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| Card Details and Application Link |
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Ink Business Cash® Credit Card Up to 75K points ⓘ Affiliate 35K after $3K spend in 3 months and an additional 40K points after $6K spend in 6 months. In addition, 10% Business Relationship bonus if you have the Ink Business Cash and a Chase Business Checking account on your first anniversary.No Annual Fee Click here to learn how to apply This is an affiliate offer. Frequent Miler may earn a commission if you are approved for this offer Alternate Offer: If you have a household member with an Ink card, you may prefer the referral offer whereby the referrer can earn 40,000 points and the new account holder can earn 75,000 points after $6,000 in purchases in the first 3 months since it will yield more total points. Recent better offer: 90K after $6K spend in 6 monthd (expired 1/17/24 FM Mini Review: This one should be in everyone's wallet. Incredible welcome bonus for a no-annual-fee card. Great card for 5X categories. Excellent companion card to Sapphire Reserve, Sapphire Preferred, or Ink Business Preferred. Click here for our complete card review Earning rate: 5X office supplies and cellular/landline/cable (on up to $25,000 in total purchases in 5x categories annually) ✦ 2X on the first $25K in combined purchases at gas stations and restaurants each cardmember year ✦ 5X Lyft through March 2025 Card Info: Visa Signature Business issued by Chase. This card imposes foreign transaction fees. See also: Chase Ultimate Rewards Complete Guide |
The Ink Business Cash® Credit Card is one of my favorite cards. It has no annual fee, it offers awesome 5X category bonuses (and a couple decent 2X bonuses), and even though it is advertised as a cash back card it actually earns valuable Chase Ultimate Rewards points. Surprisingly this no-fee card offers a few valuable perks as well: auto rental coverage, 1 year extended warranty, and 120 day purchase protection.
Unfortunately, this card does charge foreign transaction fees, so it is not a good choice for spend outside of the US.
Ink Business Cash® Credit Card Application Tips
Should you apply?
Even though this is a business card, I think that this is one of the first cards almost all point collectors should get. It offers a terrific combination of a great signup bonus, no annual fee, super-valuable points, and awesome 5X category bonuses. If you are eligible (see next section), you should get this card.
Are you eligible?
To get this card you must have a business, and you must be under 5/24 (more on 5/24 below).
With a single business it's possible to apply for each Chase Ink card and to earn a welcome bonus for each: Ink Business Preferred, Ink Business Cash, Ink Business Unlimited, and Ink Business Premier.
Similarly, if you have more than one business, it’s possible to get the same Chase Ink card and welcome bonus for each business you own. This is true even though the application terms state otherwise: “I understand that any new cardmember bonus offers for this product are not available to either current or previous cardmembers of this product who received a new cardmember bonus for this product in the last 24 months.” Despite those terms, it's very common for people to successfully apply for more than one of the same Ink card across multiple businesses.
Even better, experience has proven that it is possible to successfully apply for the same Ink card for a single business multiple times even if you still have the older Ink card open. As long as your application is approved, you should qualify for the welcome bonus.
Similarly, if you have more than one business, it’s possible to get the same Chase Ink card and welcome bonus for each business you own. This is true even though the application terms state otherwise: “I understand that any new cardmember bonus offers for this product are not available to either current or previous cardmembers of this product who received a new cardmember bonus for this product in the last 24 months.” Despite those terms, it's very common for people to successfully apply for more than one of the same Ink card across multiple businesses.
Even better, experience has proven that it is possible to successfully apply for the same Ink card for a single business multiple times even if you still have the older Ink card open. As long as your application is approved, you should qualify for the welcome bonus.
