The
Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card is one of the best travel rewards credit cards for business owners, offering a ton of value at a pretty low cost. Its initial bonus alone – worth
$1,000 when redeemed for cash, gift cards, and travel – covers the cost of the card’s annual fee for about a decade.
What I Like About Chase Ink Business Preferred
Large initial bonus
The Chase Ink Business Preferred Card offers you
100,000 points for spending
$8,000 within
3 months of account opening. That's worth
$1,000 when redeemed for cash, gift cards, and travel.
For context, the average cash rewards bonus available from a credit card right now is
$238.74, according to
WalletHub’s Credit Card Landscape Report, which tracks more than 1,500 credit card offers. So, if you can meet the initial spending threshold, getting the Ink Business Preferred Card is a great choice.
Very good ongoing rewards
You will earn
3 points / $1 on your first $150,000 in purchases across a wide range of bonus categories each year. That means you’ll be getting 3% back on bonus-category purchases, given that Ink Preferred points are worth a penny apiece. And 3% back is about triple what the average card will give you right now, according to our research.
If your spending lines up well with the bonus categories, this earning rate could save you a lot of money.
Lots of bonus categories
The Ink Preferred Card’s bonus categories are:
- Travel
- Shipping
- Cable and phone service
- Internet service
- Advertising purchased through social media sites and search engines
These are the types of purchases that will yield 3X points. If you don’t spend much in these categories, this card won’t be as useful moving forward.
No foreign fee
If your business travel takes you abroad or your company works with internationally based suppliers, you’ll be pleased to know that Chase Ink Preferred does not apply a surcharge to purchases processed outside the U.S. This will save you 3% on all such purchases compared to most other cards.
What I Don’t Like About Chase Ink Business Preferred
Standard base rewards rate
Non-bonus category purchases yield just
1 point / $1 spent. That equates to merely 1% back. Considering that the average cash rewards card offers
1.18% back on all purchases, you may want to use Chase Ink Preferred solely for bonus-category spending.
To be fair, this isn’t a big shortcoming. Most rewards cards offer this at a minimum. But you might be able to get 2% back on all purchases from other cards, for example.
Annual fee
You shouldn’t fret too much over the Chase Ink Preferred Card’s
$95 annual fee. For one thing, its initial bonus effectively covers the cost of annual fees for around 10 years. Plus, it’s not nearly as high as what some other premium rewards cards charge.
Nevertheless, you should still take this fixed cost into account when comparing Ink Preferred to other offers. And the card would be more attractive without it.
Good personal credit required
Credit card companies base business-card approval primarily on an applicant’s personal credit history. It tends to be a lot longer than that of a business, after all, and you’re going to be held personally liable for unpaid balances anyway.
So make sure to
check your latest credit score for free on WalletHub before you apply, to confirm you have a good shot at Chase Ink Preferred approval. Unfortunately, a lot of people who like the card won’t be able to meet this credit score requirement.
Far from ideal for financing
Chase Ink Preferred is designed to be paid in full each month. No, it’s not a charge card. Rather, it doesn’t offer 0% intro rates and has a regular APR that’s likely to be well above average for a card that requires good credit for approval. So if you don’t plan to pay your bill in full every month, we recommend getting a general-consumer
0% credit card instead.
Note: This review is not provided, commissioned or endorsed by any issuer. Opinions and ratings are our own.
