Update: This offer will expire at 9am ET on 9/17!

Highest Offer Ever: Earn $1,000 (100,000 Bonus Points) On The Fantastic No Annual Fee Ink Business Cash® Credit Card!

Highest Ever Signup Bonus:

For a limited time only, the Ink Cash Card is offering a signup bonus of $1,000 cash back in the form of 100,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points for opening the card and spending $8,000 in 4 months. Those points are worth a minimum of $1,000 cash back, but they can be worth much more, as shown below. This is the highest public offer ever for this card!

This 100,000 point limited-time offer is also available on the Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card. You can read more here.

The signup bonus is marketed as $1,000, but it will actually come in the form of 100,000 transferable points, which can be worth significantly more when points are transferred into miles with the help of someone in your household having a Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, Chase Sapphire Reserve®, Chase Sapphire Reserve for Business℠, or Ink Business Preferred® Card. 

After spending $8,000 in 5x categories, you will have 140,000 points, thanks to 100,000 bonus points and 40,000 points for that spending!

Want to improve your odds of approval? Read this post with helpful tips, such as applying with an LLC and more!

Annual fee: 

None

Signup Bonus Terms:

1. You may not be eligible for a bonus if you had Ink Cash or Ink Unlimited previously, though applying with a different LLC or Tax ID number may be eligible.
2. You will be told during the application process if you are not eligible for a bonus, and you can cancel the application before your credit is pulled. This will be based on your history of opening and closing cards, spending on cards, etc. If you are not eligible, you can opt to receive the card without a signup bonus or cancel the application.

5/24:

Some Chase cards are subject to 5/24 restrictions, meaning that you might not be approved if you have been approved for 5 or more consumer credit cards in the past 24 months. Enforcement of 5/24 has been patchy for the past year and the only way to know if you can get approved is by trying to apply.

Note that the Chase system automatically counts cards like authorized user cards and store cards as cards that count towards 5/24, but if you explain to Chase that those cards are merely authorized user cards or store cards they can manually approve you for a new card.

You can check your credit report for free at the federally authorized annualcreditreport.com to check how many accounts are shown as being open in the past 24 months.

It’s important to note that business cards from most banks, including Chase business cards, do not get added to your 5/24 count of recently opened cards. That’s because business cards from most banks don’t show up on your personal credit report, and the 5/24 count is based on your personal credit report. That means that applying for these cards won’t “hurt” your 5/24 count.

How to apply and improve your odds of approval for a business card:

This is a business card, but you may already have a business that needs a card to keep track of expenses.

Chase has been getting stricter about business card approvals. One major factor they’re looking at is whether you are using your existing Chase business cards regularly. Consider closing unused Chase business cards and shifting spending onto Chase business cards to help your approval odds for a new business card.

You should shift spending onto newly opened cards and continue spending on the new card even after earning the bonus, to show the bank in the future that you’re not just opening the card for the signup bonus.

You can apply as a Sole Proprietor, though Chase has been getting stricter on approvals for sole proprietors, so for the highest approval odds, you’ll want to apply as an LLC.

Don’t have an LLC or tax ID number? You can open an LLC through your state or leave it to a company like LegalZoom to take care of everything for you for no fee on top of state filing fees with a basic plan. You can apply for a tax ID number here.

Having a Chase consumer checking account helps your consumer card approval odds, and having a Chase business checking account helps your business card approval odds. If you’re declined, you can also ask a banker to send in a special reconsideration form on your behalf.

If you don’t have an LLC and don’t want to open one, you can still apply for this card. For example, if your name is Joe Smith and you sell items online, or if you have any other side business and want a credit card to better keep track of business expenditures, you can open a business credit card for “Joe Smith” as the business. You don’t need to file any messy government paperwork to be allowed to do that. Just be sure to select “Sole Proprietorship” as the business type and just use your social security number in the Tax Identification Number field.

If you have business paperwork you can apply under your business name. Otherwise, it’s critical to just write your own name as the business name if you are just applying for your own small business as a Sole Proprietorship that doesn’t have any business paperwork. You can then send in bills in your own name for verification.

