Frequent Miler's latest team challenge, Million Mile Madness, is almost done! The last two weeks Greg, Nick, and Stephen competed to earn 1 Million SAS miles by flying 15 airlines. But who completed the challenge with the most Speed, Affordability, and Style?
Update from Greg: There has been a lot of confusion over whether the rewards earned with the Ink Business Premier card can be transferred to other Chase cards and/or to airline and hotel programs. Unfortunately, the official answer from Chase is that points cannot be combined or transferred. Here’s a bit more detail:
- Ultimate Rewards? Yes. Rewards earned with the Ink Business Premier card are in the form of Ultimate Rewards points even though Chase advertises this as a cash back card. This is also true with the Freedom cards, Ink Business Unlimited, and Ink Business Cash cards.
- Transfer to Airlines/Hotels? No. The Ink Business Premier does not allow transferring points to hotel or airline partners. This is also true with the Freedom cards, Ink Business Unlimited, and Ink Business Cash cards.
- Move Points to Card with Transfer Power? No. The Ink Business Premier does not allow moving points to another card that earns Ultimate Rewards (Chase calls this “combining points”). This is where the new card diverges from the Freedom cards, Ink Business Unlimited, and Ink Business Cash cards. Points earned on Freedom and older Ink cards can be moved to other card accounts in order to make the points more valuable. For example, you can move points earned on an Ink Business Cash card to your Sapphire Preferred account and then transfer those points to a hotel or airline partner. You cannot do the same with points earned with the Ink Business Premier.
As a result of the Ink Business Premier card’s limitations, it really should be thought of as just a cash back card. If you have a lot of business spend, especially with many transactions of $5,000 or more (so that you can earn 2.5% back), it can be worth the annual fee. For most of us, though, there are better alternatives.
The original post follows…
Doctor of Credit broke the news yesterday that Chase has launched the Ink Business Premier card for in-branch applications. This card had previously been rumored to be coming and it looks like for now the card is only available via a Business Relationship manager, but Chase has published an official press release, so we now know a lot about the card.
As expected, the new Ink card is what Chase is calling a “Pay-in-full” card reminiscent of the “charge card” concept where cardholders must pay the balance in full each month, though Chase will also offer something they call “Flex for Business”, which appears to be their version of what Amex calls “pay over time” — business owners will have the ability to pay for some purchases over time with interest.
In terms of bonus and earning structure, the card could be interesting, though I’m not yet sold.
Chase’s press release notes a welcome bonus of $1,000 after $10,000 in purchases in the first 3 months. That puts it (maybe sort of) in line with the 100,000 Ultimate Rewards points bonus on the Ink Business Preferred (after $15K in purchaes) and above the 75,000 point bonuses after $7500 in purchases on the Ink Business Cash and Ink Business Unlimited (neither of which have an annual fee).
The earning structure will raise an eyebrow one way or another:
- 2% cash back on everyday spend
- 2.5% cash back on purchases of $5K or more
- 5% cash back on travel booked through Chase Ultimate Rewards
On the one hand, the earning structure looks like weak sauce for a card with a $195 annual fee. You can get unlimited 2% cash back with many cards on the market with no annual fee, albeit mostly personal cards and perhaps not with as high of a spending cap. That last piece may be the selling point: if this is treated more like a traditional charge card where the balance must be paid in full each month, I imagine that business owners will be able to charge much more than a traditional credit limit would allow. That may be the advantage for very big spenders.
The extra half a percent on large purchases is also potentially nice. In either case, most readers will wonder whether this “cash back” will really be awarded in the form of Ultimate Rewards points as it is on other Chase cash back cards and — more importantly — whether those Ultimate Rewards points will be transferable to airline and hotel partners.
If the card earns 2x transferable points on all purchases, that will put it in line with…..the Capital One Spark Miles for Business card that has half the annual fee and the Blue Business Plus card that has no annual fee. That doesn’t scream premium business product to me.
On the other hand. 2.5x transferable points on large purchases could be more interesting, particularly to those who value Chase-exclusive partners like United, Southwest, and Hyatt* (asterisk here since Bilt also has transfers to Hyatt). Is it worth enough to justify the $195 annual fee? I haven’t done much analysis, but at first glance it feels questionable. Chase has not said whether cardholders will be able to transfer rewards from this card to other Chase cards or to partners (or whether a prerequisite for transferring to partners will be having another card).
At the moment, the card is only available in-branch via a Business Relationship Manager. It is expected that the card will launch for online applications in “early 2022”, which Doctor of Credit reports to be January.
