Major CHANGES To Sapphire Reserve Card (Effective Oct 1)

In this video, we have a rumor that has now actually been confirmed by Chase about a new $15 monthly credit on the Chase Sapphire Reserve. We have a few transfer bonuses from credit card points currencies to certain airlines and hotels to talk about, and we also have the Discover 5% cashback categories for quarter four of 2026 to let you know about. Hey, credit warriors, welcome to the show. My name is Ben Hedges, aka the Credit Shofu, and on this channel, we talk about U.S. credit cards, personal finance, and luxury travel. Well, if you like the sound of that, please subscribe, but let's get into it. Oh, and this video is brought to you by Monarch, but more on that later. So first of all, several websites started reporting on rumors that the Chase Sapphire Reserve is getting a new DoorDash credit for $15 per month that can be used on restaurant orders. Now, it was hard to find where this rumor originally came from. The person the doctor of credit quoted in their article has actually deleted their original post from Reddit, which makes it suspicious, okay? And I was about to reach out to Chase through chat myself to ask about it, but then I found this article on a site called MilesTalk, which is a pretty good resource for points and miles stuff, and the author had actually already reached out to Chase and got a statement on this. Beginning October 1st, 2026, Chase Sapphire Reserve will increase the value and flexibility of its existing DoorDash benefits. The current $5 monthly DoorDash restaurant credit will increase to a $15 monthly credit that can be used on all eligible DoorDash orders. The existing two $10 monthly non-restaurant promos will remain the same. Sapphire Reserve Dash Pass members will now receive up to $35 in DoorDash value each month. So if you didn't know, the Sapphire Reserve currently already gives out $25 per month in DoorDash credits, but only $5 of that can be used for restaurants. The rest, like they said, is for non-restaurant orders like groceries. So now the restaurant part is increasing to $15, so basically cardholders are getting $10 extra value per month or $120 extra value per year. And that's good news, right? Considering that the annual fee on this card is $795. So I would say that this is a win for Sapphire Reserve cardholders. Just remember, it's not active yet. September is still just $5 on restaurants for the month, and the new $15 monthly credit starts on October 1st. All right, let's move on to talking about some transfer bonuses, and we have a few good ones this month. So first of all, we have a bonus when you transfer Amex points to Hilton. I've stayed at multiple Hilton hotels. I really like their loyalty program. I really like their hotels as well. The points aren't worth much, but they are super easy to earn, and promotions like this make them go even further. But let's now actually look at this transfer bonus. So right now, if you transfer Amex points to Hilton, you get a 30% bonus. And since it's normally one to two, okay, a one to two transfer ratio, so 1,000 Amex points would normally equal 2,000 Hilton points that means that now it becomes 1,000 to 2,600. This one just started on September 1st, and it is going to run until October 14th. I would say it is a great offer to take advantage of, and actually, I may transfer a few thousand points over just to top up my balance. Looking at my Hilton account, I currently have 79,000 Hilton points in there, which is definitely enough for a night at one of their mid-range hotels, maybe even quite a nice hotel, but it's always good to have more points, and Hilton is super useful for those little spur-of-the-moment trips away, right? Like a weekend getaway or something. So I like to keep a balance of over 100,000 Hilton points in my account, and with this promo, by transferring just 10,000 Amex points I can actually get my balance to over 100,000 Hilton points. All right, let's move on to an airline transfer bonus with another bank, and then we will look at the Discover cashback categories. But first, with all the credit cards that you can apply for that let you earn rewards, personally, I have like 15 credit cards, right? This is just a few of them. I think it's really important that you keep a very close eye on your finances so you don't get into debt and undo all the rewards you're earning. So let me show you how I track my spending without it feeling overwhelming. I use Monarch, the sponsor of today's video. It's a financial planning app that syncs with over 13,000 financial institutions so you can create a 100% clear picture of your finances. I love how you can see literally everything right in Monarch's dashboard, from my net worth, to my transactions, to my spending so far this month, to my budgets, and even my stocks. Monarch lets you set up monthly budgets and will warn you when you go over. It also lets you set other financial goals, which I find really useful, like saving up money or paying down debt. And you can choose to use either the popular avalanche or