| Applying for Business Credit Cards Yes, you have a business: In order to sign up for a business credit card, you must have a business. That said, it's common for people to have businesses without realizing it. If you sell items at a yard sale, or on eBay, for example, then you have a business. Similar examples include: consulting, writing (e.g. blog authorship, planning your first novel, etc.), handyman services, owning rental property, renting on airbnb, driving for Uber or Lyft, etc. In any of these cases, your business is considered a Sole Proprietorship unless you form a corporation of some sort. When you apply for a business credit card as a sole proprietor, you can use your own name as your business name, use your own address and phone as the business' address and phone, and your social security number as the business' Tax ID / EIN. Alternatively, you can get a proper Tax ID / EIN from the IRS for free, in about a minute, through this website. Is it OK to use business cards for personal expenses? Anecdotally, almost everyone I know uses business cards for personal expenses. That said, the terms in most business card applications state that you should use the card only for business use. Also, some consumer credit card protections do not apply to business cards. My advice: don't use the card for personal expenses if you're not comfortable doing so. |
| Chase's 5/24 Rule: With most Chase credit cards, Chase will not approve your application if you have opened 5 or more cards with any bank in the past 24 months. To determine your 5/24 status, see: 3 Easy Ways to Count Your 5/24 Status. The easiest option is to track all of your cards for free with Travel Freely. |
How to apply
You can find the current best signup offer and application link here: Chase Ink Business Cash.
The first part of the application asks for personal info. Fill this out the same way you would fill out a consumer credit card application with your own name and home address, your income (not just your business income), etc. For the question about your business title, answer "owner." Next up is the business info section. If you already have a well established business, then the answers should be straightforward. If you are just getting started with your business, below are examples of how to fill this out. These answers assume that you do not have any employees and you operate as a sole proprietorship (which is the most basic form of a business). Use your judgment to answer differently if the examples given don’t match your circumstances:
Here are example answers for the business part of the application:
Check Application Status
After submitting your application, you can check status by calling the automated status line: (888) 338-2586
Here are example answers for the business part of the application:
- Legal business structure: Sole Proprietor
- Business legal name: If you don’t already have a business name, I recommend using your own name as the business name.
- Desired business name on card: Again, this can be your own name if you don’t have a business name to use.
- Does your business use another name? No
- Tax ID type: EIN (you can get an EIN quickly and for free from the IRS here) If you'd prefer to use your social security number as your tax ID, select SSN rather than EIN.
- Is your business's physical address the same as your personal address? Yes
- Number of employees: 0 (the instructions say to enter the number of employees you have, not including yourself)
- Business phone number: Your phone number
- Business established date: When did your business start? If you've been doing your business for years (selling stuff at yard sales, for example), it's fine to estimate the starting date.
- Annual business revenue: $0 (or project an amount based on expected revenue)
- Business category, Business type, Business sub-type: Pick whichever categories are closest to your business. For example, an aspiring author, artist, or musician might choose: "Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation" and "Independent Artists, Writers, Performers."
- Estimated monthly spend: $3,000 (Use your judgement here. A higher number might lead to a larger credit line, but if it's too high it might negatively affect approval).
Check Application Status
After submitting your application, you can check status by calling the automated status line: (888) 338-2586Reconsideration
If your application is denied, I recommend calling for reconsideration (1-888-270-2127). It’s surprising how often denials can be changed to approvals just by asking.
Chase Ink Business Cash Perks
Travel Protection
- Auto Rental Coverage: Chase offers primary auto rental CDW (collision damage waiver) when renting for business purposes. Here’s the description directly from Chase: “Decline the rental company’s collision insurance and charge the entire rental cost to your card. Coverage is primary when renting for business purposes and provides reimbursement up to the actual cash value of the vehicle for theft and collision damage for most cars in the U.S. and abroad.”
- Baggage Delay Insurance: “Reimburses you for essential purchases like toiletries and clothing for baggage delays over 6 hours by passenger carrier up to $100 a day for 3 days.”
- Travel Accident Insurance: “When you pay for your air, bus, train or cruise transportation with your card, you are eligible to receive accidental death or dismemberment coverage of up to $500,000.”
Purchase Protection
Extended Warranty: “Extends the time period of U.S. manufacturer’s warranty by an additional year, on eligible warranties of three years or less.”
Damage and Theft Protection: “Covers your new purchases for 120 days against damage or theft up to $10,000 per claim and $50,000 per account.”
