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Chase Ink Business Preferred 100k
The Chase Ink Business Preferred is my favorite all around small business credit card. I actually have two of them, and for the past couple of years Chase has offered the ability to earn 100k Ultimate Rewards after hitting $15k in spend in the first 3 months of card membership. It earns premium Chase Ultimate Rewards and great 3x bonus categories. Let’s break this bad boy down.
The Benefits of The Chase Ink Business Preferred
The Chase Ink Business Preferred has a low $95 annual fee and comes loaded with a bevy of benefits and perks. Personally, I put my mobile phone bill on my Ink Business Preferred because it provides $600 worth of free mobile insurance ( with $100 deductible ). Usually carriers will charge at least $10 a month to have insurance which means I’m net positive on the card without counting the value from all of the other listed benefits. I go into further detail below.
1) 100k point welcome bonus after $15k spend in 3 months
2) 3x on first $150k spent on
Travel
Phone, Cable, Internet
Social Media/Search advertising
Shipping
3) 1x on all other purchases
4) Cell Phone Insurance
5) No Foreign Transaction fees
6) Add additional employee cards
7) Redeem at 1.25c for travel with Chase Travel
8) $95 annual fee
Tell me more about Chase Ultimate Rewards
The Chase Ink Business Preferred earns premium ultimate rewards which means they can be used in the portal ( for 1.25c with this card ) or they can be transferred in the following transfer partners. This is how we travel in business and first class – outsized value in transfer partner sweet spots.
Is the Chase Ink Business Preferred limited by 5/24
Yes, if your credit report reflects 5 new accounts being opened in the last 24 months you will not be eligible for the card.
Is this the best offer we’ve seen on the Ink Business Preferred?
The best deal I’ve ever heard of was targeted, in branch, and was 100k Ultimate Rewards after $5k spend. So exactly the same bonus, but with a lower spend threshold. When this card was first issued it continually offered 80k Ultimate Rewards after $5k spend. In terms of being the best, it comes down to how much your business spends per month. I don’t think $15k in 3 months is a tall order for most businesses and many would prefer to earn a larger bonus even with the bigger spend threshold.
Hitting $15k in 3 months is difficult for my business
I would check out this post where I discuss using Plastiq as a way to put expenses your business would ordinarily pay cash for like rent, auto leases, utilities, contractors, business services, etc on your credit card. When you start to factor in total expenses, many businesses easily spend $5k a month. The ability to earn 100k point bonus is worth paying a service charge in my opinion.
But I don’t have a small business, Miles. You may, and not know it. Keep reading.
Chase is very friendly to entrepreneurs and small business owners. In fact, if you haven’t been in business for long, or you haven’t established yourself with an EIN, you can still apply as a Sole Proprietor ( fill in your SSN ). If you run a small side business (think bloggers, ebay sellers, tutors, consultants, etc) and want a card to segregate your business income from your personal income at tax time…this is a great opportunity to earn a load of points and help yourself out.
Personally, I have two businesses that I run, one has an EIN, and one doesn’t. I still need to keep all of their records separate, and so I have cards for each business. And we love to fly like this: United Polaris from Brazil to Chicago
How about a deep dive into the benefits I extract the most value from:
1) Earning Transferrable Ultimate Rewards
First and foremost, the 100k point sign up bonus is amazing and puts you well on your way to some incredible redemptions. How? As I’d mentioned in the intro – this card is one of Chase’s premium cards – meaning it earns fully transferrable points. The ability to transfer into partner programs is the single best way to consistently get maximum value for your Ultimate Rewards
Business class starts at just 60k with United, 65k with Singapore Airlines from the US to Europe. Incredible value to fly flat and hit the ground running when you get to your final destination. You can transfer instantaneously to United and fly on partners like Lufthansa in first class which is uber cool if you ask me.
In fact, 110k United miles will fly you in Lufthansa First Class from the US to Europe. One of the benefits of using United miles vs other currencies is the taxes and fees are minimized.
2) 3x points on Travel
Being in the travel business means it accounts of a large portion of my business expenses. Chase has a broad and generous definition of travel:
Airlines, hotels, motels, timeshares, car rental agencies, cruise lines, travel agencies, discount travel sites, campgrounds and operators of passenger trains, buses, taxis, limousines, ferries, toll bridges and highways, and parking lots and garages
I’m always surprised at the end of the month when I see how many different places I accumulated triple points simply by using this card.
3) Cell Phone Insurance
This is an outstanding benefit and typically not one of the main advertising points of this card, but saves me $10-15 every month. The Ink Business Preferred provides cell phone protection so long as you pay your bill with the card.
Yes, that’s right, you can switch your current bill over to the Ink Business Preferred, and you and your employees phones will be covered with following benefits:
- $600 of protection with a $100 deductible
- Claims 3 times per 12 months
Exclusions:
- Lost phones are NOT covered
- Covered phones must be purchased new. Refurbished or resold phones are NOT included
- Only covers you and your employees listed on your monthly cell phone bill
4) Transfer your Freedom/Ink Cash, etc into Ultimate Rewards
One of the great things about having a premium Chase Ultimate Reward earning credit card, is it allows you to increase the value of points you may earn on other Chase products.
I wrote an entire article on building a Chase Trifecta/Quadfecta which maximizes this benefit and utilizes the incredible suite of Chase products to earn the most points per dollar on different cards, and then merge them into a single account to transfer into partners for maximum redemption.
Go here to see over 50 of our favorite uses of Chase Ultimate Rewards
Overall:
This is a card I can’t imagine parting ways with. It not only has an incredible welcome offer, but has benefits that keep it front and center in my wallet. The only downside to the new offer is the larger spend threshold, but the ability to process
The Chase Sapphire Preferred is a great starter card that earns Premium Ultimate Rewards that can be transferred into over a dozen partners many of which are US based.
Welcome Offer
60k Points after $4k spend in 3 months
80k offer in branch currently – I think this should be online soon
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
Super solid welcome offer.
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex℠and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash , Ink Business Unlimited you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.
- 3x on dining
- including eligible delivery services for takeout
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards – Chase Travel Portal
- $50 Annual Credit on hotel stays purchased via Ultimate Rewards/Chase Travel
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 10% Anniversary Bonus
- Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
- Chase Sapphire Preferred® continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel Portal and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including primary rental car insurance, purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 13 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in the Chase Travel center for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Primary rental car coverage is my favorite
There is currently an 80k offer after $4k spend in 3 months available in branch, and up to 90k after $6k spend in 6 months. I suspect some version of this will be online soon if you don’t want the hassle of going into a branch.
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 60k is a very, very good offer. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back. .
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.
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