The 80K Ink Business Preferred has launched–is it worth getting? The card replaces the Ink Plus, which is no longer available for new applications. First, here's a summary of the card benefits:
- Earn 80,000 Ultimate Rewards points after spending $5000 on the card within the first 3 months of card membership
- 3X per dollar on travel, telecommunications, shipping, advertising on social media and search engines, up to the first $150,000 spent in aggregate across those categories; after that earn 1 point per dollar.
- $95 annual fee is NOT waived the first year, unless opened at a Chase branch
- Ultimate Rewards points are worth 25% more if redeemed for travel through Chase Ultimate Rewards (although this isn't compelling if you already have the Chase Sapphire Reserve, which gives you 50% more value for Ultimate Rewards redemptions via Chase)
- No foreign transaction fees
Analysis
If you already have the Ink Plus (or the Ink Cash) the main reason to get the Ink Business Preferred is for the 80K signup bonus and for the 3X on shipping and social media advertising, if those categories are useful to you. In my own business I have virtually no shipping or social media advertising spend, so these categories are useless to me, and it's all about the 80,000 signup bonus, particularly as the additional trip interruption and trip delay benefits are inferior to those of Chase's premium card, the Chase Sapphire Reserve.
The $600 cell phone insurance benefit could be interesting, although it requires putting your cell phone bill on the Ink Business Preferred, which means earning just 3X per dollar vs. the 5X per dollar I currently earn with the Ink Plus. In my case that would mean earning around 3000 fewer Ultimate Rewards points per year, or ~$60 if valuing Ultimate Rewards points at 2 cents per point. So it all depends on how you value the cell phone insurance, although keep it mind there's also the $100 deductible.
Keep in mind that 5/24 applies to the Ink Business Preferred, so if you've opened 5 or more new credit cards (including being an authorized user on someone else's account) you'll either need to be pre-approved for the card or be a Chase Private Client to be able to be approved. The 80K bonus is attractive to me, so I plan to sign up if pre-approved, or to seek Chase Private Client reconsideration if not initially approved.
Do you plan to apply for the 80K Ink Business Preferred?
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