3 Inks approved again. 420K points “in the bag”.

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Last week, my wife, son, and I each applied for the Ink Business Preferred card.  The card’s current welcome bonus is for 100,000 points after $8K spend.  Even better, it’s possible to refer friends to this card from other Ink Business cards.  The person doing the referring can earn 40,000 points and the person who accepts the referral can earn the full 100K welcome bonus.  We did a mini conga-line: I referred my son; he referred my wife; and she referred me.  All three applications were approved.  After meeting minimum spend requirements, we should each earn 100,000 super valuable Chase Ultimate Rewards points from the welcome bonus plus 40,000 points from the refer-a-friend bonus.  Once all is said and done, that means adding 420,000 points to our household (before even counting points earned from spend).

a phone and laptops with text on them

Easier Approvals

Anecdotally, it seems like Chase is much quicker to approve applications for cards that they are most heavily promoting.  For example, in March while Chase was offering an all-time best 90K offer for the fee-free Ink cards, I wrote about how all three of us in my family were instantly approved for the Chase Ink Business Cash card despite us each already having the same card and despite my being over 5/24.  And now the the Ink Business Preferred card is up to an all time best offer of 100K after only $8K spend, we’re seeing the same pattern.  People are reporting success getting approved even when they are above 5/24!

Chase's 5/24 Rule: With most Chase credit cards, Chase will not approve your application if you have opened 5 or more cards with any bank in the past 24 months.  This is true for Chase business cards too: you won't be approved if you are over 5/24. That said, if you are under 5/24 and get approved for a Chase business card, that card won't add to your 5/24 count.
To determine your 5/24 status, see: Easy Ways to Count Your 5/24 Status. The easiest option is to track all of your cards for free with Travel Freely.

In my case, no one in the family was at or over 5/24 when we applied, but it was still awesome to get all three automatically approved.  Please note: Even though approvals seem to be easier than usual, that does NOT mean that your application will be approved.  To increase your chances of success, please see this post (especially the section about what to do if your application is denied).

Interestingly, the way in which family’s applications were approved was slightly different in each case:

  • Son: Website said “Your application is under review.  We’ll let you know our decision in writing as soon as we can, and if you’re approved, you’ll receive your card in 7 to 10 business days.”  Despite this, he received an email moments later saying that his application was approved.
  • Wife: Website showed that her application was instantly approved.
  • Me: Website said “Your application is under review.  We’ll let you know our decision in writing as soon as we can. Our email or letter will include instructions on how to provide additional information or documentation if needed.”  I received an email about an hour later saying that my application was approved.

Multi Referrals

a black background with white text

You don’t need a Chase Ink Business Preferred card to refer a friend to one, but you do need a Chase Ink card of some type.  As long as you have any Chase Ink card, you can refer people to any of the others (they choose which they want when they click your refer-a-friend link).  If you don’t already have any Ink cards in your family, you could apply directly for one now (see this post for links and instructions) and then refer family members later.

You can find your own Chase Ink refer-a-friend (really “refer a business”) links here: www.chase.com/referabusiness/inkfamily

Keep in mind that while welcome bonus points aren’t taxed, points earned from refer-a-friend offers are taxed.  When you earn 40,000 points, that will be treated like $400 of taxable earnings.  So, for example, if your effective tax rate is 20%, you’ll pay $80 in taxes.  That’s not a reason to avoid this, though!  At worst case, if you cash out points for only a penny each, you could cash out 8,000 of your 40,000 points to pay your taxes and you’ll still be 32,000 points ahead (I don’t usually recommend this since Chase points are super valuable for transferring to loyalty programs like Hyatt).

How to apply

Even if you don’t think you have a business, you probably do something that makes you qualified and you can apply as a sole proprietor.  Rather than rehash the details here, I recommend you read our dedicated post to this topic:

How I plan to meet the spend requirements

Tim recently published an awesome post: Using Buying Groups to Increase Credit Card Spend.  This is my inspiration for how to meet the $8K spend requirements on each of the three new cards.

To-date, I’ve barely dipped my toes into buying groups.  I think it’s time for that to change.  My idea here is to sign up for three different buying groups and try to meet the minimum spend on each of the 3 Ink cards with a different buying group.  That way, I can see for myself the pros and cons of each one and I can share my successes and failures with our readers.

