10 Reasons to Get the Chase Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card

First hitting the market in 2016, the Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card from Chase has long been considered one of the best middle-tier business credit cards on the market. This card offers excellent rewards, includes all of the standard features and protections that you’d expect from a Chase credit card and even offers a value boost when redeeming rewards points through Chase Travel℠.

The Ink Business Preferred charges an annual fee of $95, and its benefits are geared toward small-business owners, ensuring that you can maximize rewards while operating a business.

While you can certainly find other business credit cards that offer better benefits, these cards typically charge much higher fees. So, if $95 sounds like a manageable annual fee for you, then the Ink Business Preferred Card might be an excellent fit for your wallet.

Let’s look at 10 reasons why you might want to open the Chase Ink Business Preferred Card.

1. Welcome Bonus

Like most rewards credit cards, the Chase Ink Business Preferred offers a welcome bonus for new cardmembers. To receive this bonus, you’ll be required to spend a certain amount of money on your card in a certain period of time after opening your account. These welcome offers change frequently, so make sure to check the latest welcome offers before signing up for any credit card.

Here’s the latest welcome offer from the Chase Ink Business Preferred:

This welcome bonus is an excellent way to rack up a lot of Chase Ultimate Rewards points quickly. With this welcome bonus alone, you could purchase several award flights through the Chase Travel℠ portal or by transferring those points to airline partners. Alternatively, you could also redeem those points for several free nights at a hotel of your choice.

2. Business-Focused Spending Bonus Categories

The Ink Business Preferred business-focused spending bonus categories are geared toward business owners, meaning you should be able to earn lots of Chase Ultimate Rewards points in your day-to-day operations.

Here’s what the rewards earning structure of the Ink Business Preferred looks like:

• 5X points on Lyft rides (through March 2025)
• 3X points on the first $150,000 in combined spending per cardmember year in the following categories:
  • Shipping purchases
  • Advertising purchases made with social media sites and search engines
  • Internet, cable and phone services
  • Travel
• 1X point on all other purchases

As you can see, these spending bonuses are heavily geared toward small-business owners. So, if a significant portion of your business expenses are for travel, shipping, internet, cable and phone services or advertising through social media or search engines, then you should definitely consider signing up for the Ink Business Preferred.

For instance, if you were to maximize the full cap of $150,000 every year by spending in the aforementioned categories (which is achievable for many mid-sized businesses), you’d earn 450,000 Chase points from those transactions alone. Those points are worth a minimum of $4,500 or considerably more, as we’ll discuss later in this article.

Chase Ultimate Rewards points don’t expire as long as your account remains open.

3.  25% Points Value Boost through Chase Travel℠

One of the best features that separates the Ink Business Preferred Card from the competition is the fact that if you have the Ink Business Preferred Card in your wallet, your rewards points are worth 25% more when redeemed for travel through the Chase Travel℠ portal. So, each point would be worth 1.25 cents apiece for flights, hotels, car rentals and activities booked in the portal.

For instance, let’s say that you want to buy a $500 flight through Chase Travel℠. Normally, that flight would cost you 50,000 Chase points if each point were worth 1 cent apiece. However, with the 25% value boost from the Ink Business Preferred, it would cost 40,000 points instead.

It’s worth noting that you can often get even more value out of your Chase points than 1.25 cents apiece by transferring them to partner travel programs. However, this is more time-consuming and complicated than redeeming for travel through Chase Travel℠. So, if you want to keep things simple and easy and still get good value, then redeeming for travel through Chase Travel℠ is not a bad option with the Ink Business Preferred.

4. Access to Chase’s Transfer Partners

One amazing aspect of the Ink Business Preferred Card that’s available to all points-earning Chase credit cards is the option to transfer points to Chase’s partner travel programs. To do this, simply log in to the Chase Travel℠ portal, access the “Transfer to Travel Partners” section, select the transfer partner and the number of points you want to transfer, and confirm the transfer.

You can transfer Chase points to the following loyalty programs:

• Aer Lingus AerClub
• Air Canada Aeroplan
• Air France-KLM Flying Blue
• British Airways Executive Club
• Emirates Skywards
• Iberia Plus
• IHG One Rewards
• JetBlue TrueBlue
• Marriott Bonvoy
• Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
• Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards
• United Airlines MileagePlus
• Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
• World of Hyatt

All of these transfer partners offer a 1:1 transfer ratio. So, if you convert 10,000 Chase points, you’ll receive 10,000 of that program’s own rewards currency.

