Ink Business Cash® Credit Card
Signup Bonus:
The Ink Cash Card is offering a signup bonus of $350 in the form of 35,000 Chase Ultimate points for spending $3,000 in 3 months and another $400 in the form of 40,000 Chase Ultimate points for spending another $3,000 in 6 months for a total of 75,000 Chase Ultimate points. Those points are worth a minimum of $750 cash back, but they can be worth much more as shown below.
The signup bonus is marketed as up to $750, but it will actually come in the form of 75,000 transferrable points which can be worth $1,125-$1,500 when points are transferred into miles with the help of someone in your household having a Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, Chase Sapphire Reserve®, or Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card.
Annual fee:
None
How to apply, Business card and 5/24 info:
This is a business card, but you may already have a business that needs a card to keep track of expenses. For example if your name is Joe Smith and you sell items online, or if you have any other side business and want a credit card to better keep track of business expenditures you can open a business credit card for “Joe Smith” as the business. You don’t need to file any messy government paperwork to be allowed to do that. Just be sure to select “Sole Proprietorship” as the business type and just use your social security number in the Tax Identification Number field.
If you have business paperwork you can apply under your business name. Otherwise, it’s critical to just write your own name as the business name if you are just applying for your own small business as a Sole Proprietorship that doesn’t have any business paperwork. You can then send in bills in your own name for verification.
If you’re like me and you run more than one business, you can signup for multiple of the same card for each business to manage each businesses expenses separately.
Some Chase cards are subject to 5/24 restrictions, meaning that you might not be approved if you have been approved for 5 or more consumer credit cards in the past 24 months. Enforcement of 5/24 has been patchy for the past year and the only way to know if you can get approved is by trying to apply.
However, a pattern has developed where Chase often waives 5/24 rules when they launch a new offer like this, so it can be worth trying, even if you are over 5/24. If you try, be sure to leave a comment with the results!
Note that the Chase system automatically counts cards like authorized user cards and store cards as cards that count towards 5/24, but if you explain to Chase that those cards are merely authorized user cards or store cards they can manually approve you for a new card. You can check your credit report for free at the federally authorized annualcreditreport.com to check how many accounts are shown as being open in the past 24 months.
It’s important to note that business cards from most banks, including Chase business cards, do not get added to your 5/24 count of recently opened cards. That’s because business cards from most banks don’t show up on your personal credit report and the 5/24 count is based off of your personal credit report. That means that applying for these cards won’t “hurt” your 5/24 count.
Another benefit of the card not reporting on your personal credit report is that when you spend money on personal cards your credit score will be hurt even if you pay your bill on time. A whopping 30% of your credit score is based on credit utilization. You can pay off your card bill before your statement is generated to avoid that, but that takes effort and laying out money well before you have to. Additionally it’s good to have the statement close with a couple dollars to show the card is active and being paid every month. On an business cards from banks like AMEX and Chase it’s just not reported, so you can wait until the money is due without it having a negative effect on your score. That also means if you close the card, it won’t have an effect on your credit score.
While carrying balances on consumer cards can have a very harmful effect on your credit score, because the Ink cards are business cards, those balances won’t hurt your credit score! That makes the 0% APR on purchases for 12 months on a business card a very strong offer.
Card earnings:
The Ink Cash card is marketed as earning 5% and 2% cashback in bonus categories, but it actually earns 5 or 2 Chase Ultimate Rewards points per dollar spent. As each point can be worth 1.5-2 cents each, that means you’ll actually be earning an effective 7.5-10% back on the 5 point categories and 3-4% back on the 2 point categories.
Here is where you can earn 2 points per dollar on up to $25K in annual spending on the Ink Cash card:
- Gas stations
- Restaurants and restaurant delivery.
Here is where you can earn 5 points per dollar on up to $25K in annual spending on the Ink Cash card:
- Charges made in-store or online at office supply stores, like Office Depot, Office Max, and Staples.
- Charges made directly with all cell phone service providers (AT&T, Boost, Cricket, Google Fi, Republic, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon, Virgin Mobile, etc)
- Charges made directly with all telecom, TV, and Internet providers
- Charges made with streaming services, like Hulu, Netflix, SiriusXM, Sling, Spotify, Tivo, and Vudu
- Charges from Godaddy.com
- Charges from Microsoft OneDrive
You’ll also earn 5 points per dollar on Lyft through 3/31/25 with no cap.
