Originally Posted by
Diplomatico
What will you do with the CSR if you don't keep it? If you close it, you lose the ability to transfer points to partners and to redeem through the travel portal at 1.5cpp.
If you PC it to the CSP, you will pay $95 annual fee but retain the ability to transfer UR to partners and you can redeem through the travel portal at 1.25cpp.
With the $55 in annual fee difference between the two, others who have done the math claim that you would have to redeem 22,000 UR points through the portal to break even on that $55 difference in annual fee.
But that ignores the difference in earn rate between the two cards.
Personally, I break the analysis into two parts: is it worth having a premium UR card ($95 annual fee) for transferability, etc, and if so, is it worth paying the additional $55 for CSR? A conservative version of that calculation values the UR at 1.25 cents/point (CSP portal rate) and compares to 2% cash back. For my usage, Freedom bonus categories easily justify the first $95, and SR 3x on dining and travel easily justifies the $55 difference over CSP. YMMV depending on your spend pattern, and if it's a closer call than mine, it becomes more important to value the UR based on how you'll actually use them.