When Chase first debuted a new Ink Business card, we were excited… until we learned about strict rewards limitations that aren’t an issue with other Ink Business cards. With this one, you can’t move rewards to another card or to any travel partner program. Boo! However, it is an excellent choice for a cash back card for some. Here is my review of the Chase Ink Business Premier Charge Card…
| Card Offer and Details |
|---|
$1,000 Cash Back ⓘ Affiliate $1K after $10K Spend in 3 Months$195 Annual Fee Alternate Offer: Some have been targeted for 150K after $10K spend via mailer or in the "Just for You" section of their online account. FM Mini Review: This is an almost 1 to 1 copy of Capital One's Spark Cash Plus card, but the Chase card throws in 2.5% earnings on very large purchases. Unfortunately, the Chase card also has a slightly higher annual fee. The biggest disappointment about this card is that, unlike other Chase Ink cards, the rewards cannot be moved to other Chase cards to improve their value. Even though this card technically earns Ultimate Rewards points, it's best to think of it as a straight up cash back card. Click here for our complete card review Earning rate: 2.5% cash back on purchases of $5,000 or more ✦ 5% back on travel purchased through Chase Travel(SM) ✦ 2% cash back on all other spend Base: 2% Other: 5% Card Info: Visa Signature Business Charge Card issued by Chase. This card has no foreign currency conversion fees. Noteworthy perks: Purchase protections ✦ Cell phone protection (up to $1K per claim) ✦ Travel protections |
Ink Business Premier Review
The Ink Business Premier is a charge card, not a credit card. That means that there’s no explicit credit limit and that you must pay the bill in full each month. This card is a reasonable choice for those with large business spend who are looking for a single business card with decent cash back rewards for all spend. The card earns 2.5% cash back for purchases of $5K or more, and 2% back everywhere else. Unfortunately, unlike other Chase Ink cards, you can’t move rewards to other cards in order to make them more valuable, nor can you product change it to an Ink credit card (since this is a charge card). Think of this card as being exclusively good for cash back. Whether the card is worth its $195 annual fee depends upon what alternatives you have…
While there are plenty of fee-free 2% cash back consumer cards with no annual fee, the only fee-free 2% cash back business card I can think of is the Evergreen by FNBO Business Edition® Credit Card. Unlike the Chase Ink Business Premier card, the Evergreen card does charge foreign transaction fees (3%), but if most of your spend is within the U.S., the Evergreen card is probably a better bet. If you spend $40K or more on large spend ($5K or more) each year, though, you would do better with the Chase card since the 0.5% cash back earned on those large purchases would more than pay back the card’s annual fee.
Another comparison worth considering is to the $150 per year Capital One Spark Cash Plus card. Both the Chase and Capital One cards are business charge cards that earn 2% cash back for most spend. With the Chase card, for only $45 more per year, you gain the ability to earn 2.5% cash back on purchases of $5K or more. It would only take two $5K purchases (or one $10K purchase) to come out ahead with the Chase card. On the other hand, with the Capital One card, it’s possible to move your cash back to a card that offers transferable “Miles,” like the Venture X, in order to turn the cash back into points transferrable to airline and hotel partners for potentially much better value. Unlike with other Ink cards, Chase has unfortunately made it impossible to do the same with the Ink Business Premier card. There is no way to move the Chase points to other cards and so it’s best to think of this card as a straight up cash back card.
The Bank of America alternative… If you have $100,000 or more in business accounts with Bank of America or Merrill Edge, you can qualify for Platinum Honors status with Bank of America’s Preferred Rewards for Business. Among other perks, you’ll get 75% more rewards from select Bank of America business credit cards. The fee-free Business Advantage Unlimited Cash Rewards credit card, for example, usually earns 1.5% cash back, but with Platinum Honors, you’ll earn 2.62% cash back on all spend! That’s a much better option than the Chase Ink card if you can swing the $100K in business funds requirement. See this post for full details: Bank of America cards — awesome with Platinum Honors Status.
Amex alternatives… Amex offers two fee-free business cards that offer 2x for all spend on up to $50K spend per calendar year (then 1x). The American Express Blue Business Cash™ Card offers cash back rewards whereas the Blue Business Plus offers Membership Rewards points. The first is best for those who prefer cash back whereas the latter is best for those who value the ability to transfer points to airline and hotel partners.
Ink Business Premier Application Tips
Should you apply?
If cash back is your thing and you have lots of big $5K+ purchases (but you don’t qualify for Bank of America Platinum Honors for Business), then this is a good choice..
Are you eligible?
To get this card you must have a business, and you must be under 5/24 (more on 5/24 below).
| Applying for Business Credit Cards Yes, you have a business: In order to sign up for a business credit 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, writing (e.g. blog authorship, planning your first novel, etc.), handyman services, owning rental property, renting on airbnb, driving for Uber or Lyft, etc. In any of these cases, your business is considered a Sole Proprietorship unless you form a corporation of some sort. When you apply for a business credit card as a sole proprietor, you can use your own name as your business name, use your own address and phone as the business' address and phone, and your social security number as the business' Tax ID / EIN. Alternatively, you can get a proper Tax ID / EIN from the IRS for free, in about a minute, through this website. Is it OK to use business cards for personal expenses? Anecdotally, almost everyone I know uses business cards for personal expenses. That said, the terms in most business card applications state that you should use the card only for business use. Also, some consumer credit card protections do not apply to business cards. My advice: don't use the card for personal expenses if you're not comfortable doing so. |
| 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. To determine your 5/24 status, see: 3 Easy Ways to Count Your 5/24 Status. The easiest option is to track all of your cards for free with Travel Freely. |
How to apply
You can find the current best signup offer and application link here: Chase Ink Business Premier.
