leave some links down below where you can learn more. And as always, those links are the best way to help support the free content here on this channel. So thank you to anyone who uses those. Now over on the Capital One side of things, most people start their Capital One Duo with the Saver card first here. And right now with this credit card, you can earn $200 cash back after you spend $500 in purchases within the first three months from account opening. So very similar sign of bonus on this no annual fee card compared to the no annual fee Chase Freedom cards. And again, for anyone who's new to this stuff, that $200 of cashback from this bonus on the Capital One Saver can actually be converted into 20,000 Capital One Miles if you hold a card like the Venture X as well. And those 20,000 miles can then potentially be redeemed for even more than $200 in value by taking advantage of different redemption options over on the Venture X. Now, as far as the signup bonus that the Venture X is offering at the time of filming this, right now you can earn 75,000 miles when you spend $4,000 in purchases in the first three months from account opening. And Capital One's been pretty consistent with this offer ever since they launched the Venture X back in 2021. Now we have seen some different offers from time to time on these Capital One Duo cards. So again, for any up-to-date info about current offers, you can learn more with the links down below. But next here, let's go ahead and take a look at some other ways to earn points and miles within these setups, because this is really where I think most people kind of make up their mind about whether they like Chase or Capital One better. So for the Chase trifecta, the multipliers across these cards are kind of interesting because they're definitely good, but there's also a lot of overlap and a key category that's missing here. So the Freedom unlimited it's basically going to be your catch-all card in this setup because it earns 1.5% or really 1.5x chase points in the all other purchases category but the card also earns 3% or 3x points on dining and drugstores and 5% or 5x points on purchases made through chase travel and just like the signup bonuses on these freedom cards you're going to see chase advertising these categories as earning cash back but you're actually going to be earning points here which is why i'm saying those rates as well for the freedom flex this card also earns 3% or 3x points on dining and drugstores and 5% or 5x points on chase travel which is part of the overlapping thing i mentioned But where the Freedom Flex really stands out and its whole purpose here in the setup is to act as a rotating category card. That's because it earns 5% or 5x points on rotating quarterly bonus categories that change every three months. And these categories in the past have included things like gas stations, grocery stores, excluding Target and Walmart, and select online merchants like Amazon and PayPal. Now, you're only going to be able to earn that 5x rate for the first $1,500 of combined purchases per quarter in those rotating categories. And you have to remember to actually activate those categories every quarter as well. But this is a potentially powerful points earning card for no annual fee because maxing out that $1,500 5X earning cap would be 7,500 points per quarter or 30,000 points per year. Also, something new that's worth noting is that starting on September 20th, 2026, the Freedom Flex is no longer going to be charging any foreign transaction fees. Unfortunately, it looks like the Freedom Unlimited is not getting that feature and foreign transactions outside the US are still going to come with a 3% fee. But yeah, having no foreign transaction fees on the Freedom Flex is going to be pretty useful. And that also matches the no foreign transaction fees on the 2 Chase Sapphire cards. Now, when it comes to choosing between those two Sapphire cards, in my opinion, I do think more people are going to be choosing the Sapphire Preferred just because it's cheaper, it has more multipliers, and it doesn't require the use of a ton of credits that you have to manage in order to offset its annual fee compared to the more expensive Sapphire Reserve. So for the Sapphire Preferred, you're going to earn 3x points on dining and 5x points on Chase travel as well, which again is more overlap with those Freedom cards. but then you're also going to earn 3x points on gas stations, EV charging, and vacation homes at top brands, which are categories that Chase decided to recently add here, as well as 3x points on top streaming services, 3x points for online grocery, and 2x points for any other travel booked outside of Chase. Chase also defines travel pretty broadly, so that 2x travel multiplier covers a lot of typical stuff you'd think of like airlines, hotels, car rentals, and cruises, but on top of that, it covers some other everyday stuff like trains, buses, taxis, tolls, and parking as well. Now for the Sapphire Reserve, like I just said, this is going to be a credit card that's got a bunch of credits that you have to really look at and then consider on top of just its spending multipliers if you're trying to decide if this is going to be worth having in your setup instead of the Sapphire Preferred. But if you do go with a reserve in the Chase Trifecta, then you're going to earn 8x points on all purchases made through Chase Travel, as well as 4x points on Flights Book Direct, 4x points on Hotels Book Direct, and then 3x points on Dining as well, because again, that just seems to be a category that Chase wants to give you on every single credit card. Now the one multiplier that's missing here that's been pretty obvious for a while with the Chase Trifecta is an elevated grocery store multiplier. So you can earn 3x for online groceries with the Sapphire Preferred, which is better than nothing. And then the Freedom Flex has made grocery stores one of its 5x quarterly categories in the past. But I'd really love to see a dedicated 3x or 4x grocery category in the future for the Chase Trifecta because that is really where I think the Capital One Duo has Chase beat. Now for the Capital One Duo, starting with the Saver card first, you're going to be able to earn 3% or again 3x miles when you convert that on grocery stores, dining, entertainment, and popular streaming services. So that's a ton of stuff at that 3x rate, including groceries, which