If you’re like me and you run more than one business, you can signup for multiple of the same card for each business to manage each business’s expenses separately.

Business card perks:

Another benefit of the card not reporting on your personal credit report is that when you spend money on personal cards your credit score will be hurt even if you pay your bill on time. A whopping 30% of your credit score is based on credit utilization. You can pay off your card bill before your statement is generated to avoid that, but that takes effort and laying out money well before you have to. Additionally, it’s good to have the statement close with a couple dollars to show the card is active and being paid every month. On a business card from banks like AMEX and Chase, it’s just not reported, so you can wait until the money is due without it having a negative effect on your score. That also means if you close the card, it won’t have an effect on your credit score.

While carrying balances on consumer cards can have a very harmful effect on your credit score, because the Ink cards are business cards, those balances won’t hurt your credit score! That makes the 0% APR on purchases for 12 months on a business card a very strong offer.

Card earnings:

The Ink Cash card is marketed as earning 5% and 2% cashback in bonus categories, but it actually earns 5 or 2 Chase Ultimate Rewards points per dollar spent. As each point can be worth 1.5-2 cents each, that means you’ll actually be earning an effective 7.5-10% back on the 5 point categories and 3-4% back on the 2 point categories.

Here is where you can earn 2 points per dollar on up to $25K in annual spending on the Ink Cash card:

• Gas stations
• Restaurants and restaurant delivery.

Here is where you can earn 5 points per dollar on up to $25K in annual spending on the Ink Cash card:

• Charges made in-store or online at office supply stores, like Office Depot, Office Max, and Staples. Remember, these stores sell much more than just pens and paper!
• Charges made directly with all cell phone service providers (AT&T, Boost, Cricket, Google Fi, Republic, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon, Virgin Mobile, etc)
• Charges made directly with all telecom, TV, and Internet providers
• Charges made with streaming services, like Hulu, Netflix, SiriusXM, Sling, Spotify, Tivo, and Vudu
• Charges from Godaddy.com
• Charges from Microsoft OneDrive

You’ll also earn 5 points per dollar on Lyft!

You’ll earn 1 point per dollar elsewhere.

$240 Annual Instacart credit: 

You can enroll here and earn 3 months of Instacart+ plus get $20 in monthly credits through 12/31/27.

Spend Threshold:

You’ll need to spend $8,000 on this card within 4 months.

You can pay your federal taxes for a 1.85% fee.

My local natural gas company allows me to prepay up to $1,000 on a credit card for a $1.65 flat fee. That’s a great way to earn miles and help meet a spend threshold. My electricity supplier allows me to pay with a credit card for free as long as I am enrolled in autopay.

0% APR:

Potentially, that means you can stick your payments aside from the minimum payment into a high yield savings account and pay the card back after a year with no penalties or interest.

Card benefits:

• Primary rental car CDW insurance in every country, when the rental is for business purposes.
• Primary rental car CDW insurance in every country outside of the US, when the rental is for personal purposes. Rentals without a business purpose in the US have secondary coverage.
• Extended warranty adds a year of coverage, up to $10,000 per claim.
• Purchase protection for items damaged or stolen within 120 days, up to $10,000 per claim.
• Travel Accident Insurance covers $500,000 per person.
• Lost Luggage Insurance covers $3,000 per person per trip (limit of $500 per person for jewelry, watches, electronics)
• Baggage Delay Reimbursement covers $100 per day per person (max of 3 days) for essential items needed (Clothing, toiletries, charger, etc) for delays more than 6 hours.

Increased points value:

You can cash out your points for 1% cash back. I hope that you won’t do that.

If you or someone in your household has an Ink Preferred Card or Sapphire Preferred Card you can redeem Chase Ultimate Rewards points earned from any card with Points Boost for bonus value up to 1.75 cents towards paid travel.

If you or someone in your household has a Sapphire Reserve or Sapphire Reserve for Business, you can use Points Boost for bonus value up to 2 or even 2.5 cents towards paid travel.

