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The Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card from Chase is a good choice for business owners who travel relatively frequently. This business credit card offers decent rewards rates and perks, but it truly shines thanks to the point bonus when redeeming rewards for travel through Chase Travel℠ -- and its 1:1 transfer rate to Chase's airline and hotel partners.
The point bonus makes it easy to earn above-average returns on your travel spending, while the transfer partners add considerable flexibility to the card. If Chase partners with your favorite airline or hotel, you can use your points to pay for a nights stay or airfare. Point transfers take a bit of extra work than simply redeeming points for statement credits, but you'll be well rewarded for the effort.
The Ink Business Preferred is well worth the $95 annual fee if you find yourself taking regular business trips and looking for a credit card that can help cover some of the expense.
Rewards and redemption
You can earn 3x points per dollar for travel, shipping purchases, advertising purchases made with social media sites and search engines and internet, cable and phone services (on the first $150,000 spent in combined purchases each account anniversary year, then 1x). You'll earn 1x point for everything else.
Once you've earned your rewards, you can redeem them for:
- Travel through Chase Travel℠ (25% point bonus)
- Statement credits
- Gift cards
- Pay with points (through Chase Ultimate Rewards or with third-party merchants)
Chase Ultimate Rewards points are usually worth 1 cent each, but can be increased to 1.25 cents by redeeming for travel through Chase Travel℠.
Cardholders are also able to transfer their points to Chase's travel partners at a 1:1 rate (1 Chase point = 1 partner mile/point). Transferring points could get you an even better per-point value than other forms of redemption.
Take a look at Chase's airline and hotel partners that cardholders are able to transfer their points to:
| Chase's travel partners | Transfer ratio (Chase points:miles/points) |
|---|---|
| Aer Lingus AerClub | 1:1 |
| British Airways Executive Club | 1:1 |
| Emirates Skywards | 1:1 |
| Flying Blue AIR FRANCE KLM | 1:1 |
| Iberia Plus | 1:1 |
| JetBlue TrueBlue | 1:1 |
| Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer | 1:1 |
| Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards | 1:1 |
| United MileagePlus | 1:1 |
| Virgin Atlantic Flying Club | 1:1 |
| IHG Rewards | 1:1 |
| Marriott Bonvoy | 1:1 |
| World of Hyatt | 1:1 |
Chase has partnerships with a few of the biggest travel brands including United, Southwest, Marriott Bonvoy and World of Hyatt. If you have any upcoming business trips, it would be a good idea to use your Chase Ultimate Rewards points to cover all of or some of your hotel or airfare costs.
Chase Travel
Chase's Travel platform allows cardholders to book all aspects of their travel, including airfare, car rentals and hotel stays. The Chase Ultimate Rewards platform is where cardholders can transfer their points to Chase's travel partners or redeem points for travel for a 25% bonus through Chase Travel. You can also use the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal to use your points to pay for Apple products.
If you have multiple Chase credit cards, you're even able to transfer points between the cards in the Chase Ultimate Rewards family.
Cards include the:
- Chase Sapphire Reserve®
- Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
- Chase Freedom Flex®*
- Chase Freedom Unlimited®
- Ink Business Cash® Credit Card
- Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card
It's worth noting that you can still transfer points from a business card, like the Ink Business Preferred, to a consumer card, like the Chase Sapphire Preferred, and vice versa.
Welcome offer
The Ink Business Preferred card offers new cardholders 90,000 bonus points for spending $8,000 in the first three months with the card. According to Chase, that would equate to a $900 value if redeemed for statement credits, or $1,125 if redeemed for travel through Chase Travel℠. However, you could potentially find an even higher value by transferring your points to Chase's travel partners.
The $8,000 spending requirement is higher than you would find on most consumer cards with a comparative annual fee, but lower than other annual-fee-charging business cards like the American Express® Business Gold Card or the Capital One Spark Cash Plus*. Still, you should cross-reference your monthly business expenses to see if your business would be likely to meet it.
Other card perks
In addition to its strong rewards program, the Ink Business Preferred offers business owners a handful of useful perks, including employee cards at no additional cost and a number of protections.
- Trip cancellation/interruption insurance: If your trip is canceled or interrupted due to a covered event, such as sickness, you could be reimbursed by up to $5,000 per person and $10,000 per trip.
- Auto rental collision damage waiver: Get primary rental car coverage against damage and theft. Decline the rental car provider's insurance offer and charge the full amount of the car rental to your Ink Business Preferred card. Because coverage is primary when renting for business purposes, you don't have to have or buy a separate car insurance policy, and it pays out before any other coverage you might have.
- Roadside dispatch: If you run into car trouble while traveling, call 1-800-847-2869 for help. Roadside dispatch services may be able to help you with changing a tire, reviving a dead battery, or providing fuel delivery and lockout services.
- Cell phone protection: Pay your phone bill with the card and get up to $1,000 per claim in cell phone protection against covered damage and theft. You can have a maximum of three claims per year with a $100 deductible per claim.
- Purchase protection: Your new purchases are covered against damage and theft for 120 days. Coverage is up to $10,000 per claim and $50,000 per account.
- Extended warranty: If you have a US manufacturer's warranty of three years or less on a new purchase, you could get it extended by an additional year.
FAQs
A point transfer is another route for redeeming your credit card rewards.. Instead of using your rewards for statement credits or to cover past travel expenses, you can transfer them to one of your credit card issuer’s hotel or airline partners and then use them to cover the cost of airfare or a hotel stay.
Sometimes transferring points will get you the best value for your money, depending on the transfer ratio or current rates, as reservation prices and point values tend to fluctuate.
It depends on the needs of your business. If you’re often away on business trips, utilizing a business travel card that features perks like point transfers, airport lounge access, Global Entry/TSA PreCheck application fee credit, or travel insurance would be more useful than a business rewards card.
On the other hand, business rewards cards are a good way to earn a return on general business spending like shipping, advertising, office supplies, or other types of purchases.
Redeeming rewards for statement credits will reduce the overall balance of your credit account.
Using points for travel means you are spending your points instead of your credit. That means your overall credit balance is not impacted, and there is no risk of accruing interest on purchases made upfront with points.
