Compare the Features and Benefits of JP Morgan Reserve Card and
Citi® Double Cash Card

If you are looking for a review of the JP Morgan Reserve card, you’re in the right spot.

However, it may be more elusive than you think….

What is the JP Morgan Reserve card?

Formerly known as the JP Morgan Palladium card, this unbelievably heavy metal credit card is now known as the JP Morgan Reserve card.

In the travel rewards credit card space, this is the equivalent of the famous American Express Black (Centurion) Card.

In nearly every way but the design and rarity, this card is the same as the Chase Sapphire Reserve.

One big difference?

The JP Morgan Reserve card includes an annual United Club membership.  

So in some ways, the JP Morgan Reserve card combined the best features of the Chase Sapphire Reserve and the United Club Infinite Card.

The annual fee is the same as the Sapphire Reserve as well.

How Do You Get a JP Morgan Reserve Card?

This card is available to Chase Private Bank clients, only. That means you will need over 10 Million dollars in assets with Chase.

Now, you may know someone with one of these cards that doesn’t have $10 million with Chase. That would be because when it was the Palladium card, mere Chase Private Client customers could apply. But no longer…

JP Morgan Reserve Benefits:

• United Club annual membership
• Primary car rental CDW coverage for rental cars.
• Priority Pass Select airport lounge access is included for the cardholder and up to two guests. This means that every time you visit a Priority Pass airport lounge, the cost of entry is included.  More info on Priority Pass.
• $100 credit for enrollment in Global Entry or PreCheck once every 5 years.
• $300 travel credit each year, credited automatically, as you spend on any travel.
• No foreign transaction fees.
• Pay Yourself Back (when available; categories subject to change)

JP Morgan Reserve  / Lyft Benefits

• Earn 10X Ultimate Rewards points on Lyft rides through March 2025
• Get a one-time complimentary Lyft Pink subscription (15% Lyft discounts, free bike/scooter rentals each month, and better cancellation rules) for 2 years if you activate by Dec 2024.

DoorDash Benefits

• Complimentary DashPass from DoorDash: You and your authorized user(s) will receive at least 12 months of complimentary DashPass for use on both the DoorDash and Caviar applications during the same membership period based on the first activation date, when the membership is activated with a J.P. Morgan Reserve card by 12/31/2024.
• Earn $5 monthly DoorDash Credits through 12/31/2024

Can you Product Change from a Chase Sapphire Reserve to a J.P. Morgan Reserve?

No. sorry.

The Bottom Line on the JP Morgan Reserve

If you are reading this, the odds are that you can’t get a JP Morgan Reserve card. If you do have the $10 million in assets with Chase, just give your Private Banker a call!

Otherwise, you may need to look at applying for the Chase Sapphire Reserve instead…   for now.

The Citi Double Cash® Card isn’t a card loaded with features and benefits.

But it has one killer feature that makes the card a must-have for nearly everyone and that’s the simple fact that it earns 2% cash back on all of your everyday purchases. Technically, you earn 1% when you spend and 1% when you pay, but semantics aside, you’re earning 2% cash back on absolutely all eligible purchases.

And before we forget, it also comes with a pretty amazing intro offer for balance transfers, as outlined in the Key Facts at the top of the page.

You don’t have to think about bonus categories with this credit card. The answer to “what will I earn here” is always 2%.

Just one caveat: the Double Cash does not come with many expected benefits, like extended warranty or purchase protection. For those reasons, you may want to use another card for high value merchandise purchases.

That said, why is it a must have credit card for nearly everyone? Three reasons:

1) There is no consumer credit card issued by a major bank that earns a higher % of cash back with no annual fee. None.

2) You can use this as your one credit card if you are completely averse to using multiple credit cards (although you’ll need to be aware of the foreign transaction fees charged if you travel internationally). But even better is to use this as your “default” card. What I mean by that is you may have a card that earns 4X on dining and groceries and another that earns 3% on drugstores, but that’s it. What about an insurance payment? What about daycare?

On most other credit cards, if you aren’t spending in a bonus category, you only earn 1X or 1% back. For example, the Citi Premier Card pays 3X in certain categories (Air/Hotel, Gas, Restaurants and Supermarkets) and 1X in everything else. So you can “Double Up” by having both cards.

The Citi Double Cash card earns 2X Thank You® points on everything. If your purchase is in a Citi Premier card bonus category, go ahead and make the purchase with your Citi Premier card. If it’s in any other category, make the purchase with your Double Cash card. That way, you’ll get one percent when you make the purchase and another percent when you pay it. With a Double Cash card in your pocket, you can always take it out when you have no bonus category available, ensuring that you never, ever earn less than 2% back on any purchases.

3) While you’ll earn cash back rewards with this card, it earns it as ThankYou® points. If you only have the Double Cash alone, that keeps things simple. It’s cash! You can cash out as a statement credit, via direct deposit to your bank account, or by check.

Pair with a Citi Premier® card – a great credit card strategy

In that case, once again, you simply pair this card with a Citi Premier credit card. That would allow you to pool all of your ThankYou® points together and, because of the Premier, you’ll unlock access to all of the transfer options listed below, the best kind of credit card rewards:

What are some of the ways you can use Citi ThankYou® points for outsized value with a Citi Premier?

We outline all of that on the Citi Premier card page, since that is the card that unlocks these features. Please take a look at the Citi Premier review for everything you need to know about using Citi ThankYou® points.

The Citi Trifecta: Add the Citi Premier and then a Citi Rewards+ Card for a 10% Points Rebate

You can make your Citi Premier and Citi Double Cash rewards combo even more rewarding if you add in a no-annual fee Citi Rewards+ card.

Each calendar year, Citi will rebate back 10% of the first 100,000 ThankYou® Points that you spend, so you can get back up to 10,000 points per year Best of all, it isn’t tied in any way to your spending on the card. Just having it in your profile and linked to the same ThankYou account will ensure that you get the rebate.

Citi Application Rules

Citi won’t approve more than 2 cards in a 60-day period, although we recommend 65 days, just to be safe. This means that if you decide to apply for the Double Cash and combo with a Citi Premier and Citi Rewards+ card, you’ll have to pick one to wait and apply for on Day 66. We’d recommend getting the Rewards+ last, since the benefits are when you redeem.

Bottom Line

The Citi Double Cash is quite simply a card that should be in 99% of wallets. The 2% cash back on everything (1% when you buy and 1% when you pay your bill), with no annual fee, is too good to pass up, even if you are using it in conjunction with other credit cards to maximize your bonus categories – as you should be!