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Chase launched a new personal United credit card this week and increased the welcome offer on the business card. While the business card appears to be the best of the two options on the surface, the personal card could be a better choice in some circumstances despite having what seems to be a much lower welcome bonus but isn’t necessarily the case.
The Basics
| Card Offer and Details |
|---|
75K Miles ⓘ Affiliate 75K miles after $5K spend in first 3 months.$0 introductory annual fee for the first year, then $99 After clicking through, be sure to click the link at the top that says, "Are you a small business owner?" to see the business card offers that include this card. You are not eligible for the bonus if you have received the bonus on this card within the past 24 months. Please note that the United EXPLORER Business card (no longer available) is a different product and does not affect your ability to get the bonus on this card. FM Mini Review: Decent perks such as enhanced access to United saver level economy awards makes this a keeper for some. Earning rate: 2X at restaurants including eligible delivery services , gas stations, and office supply stores ✦ 2X United ✦ 2X on local transit and commuting, including taxicabs, mass transit, tolls, and ride share services Card Info: Visa Signature issued by Chase. This card has no foreign currency conversion fees. Big spend bonus: $100 annual United travel credit after 7 United flight purchases greater than $100 ✦ Earn up to 1,000 PQPs per year: 25 PQPs per $500 spend Noteworthy perks: ✦ Improved economy saver award availability ✦ Unlocks complimentary elite upgrades on award tickets ✦ Free first checked bag ✦ Priority boarding ✦ No foreign exchange fees ✦ 2 United Club passes per year at anniversary ✦ Free DashPass for one year (must activate by 12/31/27) ✦ Primary auto rental collision damage waiver ✦ 5,000 bonus miles at anniversary when you have this card and also a personal Chase United credit card. ✦ 25% back as a statement credit on United in-flight and Club Premium drink purchases |
| Card Offer and Details |
|---|
Limited Time Offer: 30K Miles ⓘ Affiliate 30K miles after $1K spend in first 3 months (Offer Expires 1/29/2025)No Annual Fee This card is subject to Chase's 5/24 rule (click here for details). Recent better offer: Expired 8/11/22: 30K after $1K spend Earning rate: 2X United ✦ 2X gas stations ✦ 2X local transit and commuting Card Info: Visa Signature issued by Chase. This card has no foreign currency conversion fees. Noteworthy perks: Improved economy saver award availability (only when downgraded from a card with an annual fee) ✦ No foreign exchange fees ✦ 25% back on United in-flight and Club Premium drink purchases |
Are You Eligible?
| 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. |
| Chase 5/24 semantics ("Subject to" vs. "Count towards"): Most Chase cards are subject to the 5/24 rule. That means the rule is enforced in making approval decisions. In other words, you probably won't get approved if your credit report shows that you opened 5 or more cards in the past 24 months. Meanwhile, most business cards (such as those from Chase, Amex, Barclaycard, BOA, Citi, US Bank, and Wells Fargo) are not reported on your personal credit report. These cards do not count towards 5/24. Example: Chase Ink Business Preferred is subject to 5/24, so you likely won't get approved if over 5/24. If you do get approved, it won't count towards 5/24 since it won't appear as an account on your credit report. |
| 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. |
Quick Thoughts
Chase United Business Card
As mentioned above, the United Business card initially appears to be the most interesting of these two new offers due to the 75,000 bonus miles you’ll receive after spending $5,000. Taking into account the miles earned from the $5,000 in spend, you’ll end up with at least 80,000 MileagePlus miles which is a great bonus, especially considering the annual fee is waived in the first year.
The card also offers 2x miles at restaurants, office supply stores, gas and local transit and commuting. There are cards that offer better bonused spend in all those categories, so the United Business card isn’t a great option for those categories on an ongoing basis, but it should mean that at least some of your initial $5,000 of spend will be bonused.
You’ll earn 5,000 bonus miles at renewal each year if you also have a personal United card. That can include personal United cards that don’t have an annual fee, so those 5,000 miles help offset the $99 annual fee. Depending on how you value them, the two United Club one-time passes you’ll receive at renewal might help offset the rest of that fee.
The business card also comes with an interesting additional benefit – a $100 United travel credit when spending $100+ on 7 United flight purchases each cardmember year and putting the cost of those flights on your card. That’s a bonus of up to 14.29%, so if you’ll be booking that many United flights every year, the travel credit will pay for the annual fee, making this card a keeper.
Chase United Gateway Card
At first glance, the Gateway card didn’t appear too interesting, especially seeing as it’ll take up a 5/24 slot. Upon further investigation though, the card could be worth applying for in some circumstances for a few reasons.
First of all, the card has no annual fee but still gets access to expanded award availability, making it a long term keeper. While the business card can be a keeper beyond the first year depending on the value you assign to the 5,000 miles, two United Club one-time passes and the $100 travel credit, there’s no downgrade option to a no fee business card. If the business card is your only United card, that means you’re stuck paying the $99 annual fee year after year to retain access to the expanded award availability.
Second, the Gateway card offers 20,000 bonus miles when spending $1,000 in the first three months. That’s not a stunning offer, but it’s better than the 10,000 miles you’ll receive on the American Airlines MileUp card which also carries no annual fee.