is very good for a no annual fee card. There's also no foreign transaction fees on the Saver, and you can earn 5% or really 5x miles on hotels, vacation rentals, and rental cars booked through Capital One. And if you happen to book any sports games, concerts, or other events through Capital One Entertainment, then the Saver card is going to earn 8% or 8x miles on that as well. Now for the Venture X, you're going to be able to earn 10x miles on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel, 5x miles on flights and vacation rentals booked through Capital One Travel, and then 2x miles on all other purchases, which makes this one of the best catch-all cards in the game that you're able to use for pretty much anything else not earning 3X on the Saver card. There's no foreign transaction fees on the Venture X as well. However, there still is that $395 annual fee you're paying. But fortunately, there are some annual credits on the Venture X as well as those Chase Sapphire cards that definitely can help to offset annual fees. So let's go ahead and talk about that next. So looking at the Venture X first for this because the Saver card has no annual fee to worry about, you're gonna get a $300 annual travel credit on the Venture X for booking hotels, flights, vacation rentals, and more through Capital One Travel, as well as a 10,000 mile anniversary bonus where every year starting on your first account anniversary, you're gonna get 10,000 bonus miles which are equal to at least $100 towards travel or potentially even more than that. You're also gonna be able to receive up to a $120 credit for the application fee to Global Entry or TSA PreCheck and you're eligible to receive one statement credit for this every four years, which is pretty nice. Now, if we just focus on the $300 travel credit on the VentureX as well as the anniversary bonus that's worth at least $100 and then we subtract those from the 395 annual fee, that of course gives us minus $5 which basically just means that we're pretty easily able to offset the entire annual fee here for this card so then all the other features and benefits on the Venture X are like pure value profit. Now I really like how simple Capital One makes it to justify the annual fee on this card and I am kind of nervous that we're going to eventually see them raise that fee and make the credits more difficult to use but I guess we'll just have to wait and see if they ever end up doing that because as of the time I'm making this video the Venture X is still very good value for what you're paying. However if we jump over to the Chase Trifecta obviously those two Freedom cards have no annual fees so we don't have to worry about them but the choice between those two Sapphire cards could leave you with a few easy to use credits or many specific credits that might be a bit more challenging to use and keep track of. So on the recently updated Chase Sapphire Preferred, the $95 annual fee, which stayed the same, is honestly super easy to justify paying for because the card now comes with a $100 Chase travel hotel credit and you get access to this hotel credit each account anniversary. So just with one hotel stay of any length, you're pretty much offsetting the annual fee. On top of that though, Chase also decided to add a credit of up to $120 every four years for the application fee to Global Entry, TSA PreCheck, or Nexus. And for a limited time only, at the time of filming this, you can also get a year of complimentary Apple TV when you activate that by December 31st, 2026, which Chase says is a value of $156. Chase also has some other partner benefits with DoorDash, Peloton, and Lyft that are active right now and expiring at various times throughout 2027. But we'll see if any of these get renewed or if they add any other partner benefits to this card because Chase has always had some good stuff like that, which some people get value from as well. Now over on the Chase Sapphire Reserve card, if you're going to be using this Sapphire card in the Chase trifecta, then you really want to make sure you're somebody who's pretty organized because like I said before, there are going to be a lot of credits that you have to kind of use and keep track of here if you really want to offset most or all that $7.95 annual fee. So the Sapphire Reserve has credits like $300 towards any travel, which is super easy to use because again, Chase categorizes a lot of different things as travel. And then there's also $500 of hotel credits for stays within Chase's premium collection called The Edit. There's a $250 additional hotel credit for a small group of select hotels that's valid only through the end of 2026. And there's also a credit of up to $120 every four years for Global Entry, TSA PreCheck, or Nexus as well. There's also a bunch of lifestyle credits on this card that get pretty specific, like $300 worth of dining credits that only work at a select few restaurants. There's $300 of StubHub credits, $120 in Lyft credits, $120 in Peloton credits, and then some credits as well for DoorDash promos and Dash Pass, plus up to $288 in annual value for complimentary Apple TV and Apple Music subscriptions. Some of those partner benefits are only here for a limited time as well. And again, they have expiration dates throughout 2027, so make sure you consider that when looking at this card. But yeah, lots of things you gotta do if you wanna offset the steep annual fee on the Sapphire Reserve. And that's why I think a lot of people are gonna mostly compare the Sapphire Preferred version of the Chase Trifecta to the Capital One Duo because those two setups right there are actually pretty easy for almost anyone to justify the annual fees. Now, there are some other miscellaneous things to consider as well when looking at the Chase Trifecta versus the Capital One Duo. So let's go over that next tier before I talk about my final thoughts on these two setups and which one is better. So the first miscellaneous thing I wanna talk about are the travel portals with both these issuers here because the cards of these setups obviously have some multipliers that potentially can earn you a lot of points or a lot of miles within these travel portals, but each issuer also has some things to know about when it comes to redeeming those points and miles as well. So for Capital One, if you're gonna book any travel in the portal using the 10X or the 5X multipliers with