Chase Ink Business Preferred Lowers Spending Requirement for 100,000-Point Bonus

As of June 29, 2023, Chase has lowered the spending requirement to earn the 100,000-point welcome bonus available with the Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card. Previously, new cardmembers would have to spend $15,000 within the first three months after account opening to earn the 100,000-point bonus. However, now, you’re required to spend $8,000 in those three months to earn the bonus, cutting the spending requirement nearly in half.

This is big news for savvy credit card enthusiasts who want to rack up a large sum of Chase Ultimate Rewards points quickly without spending a large sum of money to do so. Considering the Ink Business Preferred card gets a 25% value boost through the Ultimate Rewards travel portal, that 100,000-point sign-up bonus is worth $1,250 when redeemed for travel. And, if you choose to transfer those points to one of Chase’s 14 transfer partners, you could get even more value out of those 100,000 points.

The Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card comes with an annual fee of $95. However, on top of that fantastic welcome bonus, the Ink Business Preferred card also offers 3X points on the first $150,000 in combined purchases per card anniversary year on travel, shipping purchases, advertising purchases with social media sites and search engines, internet, cable and phone services.

So, the Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card can earn you a ton of Ultimate Rewards points with its regular spending bonuses as well as with its welcome bonus, now with a lower spending requirement. In fact, this is one of the largest welcome bonuses offered by any card, regardless of annual fee. And this card can also help you rack up points in the long term with its impressive spending bonuses.

Unfortunately, you’ll have to be a business owner to get your hands on the Ink Business Preferred. However, the definition of “business owner” may be wider than you think. We’ll cover more on that later.

New Chase Ink Business Preferred Welcome Bonus Offer

Prior to June 29, the typical offer for new cardmembers was 100,000 Ultimate Rewards points with the Ink Business Preferred card by spending at least $15,000 in the first three months after account opening. While the 100,000-point bonus offer was one of the largest in the entire credit card industry (including premium cards with much higher annual fees), the $15,000 spending requirement was rather high.

However, now, new cardholders need to spend $8,000 (nearly half of the previous spending requirement) in those first three months to earn the welcome bonus. This change makes earning the bonus much more achievable for consumers who don’t spend a lot on their credit cards (or spread their spending across multiple credit cards).

When redeemed for cash back, 100,000 points are worth $1,000. When redeemed for travel through the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal, they’re worth $1,250 (since the Ink Business Preferred gets a 25% value boost when redeeming this way). If you’re willing to do some research and search for outsized value redemptions from one of Chase’s 14 transfer partners, you can get even more value out of the offer.

As of right now, Chase hasn’t released any information about how long this offer will last.

Chase Ink Business Preferred Card Overview

There are many other features of the Chase Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card outside its welcome bonus that you should consider before opening this card.

First, the Chase Ink Business Preferred Card is a business credit card, meaning you need to be a small business owner to qualify. The Ink Business Preferred Card charges an annual fee of $95 and no foreign transaction fees.

This card also comes with some great spending bonuses. Here are the spending bonuses offered by this card:

• 3X points on the first $150,000 in combined spending per account anniversary 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

These spending bonuses are great because they allow you to earn 3X points in a wide range of categories, most of which are large expense categories for most businesses. If you were to spend $3,167 per year in those 3X categories, you’d earn 9,501 points, which would be worth a minimum of $95 and would offset the annual fee. Not to mention, the 100,000-point welcome bonus (worth a minimum of $1,000) would instantly offset the annual fee for at least 10 years.

On top of that, the Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card also comes with several other notable benefits. These include:

• Get 25% more value when redeeming your points for travel through the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal. For example, 100,000 points would be worth $1,250.
• Add employee cards at no additional cost. You can also set individual spending limits and other controls on each card.
• No foreign transaction fees. Use your card anywhere in the world without paying additional fees.
• Get up to $1,000 per claim in cell phone protection against covered theft or damage.
• Get 120 days of purchase protection up to $10,000 per claim and $50,000 per account.
• Extend the time period of the U.S. manufacturer’s warranty by an additional year, eligible for warranties of three years or less.
• Trip cancellation and trip interruption insurance up to $5,000 per person and $10,000 per trip.

As you can see, there’s a lot to like about the Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card, even more so with the new lower spending requirement for the welcome bonus.

How to Qualify for a Business Credit Card

As previously mentioned, the Ink Business Preferred Card is a business credit card, which means that you need to be a small business owner (and have proof of business ownership) to qualify.

Just like when you apply for a personal credit card, you’ll need to provide personal information, including the following:

• Name
• Birth date
• Social Security number
• Home address
• Email
• Phone number
• Annual income
• Monthly rent or mortgage payment

However, when applying for business credit cards, you’ll also need to provide information about your business, including the following:

• Business name, address and phone number
• Annual revenue, number of employees and years in business
• Business type and legal structure
• Monthly expenses
• Employer identification number (EIN) if you have one

While this may seem intimidating at first, you can actually qualify for a business credit card as a freelancer (such as a web developer or freelance writer), a gig economy worker (such as an Uber or Lyft driver) or a self-employed business owner (such as an Airbnb host or babysitter).

