The Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card offers great rewards for small business owners. With bonus points on travel, shipping, advertising, and communication services, plus valuable travel protections, it's a solid choice for companies looking to maximize their everyday spending.
This credit card review will cover everything you need to know about this card to determine if you should add this card or a different card to your wallet. Let's dive right in.
- Earn 100,000 bonus points after you spend $8,000 on purchases in the first 3 months after account opening.
- 3X Points on Travel, Shipping, Advertising (Social Media and Search Engines), Internet, Cable, and Phone on the First $150,000 Each Account Year
- 25% Additional Points Value in Travel Redemption
- Primary Rental Car Insurance
- Trip Cancellation/Interruption Insurance
- Cell Phone Protection
- Purchase Protection and Extended Warranty
- No Foreign Transaction Fees
- $95 Annual Fee
Welcome Bonus of Ink Preferred
The Ink Business Preferred currently offers the following welcome bonus:
Earn 100,000 bonus points after you spend $8,000 on purchases in the first 3 months after account opening.
However, it’s important to note that the card falls under Chase’s 5/24 rule. If you’ve opened five or more new personal credit card accounts across all issuers in the past 24 months, your application will likely face automatic rejection, regardless of your credit score.
Related: History of Welcome Bonuses for Ink Preferred Card.
Earning Points with Ink Preferred
The Ink Business Preferred offers several nice bonus categories that can be lucrative to small business owners, including:
- 3 points per dollar on travel;*
- 3 points per dollar on shipping purchases;*
- 3 points per dollar on internet, cable, and phone services;*
- 3 points per dollar on advertising purchases made with social media sites and search engines;* and
- 1 point per dollar on all other eligible spending.
The 3x bonus points are limited to the first $150,000 spent in combined purchases every account anniversary year. After reaching the $150,000 cap in these bonus categories, your earning rate drops to 1 point per dollar spent.
If your business has substantial expenses in any of the 3x categories, you can quickly earn a significant stash of Ultimate Rewards points. The $150,000 cap on bonus category spending is quite generous and resets each account anniversary year, allowing most small to medium sized businesses to maximize their bonus category earnings year after year without worrying about hitting the limit too quickly.
Annual Fee of Ink Preferred
The Ink Business Preferred carries a $95 annual fee, which aligns with industry standards for a business card offering this level of rewards and benefits. For most businesses, the card's bonus categories, sign-up bonus, and additional perks will more than offset this moderate fee, providing a net positive value.
To illustrate, earning just 4,750 points annually (worth about $95 based on a 2.0 cent per point valuation) will cover the annual fee cost. This equates to spending $1,584 across the 3x bonus categories, an easily attainable target for many businesses. In fact, many businesses will earn far more than this in rewards each year, making the annual fee a minor investment for a substantial return. The key is to ensure your business spending aligns well with the card's bonus categories and benefits to extract the maximum value possible.
Benefits of Ink Preferred
The Ink Business Preferred offers the following benefits to cardholders:
Trip Delay Insurance: When your trip is significantly delayed due to covered reasons like equipment failures or severe weather, this protection reimburses you for reasonable expenses including lodging, meals, toiletries, and medication. The coverage activates when you pay for travel with your card and extends to family members on the same itinerary, though you’ll need to seek reimbursement from the travel carrier first.
Cell Phone Protection: When you use your card to pay your monthly phone bill, you’ll receive valuable coverage against damage or theft of your device.
Primary Rental Car Insurance: When you rent a car and pay with this card, you’ll receive comprehensive coverage including damage and theft protection. Simply decline the rental company’s collision damage waiver and charge the entire rental to your card to activate coverage. This insurance covers damage, theft, and valid loss-of-use charges worldwide.
Trip Cancellation & Interruption Insurance: This protection reimburses you for non-refundable, prepaid travel expenses if you need to cancel before departure or cut your trip short due to covered situations like severe illness or weather events. Coverage activates when you pay for your trip with the card, but it’s important to note that reimbursement only applies for specific covered reasons rather than any cancellation.
Extended Warranty Protection: Your purchases gain an extra year of warranty protection when bought with this card, extending manufacturer warranties of three years or less without the inflated prices of store warranty plans.
120-Day Purchase Protection: Get 120 days of protection against damage, theft, and even loss of your purchases – one of the longest windows available. This premium coverage automatically applies when you pay with your card.
No Foreign Transaction Fees: You’ll save money on every purchase while traveling internationally since this card doesn’t add the typical 3% surcharge that many other cards impose.