Chase Ink Business Cash Earn Points
Signup Bonus
The signup bonus for this card is advertised as cash back, but the rewards are actually delivered as Ultimate Rewards points. Here’s the current signup offer:
| Card Offer |
|---|
Up to 75K points ⓘ Affiliate 35K after $3K spend in 3 months and an additional 40K points after $6K spend in 6 months. In addition, 10% Business Relationship bonus if you have the Ink Business Cash and a Chase Business Checking account on your first anniversary.No Annual Fee Alternate Offer: If you have a household member with an Ink card, you may prefer the referral offer whereby the referrer can earn 40,000 points and the new account holder can earn 75,000 points after $6,000 in purchases in the first 3 months since it will yield more total points. Recent better offer: 90K after $6K spend in 6 monthd (expired 1/17/24 |
Refer Friends
Referring friends is often a good way to earn extra points with Chase products, but referral offers come and go over time. When referral offers are available, Chase sends emails to eligible cardholders with the offer details. Cardholders can also look for Chase friend referral offers here.
Bonus Spend
| Card Info Name and Earning Rate (no offer) |
|---|
Earning rate: 5X office supplies and cellular/landline/cable (on up to $25,000 in total purchases in 5x categories annually) ✦ 2X on the first $25K in combined purchases at gas stations and restaurants each cardmember year ✦ 5X Lyft through March 2025 |
This is where the action is… The Ink Cash card offers 5X on cell phone, cable, select streaming services, and internet on up to $25,000 in total purchases per account anniversary year.
Automated 5X
I recommend setting up autopay with your cell phone, cable, streaming services, and internet provider to charge to your Ink Business Cash card. This way you’ll automatically earn 5X on all of these bills. I suspect that many households pay $400 or more monthly on these services. $400/month in bills at 5X translates into 24,000 points per year.
More 5X
5X for office supplies is the true secret weapon of this card. The reason this is so powerful is that you can earn 5X when buying anything sold at office supply stores, either online or in-store. And some office supply stores sell many things far beyond office supplies.
2X Too
Don’t forget that the Ink Cash card also earns 2X at gas stations and restaurants. Unless you have a card that offers better rewards in those places, the Ink Cash is a good choice.
Chase Ink Business Cash Redeem Points
Cash Back
Cardholders can redeem points for 1 cent each either as statement credits or as cash back. Cash back can be taken as a statement credit or via check or ACH transfer.
Travel
If you or another household member has a premium or ultra-premium card that earns Chase points, it is easy to get better than 1 cent per point value when redeeming points for travel. The trick is to move the points from your no-annual-fee card to the premium card before using points to buy travel. Chase allows you to freely move points to another card you own or to a card owned by a household member or business partner. They call this "combining points" (see: Combine Points Across Cards).
Redeem points for travel: 1.5 cents per point
This option requires that someone in your household has the ultra-premium Chase Sapphire Reserve card. First move (combine) points from your no-fee card to the Sapphire Reserve account. Next, log into Chase under the Sapphire Reserve account, and go to the Chase portal to book your travel. A $500 flight would usually cost 50,000 points if you used points attached to the no-fee card, but with the Chase Sapphire Reserve it would cost only 33,333 points.Redeem points for travel: 1.25 cents per point
This option requires that someone in your household has a premium card that earns Chase points: Chase Sapphire Preferred or Chase Ink Business Preferred. First move (combine) points from your no-fee card to one of these premium cards. Next, log into Chase under the account that now has the points, and go to the Chase portal to book your travel. A $500 flight would usually cost 50,000 points if you used points attached to a no-annual-fee card, but with the Chase Sapphire Preferred it would cost only 40,000 points.Details about booking travel through Chase
You can use the Chase portal to book airfare, hotels, cruises, activities, and car rentals. Airfare purchased through the portal still earns airline miles and elite qualifying miles. Hotels booked this way do not earn hotel rewards. Worse, hotels booked through the portal often won't offer you elite benefits even if you have status.Travel protections apply
When you pay with points for travel, Chase's automatic travel protections do apply. So, you can be covered for things like car rentals, trip delays, trip cancellation & interruption, lost luggage, etc. The coverage you receive will be based on which card's rewards were used to book the trip. For example, if you have both a Chase Sapphire Preferred and a Sapphire Reserve, you would want to move your points from the Preferred to the Reserve and then use the Reserve points to book your trip. You will get both better value (1.5 cents per point) and better travel protections. See: Sapphire Reserve Travel Insurance.Transfer points
The best use of Chase points, in my opinion, is to transfer points to airline and hotel partners in order to book high value awards. Your best bet is usually to wait until you find a great flight or night award before transferring points. Points transfer at a ratio of 1:1 as shown in the list of transfer partners below. Keep in mind that while transfers are instantly posted to most loyalty programs, transfers to Singapore Krisflyer and Marriott Bonvoy are not instant.