You’ll earn 1 point per dollar elsewhere.
Spend Threshold:
You’ll need to spend $3,000 on this card within 3 months or $6,000 within 6 months for this bonus.
You can pay your federal taxes for a 1.82% fee.
My local natural gas company allows me to prepay up to $1,000 on a credit card for a $1.65 flat fee. That’s a great way to earn miles and help meet a spend threshold. My electricity supplier allows me to pay with a credit card for free as long as I am enrolled in autopay.
0% APR:
0% intro APR on purchases within 12 months of account opening, with no negative effect on personal credit. After that, 17.74%-23.74% variable APR.
Potentially, that means you can stick your payments aside from the minimum payment into a 5.05% savings account and pay the card back after a year with no penalties or interest.
Other card benefits:
- Primary rental car CDW insurance in every country, when the rental is for business purposes.
- Primary rental car CDW insurance in every country outside of the US, when the rental is for personal purposes. Rentals without a business purpose in the US have secondary coverage.
- Extended warranty adds a year of coverage, up to $10,000 per claim.
- Purchase protection for items damaged or stolen within 120 days, up to $10,000 per claim.
- Travel Accident Insurance covers $500,000 per person.
- Lost Luggage Insurance covers $3,000 per person per trip (limit of $500 per person for jewelry, watches, electronics)
- Baggage Delay Reimbursement covers $100 per day per person (max of 3 days) for essential items needed (Clothing, toiletries, charger, etc) for delays more than 6 hours.
Increased points value:
You can cash out your points for 1% cash back. I hope that you won’t do that.
If you or someone in your household has an Ink Preferred Card or Sapphire Preferred Card you can redeem Chase Ultimate Rewards points earned from any card at a value of 1.25 cents towards paid travel.
If you or someone in your household has a Sapphire Reserve you can get a value of 1.5 cents per point towards paid travel.
The Ink Cash card can’t transfer points directly into miles, but Chase allows you to transfer points to cards where they can be transferred into miles or redeemed for a greater value. My aim is to receive a value of 2 cents per point via transfers to miles and that makes the 2 point categories worth 4% back and the 5 point categories worth 10% back.
Visa Savings Edge:
All Chase Ink cards are eligible for additional cash back via Visa Savings Edge.
That means you can earn points plus cash back at MailChimp, Microsoft, ParkWhiz, Budget, Chevron, AutoZone, Boost Mobile, MGM hotels, Wyndham hotels, and more.
Airline and hotel points transferability:
If you or someone in your household has a Chase Sapphire Preferred, Sapphire Reserve, or Ink Preferred Card you can transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards points into valuable airline and hotel mileage currencies.
Product change options:
You can call Chase to convert these cards or any of the following cards into another card from this list:
Note that some reps will only allow card conversions after you have had the card for 12 months.
Killer Combos:
Stacking multiple Ultimate Rewards cards together can supercharge your earnings by getting you more points per dollar while increasing the value of all your points.
A Chase Bifecta would consist of a household that has the Sapphire Preferred or Sapphire Reserve and the Ink Unlimited. The total effective annual fees would be either $95 with Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card or $250 with Sapphire Reserve after accounting for that card’s $300 annual travel credit. With the Sapphire Preferred+Ink Unlimited you would earn 1.5 points per dollar everywhere, 2.1 points per dollar on all travel after the Sapphire Preferred annual bonus, 3 points per dollar on drugstores, 3.1 points per dollar on dining, streaming, and online grocery shopping after the Sapphire Preferred annual bonus, and 5.1 points per dollar on travel booked via Chase after the Sapphire Preferred annual bonus. You’ll be able to transfer all of your points into airline miles or hotel points.
A Chase Trifecta adds a no annual fee card like Ink Cash or Chase Freedom Flex into the mix, so your total effective annual fee will still be $95 or $250. Both of those cards give options to earn a whopping 5 points per dollar in various categories on top of the 2-3 points per dollar that the Sapphire cards offer and the 1.5-5 points per dollar everywhere else with a Freedom Unlimited card. Read more about Freedom Flex here and read more about Ink Cash here.
