Before you apply for one of the Chase Ink cards, read this expert review for the 10 reasons you’d want to get an Ink credit card and a few reasons to avoid it.
Are the Ink Cash and Ink Plus worthwhile? The answer may surprise you.
CHASE'S INK CASH AND INK PLUS: THE BETTER BUSINESS CREDIT CARD?
Any business – large or small – can benefit from opening a credit card account, for convenient spending and for managing employees’ expenses. But there’s more than just convenience at work here. Both the Chase Ink Cash and Ink Plus cards offer:
Rewards: Earn 1% cash back or 1x point for most purchases. Earn up to 5% or 5x points depending on which card you use, what type of purchases you make with it and how much you've already spent this year.
Purchase protection: Have you purchased something? This covers your eligible purchases for 120 days against damage and theft (up to $10k per claim and $50k per account).
Extended warranty: Did something stop working? This extends the manufacturer's warranty by an additional year on eligible warranties (of 3 years or less).
Auto rental collision damage waiver: Unlike many other credit cards with "secondary" coverage (that only kicks in an amount after your own insurance does its part), this credit card offers primary coverage when renting an eligible car for business purposes.
Worldwide acceptance: These cards are accepted in more places than American Express and Discover.
Need another reason to consider one of these Chase cards? CreditDonkey’s recently completed study of the cards revealed 10 big benefits most small companies will enjoy by signing up for one of the cards. We detail them below.
Not a corporation or LLC? Most of us are not big corporations, but many of us are still business owners. Do you freelance, do consulting, or sell stuff online? If you operate your business in your own name, you are usually considered a sole proprietor, and you could benefit from keeping your business and personal spending separate (for legal and tax reasons). When applying, use your Social Security number as your tax ID (unless you have your own employer ID number) and your legal name as your business name (unless you are doing business under a different name).
What You Get with Either Card
Both cards fall under the Chase Ink label: Ink Cash and Ink Plus. While the Ink Cash is a basic cash back credit card, the Ink Plus offers more amenities, especially in its reward redemption structure. Those amenities come at a price – the Ink Plus has a $95 annual fee, while the Ink Cash does not.
Read on for 10 reasons why you may want to apply for either the Ink Cash or the Ink Plus, as well as six reasons to look elsewhere.
10 Reasons to Get a Chase Ink Credit Card
Intro Bonus Offer:
Get a cash flow injection. Spend a certain amount right away and get something in return for it, either cash with the Ink Cash or a bunch of points with the Ink Plus.
Ink Cash: Earn $200 in bonus cash back if you spend at least $3,000 in the first 3 months from opening your account.
Ink Plus: Earn 50,000 bonus points if you spend at least $5,000 in the first 3 months from account opening. If you redeem those points through Chase Ultimate Rewards, they could be worth up to $625 for travel. This is a timely bonus for companies staffed with restless road warriors.
Earn Rewards:
Get rewarded every time you and your employees use the card. Both cards will give a higher percentage back for certain types of purchases, but at the very least, you’ll get something in return.
Ink Cash: All spending earns a minimum of 1% cash back. There is no limit to the amount you can earn at this 1% rate.
Ink Plus: All spending earns a minimum of 1 point per dollar spent, which roughly translates to a reward rate of 1%.
Earn More Rewards:
Get extra rewards when your company hits the road. If you need to drive for your business, entertain clients, or occasionally stay in hotels, then you could get a higher amount back for such transactions, depending on the card.
Ink Cash: 2% cash back on the first $25,000 in combined purchases at gas stations and restaurants each account anniversary year.
Ink Plus: 2 points per dollar on the first $50,000 in combined purchases at gas stations and on hotel accommodation (when purchased directly with the hotel) each account anniversary year.
Earn Rewards in Business-Friendly Categories:
Make a dent in the office-supply budget. When you’re using a credit card for personal purchases, cash back rewards on your occasional shopping sprees purchases at (say) department stores are a nice perk. But when you’re using a card as a business owner, you want rewards for buying what and where you buy most often.
Ink Cash: 5% cash back on the first $25,000 in combined spending at office supply stores and on phone services, cable, and Internet each account anniversary year. Since these are typically major expense categories for small businesses, that higher reward rate is a nice feature.
Ink Plus: The same categories earn 5 points per dollar spent with the Ink Plus, but the spending limit is doubled – you can earn the higher reward rate on up to $50,000 in spending annually.
0% Intro Offer:
Need to start anew with a credit card, to pay down debt, or are you about to make a big investment? Get a break for the first year with Ink Cash.
Ink Cash: 0% intro APR for the first 12 months on purchases and balance transfers. After that, a variable APR, currently 13.24%, applies. If you're anticipating some big expenditures, here’s your chance to finance them – interest-free – for 12 months.
Ink Plus: There is no intro APR offer on the Ink Plus. A variable APR of 15.24% applies to the Ink Plus.
Transferable Travel Rewards:
Frequent flyers pay attention. You can transfer travel rewards with Ink Plus.