Best Ways to Redeem 100,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards Points

Now that you understand the ongoing benefits of the Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card and what you’ll need to qualify, let’s take a look at the best ways to spend that 100,000-point bonus.

When trying to determine the value of a redemption option, you simply need to divide the cash value of that redemption option by the number of points that it costs. For instance, if the cash price of a flight booking is $1,000 and it’s available to book as an award for 70,000 points, this redemption would offer a value of about 1.4 cents per point ($1,000 / 70,000 points = $0.014).

Whenever you’re looking into a redemption option, you should make these kinds of calculations to ensure that you’re extracting good value out of your points.

In general, the best way to maximize the value of your Chase points is to transfer them to one of Chase’s transfer partners. Here’s a complete list of those transfer partners:

All Chase transfer partners have a 1:1 transfer ratio. Sometimes, Chase will offer a bonus to transfer points to one of these partners.

Here are some of the best ways to get maximum value out of 100,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points.

Book a Multi-Night Hotel Stay with Hyatt

You can find some great redemptions through World of Hyatt as Hyatt points are widely considered to be one of the most valuable hotel rewards currency by a longshot.

For instance, you could use your 100,000-point bonus from the Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card to book three nights at the Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort & Spa. You can book this property’s standard rooms for 30,000 per night, meaning three nights would cost you 90,000 points.

If you booked on the same nights with cash, it would cost you $932 per night.

So, this redemption would give you a value of about 3.1 cents per point, which is a solid value. If you were to pay with cash, Hyatt would add a $45 resort fee to each night of your booking. Thankfully, Hyatt waives resort fees on award stays, helping you save even more.

There are also plenty of other high-end Hyatt properties where you can find rooms for fewer than 30,000 points per night. You could book a beach villa at the Park Hyatt Maldives Hadahaa for just 25,000 points per night. That means that you could book four nights at this location with your 100,000-point bonus.

If you were to book this same stay with cash, it would cost you $726 per night. Thus, this redemption provides a value of 2.9 cents per point.

However, when traveling to this resort, you need to pay a domestic transfer fee of $575 per adult, $475 per child and $175 per infant. So, staying at this resort definitely isn’t cheap even if you book an award stay. However, booking the Park Hyatt Maldives Hadahaa with points is a whole lot more affordable than booking with cash.

Book Flights Between the U.S. and South America on United Airlines

You can find some excellent deals on round-trip award flights on United between the United States and South America. For instance, you can fly round-trip on United from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to Bogota, Colombia, for 40,000 points plus $89.95 in taxes and fees. That means that you can book two round-trip tickets between the U.S. and Colombia for just 80,000 points and $179.90 in taxes and fees. While the additional fees on these award tickets are fairly high, it’s still a good value for this flight.

You can also find some great deals on flights between the United States and other countries in the northern part of South America, such as Guyana, Peru and Suriname. Many of these routes are also available for just 20,000 points each way if you’re able to find Saver award availability.

Book Flights Between the U.S. and the Caribbean Through Flying Blue

One fairly solid way to redeem your 100,000-point bonus is to transfer them to Air France-KLM Flying Blue and then use them to book SkyTeam awards. In particular, you can often find good value on Delta Air Lines flights between the United States and the Caribbean.

We found a round-trip flight between New York and Havana for 39,000 miles and $118.55 in taxes and fees. That means that you can book two tickets between New York and Havana for 78,000 points and $237.10 and still have 22,000 points left over.

The Bottom Line

Regardless of whether you want to search for outsized value awards through Chase’s transfer partners or you want to keep it simple and book travel through the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal, the 100,000-point bonus offered by the Chase Ink Business Preferred Card can take you far.

Now that the spending requirement to earn this bonus has been lowered from $15,000 to $8,000 (which is nearly half of the former spending requirement) in the first three months, this massive bonus is more achievable than ever.

The welcome bonus aside, the Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card is a solid middle-tier card for small business owners who want to earn elevated spending bonuses across a wide range of categories, including shipping purchases, advertising purchases with social media sites and search engines, internet, cable and phone services and travel. These spending bonuses along with the welcome bonus can offset this card’s modest $95 annual fee many times over.

All in all, the 100,000-point bonus offered by the Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card is one of the largest welcome bonuses available with any card on the market. And, now that the spending requirement to earn this bonus is lower, it’s more achievable than ever. But, Chase hasn’t said anything about how long this offer will last, so it’s probably a good idea to act soon if you want to earn this bonus.