All About the Chase Ink Business Cards

Chase cards are one of our favorites for several reasons. Many of them earn our favorite points – Ultimate Rewards®, which are super valuable with Chase’s transfer partners. Additionally, Chase offers co-branded cards with great hotel and airline brands like United, Southwest, Hyatt, and Marriott. Plus, there’s the Ink Business suite of cards which provide excellent options for earning a ton of points without adding to your 5/24 number.

Chase’s Ink Business lineup includes four cards: the Ink Business Cash® Credit Card, Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card, Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card, and Ink Business Premier® Credit Card. Each card has its own welcome offer, annual fee, benefits, and perks. Let’s look at the specifics of each.

Welcome offers

• Ink Cash: Earn $350 when you spend $3,000 on purchases in the first three months and an additional $400 when you spend $6,000 on purchases in the first six months after account opening.
• Ink Unlimited: Earn $750 bonus cash back after you spend $6,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
• Ink Preferred: Earn 90,000 bonus points after you spend $8,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
• Ink Premier: Earn $1,000 bonus cash back after you spend $10,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.

The Ink Premier may seem like the best choice with the highest offer of $1,000 cash back, but unfortunately, it is just that – cash back. These points cannot be combined with other Ultimate Rewards® cards, used with Chase Travel℠, or transferred to partners. I typically only recommend this card if you truly just want a $1,000 statement credit.

The other three Ink cards are all excellent options with solid welcome offers. It just depends on your budget and what spending requirement you can meet with your regular spending.

The Ink Cash and Ink Unlimited are marketed as cash-back cards, but they actually earn Ultimate Rewards®, which can be used in various ways. I’ll go over that in a bit.

Annual fee

• The Ink Cash and Ink Unlimited both have no annual fee.
• The Ink Preferred has a $95 annual fee, which is worth it since the points are transferrable without needing an additional card.
• The Ink Premier has a $195 annual fee.

Earning categories

• Ink Cash: 5% cash back on the first $25,000 spent in combined purchases at office supply stores and on internet, cable and phone services. 2% cash back on the first $25,000 spent in combined purchases at gas stations and restaurants. 1% cash back on all other card purchases.
• Ink Unlimited: 1.5% cash back on all purchases.
• Ink Preferred: 3X on the first $150,000 spent on travel, shipping, Internet, cable and phone services, and advertising purchases made with social media sites and search engines.
• Ink Premier: 2.5% cash back on purchases of $5,000 or more, and 2% cash back on all other purchases.

Card benefits

The travel and purchase benefits vary across the Chase Ink Business cards, but all four include these perks:

• Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver (CDW): Skip the rental insurance fee and get primary coverage when you charge your rental car (booked for business purposes) to your card.
• Travel & Emergency Help: Access to legal or medical assistance while traveling – any charges go to your card.
• Roadside Assistance: Help with roadside issues – any charges go to your card.
• Purchase Protection: New purchases covered for 120 days, up to $10,000 per claim and $50,000 per account.
• Extended Warranty: Adds one additional year to manufacturer warranties of three years or less.
• Baggage Delay Coverage: Reimburses essential purchases if your bags are delayed.
• Fraud protection
• Employee cards at no additional cost.

Additional benefits on the Ink Preferred and Ink Premier

• Cell Phone Protection: Up to $1,000 per claim against phone theft or damage with a $100 deductible (three claims allowed per year).
• Trip Cancellation/Interruption Insurance: Reimburses up to $5,000 per person and up to $10,000 per trip for disruptions from covered incidents.
• No Foreign Transaction Fees

Using your points

All these cards earn Ultimate Rewards®, even the ones advertised as cash back. However, redemption options vary a bit by card.

• Ink Cash and Ink Unlimited: You can redeem your points at a one cent per point value by cashing them out for a statement credit or for travel booked with Chase Travel℠. If you would like to get a higher value from your points, you can combine them with one of three cards – the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, Chase Sapphire Reserve®, or the Ink Preferred – and then transfer them to Chase’s travel partners. My Ultimate Rewards® article goes over the steps for combining points and transferring them.
• Ink Preferred: This card stands out by allowing you to transfer points to Chase’s travel partners. This is my preferred method (see what I did there. ha.) for using these points, since this is where you can get the most bang for your buck. However, you can also use them to book travel through Chase Travel℠ or using Pay Yourself Back categories at 1.25 cents per point, which is slightly higher than the other Ink cards. Points can also be redeemed for one cent per point as a statement credit.
• Ink Premier: The only option for using points earned from this card is to get a statement credit at a one cent per point value, meaning every 10,000 points is worth $100.

Qualification requirements

• These are business cards but do not let that deter you. Business cards are much easier to be approved for than you might think. You do not need a registered business. You can qualify with any small side hustle that brings in any income outside of a W2 job. Learn more about qualifying for business cards here.
• Like all Chase cards, you must be under 5/24 to qualify for an Ink card. This means that to be approved, you cannot have opened more than four cards from any bank in the last 24 months. Learn more about Chase’s 5/24 rule here.
• You can have each of these cards for the same business, and you can have more than one of the same cards if you have multiple businesses. There is no time limit on when you can open the card and earn the bonus again. However, as of the end of 2024, Chase seems to be cracking down on recent inquiries and the number of Chase business cards they’ll approve you for. I’d recommend waiting a full 90 days, if not longer, before applying for another Ink card.
• Anecdotally, Chase does not like you to have more than 3-4 Ink cards open at a time. So, if you reach that (unadvertised) limit, I suggest closing your oldest card as long as it’s been open longer than one year. You can learn more about closing cards in this article.

Wrapping Up

The Ink Business cards are our favorite way to earn tons of Chase points every year. We have each card for each of our businesses, which means hundreds of thousands of points. Plus we’ve reopened the same card since there is no limit on earning the bonuses again. We love having a big stash of flexible points so that we can take amazing vacations for nearly free!