What can make the Gateway card worth considering more seriously is the fact that it’s offering 3x miles on up to $1,500 of spend per month at grocery stores through September 30, 2021. If you received the card this month (October) and maxed that out each month, you’d earn 54,000 bonus miles in addition to the 20,000 miles from the welcome offer. That’s a total of 74,000 miles with no annual fee which is almost identical to the increased business card offer. If you don’t own a business or don’t want to commit to having to pay an annual fee each year to retain access to the better award availability, the Gateway card can be a great solution.
One of the biggest downsides with the Gateway card is that it’ll add to your 5/24 count whereas the United Business card won’t, so that’s definitely a factor you need to take into consideration.
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[…] New Personal United Card & Increased Business Card Offers: Both Interesting In Their Own Way […]
Any idea on the extended warranty benefits of the Gateway card? I am trying to do my spend on a new United card and it would be nice to buy some electronics with it. Would downgrading to this card preserve the extended warranty protection? I’m usually stuck buying my electronic gear with my Citi card that gets extended warranty but doesn’t help me meet minimum spend (which is especially hard this year as I’m abroad avoiding COVID).
I haven’t looked at the cardmember agreement, but Chase does list Extended Warranty Protection as a benefit:
Extends the time period of the U.S. manufacturer’s warranty by an additional year, on eligible warranties of three years or less.
Do you know, if you have TWO businesses, can you get this card twice (at the same time)? Example: I already received this card and welcome bonus on my one of my LLCs in Jan 2020, would I still be eligible to get it on another LLC?
If it’s a different LLC with a different EIN, I think you can.
It turns out I was wrong – there are data points suggesting Chase won’t allow you to get the welcome bonus a second time for non-Ink business cards. https://frequentmiler.com/chase-may-deny-second-business-bonus/
Stephen, thanks for your post. I just product changed from the no fee United MileagePlus card to the Gateway card to take advantage of the 3x on groceries. It is my oldest card and this was a no brainier product change.
Did Chase confirm that you’ll receive the 3x when product changing?
Ah shucks you’re right. I mentioned it to the cust rep but did not confirm it was part of the product change. I did not get that, jumped the gun
That’s a shame. I guess at least you still have no annual fee and access to expanded award availability.
Is there a soft limit on the number of business cards Chase is willing to issue? I have 3 Ink cards and am considering a 4th. Picking up a United business card would be number 5.
I’m not aware of a soft limit, but that’s not to say there isn’t one. A more likely issue is that Chase wouldn’t approve a 5th card due to them not wanting to extend more credit. If that happens though, you could call and ask to move some limits around.
Do you know if the Gateway card will also have the 25% bonus on MPX? And it should be eligible for the United Visa Rewards that I see in MPX, right?
I picked up the Explorer card last December when there was a 5/24 bypass and was planning to downgrade when the AF hit. I thought I would just get the SUB and then sock drawer it, but between the United Visa Rewards use 5x/get 10K offer, and then a 5x offer for groceries in August & Sept, I have really used it a lot more than I expected to.
Same here- got the Explorer card from the green check “Just For You” option when it was available late last year. Personally got the card primarily for XN availability, so having a downgrade path now, that maintains XN availability for no annual fee, is a great option.
I think the answer to both should be yes, but I’m not certain. The reason I say that is because I did see someone mention that they’d downgraded to United’s other no-fee card but didn’t seem to have access to United Visa Rewards.
That was a one-off mention I’d seen though, so it might just have been some kind of glitch.
Interesting…. I have the Explorer MileagePlus ($95 consumer card) and have been thinking of downgrading to the no fee card to keep the expanded award availability. I rarely book directly with United (based in L.A. and like to use Turkish or other partners to book on United metal). So, the free bag and priority boarding perks are not very useful to me since United won’t extend them when booking a codeshare ticket. I’m sort of under 5/24. I’m an AU on three of P2 and P3’s cards opened in the past 24 months. My Credit Karma total including these AU accounts is 6 in the past 24 months and 3 without the AU accounts. So, I would most likely have to call the reconsideration line to get a new Chase card. So, I’m thinking seriously about downgrading the Explorer MileagePlus to the Gateway card then apply for the United Business card. The other option is to apply for the Business card and cancel my Explorer MileagePlus card altogether (if approved for the Business card), wait a year, apply for the Gateway card, and cancel the Business card when the fee comes due. Any advice from the Hive? Other options?
I’d be inclined to go with the first option – downgrade to the Gateway card and apply for the Business card. That way you’re guaranteed a no annual fee card option on an ongoing basis.
The potential risk with the second option is that you cancel your Explorer card but are then declined for the Gateway card for whatever reason. You’d then be stuck paying the annual fee on the Business card if you want access to award availability.
Going with the first option also means you don’t have to worry as much about your 5/24 status. If some great offers on personal cards come up in the next year, you might have to choose to miss out on those if you were wanting to apply for a Gateway Card in a year’s time.
Did you get your United Explorer over 24 months ago? If so, you could get a new Explorer bonus. Just downgrade your existing card to a no fee United card before applying for a new United Explorer card.
Just a small FYI, the United Business Card has been out since January. It launched with a 100,000 miles/$10k spend offer.
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200123005575/en/Chase-and-United-Airlines-Kick-Off-Most-Rewarding-Year-Yet-with-Launch-of-New-Business-Credit-Card-and-Special-Bonuses-on-All-Co-Branded-Credit-Cards-for-the-First-Time-Ever
Yep, I’d made a mistake when originally publishing the post, so that’s been fixed.
All good. Appreciate the content as always!