the Venture X, the cool thing I really like about Capital One travel is they have these price matching and price drop protection features so you're going to be able to get the best prices and not overpay like some other portals make you do. Now, neither Chase Sapphire card currently offers price matching for everyone inside the Chase Travel Portal at the time of filming this, but the Sapphire Reserve is slowly getting this feature over time, so that is something to consider as well. But right now, I really like the interface and the pricing features that Capital One has a bit better. Now, both Capital One and Chase are going to allow you to redeem your points and miles at a fixed rate of one cent per point or mile for travel booked in either issuer's portal. So that's just an okay baseline value but capital one does also give you an additional option to effectively erase a wide variety of travel purchases made with their cards at a rate of one cent per mile as well but then chase offers something unique called points boost on their two sapphire cards where you can get up to 1.5 cents per point on the sapphire preferred and up to two cents per point on the sapphire reserve through chase travel and that's only available for select flights and hotel stays so not everything here and you'll find values between one and two cents per point as well and points boost is not an amazing feature in my opinion right now for absolutely everything but it does have some good uses that I've personally been able to get value from. However, what you really want to be doing with either one of these credit card setups is you want to be redeeming your points and miles by transferring those out to one of the many great hotel and airline programs that Chase and Capital One partner with. So either Sapphire Card gives you access to these transfer partners on the Chase side of things, and AdventureX gives you access to transfers for Capital One. And historically speaking, one of the main reasons why people typically have picked Chase over Capital One for their setup is because of the specific partners that Chase gives you access to, like Hyatt for hotel stays, and Southwest and United for domestic flights. But when Chase recently updated the Sapphire Preferred, what they did was they devalued transfers over to Hyatt, so now the Sapphire Preferred transfers at a 4-3 rate instead of a 1-1 rate, which still remains in the Sapphire Reserve. So to me, if you get the Chase trifecta with the Sapphire Preferred now, then Hyatt transfers typically are not going to be worth doing anymore, and that might be another reason to consider the Reserve. Now there may be some situations when transferring at a 4-3 rate over to Hyatt can be worth it if you run the numbers, but overall, I think that if you understand how transferring points works and you know how to find award availability, then the transfer partners on both the Chase Trifecta and the Capital One Duo are going to be great. Another important thing to consider here with these setups is airport lounge access. And if you want to get lounge access, then you're going to have to have either the Venture X or the more expensive Sapphire Reserve. That's because the Sapphire Preferred card does not get you into these lounges, even though Chase lounges have Sapphire in the name. And I always see people with a Preferred card trying to get into these lounges and then getting rejected at the door. So if you're looking for airport lounge access, then once again, that is going to be another reason to consider the Reserve card. The Sapphire Reserve also gets you as the cardholder and up to two free guests into Chase and Priority Pass lounges, whereas the VentureX only gets just the cardholder into Capital One and Priority Pass lounges with no free guests. And if you do want to bring a guest into a Capital One lounge, then you're going to have to pay $45 per visit per guest. Or you can add someone as a free authorized user on your VentureX card and then pay an annual lounge access fee of $125 to get unlimited visits for them. Now, within the Chase trifecta, you're also going to have a ton of great travel protections with either Sapphire card, including primary auto rental coverage, which is great. but the Venture X and the Capital One Duo also provide some nice travel protections, including primary auto rental coverage as well. The Venture X also comes with Hertz President Circle status and a cell phone protection benefit, and then the Sapphire Reserve comes with IHG One Rewards Platinum Elite status through the end of 2027. So overall, that's a lot of stuff here to consider with both these setups, so which one do I think is better? To me, because more people are likely going to be scared away by the higher annual fee and the coupon book nature of the Sapphire Reserve card, the Chase Trifecta with the cheaper Sapphire Preferred is likely going to be more popular. So I'd start by thinking about how that version of the Chase Trifecta stacks up against the Capital One Duo. And for me, because the Freedom Unlimited at 1.5x is not as good as the 2x for a catch-all card that you're getting with Adventure X, and because Chase is missing all grocery stores as a permanent multiplier, whereas the Capital One Saver card earns 3x on that, and because the Sapphire Preferred now has devalued its key transfer partner with Hyatt as well, I'm going to say that right now in September of 2026, I consider the Capital One Duo to be a better long-term setup for most people. Now, I am concerned that we're going to see Capital One eventually try to change things up, especially with Adventure X. And it's also important to note that some Saber cardholders have been getting moved over recently to a Discover version of this card, which might not be as good overseas. But I still just think the Capital One duo is an easy-to-justify setup right now for its cost, and it covers a bunch of categories very well, while also having a solid catch-all option with Adventure X. However, my hot take here is that there's also a growing trend in the whole credit card game that another single credit card out there is kind of making the rewards earned from both these setups a little bit obsolete. So if you want to learn more about that card, then make sure to go ahead and check out this video over here on the screen next. But as always, thanks so much for watching and I'll see you in the next one.