October 4, 2023

How To Maximize The Chase Ink Business Card Welcome Bonuses

Ink Business Cash® Credit Card Rewards Earn 5% cash back on the first $25,000 spent…

How To Maximize The Chase Ink Business Card Welcome Bonuses

Ink Business Cash® Credit Card

  • Rewards

    Earn 5% cash back on the first $25,000 spent in combined purchases at office supply stores and on internet, cable and phone services each account anniversary year (then 1%); 2% cash back on the first $25,000 spent in combined purchases at gas stations and restaurants each account anniversary year (then 1%); 1% cash back on all other purchases

  • Welcome bonus

    Earn $900 bonus cash back after you spend $6,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening

  • Annual fee

  • Intro APR

    0% for the first 12 months from account opening on purchases; N/A for balance transfers

  • Regular APR

  • Balance transfer fee

    Either $5 or 5% of the amount of each transfer, whichever is greater

  • Foreign transaction fee

  • Credit needed

Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card

  • Rewards

    Earn 1.5% cash back on every purchase made for your business

  • Welcome bonus

    Earn $900 bonus cash back after you spend $6,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening

  • Annual fee

  • Intro APR

    0% for the first 12 months from account opening on purchases; N/A for balance transfers

  • Regular APR

  • Balance transfer fee

    Either $5 or 5% of the amount of each transfer, whichever is greater

  • Foreign transaction fee

  • Credit needed

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How to turn Chase “cash back” into transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards points

Before diving in, it’s important to understand that although the Ink Business Cash® Credit Card and Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card are advertised as cash-back cards, they aren’t really. In reality, the cards earn Chase Ultimate Rewards® points, which you can redeem at a value of one cent each.

In other words, these cards come with a sign-up bonus of 90,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points after spending $6,000 on purchases within the first three months from account opening. That’s an important distinction because, with a tiny bit of effort, you can redeem Chase Ultimate Rewards points for exponentially more than 1 cent each in travel toward airfare, hotel stays and more.

The key to unlocking this potential is by also holding either the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card®, Chase Sapphire Reserve® or the Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card.

Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card

  • Rewards

    $50 annual Ultimate Rewards Hotel Credit, 5X points on travel purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards®, 3X points on dining, 2X points on all other travel purchases, and 1X points on all other purchases

  • Welcome bonus

    Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. That’s $750 when you redeem through Chase Ultimate Rewards®.

  • Annual fee

  • Intro APR

  • Regular APR

    18.99% – 25.99% variable on purchases and balance transfers

  • Balance transfer fee

    Either $5 or 5% of the amount of each transfer, whichever is greater

  • Foreign transaction fee

  • Credit needed

Chase Sapphire Reserve®

  • Rewards

    Earn 5X total points on flights and 10X total points on hotels and car rentals when you purchase travel through Chase Ultimate Rewards® immediately after the first $300 is spent on travel purchases annually. Earn 3X points on other travel and dining & 1 point per $1 spent on all other purchases plus, 10X points on Lyft rides through March 2025

  • Welcome bonus

    Earn 80,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening

  • Annual fee

  • Intro APR

  • Regular APR

  • Balance transfer fee

  • Foreign transaction fee

  • Credit needed

Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card

  • Rewards

    Earn 3X points per $1 on the first $150,000 spent in combined purchases in select categories each account anniversary year (travel; shipping purchases; internet, cable and phone services; and advertising purchases with social media sites and search engines), 1X point per $1 on all other purchases

  • Welcome bonus

    Earn 100,000 bonus points after you spend $15,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening

  • Annual fee

  • Intro APR

  • Regular APR

  • Balance transfer fee

    Either $5 or 5% of the amount of each transfer, whichever is greater

  • Foreign transaction fee

  • Credit needed

Up to $1,350 in value through the Chase Travel Portal

On their own, Ultimate Rewards points are worth one cent apiece. However, depending on which annual fee-incurring Ultimate Rewards card you hold, you’ll get up to 50% more value for your points when redeeming for airfare, hotel stays, rental cars or cruises through the Chase Travel Portal:

So, if you’ve got the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card® or Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card, you’ll get up to $1,125 worth of travel from these 90,000-point Ink bonuses. With the Chase Sapphire Reserve®, you’ll get up to $1,350 in value.

The Chase Travel Portal operates similarly to any other online travel agency, like Expedia or Booking.com, and allows you to book nearly any flight, hotel and/or car rental in the world. If you value simplicity and prefer a low-effort way to redeem your points, this is the way to go. Better yet, you can mix your payment method between points and cash in any amount. However, if you’re willing to strategize a bit, you can double or triple this value — as you’ll see below.

Up to 12 one-way domestic U.S. economy flights

Luxury Hyatt hotel stay

Two round-trip coach flights to Europe

$1,200+ in Southwest flights

Southwest Rapid Rewards is another useful Chase Ultimate Rewards transfer partner. The airline serves loads of fun destinations around the U.S. (including Hawaii), as well as the Caribbean, Mexico and even Costa Rica.

Southwest points are generally worth about 1.4 cents each toward Southwest airfare. That means you should get about $1,200 in airfare from a 90,000-point bonus.

The below itinerary from Chicago to Honolulu costs just under 37,000 points round-trip. The same exact flights cost $527 in cash. You should have no trouble getting at least two round-trips from a Chase Ink Card welcome offer.

Photo courtesy of southwest.com

Up to $1,350 in statement credits through Pay Yourself Back

$900 in cash

$900 in gift cards

In the event that you prefer gift cards over cash, you can redeem Chase Ultimate Rewards points for gift cards at a rate of one cent per point. Eligible merchants include:

  • Apple
  • Bath & Body Works
  • Chili’s
  • Chipotle
  • DoorDash
  • eBay
  • Gap
  • Google Play
  • Kohl’s
  • Xbox

Redeeming points for gift cards generally isn’t the best option for a couple of reasons:

  • Cash is way more flexible than gift cards — and it doesn’t expire. There’s nothing a gift card can buy that cash cannot.
  • When you redeem points for a gift card, you won’t earn any points for your spending. A better strategy would be to use your card to buy the gift card you want and then reimburse yourself by redeeming for cash back.

One small exception is that you’ll occasionally have the opportunity to purchase gift cards with a 10% bonus, giving you a value of 1.1 cents per point.

Bottom line

Editorial Note: Opinions, analyses, reviews or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the Select editorial staff’s alone, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any third party.