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…
Ink Business Cash® Credit Card
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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
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Welcome bonus
Earn $900 bonus cash back after you spend $6,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening
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Annual fee
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Intro APR
0% for the first 12 months from account opening on purchases; N/A for balance transfers
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Regular APR
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Balance transfer fee
Either $5 or 5% of the amount of each transfer, whichever is greater
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Foreign transaction fee
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Credit needed
Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card
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Rewards
Earn 1.5% cash back on every purchase made for your business
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Welcome bonus
Earn $900 bonus cash back after you spend $6,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening
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Annual fee
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Intro APR
0% for the first 12 months from account opening on purchases; N/A for balance transfers
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Regular APR
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Balance transfer fee
Either $5 or 5% of the amount of each transfer, whichever is greater
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Foreign transaction fee
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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
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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
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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®.
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Annual fee
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Intro APR
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Regular APR
18.99% – 25.99% variable on purchases and balance transfers
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Balance transfer fee
Either $5 or 5% of the amount of each transfer, whichever is greater
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Foreign transaction fee
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Credit needed
Chase Sapphire Reserve®
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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
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Welcome bonus
Earn 80,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening
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Annual fee
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Intro APR
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Regular APR
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Balance transfer fee
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Foreign transaction fee
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Credit needed
Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card
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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
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Welcome bonus
Earn 100,000 bonus points after you spend $15,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening
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Annual fee
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Intro APR
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Regular APR
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Balance transfer fee
Either $5 or 5% of the amount of each transfer, whichever is greater
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Foreign transaction fee
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Credit needed
Up to $1,350 in value 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
This airline is a strategic Chase transfer partner for anyone with travel goals that include short hops operated by Oneworld alliance partners like American Airlines or Alaska Airlines. If you want to visit your family a couple of states away for the holidays, or if you’re someone who likes to migrate south for the winter, British Airways Avios could be a good fit for you.
For nonstop domestic coach flights, you’ll pay:
- 7,500 points each way for flight durations of less than 650 miles (i.e. Atlanta to Miami)
- 9,000 points each way for flight durations between 651 and 1,151 miles (i.e. New York to Orlando)
With a 90,000-point Ink bonus, you can get between nine and 12 one-way domestic short-haul flights.
One word of caution with these redemptions: Some domestic short-haul fares are extremely cheap. Before transferring your points to British Airways, check the cash price of the ticket. You may spend fewer points by simply booking the ticket through the Chase Travel Portal at a rate of 1.25 to 1.5 cents each.
Luxury Hyatt hotel stay
Another popular Chase transfer partner is World of Hyatt. Participating properties cost between 3,500 and 45,000 points per night. That means you could conceivably squeeze up to 25 free nights out of a 90,000-point Ink bonus.
The more valuable use is a few nights at a fancy hotel, like the Park Hyatt Beaver Creek. Here, you’ll pay between 25,000 and 35,000 points per night. The rates exceed $1,000 during ski season, giving you an excellent value for your points.
For instance, a three-night stay in early February 2023 costs 90,000 points all in, with no taxes or fees. This same stay would cost a whopping $3,752 in cash. That’s a value of 4.1 cents per point — much higher than the 1 to 1.5 cents in value you’d receive from booking via the Chase Travel Portal.
Two round-trip coach flights to Europe
Iberia is the flag carrier of Spain and its Iberia Plus loyalty program offers an incredibly cheap way to get to Europe — just 34,000 points round-trip to Madrid from the following cities:
- Boston
- Chicago
- New York (JFK)
- Washington, D.C. (IAD)
That price is so low that it could be worth flying to one of these cities just to take advantage of the deal. With the 90,000 points you’ll earn from these limited-time Ink Business Cash® Credit Card or Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card bonuses, you can book two round-trip flights to Madrid and still have 22,000 points left over.
The taxes and fees on these awards can be around $200, but your extra points left over can help to mitigate that fee.
$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
The Ink Business Cash and Unlimited 90,000-point bonus would get you a statement credit for $990 against internet, cable, phone services and shipping charges with those cards, while the bonus would be worth $1,350 if you had the Sapphire Reserve and redeemed your points to cover Airbnb or dining charges.
$900 in cash
If all of this sounds too complicated, you can instead simply redeem your points for cash at a rate of 1 cent each — giving you a $900 bounty for quite literally zero effort. You can request a check or direct deposit into your bank account, or you can choose to receive a statement credit on your card. Then, you can increase the value of your cash by putting it into a high-yield savings account or investing it.
$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.