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@Nick Reyes I assume yall are going to talk about this on the podcast. What are your thoughts on two straight duds in a row from the Chase business card team? This and the hyatt biz.
I wonder what the shenanigan will be to make these transferrable? If Chase allows product changes from charge cards to credit, maybe building up a big balance then product changing to Ink Preferred? I could see someone holding each (1 Preferred and 1 Premier) and product changing / flip-flopping them every year. (Also, they ruined the acronym CIP as that’s now ambiguous to both!)
My guess is Chase will not allow product changes between credit cards and charge cards, just as Amex does not.
Yuck. Since these can’t be transferred then BBP and Spark Miles blow this out of the water…ouch.
After you spoiled all cards for me by talking about moving an IRA and going to BofA and getting 2.625% cash back, that is my standard. No card comes close unless in bonus categories.
This is a failed attempt by Chase. They would have been better to have a 500-1k annual fee charge card with Reserve features and 2 x transferable UR or have bonus business categories. This is an attempt to position against the Business Platinum as a cheaper choice.
The arrival of Venture X has really spoiled it for Chase and most card issuers in comparison.
I suspect over the long term, Chase will delink the Cash and Freedom cards from the transferable UR points pool.
Removing the ability to combine points from all personal cards would make Chase DoA in comparison to Amex, Cap 1, and even Citi, so I don’t see it happening.
Furthermore, the CFF is capped and the CFU only gets you an extra 0.4UR non bonus compared to the CSP when you factor the anniversary bonus. I don’t think the incentive to cut those links exists.
So what can the UR be used for if not transferable? Straight up travel purchases at 1x? Because that extra 0.5% over the BBP would still be profitable for my business’ large tax bill even with the AF and considering the SUB but not if I’m not able to redeem them.
Best use is to simply cash it out at a penny each. Yes, you can book travel or buy merchandise or whatever at 1 cent per point, but there’s no reason to do that vs cashing out and using your credit card for such things.
As a tiny benefit, my guess is this will work if you are targeted for one of the frequent Amazon bonuses to “use at least one UR to save xx”. So if you had this but no other UR card it could have a little benefit. I have done the same with my Citi Double Cash, converting just $1 to 100 TYP and saved some cash at Amazon (and I have no other TYP cards).
IF these can become UR, then with CSR this could be like 3.25% back in purchases over $5k. (Using chase travel portal for example!). That would be amazing. If….if…..ifffffffff
Any word on 5/24 rule if I open up this with a Business banker? I have my s-corp business banking with Chase for about 16 years so it’s legitimate. Just curious! Thanks!
So does it earn UR or not? Can they be converted to UR? Why can’t Chase give us clarification on this?
We don’t know yet. I think it probably does earn UR points that can be converted. They aren’t even launching it online for at least a few weeks. I’m sure by then some people will have it and we’ll know more.
TPG is reporting it does not earn pts you can transfer to another card like a CSR but rather you can redeem for 1 cent each within Chase portal
You’re right. TPG claims “Unlike some other Chase cards that earn cash-back in the form of Ultimate Rewards points, you won’t be able to transfer the points you earn with the Ink Business Premier into your other Chase accounts, and thus these will never be convertible into fully transferable Ultimate Rewards points.”
We’ll see. I’m skeptical about that, but if it’s true then this card becomes really uninteresting to me.
Card’s a definite no for me without the ability to combine/transfer points.
Let me add that the card definitely earns Ultimate Rewards points. That’s not in doubt (see “Card Details”, here: https://ink.mychasecreditcards.com/inkpremier?CELL=67DX). Also, it seems clear from the same source that you can’t directly transfer points to loyalty partners. The only thing still in question is whether you can move points to your Ink Preferred, Sapphire Preferred, or Sapphire Reserve card in order to then transfer to loyalty partners (or to get better than 1 cent per point when booking travel or Pay Yourself Back). I would be shocked if that wasn’t possible.
Hi Greg,
Hope you’re well! I saw the update that this new Ink Premier cannot combine UR with CSR, CSP, etc. But is there any rumor or indication this might spread to the Ink Unlimited or Ink Cash which do? After a long hiatus, looking to start reapplying for cc’s, maybe the Ink Cash but wouldn’t do it if it turns out points are not combinable.
Thanks!
They already got you with their confusing usage of words starting with the letter P!
“That puts it (maybe sort of) in line with the 100,000 Ultimate Rewards points bonus on the Ink Business Premier (after $15K in purchaes) and above the 75,000 point”
GAH! This naming convention is going to be the bane of my existence. Why, Chase…why?? Thanks, fixed.
Many branches near me closed last March and still not open and NO drive thru’s in the area so u wait in a long line