Based on the descriptions of buying groups in Tim’s post, here are the buying groups I’m thinking of including in this experiment:

  • BuyForMeRetail (BFMR)
  • MaxOut Deals
  • Pointsmaker

If you have experience with these and want to argue for a different list, please comment below with your recommendations (and please include the reason why).

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Frahan

Applied for it today morning (sole prop) as my first business card application and it went to review, have not heard anything back since.
Any recommendation on what to do if I don’t hear back by tomorrow?

Frahan

UPDATE: Got denial letter today morning stating too many accounts recently. Called recon and the rep explicitly stated that I’m at 5/24 and that was the main reason this application cannot be reconsidered. So as FM team has stated, this is really YMMV.

james

I applied and got this message
We’ll let you know our decision in
writing as soon as we can, and if
you’re approved, you’ll receive your
card in 7 to 10 business days.

But no credit pull nor email confirmation saying I applied. I called they couldn’t find application .Should I wait a few more days or reapply? Just thought it was weird there was no immediate credit pull

Juun

Not sure why everyone isn’t just posting MaxoutDeals they are the highest payers and allow the most product.

[…] It appears Chase again is very liberal in approving apps, even if you are over the 5/24 restriction (five credit cards approved in the past 24 months). 3 Inks approved again. 420K points “in the bag”. […]

Ted

Tied my luck with the “easing” 5/24 restrictions…..denied. I’m 5/24, soon to be 3/24 in September, and was denied. Called recon twice and still no luck. This was for the new 100k offer. Ahh well, still got the AMEX bus Plat and Bus Hilton card.

cavedweller

Good Post !! I’m an INKer for life $$$ !!

Mike

Is there an end date/expiration date (or an educated guess about one) for the 100k Ink Biz Preferred offer?

Thanks!

[…] Chase INK Preferred 100,000 bonus, despite being over the typical 5/24 approval limit. There are some other reports, data points, and discussions about this as well in the […]

Marc

I already have 5 Chase business cards: Bonvoy, SW, Ink Cash, Ink Preferred, and Ink Unlimited. Do I risk alienating Chase by going for another one with this offer?

Chris Payne

Boo, got denied due to insufficient business banking relationships with Chase, business structure, and too many cards opened recently. First time I’ve been denied for a business card, chase or otherwise.

Al X

Does anyone know —- If I only get one single 40,000 point referral for this calendar year, that is only $400 worth, which usually would not be taxed via 1099 correct ? Don’t most places nowadays send a 1099 only if it exceeds $600.?

FL Mom

$600 or more and they have to send you a 1099

Wes

Hi, a quick question. I have my Ink Business Preferred for over 4-5 years. Can I still apply the new card and get the bonus?

Thanks

Last edited 1 year ago by Wes
John

Hmmmm, this year have gotten the Saffire Preferred, Ink Bus. Cash, Ink Unlimited, lastly that Venture from the Vegas logo link. Today, the Ink Premier went pending. Travel Freely shows me at 4/24. Thinking it might have been too close to earning the Venture card. I may call in a few days and see what is up.

John

Been about 3 days so I call in and they just say it is still under review. I asked if there was anything I could do and they said just to wait.

mojo

I hold an old-school Ink+ card (have had it since 2015-ish). Assuming I’m under 5/24, would I still be eligible for the Ink Preferred and it’s associated sign-up bonus (currently 100k UR’s for $8k spend in 3 months)? The Ink+ is technically a different product than the Ink Preferred, yes?

Tyler

Hi Greg, can you please expand on how it doesn’t matter? I assume the one bonus per 24 months is still in effect?

For example I received a chase ink unlimited bonus in may 2023. I accidently submitted another chase ink unlimited app today (approved). I meant to apply for the Ink cash for the new bonus. Am I out of luck due to this mistake?

DMoney

Greg, I observed an interesting thing when looking at Ink cards. On the Ink business preferred’s application page, chase has a link that shows 1:1 transfer partners. That list for IBP does not show Air Canada Aeroplan as one of the partners. However, the list on Sapphire preferred or Reserve’s application page shows Aeroplan as one of the transfer partners.

Does this mean that UR points earned with IBP don’t transfer to Aeroplan but those earned with personal sapphire cards do? I found this very strange

Last edited 1 year ago by DMoney
DMoney

That was my guess too, since it sounds too complicated to leave out one partner from one type of currency that has same name and similar utility.