Redeeming Chase Ultimate Rewards Points
Ink Business Preferred points come in as Chase Ultimate Rewards, and that currency is one of the strongest in the game. You've got two main paths to spend them.
The easier option is booking through Chase Travel. Points Boost lets you redeem for up to 1.75 cents each on select flights, hotels and rental cars, so you're getting solid value without any extra steps.
The bigger win, though, comes from transferring points to airline and hotel partners. This is where you can turn a modest points balance into a business class seat or a five-star hotel stay that would otherwise cost thousands in cash.
The current transfer partners are: Aer Lingus, Air Canada Aeroplan, Air France KLM Flying Blue, British Airways, Emirates, Hyatt, Iberia, IHG, JetBlue, Marriott, Singapore KrisFlyer, Southwest, United, Virgin Atlantic, and Wyndham.
Most transfers land in your loyalty account within minutes, so you won't be stuck waiting around once you've found the flight or room you want.
A few examples show just how far this can stretch. Transfer to World of Hyatt and you could book a free night at a luxury property that normally runs $1,000 or more. Send points to an airline partner instead, and a business or first class ticket priced at $10,000 in cash suddenly costs a fraction of that in miles.
One more perk worth knowing: when you redeem points for flights booked directly with an airline, you'll still earn miles and elite credit on that trip, just like a paid fare. Hotel redemptions typically don't work the same way.
The real advantage here is flexibility. You're not tied to one program, and you can hold your points until you're ready to book.
Pros and Cons of Chase Ink Preferred
Here are the advantages and disadvantages of this card:Pros:
3x Bonus Categories: The card’s bonus categories align well with common business expenses and offer a high 3x earning rate. You will be able to quickly accumulate points on their largest and most frequent expenses.
Comprehensive Travel and Purchase Protections: For a card with a modest annual fee, the Ink Business Preferred offers an extensive suite of protections. Benefits like primary rental car insurance, trip cancellation coverage, cell phone protection, and purchase protection can save businesses hundreds or thousands each year.
High-Value Rewards Currency: Chase Ultimate Rewards are some of the most valuable points around, thanks to the 25% travel redemption bonus and the program’s excellent transfer partners. Businesses that leverage these options can extract significant value.
Additional Employee Cards at No Extra Cost: The ability to obtain employee cards for free, with all rewards pooled into a single account, makes it easy for businesses to maximize their rewards quickly. Many other cards charge for additional cards.
Cons:
Bonus Category Cap: The $150,000 annual cap on bonus category spending may be restrictive for larger businesses with very high expenses in those categories. After reaching the cap, you’ll only earn one point per dollar in those categories.
Lacks Some Premium Travel Benefits: While the travel protections are excellent, the Ink Business Preferred doesn’t offer some of the premium travel benefits that some road warriors may value, such as airport lounge access, airline fee credits, or a TSA PreCheck/Global Entry fee credit.
No Introductory 0% APR Offer: Unlike some other business credit cards, the Ink Business Preferred doesn’t offer an introductory 0% APR on purchases. Businesses looking to finance a large purchase over time may need to consider a different card.
Is the Ink Business Preferred Worth It?
The Ink Business Preferred is a solid choice for small business owners looking to maximize their rewards. You’ll appreciate its generous welcome bonus, which can provide significant value when redeemed for travel.
The card’s 3x points on categories like travel, shipping, and advertising align well with many business expenses, potentially allowing you to rack up points quickly.
While the $95 annual fee isn’t waived the first year, the card’s benefits, including cell phone protection and travel insurance, can easily offset this cost for many users.
Learn How to Apply: Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card.
- Earn 100,000 bonus points after you spend $8,000 on purchases in the first 3 months after account opening.
- 3X Points on Travel, Shipping, Advertising (Social Media and Search Engines), Internet, Cable, and Phone on the First $150,000 Each Account Year
- 25% Additional Points Value in Travel Redemption
- Primary Rental Car Insurance
- Trip Cancellation/Interruption Insurance
- Cell Phone Protection
- Purchase Protection and Extended Warranty
- No Foreign Transaction Fees
- $95 Annual Fee
For rates and fees of The Blue Business Plus® Credit Card from American Express, please click here. Eligibility and Benefit level varies by Card. Terms, Conditions, and Limitations Apply. Please visit americanexpress.com/benefitsguide for more details. Underwritten by Amex Assurance Company.