Move points to premium or ultra-premium card first
You cannot transfer points directly from a no-annual-fee Chase card to airline or hotel partners, but you can move points first to a premium card (Sapphire Preferred or Ink Business Preferred, for example) or ultra-premium card (Sapphire Reserve) and then transfer the points to airline or hotel partners. Points can be transferred to the loyalty accounts of the primary cardholder or any authorized user on the account. Points can also be transferred to the loyalty account of a joint business owner, but they do need to be an authorized user on the associated business account.Transfer Partners
| Rewards Program | Best Uses |
|---|---|
| Aer Lingus Avios | Fuel surcharges are sometimes lower when booking with Aer Lingus (Avios.com) rather than British Airways, Qatar, or Iberia. It's possible to move points (Avios) between Iberia, British Airways, Aer Lingus, and Qatar. See also: Avios Sweet Spots for Award Tickets. |
| Air Canada Aeroplan | Redeem for Star Alliance flights and/or flights with Air Canada partners (such as Etihad). No fuel surcharges; $39 CAD award booking fee; 5,000 points to add stopover on one-way award. See: Air Canada Aeroplan: Everything you need to know. |
| Air France KLM Flying Blue | Monthly Air France Promo Awards often represent very good value. Air France miles can be used to book Sky Team awards, including Delta awards. Air France often offers very good business class award pricing between the US and Europe & Israel. |
| British Airways Avios | While flights on British Airways itself often incur outrageously high fuel surcharges, many BA partners charge low or no fuel surcharges. Excellent value can be had in redeeming BA points for short distance flights. It's possible to move points (Avios) between Iberia, British Airways, Aer Lingus, and Qatar. See also: Avios Sweet Spots for Award Tickets. |
| Emirates Skywards | The best use of Emirates miles has been to fly Emirates itself. Unfortunately fuel surcharges can be steep. See: Emirates Sweet Spot Awards - First class from 30K miles round trip. |
| Hyatt | Use for Hyatt free nights, free suite nights, lounge upgrades, or suite upgrades. Hyatt points are often worth at least 2 cents each, but they’re sometimes worth far more. Bonus: award nights are not subject to resort fees. |
| Iberia Avios | On their own flights, Iberia offers low award prices and a very reasonable 25 Euro cancellation fee. Partner awards can offer good value under some circumstances as well, but these are usually nonrefundable. Fuel surcharges are sometimes lower when booking with Iberia rather than British Airways, Aer Lingus, or Qatar. It's possible to move points (Avios) between Iberia, British Airways, Aer Lingus, and Qatar. See also: Avios Sweet Spots for Award Tickets. |
| IHG | IHG dynamically prices their awards and sometimes offer very good value. IHG Premier and IHG Premier Business cards offer the fourth night free on award stays. |
| JetBlue | JetBlue points offer the most value when cheap ticket prices are available and when award taxes are high relative to the overall cost of the ticket (more details can be found here). The JetBlue Plus Card and the JetBlue Business Card offer a 10% rebate on awards, so you can get more value by holding one of these cards. |
| Marriott Bonvoy | 5th Night Free awards. Opportunities to get outsized value exist but can be hard to find. |
| Qatar Privilege Club Avios | Qatar has reasonable award prices for flying Qatar itself. Points are now transferable 1 to 1 to British Airways (and from there to Aer Lingus or Iberia). It is now also possible to book JetBlue flights with Qatar Avios. |
| Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer | Use to book Singapore Airlines First Class awards (generally reserved for their own members), Alaska Airlines economy awards, or for Star Alliance awards (including United Airlines). |
| Southwest Rapid Rewards | Award flights are fully refundable. Point values vary due to certain taxes not being charged on awards, but tend to average around 1.5 cents per point. |
| United MileagePlus | United offers free award changes and free cancelations. Like Avianca and Aeroplan, United never charges fuel surcharges for awards. Unfortunately, United charges many more miles for international first class awards. Good uses of miles include United's Excursionist Perk awards and (sometimes) dynamically priced United economy awards. |
| Virgin Atlantic Flying Club | Virgin Atlantic offers a few great sweet spot awards including US to Europe on Delta One business class for 50K points one-way. See: Best uses for Virgin Atlantic points (Sweet Spot Spotlight). |
Other ways to redeem points
Through the Chase portal you can redeem points for cash back, gift cards, merchandise, or experiences. With this approach you'll usually get 1 cent per point value. One exception is that Chase occasionally offers gift cards at a discount so you may be able to get better than 1 cent per point value during a gift card sale.