The reason that transfer partners are so important is that you can often find outsized-value redemptions through these partner programs, meaning you can get much more than 1 cent per point in value. Transferring Chase points to partner programs and finding these sweet-spot redemptions is the best way to maximize the value of your rewards.

In general, World of Hyatt, Virgin Atlantic Flying Club, Air Canada Aeroplan, Air France-KLM Flying Blue and Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards are considered some of Chase’s best transfer partners for finding high-value redemptions.

5. Cell Phone Protection

One benefit of the Ink Business Preferred that’s often overlooked is its cell phone protection. This feature offers you up to $1,000 per claim if your cell phone or one of your employees’ cell phones is damaged or stolen. You can make up to three claims per 12-month period, and there is a $100 deductible per claim. To use this benefit, you must pay the monthly bill for the damaged or stolen cell phone with your Ink Business Preferred Card.

If you have several employees using your Ink Business Preferred Card to pay their cell phone bills, there’s a good chance that one of those cell phones could get damaged or stolen at some point. In this case, this cell phone protection benefit could end up being valuable.

6. Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver

When paying for a rental car with your Ink Business Preferred Card, you’ll earn 3X Chase points. However, this card can also help you save a ton of money on insurance when renting a car because it comes with auto rental collision damage waiver.

As long as you pay for your business car rental with your Ink Business Preferred Card and decline the rental company’s collision insurance, you’ll be insured up to the actual cash value of the vehicle for theft and collision damage for most cars in the U.S. and abroad.

Since collision insurance typically costs at least $40 per day when you buy it from the rental company, this benefit alone will make up for the Ink Business Preferred Card’s annual fee if you use it for just a few days.

7. Trip Cancellation/Interruption Insurance

Another great travel benefit included with the Ink Business Preferred Card is trip cancellation and interruption insurance. If you’ve booked travel with your Ink Business Preferred Card (including passenger fare, tours and hotels), then you’ll be eligible for reimbursement if your trip is cut short by sickness, severe weather and other covered situations.

With this benefit, you can be reimbursed up to $5,000 per person and up to $10,000 per trip for non-refundable travel expenses. Obviously, this benefit can be extremely valuable in situations in which you miss a flight, which causes you to miss a hotel booking and other travel plans.

8. Trip Delay Reimbursement

In the event that your travel plans have been delayed but not fully canceled, the Ink Business Preferred still has you covered with its trip delay reimbursement feature. This benefit covers you in the event that your common carrier travel (such as a flight, train or bus) is delayed for more than 12 hours or requires an overnight stay due to equipment failure, inclement weather, labor strikes, hijacking or skyjacking.

To use this benefit, you must have purchased your common carrier fare with your Ink Business Preferred Card. If you meet the requirements for this benefit, you can be reimbursed up to $500 for reasonable additional expenses, including but not limited to meals, lodging, toiletries, medication and other personal use items.

9. Purchase Protection

Another potentially valuable benefit of the Ink Business Preferred is its purchase protection. This feature covers new purchases for 120 days against damage or theft up to $1,000 per claim and $50,000 per account.

To use this benefit, you must have purchased the damaged or stolen item with your Ink Business Preferred Card. So, make sure to use this card for any large business purchases if you have it in your wallet.

10. Extended Warranty Protection

In addition to the purchase protection benefit, purchases made with the Ink Business Preferred Card are also covered by extended warranty protection. This benefit extends the original warranty from U.S. manufacturers by one additional year on eligible warranties of three years or fewer.

For instance, if the manufacturer’s original warranty is three months, then this coverage would add an additional 12 months to the warranty for a total of 15 months. If the manufacturer’s original warranty was three years, then this coverage would add an additional year to the warranty for a total of four years.

This benefit covers purchases up to $10,000 per claim and up to $50,000 per account.

The Bottom Line

When it comes to business credit cards, the Ink Business Preferred Card strikes a great balance between a reasonable annual fee and some excellent benefits and spending bonus. This card has an annual fee of $95, which you can easily make up for with its welcome offer and regular spending bonuses.

Additionally, when you redeem your points for travel through the Chase Travel℠ portal, you’ll get a 25% boost in value (for a total of 1.25 cents per point). And by transferring points to partner travel programs (such as World of Hyatt, Air Canada Aeroplan and more), you can get even more value out of your Chase points.

All in all, in terms of business credit cards with annual fees under $100, the Ink Business Preferred is definitely one of the best available. So, if you’re looking to get a new credit card for your business and the bonus spending categories align with your spending patterns, the Ink Business Preferred is worth a consideration.