The Credit Ledger 
If your card spend is dominated by public charging and you almost never book travel, the “best” rewards card looks very different from the usual recommendation lists. The popular travel card may not win. This guide compares the PenFed Platinum Rewards Visa Signature against the Chase Sapphire Preferred for one narrow use case: charging an electric vehicle at public stations, with no travel redemptions in the picture.
The two cards at a glance
These are different tools built for different drivers. One is a no-fee category earner. The other is a travel card that recently bolted on a charging bonus.
| Factor | PenFed Platinum Rewards | Chase Sapphire Preferred |
|---|---|---|
| EV charging rate | 5x points (verify current terms) | 3x points, added in the June 2026 refresh (verify) |
| Annual fee | $0 (verify) | $95 (verify) |
| Best-fit redemption | Statement-credit style cash value | Travel and transfer partners |
| Membership requirement | Must join PenFed | None beyond approval |
| Value for a no-travel driver | High | Largely unused |
Always confirm the live rates and fees on each issuer’s own page before you apply, since bonus categories and fees change. Chase, for example, refreshed the Sapphire Preferred in June 2026.
Why the Sapphire Preferred’s value can be wasted here
The Sapphire Preferred earns Ultimate Rewards points. The reason people pay $95 a year for it is not the everyday earn rate. It is the redemption flexibility: a points boost when you book through Chase Travel, plus the ability to transfer points to airline and hotel partners where outsized per-point value is possible.
That value only materializes if you actually redeem for travel. A driver who never flies, never books hotels, and never transfers points is paying for a feature set they will not touch. In that scenario the points effectively fall back to a plain cash-equivalent value, and the $95 fee becomes a pure drag.
So for the no-travel EV driver, the honest framing is: 3x charging at roughly cash value, minus $95 a year. That is a much weaker proposition than its reputation suggests.
Why PenFed Platinum fits the no-travel charger
The PenFed Platinum Rewards Visa is built around fuel and charging. It advertises an elevated rate at gas stations and EV charging stations, with no annual fee. For someone whose largest discretionary category is literally charging, a high rate on that exact category at $0 fee is close to ideal.
There is no travel ecosystem to “miss out” on, because the card was never priced around one. You earn on charging and redeem the points without paying for perks you would ignore.
The one catch: membership
PenFed is a credit union, so you must become a member before you can hold the card. The good news is that membership is open to the public. PenFed dropped its old military-or-charity requirement, and any U.S. citizen or permanent resident can join, generally by opening a basic savings account with a small minimum deposit. Treat that account as a formality, not a hurdle. Verify the current minimum and any account-tier conditions on PenFed’s site, since some elevated reward tiers historically depended on holding a specific PenFed account.
MCC 5552: the coding detail that decides your rate
Here is the part most reviews skip, and it matters more than the headline multiplier.
Your card earns a bonus rate based on the merchant category code (MCC) the charging operator transmits, not on what you bought. EV charging now has a dedicated code, MCC 5552. Visa established it in 2019 and Mastercard adopted the same number in 2020. Before that, charging often rode under MCC 5542 (automated fuel dispensers) or MCC 7523 (parking).
What this means in practice:
- A station coded as 5552 should trigger the EV charging bonus on a card that bonuses charging.
- A station that still codes as fuel (5542) may earn under a “gas” bonus instead. On a card that bonuses both gas and charging, the outcome can be the same. On a card that only bonuses one, it matters a lot.
- A station coded as parking (7523), or bundled with a parking garage, may earn only the base rate.
PenFed bonuses both gas stations and EV charging, which gives it a useful safety margin: whether a site codes as fuel or as charging, you are likely still in a bonus category. The Sapphire Preferred’s recent refresh added gas and EV charging together as well, so it has similar coverage on the coding question. The real difference is the multiplier and the fee, not the code.
If a charge posts at the base rate, check the statement descriptor and the MCC. A miscoded merchant is the operator’s issue; no card can override it.
The yearly break-even
Let’s put numbers to the no-travel scenario. We will value points conservatively at cash equivalence (about one cent each) because, by definition, this driver is not using travel transfers. Use round figures and verify the live rates before relying on this.
Assume the rate gap on charging is 5x versus 3x, a difference of 2 points per dollar, or roughly two cents per dollar at cash value. That is the extra value PenFed gives you per dollar charged. But the Sapphire Preferred also costs $95 more per year in fees.
How to run your own break-even
- Estimate annual public charging spend in dollars.
- Multiply by the per-dollar value gap (about $0.02 at the 5x vs 3x cash assumption).
- That is your extra annual reward value from the higher-rate card.
- Add the $95 fee difference to PenFed’s side of the ledger.
Worked example: at $2,000 of annual public charging, the rate gap is worth about $40 a year in PenFed’s favor. Add the $95 fee you avoid, and PenFed is ahead by roughly $135 a year for this driver. To make the Sapphire Preferred win on charging alone (ignoring travel), you would need the rate-gap value to exceed $95, which at two cents per dollar means well over $4,000 of annual charging just to cover the fee, before the no-fee card has even contributed its own rewards. For nearly every household, that threshold is out of reach on charging alone.
The conclusion is blunt: if you do not redeem for travel, the Sapphire Preferred has to overcome both a lower charging multiplier and a $95 fee. It rarely does.
A simple decision framework
- You charge in public regularly and never book travel through a card: lean PenFed Platinum Rewards. Higher charging rate, no fee, and you are not paying for unused travel value.
- You charge in public and also fly or book hotels a few times a year, redeeming via transfer partners: the Sapphire Preferred can justify its fee, but on travel value, not on charging.
- You want one card to do both jobs: decide which spend is larger. If charging dwarfs travel, the no-fee earner usually wins.
- You charge mostly at home: neither card’s charging bonus matters much, because home electricity is a utility bill, not an EV charging MCC.
That last point is worth underlining. These charging bonuses apply to public stations coded as charging. Home charging shows up on your electric bill and earns only your card’s base rate. If you rarely use public stations, the entire comparison loses its weight, and a flat-rate cash-back card may serve you better.
Bottom line
For the no-travel driver who lives on public charging, the math favors the no-fee, higher-rate option. PenFed Platinum Rewards pairs a strong charging multiplier with a $0 fee and category coverage that survives the MCC 5552 coding lottery. The Sapphire Preferred is an excellent travel card whose strengths are simply irrelevant to this buyer, and its $95 fee makes the gap wider, not smaller. Confirm every rate and fee on the issuers’ official pages before applying, because card terms change.
This article is educational and not personalized financial advice.