Which Chase Ink Card Is Best?

Chase truly has some of the best business cards out there. All of Chase's Ink cards earn valuable rewards with low, or no, annual fee. If you are eligible for business cards, then you will want to take a look at the Chase Ink cards. The Ink Cash, Ink Unlimited and Ink Preferred are all fantastic cards, and have a place in almost all award traveler's wallet. However, you may be wondering which Chase Ink card is best for you. We will break down the differences between all three Chase business cards and help you decide which one you should get.

Which Ink Should I Get?

The short answer is, we think you should get all three Chase Ink business cards over time. Because of the fantastic welcome offers on these cards, and varied earning structure between the cards, it makes sense to carry all of them. Of course, you should get them over time, but in which order? Depending on what you value in a card will determine what order you will want to apply for them. In order to make this comparison, we will be breaking down the Ink cards in the following ways: welcome offer, earn rate, benefits, and annual fees. This should help you decide which Chase Ink card is best for you.

Chase Ink Business Card Welcome Offers

Here are the current welcome offers for each card (although these offers may change over time)

• Chase Ink Cash
  • Earn $350 (or 35,000 Ultimate Rewards) when you spend $3,000 on purchases in the first three months and an additional $400 (or 40,000 Ultimate Rewards) when you spend $6,000 on purchases in the first six months after account opening.
    • There is also a 10% bonus for business checking account holders attached to the offer right now. You can find all of the details in our full credit card review.
• Chase Ink Unlimited
  • Earn $750 bonus cash back (or 75,000 Ultimate Rewards) after you spend $6,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
• Chase Ink Preferred
  • Earn 100,000 bonus points after you spend $8,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.

Which Chase Ink Business Card Welcome Offer Is The Best?

The winner here is going to depend on what spend your situation allows. If you are able to handle the higher spend of the Ink Preferred, then that would be the winner here just because of sheer number of points. Having said that, if you break down all three welcome offers by required spend then they have the same earn rate. Taking the 75,000 Ultimate Rewards points from the Ink Cash and Ink Unlimited and dividing it by the $6,000 in required spend yields 12.5x points per dollar, the same as the Ink Preferred.

If your business' spend is minimal then the new Ink Cash offer may suit you best for now. That is because you can earn it over 6 months which means you only need to average $1,000 a month in expenses.

A Quick Note on Cash Back

The Ink Cash and Ink Unlimited are marketed as cash back cards. However, you can rest assured that the cash back these cards earn can actually be Chase Ultimate Rewards. One cent equals one point. When paired with a Chase Sapphire Preferred, Chase Sapphire Reserve or Ink Preferred those points can be transferred to travel partners for optimal value. For more info on this, check out our guide on how to combine Chase Ultimate Rewards points between cards.

Credit Card Earning Rates

Let's take a look at the earning rates for each credit card to help us decide which Chase Ink card is best for you.

• Chase Ink Cash
  • 5x on the first $25,000 spent in combined purchases
    • Office supply stores
    • Internet
    • Cable and phone services
  • 2x on the first $25,000 spent in combined purchases
    • Gas stations
    • Dining
  • 1x on all other eligible purchases
• Chase Ink Unlimited
  • 1.5x on back on all eligible purchases with no earning cap
• Chase Ink Preferred
  • 3x on the first $150,000 spent in combined purchases
    • Travel
    • Shipping
    • Cable, internet and phone services
    • Advertising purchases made with social media sites and search engines
  • 1x on all other eligible purchases

Which Chase Ink Business Card Earning Rate Is Best?

There is a reason that the Ink Cash is a crowd favorite and it is heavily due to its 5x earn rate in certain categories that can rack up Ultimate Rewards points in bunches. More things earn 5x with the Chase Ink Cash than you may even realize too. While the Ink Cash is the clear winner here, the 3x on shipping and advertising that the Ink Preferred earns is a great runner up. Lastly, 1.5x on all purchases with the Ink Unlimited is easily outshined by other cards that earn a blanket 2x on all purchases, such as the American Express Blue Business Plus.

Card Benefits

Next up in our quest to decide which Chase Ink card is best for you is the card benefits that each of these offer.

• Chase Ink Cash
  • There really isn't too much to speak of here. The Ink Cash card is a great earning card, but it does not offer much in the way of benefits.
• Chase Ink Unlimited
  • There really isn't too much to speak of here either. The Ink Unlimited card is a good non bonus spend option, but it does not offer much in the way of benefits.
• Chase Ink Preferred
  • Cell Phone Protection Plan
  • Trip Cancellation / Interruption Insurance
  • Trip Delay Insurance
  • Primary Rental Car Insurance for business travel
  • Purchase Protection.
  • The Ink Preferred also adds the ability to transfer to travel partners

Which Chase Ink Business Card Offers The Best Benefits?

If benefits are important to you, then the Ink Preferred is the clear winner. You can read more about the benefits of the Ink Preferred on our comprehensive review.

Chase Ink Business Card Annual Fees

The last stop on our quest to decide which Chase Ink card is best for you is the annual fee. Luckily for us, all of the cards offer no annual fee, or a reasonable sub $100 fee.

• Chase Ink Cash
  • This card has a $0 annual fee.
• Chase Ink Unlimited
  • This card has a $0 annual fee.
• Chase Ink Preferred
  • This card has a $95 annual fee and it is not waived.

Which Chase Ink Business Card Has The Lowest Annual Fee?

If you are going for no or low annual fee, the Ink Cash and Ink Unlimited are clearly fantastic options. They provide supreme value for no annual fee. The Ink Preferred does provide some nice perks for the affordable annual fee, most notably transferability of points. Whether or not it is worth keeping past the first year will depend on if you have a Sapphire product to unlock those transfers and offer the travel protections you need. If you do, then product changing it to one of the no fee Chase Ink cards may be the best option for you after that first 12 months.

Which Chase Ink Card Is Best: ToP Thoughts

So, which Chase Ink card is best for you? All of them! All jokes aside, the Chase Ink Cards are fantastic cards; and your business can benefit from all of them over time. Hopefully reading this comparison makes your decisions a bit easier on deciding which order works best for you. The Chase Ink Cash card is a fantastic long term earning card, while the Chase Ink Preferred offers more in the way of benefits.

Which Chase Ink card are you picking? Let us know which one you choose over in the ToP Facebook Group.