New Ink Cash Offer

A new Ink Cash offer dropped on Thursday and I think it is a sneaky good one. While on the surface it looks kind of like the old offer, the devil is in the details. There are a few different reasons why I like this offer, but I figured it was worth diving into a bit to see just how good it is. This is probably the best day one business card out there and should be in everyone's wallet. It comes with no annual fee, a compelling earning structure and access to some super value points. Let's get into it!

Chase Ink Cash Welcome Offer Details

The current offer for the Ink Business Cash® Credit Card is as follows:

• Earn $350 when you spend $3,000 on purchases in the first three months
• Earn an additional $400 when you spend $6,000 on purchases in the first six months after account opening
  • That is a total of $6000 in spend
• This card has a $0 annual fee.
• 10% Business Relationship Bonus (New Applicants Only)
  • If you have the Ink Business Cash card plus a Chase Business Checking account on your first card anniversary.
    • For example, if you earn 25,000 points during the year with your card, not including the welcome offer, then you will receive 2,500 bonus points at the end of the year and so forth.
    • Remember that there is a nice new Chase Business Checking offer going right now if you don't already have one of these accounts.

The 10% bonus with a Chase Business checking account is what we will be spending a bit of time with. It is also what makes this offer extra interesting and worth further inspection.

Card's Earning Rates

The Ink Business Cash® Credit Card offers one of the most rewarding earning structures out there, especially for a no annual fee card. Here are the current earning rates:

• 5% back / 5x on the first $25,000 in combined purchases on the account during each anniversary (not calendar) year for the following categories:
  • Office supply stores
  • Internet
  • Cable
  • Phone Services
• 2% back / 2x on the first $25,000 in combined purchases on the account during each anniversary (not calendar) year for the following categories:
  • Gas stations
  • Dining
• 1% / 1x on all other eligible purchases

How To Turn Your Cashback Into Ultimate Rewards

While you can earn cash back with the Ink Business Cash® Credit Card, you can also use your points for travel.  This is even more valuable if you have on of the following premium Chase cards:

• Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card
• Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
• Chase Sapphire Reserve®

That is because the Ink Cash is a part of the Chase Ultimate Rewards program allowing you to transfer points between all of your accounts.  Once your points are in an Ultimate Rewards earning account (one of the three cards listed above), you can transfer points 1:1 to a variety of airline and hotel partners.

First Positive Of This Offer: The Tiered Welcome Offer

Normally tiered welcome offers do not work in our favor. Offers like this usually lean itself to an increased spending requirement, but offers you more time to do it. With this new Ink Cash offer it is different though. The spend required, $6,000 in total, is the same as the previous offer. The total points earned, 75,000, is the same too! What is so great about this change then? Since it seems to pretty much be the same thing. The devil is in the details!

This time around you get three extra months to complete half of the spending requirement. Instead of your business having to average $2,000 a month in expenses you only need to average $1,000 in expenses a month now. That makes this offer accessible to more small businesses than before.

Second Positive Of This Offer: The 10% Bonus Is Sneaky Good

While the tiered welcome offer is a cute perk of this new Ink Cash offer, the 10% bonus is going to be doing the heavy lifting for this one. It does require you to sign up for a business checking account at some point in your first cardmember year. I would implore you to do it now and get it out of the way. No small part to that is the fact that a pretty good $400 Chase business checking bonus is available right now. You can pair that up with the new card offer to have a nice one, two punch. Also, be sure to go into the branch to sign up for the checking portion, since they can be sticklers on the business checking account industry selections. All the details you need for that offer are in my write up.

How Good Can This New Ink Cash Offer Get?

Getting a $400 bonus on ToP of the welcome offer is amazing but it was available before, so it isn't a part of these calculations. You do need the checking account to access the full weight of the welcome offer though. While the standard portion of the offer is compelling in its own right it does come in a little behind the all time high 90,000 point offer. Can we close that gap with the 10% bonus though?

The really cool thing about this 10% bonus is the fact that it is based on the total points earned, and not just the base earnings. That means it can get as get as an extra half a point per dollar. Well, in the 5x categories at least. Let's take a look at how this plays out in real life.

The 5x Superstar

Let's say your business expenses line up perfectly with the 5x earning categories of the Ink Business Cash. Especially since more than you imagined falls into these categories after all. Maybe you have a decent sized team that you pay for their cell service, you blow through a ton of office supplies or your internet bill is through the roof. Whatever the reason is, let's say that you know that you have costs that average a little over $2,000 a month in these categories. Here is how that would look:

• 125,000 Ultimate Rewards from the $25,000 in 5x earning categories
  • A 10% bonus of 12,500 from carrying a checking account as well
• A total welcome offer of 87,500 (75,000 plus the 12,500 from the 10% bonus)

That alone gets you right at the all time high level of the card's welcome offer. You are golden if your business easily maximizes these categories with your normal expenses.

The Jack Of All Trades

What if your business has expenses in other areas as well as the 5x earning with the Ink Business Cash? While the 2x earning at restaurants and gas stations is not going to turn heads, it may be better than the other cards your business has. Let's assume that you spend $1,000 a month in those areas each month amounting to $12,000 within the first year.

• 24,000 Ultimate Rewards from the $12,000 in 2x earning categories
  • A 10% bonus of 2,400 from carrying a checking account as well
• A total welcome offer of 89,500 from the 2x earning and the 5x spend listed above

If you can pair up some 2x spend to go along with the 5x areas then it gets a little better, but doesn't move the needle a ton.

Low Roller Business

Let's say that you have a little bit of spend in each of these areas on your Ink Business Cash, but below the amounts listed above. What if your business could average $1,000 in the 5x categories and $500 in the 2x categories each month? What would that look like with this new Ink Cash offer?

• 60,000 Ultimate Rewards from the $12,000 in 2x earning categories
  • A 10% bonus of 6,000 from carrying a checking account as well
• 12,000 Ultimate Rewards from the $6,000 in 2x earning categories
  • A 10% bonus of 1,200 from carrying a checking account as well
• A total welcome offer of 82,200 (from the standard welcome offer and the 10% earning)

What Do All Of These Numbers Mean?

The Ink Cash card is worth keeping long term, and one worth spending on long term to boot. With this new Chase Ink Cash offer the more you spend in the first year, the bigger your welcome offer will be. If your business can maximize the card's rewarding earning structure then it would get the offer right near the highest we have ever seen for the card. Assuming that you get the Chase Business Checking account too (and its $400 bonus).

If you were planning on grabbing the card anyway, then this is just icing on the cake. You will get bonus points on ToP of the welcome offer you were already planning on earning. Don't forget that you get a longer timeframe to complete the required spend too. That is a true win-win situation in my book.

New Ink Cash Offer: ToP Thoughts

While this new Ink Cash offer is not quite at the peak we have seen in the past it is as close as we will likely see for a while. I love that the 10% bonus portion of the offer continues to reward you on spend throughout the year. The card is one most will keep at the forefront of their wallet anyway, and this just gives them one more reason to keep it there. Earning what is essentially 5.5x in a ton of categories makes the card the best thing since sliced bread. It is a card every business should have in their arsenal, especially if you unlock the card's earning as Ultimate Rewards.

Let me know what you think about this new Ink Cash offer over in the ToP Facebook Group.