Having all 3 Chase Ink cards means you can take advantage of bonus points on all purchases that you make while not having any effect on your personal credit.
A Chase Quadfecta would add both the Ink Cash and Chase Freedom Flex on top of a Sapphire card and an Unlimited card, so your total effective annual fee will still be just $95 or $250. The Quadfecta is the sweet spot and allows you to really supercharge your spending everywhere.
A Chase Quinfecta could add the Ink Preferred to that mix, adding $95 to the annual fee total. This make sense if you spend money on shipping, social media advertising, or search engine advertising, or if you want free cell phone insurance.
Again, all of these cards don’t need to be in one person’s name. 2 people from the same household can split up the requisite cards that make up the Quinfecta, as they can transfer the Ultimate Rewards points back and forth between themselves freely and they can add each other as an authorized user on their cards!
Airline transfer partners:
You can transfer points at a 1:1 ratio to:
- United (Star Alliance)
- Air Canada Aeroplan (Star Alliance)
- Singapore (Star Alliance)
- Air France/KLM Flying Blue (Skyteam, 25% bonus through 5/15)
- British Airways (OneWorld)
- Aer Lingus (OneWorld)
- Iberia (OneWorld)
- Qatar (OneWorld, transfer via BA)
- Emirates
- JetBlue
- Southwest
- Virgin Atlantic
Hotel transfer partners:
You can transfer points at a 1:1 ratio to:
You can also transfer to Hilton at a 1:1.5 ratio by transferring via Virgin Atlantic.
The great thing about Chase Ultimate Rewards is how versatile and valuable they are:
The Ink Preferred Card and Sapphire Preferred cards allow you and anyone in your household to transfer Chase points into miles. They also allow you to use points at a value of 1.25 cents each towards travel.
The Sapphire Reserve also allows you and anyone in your household to transfer Chase points into miles. Plus it allows you to use points at a value of 1.5 cents each towards travel.
The fixed value is excellent and doesn’t require hunting down award space, but those points can be much more valuable by transferring them into airline miles or hotel points. They can easily be worth 2 cents each or much more than that!
- If I want to stay in a 5 star Park Hyatt in the Maldives, Melbourne, NYC, Paris, Sydney, or Tokyo that would cost over $1,000/night, I can instantly transfer 25-40K points to Hyatt to do that, a value of up to 6 cents per point.
- If I need a one-way flight from Cleveland (or Chicago, Detroit, Miami, Montreal, Orlando, Pittsburgh, Toronto, etc) to NYC that can cost $500 each way, I can instantly transfer 7.5K points to British Airways to book a short-haul on American with no last minute booking fees. Or if American doesn’t have availability I can instantly transfer 10K points to United for their short-haul award. That’s a value of up to 7 cents per point.
- Air Canada offers one-way short haul awards for just 6K miles. You can also get stopover awards for 5K miles, build round-the-world awards, and get free lap child awards in the US/Canada and bring lap children to anywhere else in the world for just C$25!
- If I want to stay in a non-chain hotel that costs $300/night and don’t want to pay cash, I can redeem 20K points for the room thanks to my Sapphire Reserve card’s minimum redemption value of 1.5 cents per point or 24K points with the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card ’s minimum redemption value of 1.25 cents per point
- Flying Blue has award flights to Israel for 25K miles for adults or 18,750 miles for kids.
- If I want to fly in a $25,000 ANA First Class Suite round-trip from the US to Tokyo, I can instantly transfer 145K or 160K points to Virgin Atlantic. That’s a value of up to 23 cents per point. You can now redeem one-way awards for half the price as well!
- If I want to book a $2,281 business class ticket on Air Canada to Tel Aviv I can redeem 152K points for the flight thanks to my Sapphire Reserve card’s minimum redemption value of 1.5 cents per point or 182K points with the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card ’s minimum redemption value of 1.25 cents per point, plus I’ll earn Qantas miles for more future travel as it’s considered a paid flight instead of an award flight.
- And thousands of other possibilities from Singapore couples suites to booking Southwest awards with 2 free bags and free cancellations, to stealing 2nd base in middle of an MLB game.
Will you signup for the Ink Cash Card?
