One of the things I hate most about the new couponified Chase Sapphire Reserve card is that it no longer offers 3X rewards for all travel. Combined with its best-in-class travel protections, the old Sapphire Reserve card was an easy and obvious choice when paying for any type of travel. The new Sapphire Reserve card makes things more complicated. It still offers best-in-class travel protections and even better rewards for certain types of travel, but 3X on all travel is a thing of the past. Instead, it offers 4X points on flights and hotels purchased directly and 8X on travel booked through Chase Travel. The new card is extremely rewarding for those categories, but when paying for travel directly, other than for flights or hotels, the card offers only 1 point per dollar. What’s the best alternative when paying directly for rental cars, trains, cruises, etc.? If you’re happy with the Chase Ultimate Rewards ecosystem, then the Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card is worth a look.
Card overview
The Ink Business Preferred card has a $95 annual fee, offers 3X Chase Ultimate Rewards points on travel and more (on the first $150,000 spent in combined 3X purchases each account anniversary year), and unlocks the ability to transfer points to Chase’s airline and hotel partners. If you have a card with no annual fee that earns Chase Ultimate Rewards points (Freedom Unlimited, Freedom Flex, Ink Business Cash, Ink Business Unlimited, etc.), you can move points from that card to the Ink Business Preferred in order to make those transfers.
More details about this card can be found here:
| Card Offer and Details |
|---|
 ⓘ $1277 1st Yr Value EstimateClick to learn about first year value estimates 100K points ⓘAffiliateThis is an affiliate offer. Frequent Miler may earn a commission if you are approved for this offer 100K after $8K spend in the first 3 months$95 Annual Fee Recent better offer: 120K after $8K spend (expired 9/4/24) FM Mini Review: Great card for welcome offer and 3X categories. Also consider the Ink Business Cash for its 5X categories, and the Ink Business Unlimited to earn 1.5X everywhere. Earning rate: 3X travel, shipping, internet, cable, phone, and advertising with social media sites (up to $150K spend per year) ✦ 5X Lyft through September 2027 Card Info: Visa Signature Business issued by Chase. This card has no foreign currency conversion fees. Noteworthy perks: Points worth up to 75% more when redeemed for travel with Points Boosts ✦ Transfer points to airline & hotel partners ✦ Cell phone protection against theft or damage See also: Chase Ultimate Rewards Complete Guide |
But it’s a business card
Can you qualify?
To apply for the Ink Business Preferred card, you must have a business. That said, it’s common for people to have businesses without realizing it. If you sell items at a yard sale or on eBay, for example, then you have a business. Similar examples include: consulting, blog authorship, planning your first novel, handyman services, owning rental property, renting on Airbnb, and driving for Uber or Lyft. In any of these cases, your business is considered a Sole Proprietorship unless you form a corporation of some sort.
How to apply
If you’re new to applying for business cards, check out these resources:
Can you use the card for personal expenses?
Anecdotally, almost everyone I know uses business cards for personal expenses. I don’t believe that there are any laws against doing so. That said, the terms in most business card applications state that you should use the card only for business use. When applying for the Ink Business Preferred card, for example, you must check a box to certify the following statement: “1) This is a business account which shall be used only for business purposes and not personal, family or household purposes.”
My advice: don’t use the card for personal expenses if you’re not comfortable doing so.
Weaker travel protections
The Ink Business Preferred card offers decent travel protections, but they’re not nearly as good as those on the Sapphire Reserve:
- No Emergency Evacuation coverage (Sapphire Reserve offers $100K)
- No Emergency Medical/Dental coverage (Sapphire Reserve offers $2,500 coverage)
- No complimentary roadside assistance (Sapphire Reserve offers $50 toward service costs for up to four events per year)
- 12-hour Trip Delay Reimbursement: The Sapphire Reserve Trip Delay reimbursement triggers after a 6-hour delay. The Ink Business Preferred requires a 12-hour delay or an overnight stay.
- Lower Trip Cancellation/Interruption coverage: The Sapphire Reserve offers up to $10,000 per person and $20,000 per trip. The Ink Business Preferred limits coverage to $5,000 per person and $10,000 per trip. Note: While the Sapphire Preferred® card’s coverage usually matches that of the Ink Business Preferred, in this case, it matches the Sapphire Reserve.
