Chase has a new business card on the block, the Ink Business Premier. It’s not the best they’ve got, but it’s not bad either. It’s a good match for businesses with high spending needs, especially those making big purchases throughout the year. However, it does have a few drawbacks compared to other Chase business cards, like a high annual fee and a rewards program that doesn’t quite hit the mark. If I were shopping for a new business card, I wouldn’t go for the Ink Business Premier, but it might be right for you. Let’s go over the pros and cons.
The Ink Business Premier Card is a small-business charge card with a pretty good cash-back rewards program and a great sign-up bonus. If you pay your balance in full each month, you get a higher spending limit, and many purchases qualify for Chase’s Flex for Business plan, which lets you pay over time (with interest).
Like other Chase cash-back cards, the Ink Business Premier is part of the Ultimate Rewards program, which lets you redeem points for cash, Amazon purchases, travel, gift cards, and more. But, you can’t combine points earned with your Ink Business Premier card with points earned on other Chase cards. That means you can’t get a redemption bonus on them if you have an eligible Chase card like the Chase Sapphire Reserve or Sapphire Preferred. You also can’t transfer points earned with the Premier to Chase Travel℠ partners, where they’re often worth more.
The Ink Business Premier has a $195 annual fee, which is higher than other Chase business cards. But, there’s no fee for additional employee cards.
What makes the Ink Business Premier Card stand out? Three things:
- Pay in Full By Default: The Ink Business Premier is Chase’s only charge card, and one of only a few well-known charge cards out there. That’s a plus if you can avoid carrying balances from month to month.
- Higher Cash-Back Rate on Big Purchases: The Ink Business Premier gives you 2.5% cash back on individual purchases over $5,000 (versus 2% on purchases under $5,000). If your business tends to make fewer, larger purchases or just bigger purchases in general, this can add up over time.
- Excellent Cell Phone Protection Benefit: This benefit isn’t unique to the Ink Business Premier, but it’s better than any other business cards’. It’s worth up to $1,000 per claim, minus a $100 deductible per claim, and applies to as many as three claims per year. Normal limits are more like $600 per claim and no more than two claims per year.
The Ink Business Premier card has some key features to note. It has an excellent sign-up bonus, a higher than average cash-back earning rate, and rules around paying your balance in full vs. carrying balances from month to month.
The sign-up bonus for new cardmembers is pretty great: Earn $1,000 bonus cash back after making $10,000 in purchases in the first three months from account opening. You’ll need to spend about $3,334 per month to earn it, but that should be doable if you run a growing business with lots of inventory or equipment needs.
The Ink Business Premier has a three-tiered rewards program that’s particularly generous for business travelers and big spenders:
- Earn unlimited 5% cash back on travel purchased through the Ultimate Rewards travel portal (Chase Travel)
- Earn unlimited 2.5% cash back on individual purchases totaling $5,000 or more
- Earn unlimited 2% cash back on all other eligible purchases
Cash back accrues as Ultimate Rewards points, which are worth up to $0.01 apiece at redemption. Points don’t expire as long as your account remains open and in good standing.
The best way to redeem your points is for cash, either as statement credits or bank account deposits. This option values your points at $0.01 apiece. Other options include travel, gift cards, and Amazon purchases. Avoid Amazon redemptions if possible, as they cut point values to $0.008 apiece.
The Ink Business Premier is technically a charge card, which means the default option is to pay your bill in full each month. Your credit limit is higher on pay-in-full purchases, so you should strive to do this if you can afford it. And if you prefer to carry balances from month to month due to inadequate or uneven cash flow, consider another credit card.
Chase may elect to set aside a portion of your credit limit as “Flex for Business.” You can pay for Flex for Business purchases over time, as you would with a regular credit card. Like a regular credit card, Flex for Business purchases accrue interest, so try to minimize its use if at all possible.
Cell phone protection is no longer a novelty in the credit card world, but the Ink Business Premier goes above and beyond. Its protection plan promises up to $1,000 in coverage per claim (minus a $100 deductible per claim) on up to three claims per year. This benefit applies to whatever devices your Ink Business Premier card pays the bills on. If you issue phones to all your employees, throw them on the card and take full advantage of the policy.
The Ink Business Premier has a standard lineup of travel benefits and protections:
- Trip cancellation and interruption insurance
- Trip delay reimbursement
- Baggage delay insurance
- Rental car collision damage waiver
- Travel and emergency assistance services, like roadside dispatch
To claim the insurance and reimbursement benefits, including rental car coverage, you’ll need to charge relevant expenses to your card. That means personal travel expenses are out of reach unless you charge them to a personal credit card with similar benefits.
The Ink Business Premier’s annual fee is $195. Employee cards don’t cost extra, no matter how many you order, and there’s no foreign transaction fee.
The Ink Business Premier Card requires good to excellent credit. If your business is relatively new, you may need to apply using your personal credit score, meaning you’ll need to personally guarantee your charges.
The Ink Business Premier has some great selling points. It has an outstanding sign-up bonus, 5% cash back on eligible Chase Travel℠ Purchases, 2.5% cash back on purchases greater than $5,000, a strong baseline cash-back rate, an excellent cell phone protection benefit, the option to pay in full or carry a balance, and no fee for employee cards.
However, it also has some drawbacks. It has a $195 annual fee, it doesn’t play nice with other Chase cards, and it has no travel transfer partners.
When compared to another popular Chase business card, the Chase Ink Business Cash Credit Card, the Ink Business Premier has a 5% earn rate on Chase Travel℠ purchases, a 2.5% earn rate on purchases over $5,000, a 2% earn rate on all other eligible purchases, the option to pay in full, and a $195 annual fee.
In conclusion, the Chase Ink Business Premier® Card is a good fit for people who own growing businesses with fairly high spending requirements. If you make multiple purchases of $5,000 more each year and can afford to pay your charges in full each month, you can’t do better within the Chase ecosystem. However, if you have multiple Chase cards, the fact that you can’t transfer Business Premier points to those accounts — or transfer them out to travel partners and potentially boost their redemption value — is a major drawback. So is the lack of other travel perks beyond the general travel insurance coverages you’d get with any premium Visa or Mastercard. But if you’re focused on earning cash back in the here and now, Premier has you covered. You make the call.