You can also use points to pay some merchants directly (Amazon.com, for example or via Chase Pay). Don't do this. These options offer very poor value. Further, they may compromise the security of your account (i.e. if someone hacks into your Amazon account, they might spend your points - causing you a headache in getting your points reinstated).
You can also use points to pay some merchants directly (Amazon.com, for example or via Chase Pay). Don't do this. These options offer very poor value. Further, they may compromise the security of your account (i.e. if someone hacks into your Amazon account, they might spend your points - causing you a headache in getting your points reinstated).
Chase Ink Business Cash Manage Points
Combine Points Across Cards
If you are the primary account holder with multiple cards, you can freely combine Chase points back and forth between your accounts. Your points can then be redeemed according to the card to which you move them. For example, if you have the no-fee Ink Business Cash card and the ultra-premium Sapphire Reserve card, you can earn 5X points per dollar on office supply purchases (or on gift cards purchased at office supply stores) with the Ink Card and then move those points to your Sapphire Reserve account to redeem them for 1.5 cents per point towards travel.
If you intend to cancel a card that earns Chase points, you should first combine your points with a card you intend to keep active. Once you cancel, you will forfeit any unused points in that account (See: My 90,000 Points mistake). A product change should not affect your balance, but some people prefer moving points before a product change as well just to be safe.
If you intend to cancel a card that earns Chase points, you should first combine your points with a card you intend to keep active. Once you cancel, you will forfeit any unused points in that account (See: My 90,000 Points mistake). A product change should not affect your balance, but some people prefer moving points before a product change as well just to be safe.
Share Points Across Cardholders
Chase allows customers to transfer Chase points to any other account in that customer's name or to one additional household member or joint business owner (for free). You do need to call Chase the first time you transfer points to a different person's account, but once that's been done once, you can transfer more points online in the future.
Why this is valuable:
Why this is valuable:
- You earn points with the card offering the best return on purchases and then use points with the card offering the best redemption rate.
- Only one member of your household needs to maintain a premium card for transferring to partners or booking travel (though note that the primary cardholder can only transfer points to partner loyalty programs in the name of the primary cardholder or authorized users).
How to Keep Points Alive
Thankfully, it is very easy to keep Chase points alive: simply keep the points in an open account and they will not expire. Note that if you close a card that earns Chase points, you will lose any points associated with that card. You should first combine points to move points away from the card you intend to close and to another card that will remain open as per the sharing section above before canceling. See: My 90,000 point mistake. See also: A checklist for cancelling credit cards.
Chase Ink Business Cash Lifecycle
How to meet minimum spend requirements
Once you are approved for a Chase card, you have three months to meet the required spend in order to get the welcome bonus. Technically, you’re not supposed to use business credit cards for personal purchases, but it is quite common to do so. If you feel comfortable with it, use the new card for all of your usual spend.
If your usual spend isn’t enough, consider using the Plastiq bill pay service to use your card to pay bills that can’t usually be paid by credit card (rent, mortgage, contractors, etc.). Click here to find many more options for increasing credit card spend.
If your usual spend isn’t enough, consider using the Plastiq bill pay service to use your card to pay bills that can’t usually be paid by credit card (rent, mortgage, contractors, etc.). Click here to find many more options for increasing credit card spend.
Keep, cancel, or product change?
Is this card worth keeping in the long run? Yes! It has no annual fee and it offers 5X rewards in several categories. What’s not to like? If you decide to cancel anyway, make sure to first redeem any remaining points or move them to another Ultimate Rewards card.