- Lower Travel Accident Insurance coverage: The Sapphire Reserve provides a maximum benefit of $1,000,000 for Common Carrier accidents. The Ink Business Preferred maximum is $500,000.
- Auto Rental Coverage
- Lower Coverage Limits: Sapphire Reserve covers damages up to $75,000. Ink Business Preferred covers up to $60,000.
- Primary vs. Secondary: The Sapphire Reserve is primary worldwide. The Ink Business Preferred is primary specifically for business/commercial purposes within the United States. For personal rentals in the U.S., it is secondary unless the cardholder has no personal insurance.
- Vehicle Restrictions: The Ink Business Preferred explicitly excludes “exotic” brands (e.g., Ferrari, Aston Martin) or any vehicle with an MSRP over $125,000. The Sapphire Reserve guide does not list these specific MSRP or brand exclusions
My take
If you’re comfortable using a business card for personal expenses, the Ink Business Preferred card could be a good “3X travel” card for you. It’s interesting that the benefit guide acknowledges that the card might be used for personal travel since it specifically calls this out with regard to Auto Rental Coverage:
If the Rental Vehicle is not rented for commercial and/or business purposes and is instead rented for personal reasons, this benefit provides secondary coverage and would be excess and supplemental to any other insurance available. If You do not have personal automobile insurance or any other insurance, this coverage
acts as primary.
A bigger dilemma for me is with travel protections. I have both the Sapphire Reserve card and the Ink Business Preferred. When it comes to airfare and hotels, it’s clear that the Sapphire Reserve card is the better choice, as it offers 4X rewards and stronger travel protections. For miscellaneous other travel expenses, though, it’s not as clear. It really depends on whether the Sapphire Reserve card’s better travel protections matter to me.
In many cases, I believe I can get the best of both worlds. Consider an international trip where I pay for flights and hotels with my Sapphire Reserve card, and I pay for a rental car, train, and other travel expenses with my Ink Business Preferred card. As long as I pay for the flights, in whole or in part, with my Sapphire Reserve card, the entire trip should be covered for Emergency Evacuation, Emergency Medical/Dental, 6 Hour Trip Delay, and $1 Million Travel Accident Insurance. The Ink card should give me primary coverage for the rental car (since it will be outside the U.S.). The Ink card would also cover Trip Cancellation and Interruption. This is the one place where this plan could be a problem. The Ink card’s coverage limits are half that of the Sapphire Reserve card. The Ink card’s $5K per person and $10K per trip limits would be fine for most of my trips, but could be a problem if I were to book a luxury train or cruise.
Bottom line
If you’re looking for a general-purpose 3X travel card, the Ink Business Preferred card is worth considering, but it’s far from a slam dunk. First, you would need to be comfortable using a business card for personal travel. Second, when traveling for personal purposes, it offers only secondary car rental coverage in the U.S. Third, while the Ink Business Preferred card’s travel protections stack up well against most other cards, it falls far short of the coverage provided by the Sapphire Reserve Card (or The Ritz-Carlton™ Credit Card, which has the same travel protections as the Sapphire Reserve card).
If you’re looking for a good personal card to use for travel purchases, check out these posts:
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Surprised they did that change considering the sapphire preferred is 2X. So I just use that now.
This is what I did. I have a FU and CSP and added the Ink BP. Works well for me and much cheaper total AF. The CSR refresh was not in the right direction for me, and I really wanted a general bonus multiplier for a broad travel category. I haven’t looked back.
If I’m using the Bilt Palladium card and using Bilt cash for mortgages, then I’m essentially earning 3.33x back on all purchases. Is there any benefit in using the Ink Preferred over this for travel purchases? Apart from staying within the Chase ecosystem
One of the issues I have with Ink preferred is to use the card for the primary rental car insurance. Says it is only covered for business car rentals, and all of my rentals are personal. Does anyone know how strict it is if something goes wrong?
It could be a BIG problem if you had a big claim and they audited it. I wouldn’t take the chance and this posting kind of makes light of it