Chase Honoring Higher Ink Cash Earnings
In an interesting twist, Chase is honoring higher Ink Cash earnings because of a mistake email that went out last month. They did wait a while to announce this, and unfortunately, there is not a lot of time left to take advantage because of that. That was likely by design, but I am glad they are honoring it anyway. This news comes on the heels of them offering welcome offers to people that were not previously eligible because of an application snafu. You could say that Chase IT has had a rough go of it the last few months.
What Happened?
Back in May Chase sent out an email to select Ink Cash cardholders talking about a new earning structure for their card. It sent the miles and points world into a bit of a frenzy. Was this an upcoming unannounced change? Was it an unannounced devaluation? Would the old earning rates still apply too?
It was pretty clear early on that this was an error and that it should be ignored. It was the earning rates for an old Ink card but was sent to newer cardholders by mistake. Here is what the earning rates were in the email:
- 3% at Office Supply, up to $2,000 per month
- 3% at Gas Stations, up to $2,000 per month
- 3% at Restaurants, up to $2,000 per month
- 3% at Hardware & Home Improvement stores, up to $2,000 per month
- 1% everywhere else
It is interesting to see a gas earning bonus on a Chase business card. That, plus grocery on the personal side, are two very big holes in Chase's earning lineup.
Overall, I think people thought of this as a devaluation because they currently earn 5% at office supply stores (on up to $25,000 in spend per cardmember year). That is a big area of earning Ultimate Rewards for many, and it would be a big cut to their top end potential for earning. It would be nice to have access to a few more 3x categories though.
How Chase Is Fixing It
Late this week Chase sent out emails about honoring the higher Ink Cash earning rates. This was the right move, but they did drag their feet a bit. Because of that you only have a few days to take advantage of these 3x earning categories. That is unless you were putting spend on your card in these categories in the hopes that they would be honored.
Here is what the email said (HT Doctor of Credit)
We recently sent you an email that included incorrect cash back earn rates for your Ink Business Cash account. We apologize and will honor a temporary, modified earn rate as shown in the chart below.
The temporary earn rates below will apply to purchases made on your account ending in (your card number) between 5/27/25 and 7/1/2025, with a purchase cap of $25,000.
Chuck from DoC states that he received this email even though he did not receive the initial error email. At this point we are not sure if these increased earning rates on the Ink Cash are available to everyone, or if you have to receive the email to get it. If you did get the email then you should be good to go. If not, I am not sure that I would risk a substantial amount of spend in the hopes that you earn at the temporarily increased rates.
After July 1st the rates will go back to normal on your Chase Ink Cash card. If they had done this back at the beginning of June this would have been an intriguing opportunity. Since they waited until a few days before it ends to announce it, I don't think it will be hugely useful to most.
Chase Honoring Higher Ink Cash Earnings: ToP Thoughts
While it is nice to see Chase honoring higher Ink Cash earnings, they did it in the weirdest way possible. I doubt that many were risking much spend in these categories in the hopes that Chase would end up honoring them. Then Chase gave people less than a week to take advantage of these rates when they finally admitted the mistake. That is doing the right thing, but in kind of the worst way possible.
Let me know if you are taking advantage of these higher Ink Cash earning rates over in the ToP Facebook Group.