snowball methods to pay down your cards. So if you've got into credit card debt, and I always tell you guys not to, but if you have, this could be really useful to help you get out of it. In fact, in their account section, you can even see the combined balance of all your credit cards, so you can see if you're paying down the debt or just shifting it from card to card. Monarch is private and ad-free. You are the customer, not the product. They're not selling your data to third parties. You have both mobile and desktop versions with everything displayed in one clean dashboard. Monarch offers flexible budgeting options with customizable rules, AI-powered insights about your spending, and it is couples-friendly. So my wife can log in too and get a complete picture of our shared finances. So a big thank you to Monarch for partnering with me. Scan the QR code on screen now, or click the link down below to start your free trial. And my viewers will also get a 50% discount on their first year with code BEN50. All right, so here is another transfer bonus that just launched. And this one is from Capital One Miles to Japan Airlines. I've flown Japan Airlines business class from Taiwan to Japan. It was a great experience. I would say the food was the best food I've ever had on a plane. But right now Capital One is offering a 30% bonus when you transfer to Japan Airlines or JAL. Now Capital One Miles normally transfer to Japan Airlines at a four to three ratio. So this actually brings you up to almost one to one. To be specific, it is 1,000 Capital One Miles now equals 975 Japan Airlines miles. Close enough, right? So while this isn't giving you the massive extra value like the Hilton one, it's a good chance to get a transfer to JAL at almost a one to one ratio. We've seen this bonus a few times already. So it's great to see it again. And it indicates that if you just wait for the bonus, you don't need to transfer to JAL at that less than one to one ratio. This one runs until September 30th. And with airline transfer bonuses, I do recommend you make sure that you found availability to book the flight you want before you transfer. Airlines are not as easy to book with points as hotels are, especially if you're trying to book business class or above. You know, maybe if you're just gonna book economy, there's more availability in economy, but definitely trying to book premium cabins, find your award availability first. The one exception though would be for people who are already experienced in booking a certain airline and know that they will have use for the miles. All right, let's talk about Discover's quarter four categories. So Discover has just announced the 5% cashback categories for the fourth quarter of 2026. And this is actually a pretty strong lineup. First, if you're not familiar with how the Discover It cashback card works, every three months, Discover gives cardholders a new set of bonus categories. Once you activate the offer, you earn 5% cashback on up to $1,500 in combined spending in those categories during the quarter. Seems you've been using your Discover cashback card to earn 5% cashback at restaurants all quarter. Now, it's payback time. Oh, you mean my Discover cashback. Max that out and you're getting $75 in cashback each quarter with purchases outside the bonus categories generally earning just 1% back. Right now in quarter three, which runs through September 30th, the categories are gas stations and EV charging, transportation, including public transport and airline purchases and drugstores. Airlines being included was actually a new one for Discover this year. And the overall quarter three was a pretty travel-friendly quarter. But starting October 1st, Discover is giving us a new set of categories. The quarter four categories are restaurants, entertainment and utilities. Utilities is probably the most interesting one because it includes things like electricity, gas bills, water bills. And these are rarely covered by credit card bonus categories. But Discover also says that in addition to that, payments for things like internet, cable, satellite TV and mobile phone services can count as well. Restaurants covers all the usual, full service restaurants, cafes and anything that codes as a restaurant. While entertainment includes things like movie theaters, sporting events, concerts, amusement parks, zoos, aquariums and bowling alleys. So this should be a pretty easy quarter for a lot of people to maximize. Just remember, you do need to activate the categories before you can earn that 5%. So do that now if you're a Discover card holder. We'll have the Chase Freedom Flex and Freedom Card quarterly categories for you around September 15th as well. All right, guys, that is the video for today. A big thank you again to Monarch for partnering with me. Scan the QR code on screen now or click the link in the description to start your free trial. And my viewers will also get a 50% discount on their first year using code BEN50. Please subscribe to our channel if you do and we'll see you in the next video. Bye bye.