Related Cards
Ultimate Rewards Business Cards
| Card Offer and Details |
Ultimate Rewards Consumer Cards
| Card Offer and Details |
Hello! Love your website and podcast! I recently got the Chase Ink Business Cash and purchased a few merchant gift cards at Office Depot. The charge shows on my transactions page, but it does not show on my pending points summary at all- I am worried I won’t get the 5x points. Do I have to wait until a certain date to receive those 5x points? All my other charges show the points they earned except the Office Depot one. Thank you!
@greg I recently applied and was approved. Was going to take the Nick route and put a down payment on the card but they only approved me for $3k limit which I found odd since I have the Reserve, Freedom Unlimited, and Southwest Cards all with $20k+ limits. The next issue I ran into was linking my Biz Cash card with my Sapphire Reserve card. I did just sign up and may have been attempting too early to do so but any advice or can you write a post on the easiest way to link the biz account with my personal cards in my name?
I think this post will answer your question: https://frequentmiler.com/link-chase-business-and-personal-accounts-online/
Got a pending message for my application. Will applying for another card have any effect on the approval of the first card? Don’t want to waste the pull…
@Greg
Sorry for the very late reply. I don’t think that applying for another card will have any effect on the pending one… however, the pending application could have an effect on the new application.
So basically no reason not to apply for another card. In the end I didn’t try because I was told it’s a Chase shutdown risk (although I’ve done 2 in one day in the past). Have you heard that?
P. S thanks for taking the time to catch up on a month old comment!
I don’t believe that applying for 2 is a shutdown risk. That said, for the small percentage of people who are at risk of a shutdown due to other things such as cycling your limit many times over within a billing cycle, any time they apply they run the risk of having eyes on their accounts. Most people don’t have to worry about that.
Any chance they give you the card number upon approval? If not is it a reasonable time to ship?
I don’t think so
[…] can be an easy point-generator for Ink Cash or Ink Plus cardholders (note that the Ink Plus is no longer available to new […]
Hi Greg, I think the bonus offers for the Ink Cash and Unlimited have to be updated. I don’t see 75k points – only $750. 🙁
Chase advertises the bonus as $750 but it is delivered in the form of 75K Ultimate Rewards points.
I want to apply for this card, right now I have 2 ink cards and I am probably at my credit limit from chase. Should I close a card then apply or apply first and then contact them to move credit and close card?
In most cases I think it’s better to apply and then call to see if they can move credit around.
Thanks Greg!
I was just pleasantly surprised to find out that chase business cards can now be added to apple wallet for Apple Pay. Was able to add the CIC and CIB unlimited. Just a few mos ago I tried and it didn’t work.
This is great since my spouse and I didn’t want to get additional authorized user cards and now we can just add the one card to both our Apple Pay wallets.
How were you able to do this? I can move my personal Chase cards into the Wallet, but no way I see to do that through the Chase app…
Don’t use the chase app. Use Apple wallet through Apple Pay.
thanks!
[…] Chase Ultimate Rewards cards with no annual fee (such as Freedom Flex, Freedom Unlimited, and Ink Cash) do not directly allow point transfers to partners. However, if you or a household member or […]
[…] See also: Chase Ink Business Cash Complete Guide […]
[…] that earns 5x on office supply store spend (we have the no-longer-available Ink Plus card, but the Chase Ink Cash card would achieve the same end) to buy Visa Gift Cards and then use those Visa Gift Cards to make […]
[…] often possible to extend the use of a category bonus by buying gift cards. For example, the Chase Ink Cash card offers 5X for office supply store purchases (up to $25K spend per year). You can therefore take […]
[…] Chase Ink Cash Card earns 5 Ultimate Rewards points per dollar for office supply purchases, phone, TV, and internet (up […]
[…] extend your bonus earning by buying gift cards that are good at other stores. For example, the Chase Ink Cash card offers 5X at office supply stores (and TV, internet and phone). You can go to Staples or Office […]
[…] are great reasons to want both the Ink Business Cash and the Ink Business Unlimited cards. The former has incredible 5X bonus categories while the […]