Ink Cash: Ink Cash does not have a transferable travel rewards program.
Ink Plus: Make sure you get the best possible deal for your points by moving them into other travel rewards programs with United, British Airways, Hyatt, and Marriott. Ink Plus cardholders enjoy 1:1 point transfer programs to more than 20 frequent flyer programs. Just one more incentive to choose this card.
Annual Fee:
To pay a fee or not? It’s a question to consider when looking at these cards. Avoid an annual fee with Ink Cash or get higher rewards with an annual fee for Ink Plus.
Ink Cash: There is no annual fee for this card.
Ink Plus: There is a $95 annual fee for this card. ($0 intro annual fee for the first year). Of course, Ink Plus provides greater rewards in exchange for the annual fee.
Rewards Never Expire:
Once you own either card, you’ll never confront a “use ’em or lose ’em” scenario when it comes to the points or cash-back you’ve earned.
Ink Cash and Ink Plus: No need to worry about expiration dates on the points or cash back you accumulate.
Receipt Tracking App:
Track your spending with Chase’s mobile app. Your receipts tell the story — all in one place.
Ink Cash and Ink Plus: For both cards, you can use a special app that allows you to tag and file your receipts for easy tracking.
Employee cards:
Employees can also earn rewards on their cards. It’s up to you how you handle those rewards – use them to invest in the business or give them to your employees in the form of a night on the town with your clients.
Ink Cash and Ink Plus: Businesses can obtain additional credit cards for their employees, and they can set custom spending limits on each card. All cards are eligible to earn rewards.
3 Reasons to Avoid the Ink Cash
You have to pay extra to use it overseas: Ink Cash comes with a foreign transaction fee of 3% on all purchases charged outside the United States. This will add up if you or your employees will be traveling internationally with the card. You can find an assortment of cards that don’t have a foreign transaction fee, including the Ink Plus.
You’ll limit yourself with this card’s lower intro bonus offer: $200 in bonus cash back isn’t bad, but it’s less than half of the bonus that can potentially be earned with the Ink Plus.
You could be giving up some rewards potential: Many cardholders probably won’t come close to the $25,000 annual limit on earning cash back at the higher percentages, but some business owners might find themselves easily surpassing that threshold.
3 Reasons to Avoid the Ink Plus
You’ll have to pay the $95 annual fee after the first year. While there is a $0 intro annual fee for the first year, $95 every year after that is something to think about. For some people, it’s a deal-breaker. It all depends on whether the following benefits (in addition to the ones we already mentioned) matter to you. Also keep in mind that the Ink Plus provides more rewards in general:
You’ll get a 20% discount when redeeming points for travel in Chase Ultimate Rewards: For example, you could book a $625 airline ticket for 50,000 points on Chase’s online portal. This makes each point worth 1.25 cents.
You can transfer your points: Don't want to book travel through Chase Ultimate Rewards? You can also transfer the points (on a 1:1 basis) to top airline and hotel partners including United, Southwest, Hyatt, Marriott, IHG, Ritz-Carlton, Amtrak, British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, Singapore Airlines, and Korean Air.
You get trip cancellation/trip interruption insurance: Do you need to cancel or cut short your trip because you got sick or there's severe weather? With this benefit, you can get reimbursed up to $5k per trip for your nonrefundable, prepaid travel expenses (including airfare and hotel reservations).
Return protection: Did you buy something that you don't want but the store won't take back? With this benefit, you can be reimbursed for eligible items within the first 90 days of purchases (up to $500 per item, $1k per year).
You’d miss out on a 0% APR offer: There’s no introductory 0% APR period on either purchases or balance transfers with Ink Plus. If you have existing credit card debt or are planning to make a large purchase soon, you may want to look into a business credit card with a promotional APR, including Ink Cash.
There’s a limit on how many rewards you can earn: Though this card has a higher limit than the Ink Cash, the amount of rewards you can accumulate at the higher reward point rate is still capped on an annual basis.
Bottom Line: Which Chase Ink Card is Best?
While the Ink Plus’ annual fee might seem like a major disadvantage at first glance, the cost of that fee can be offset for several years just by earning the signup bonus points. Conversely, smaller businesses that won’t come near the $25,000 category spending limit for extra rewards if they used Ink Plus may see more value in the introductory 0% APR period offered by Ink Cash.
Which card is the best option depends entirely on the financial situation and spending patterns of your small business. As with any financial decision, do your research and your cost-benefit analysis before you make your final choice.
Companies that will quickly surpass the $25,000 annual limit (for Ink Cash) or $50,000 annual limit (for Ink Plus) for getting higher percentages of cash back earned in the special categories may want to use more than one business credit card.
Review: Is Chase Ink a Good Card in 2015? appeared first on CreditDonkey
Editorial Note: This content is not provided by Chase. Any opinions, analyses, reviews or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the author's alone, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by Chase. This site may be compensated through the Advertiser's affiliate programs.