Ink Business Preferred: 8 Reasons To Apply With Best-Ever 100K Bonus

Link: Apply now for the Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card

In recent years we’ve seen business credit cards become more compelling than ever before, as credit card issuers increasingly try to create products that meet the needs of small business owners.

The Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card (review) continues to be one of the most rewarding business cards out there. There’s not another business card that offers a combination of a huge welcome bonus, generous return on spending, and useful perks, all while having such a low annual fee.

For those of you who have small businesses but don’t yet have this card, below are eight reasons the Ink Business Preferred is the all-around best Chase credit card.

1. 100K Ultimate Rewards points

The Ink Business Preferred Card is offering an incredible welcome bonus of 100,000 Ultimate Rewards points after spending $8,000 on purchases within the first three months. The value proposition of this bonus was improved some time back, as you previously had to spend $15,000 to earn the bonus, while now you need to spend just over half of that.

I value Ultimate Rewards points at ~1.7 cents each, so to me, 100,000 Ultimate Rewards points are worth ~$1,700. This is a huge reward, and among the best welcome bonuses on any business credit card.

2. 3x points bonus categories

The Ink Business Preferred Card offers triple points in several useful categories that your business may spend quite a bit in, including:

• Travel
• Shipping purchases
• Internet, cable, and phone services
• Advertising purchases made with social media sites and search engines

You earn triple points on the first $150,000 spent in combined purchases in the above categories each account anniversary year (which means Chase isn’t using a January 1 through December 31 calendar, but rather it’s based on your account year).

Based on my valuation of points, that’s like earning a return of ~5.1% on spending in those categories, which is exceptional.

3. Cell phone protection benefit

With how expensive smartphones are nowadays, there’s a lot of value to having a credit card with cell phone protection, and that’s something that the Ink Business Preferred Card offers.

The Ink Preferred offers up to $600 per claim in cell phone protection against covered theft or damage for you and your employees listed on your monthly cell phone bill when you pay it with your Ink Preferred. You can have a maximum of three claims in a 12 month period, and there’s a $100 deductible per claim.

On top of that when you charge your cell phone bill to the Ink Preferred, you’ll be earning triple points on that purchase.

4. Rental car coverage

The Ink Business Preferred Card offers primary collision damage waiver (CDW) coverage for rentals of most types of vehicles in most countries. This is one of the best credit card rental car coverage & insurance policies you’ll find.

There aren’t any countries that are specifically excluded from coverage through Chase cards, but the benefits guide does note that “coverage is not available where it is prohibited by law or by individual merchants, or is in violation of the territory terms of the rental agreement.” You’ll want to decline the rental car company’s collision or loss options.

You can confirm coverage for a particular trip by contacting the benefits team at 877-631-0919. Coverage is primary globally when renting for business purposes, while it’s primary internationally for personal rentals, and secondary in the United States for personal rentals.

When renting a car you’re also potentially earning triple points on your car rental by charging it to the Ink Preferred, since this qualifies as travel.

5. Travel & purchase protection

In addition to the cell phone and car rental coverage, the Ink Preferred offers other purchase and travel benefits, including (but not limited to) the following:

• Trip cancelation and interruption coverage, of up to $5,000 per trip
• Extended warranty protection, for up to a year on eligible purchases

You’ll want to read the cardmember agreement for exact terms, but this has the potential to be extremely valuable for purchases as well.

For example, I really like the trip delay coverage. If your trip is delayed by 12 hours or more, you can get up to $500 reimbursed for hotel accommodation, meals, and transportation. You just need to pay for the travel with your card, or with your Ultimate Rewards points.

6. $95 annual fee

The Ink Business Preferred Card has a reasonable $95 annual fee. That’s especially affordable when you factor in all the perks and bonus categories.

As a point of comparison, I also really like the American Express® Business Gold Card (review), which is the Amex business card with the best bonus categories. However, that card has a $375 annual fee (Rates & Fees), so that’s more than three times as much.

7. Flexible travel rewards

The Ink Business Preferred Card earns Ultimate Rewards points, which are one of the most valuable points currencies out there.

Ultimate Rewards points can be transferred at a 1:1 ratio to over a dozen loyalty programs, including 11 airline programs and three hotel programs:

There’s so much value to be had maximizing those programs. For example, you could transfer 35,00-45,000 points to World of Hyatt for a free night at Ventana Big Sur, which is an Alila property that often costs $2,000+ per night…

Alternatively, you could transfer miles to one of the Ultimate Rewards airline partners so you could redeem for ANA’s incredible first class, when a one-way ticket would often cost $10,000+.

What makes Ultimate Rewards points even better is that you can also redeem them at an efficient rate toward a travel purchase through the Chase Travel Portal. You can redeem Ultimate Rewards points for 1.25 cents each toward the cost of a travel purchase through the Ultimate Rewards website.

If you have the Ink Preferred in conjunction with the Chase Sapphire Reserve, then all your Ultimate Rewards points can be redeemed for 1.5 cents each toward a travel purchase, getting you even more value from your points.

8. Pool points with four no annual fee cards

While the Ink Business Preferred Card, Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card (review), and Chase Sapphire Reserve (review) are valuable alone, they also make other cards more valuable.

Chase has four fantastic no annual fee cards that can help you earn more Ultimate Rewards points. I’m talking about the:

• Chase Freedom Flex^SM Credit Card (review)
• Chase Freedom Unlimited® (review)
• Ink Business Cash® Credit Card (review)
• Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card (review)

By having a card that earns Ultimate Rewards points, like the Ink Preferred, you can convert the points earned on the cards (where one point is ordinarily worth a penny) into Ultimate Rewards points, which I value at ~1.7 cents each. Just having this card makes other cards more valuable as well.

Getting approved for the Ink Preferred

If you want to be approved for a Chase Ink Business Card there are some general restrictions to be aware of:

• The Ink Preferred is subjected to Chase’s “5/24 rule,” meaning you typically won’t be approved for the card if you’ve opened five or more new card accounts in the past 24 months (many business card applications don’t count toward that limit); that being said, there are increasingly data points that this is no longer enforced
• You are eligible for the Ink Preferred if you have the Ink Unlimited and/or Ink Cash, as all three cards are considered separate products (I have all three cards, for example)
• While there’s no hard limit to how many Chase credit cards you can have, there is often a limit to how much total credit Chase will extend you
• Generally, I recommend only applying for one Chase business card every 30 days at most

Bottom line

There are a lot of great business cards out there. However, in terms of well-rounded business cards, it’s tough to beat the Ink Business Preferred Card, between the 100K bonus points, reasonable $95 annual fee, 3x bonus points in select categories, and great coverage, including on travel, car rentals, and cell phones.

Arguably the Ink Business Preferred is also the ideal card to use as a “hub” for your Ultimate Rewards points, in particular to maximize the value of other no annual fee cards. Assuming you can complete the minimum spending, I’d highly recommend applying for the Ink Business Preferred.

If you have the Ink Business Preferred, what has your experience been with the card?

The following links will direct you to the rates and fees for mentioned American Express Cards. These include: American Express® Business Gold Card (Rates & Fees).