Here are example answers for the business part of the application:
- Legal business structure: Sole Proprietor
- Business legal name: If you don’t already have a business name, I recommend using your own name as the business name.
- Desired business name on card: Again, this can be your own name if you don’t have a business name to use.
- Does your business use another name? No
- Tax ID type: EIN (you can get an EIN quickly and for free from the IRS here) If you'd prefer to use your social security number as your tax ID, select SSN rather than EIN.
- Is your business's physical address the same as your personal address? Yes
- Number of employees: 0 (the instructions say to enter the number of employees you have, not including yourself)
- Business phone number: Your phone number
- Business established date: When did your business start? If you've been doing your business for years (selling stuff at yard sales, for example), it's fine to estimate the starting date.
- Annual business revenue: $0 (or project an amount based on expected revenue)
- Business category, Business type, Business sub-type: Pick whichever categories are closest to your business. For example, an aspiring author, artist, or musician might choose: "Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation" and "Independent Artists, Writers, Performers."
- Estimated monthly spend: $3,000 (Use your judgement here. A higher number might lead to a larger credit line, but if it's too high it might negatively affect approval).
Check Application Status
After submitting your application, you can check status by calling the automated status line: (888) 338-2586Reconsideration
If your application is denied, I recommend calling for reconsideration (1-888-270-2127). It’s surprising how often denials can be changed to approvals just by asking.
Chase Ink Business Premier Perks
Travel Protection
- Trip Cancellation/Interruption Insurance
- Trip Delay Reimbursement
- Baggage Delay Insurance
- Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver
Purchase Protection
- Cell Phone Protection: Up to $1K per claim
- Fraud Protection
- Zero Liability Protection
- Purchase Protection
- Extended Warranty Protection
Chase Ink Business Premier Earn Cash Back
Welcome Bonus
Here’s the current welcome bonus offer:
| Card Offer |
|---|
$1,000 Cash Back ⓘ Affiliate $1K after $10K Spend in 3 Months$195 Annual Fee Alternate Offer: Some have been targeted for 150K after $10K spend via mailer or in the "Just for You" section of their online account. |
Bonus Spend
| Card Info Name and Earning Rate (no offer) |
|---|
Earning rate: 2.5% cash back on purchases of $5,000 or more ✦ 5% back on travel purchased through Chase Travel(SM) ✦ 2% cash back on all other spend Base: 2% Other: 5% |
This is where the Ink Business Premier card shines. Purchases of $5K or more earn 2.5% cash back. When comparing to a 2% cash back card, this means that you can earn enough extra to cover the card’s annual fee with $40,000 of large purchases each year.
Chase Ink Business Premier Redeem Points
Cardholders can redeem points for 1 cent each either as statement credits or as cash back. Points can also be used to pay for travel or gift cards, but it doesn’t make sense to use your points in that way since you won’t earn rewards on those purchases. It’s better to redeem for cash back and pay with your credit card for these things.
Chase Ink Business Premier Manage Points
Combine Points or Share Points? Nope
Unlike all other cards that earn Ultimate Rewards points, with this one you cannot move points to another card or to another cardholder in the same household or with the same business.
How to Keep Points Alive
As long as your card account is open, your rewards will be preserved. If you want to cancel this card, simply make sure to cash out all of your earned points first.
My Thoughts
This would have been an exciting product if points could be moved to other cards that earn Ultimate Rewards. Without that ability, it’s impossible to get better than 1 cent per point value from your rewards.
So, then, the question is whether this card is worth its annual fee for those who are happy with cash back. The answer is… maybe. If you spend $40K or more per year on purchases of $5K or greater, then this card has an edge over a fee-free 2% cash back card. On the other hand, with Bank of America, it’s possible to get 2.62% back on all purchases with a fee-free card. If you can qualify then that’s obviously a much better option than paying $195 for this Chase card that earns 2.5% back at most.
Personally, I do qualify for 2.62% back everywhere with Bank of America and so this Chase card is completely uninteresting to me beyond its welcome bonus.
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The SUB is $1,000 minus $195 AF, which is $805. But, the 1st year value is only $705; that seems odd. Not to mention the additional 2% return from meeting the $10k minimum spend.
Great question. The way we calculate first year value is by taking the estimated value of the signup bonus ($1,000 in this case) minus the first year annual fee ($195) minus the “cost of meeting minimum spend.” This last part is the confusing part. We needed to bake into the formula a way to make it clear that a signup bonus that requires very large spend is not as good as one that requires a small amount of spend. Originally we assigned 2% as the cost of spend for this purpose, but we also add back in the value of the rewards earned on that spend and so when a card earns more than 2% back in rewards, the old formula made it look like bigger minimum spend requirements were better. So, we changed the cost of spend to 3% – rewards earned. This bonus requires $10K spend. 3% = $300 minus $200 earned from that spend = $100 “cost of spend”.
Thanks. That is interesting. I understand the math now, but I think this formula works fine for rewards whose RRV can exceed $0.01, not necessarily for straight cash back.
Additionally, I don’t know of many cards that reward 3% cash back on all spend.
Greg, great article! Since you did go into depth on business cc, I have a question: P2 and I have two separate corporations. We each just got the IHG business cc for his and her businesses. Do I have to wait 24 months to apply for another IHG business cc for each other businesses or does IHG view the corporations as the individual entity (not the individual person). The plan is to have two great weekend trips a year…
Great question. I know with Chase Ink cards you don’t have to wait, but I’m not sure whether the same rule applies with co-brands like the IHG card. There’s not much downside to testing it: yes they’ll do a hard pull but that would be the only downside if denied.