The Ink Cash card can’t transfer points directly into miles, but Chase allows you to transfer points to cards where they can be transferred into miles or redeemed for a greater value. My aim is to receive a value of 2 cents per point via transfers to miles and that makes the 2 point categories worth 4% back and the 5 point categories worth 10% back.

Visa Savings Edge:

All Chase Ink cards are eligible for additional cash back via Visa Savings Edge.

Airline and hotel points transferability:

If you or someone in your household has a Chase Sapphire Preferred, Sapphire Reserve, Sapphire Reserve for Business, or Ink Preferred Card you can transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards points into valuable airline and hotel mileage currencies.

Product change options:

You can call Chase to convert these cards or any of the following cards into another card from this list:

• Ink Business Cash® Credit Card ($0 annual fee)
• Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card ($0 annual fee)
• Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card ($95 annual fee)

Note that some reps will only allow card conversions after you have had the card for 12 months.

Killer Combos:

Stacking multiple Ultimate Rewards cards together can supercharge your earnings by getting you more points per dollar while increasing the value of all your points.

A Chase Bifecta would consist of a household that has the Sapphire Preferred and the Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card. The total effective annual fees would be just $95.  With the Sapphire Preferred+Ink Unlimited you would earn 1.5 points per dollar everywhere, 2 points per dollar on all travel, 3 points per dollar on drugstores, 3 points per dollar on dining, streaming, and online grocery shopping, and 5 points per dollar on travel booked via Chase. You’ll be able to transfer all of your points into airline miles or hotel points.

If you earn 1.5-5 points per dollar and redeem at a value of 1.75 cents each, you’ll be earning between 2.625%-8.75% back!

A Chase Trifecta adds a no annual fee card like the Ink Business Cash® Credit Card or Chase Freedom Flex into the mix, so your total effective annual fee will still be $95. Both of those cards give options to earn a whopping 5 points per dollar in various categories on top of the up to 8 points per dollar that the Sapphire cards offer and the 1.5-5 points per dollar everywhere else with a Freedom, Ink Cash, or Ink Unlimited card.

A Chase Quadfecta would add both the Ink Cash and Chase Freedom Flex on top of a Sapphire card and an Unlimited card, so your total effective annual fee will still be just $95. The Quadfecta is the sweet spot and allows you to really supercharge your spending everywhere.

A Chase Quinfecta could add the Ink Business Preferred Card to that mix, adding $95 to the annual fee total.  This will help you earn 3x points on $150,000 in annual spend on all travel, shipping, internet, cable, phone, social media advertising, and search engine advertising, and it offers free cell phone insurance.

Again, all of these cards don’t need to be in one person’s name. 2 people from the same household can split up the requisite cards that make up the Quinfecta, as they can transfer the Ultimate Rewards points back and forth between themselves freely and they can add each other as an authorized user on their cards!

Airline transfer partners:

If you have a Chase Sapphire Preferred, Sapphire Reserve, Sapphire Reserve for Business, or Ink Preferred Card you can transfer points at a 1:1 ratio to:

• United (Star Alliance)
• Air Canada Aeroplan (Star Alliance)
• Singapore (Star Alliance)
• Air France/KLM Flying Blue (Skyteam)
• British Airways (OneWorld)
• Aer Lingus (OneWorld)
• Finnair (OneWorld, transfer via British Airways)
• Iberia (OneWorld)
• Qatar (OneWorld, transfer via British Airways)
• JetBlue
• Southwest
• Virgin Atlantic

Hotel transfer partners:

If you have a Chase Sapphire Preferred, Sapphire Reserve, Sapphire Reserve for Business, or Ink Preferred Card you can transfer points at a 1:1 ratio to:

• Hyatt (Requires a Reserve card for 1:1 transfers as of 10/1. Otherwise 1,000:750)
• IHG
• Marriott
• You can also transfer to Hilton at a 1:1.5 ratio by transferring via Virgin Atlantic.

The great thing about Chase Ultimate Rewards is how versatile and valuable they are:

The Ink Preferred Card and Sapphire Preferred cards allow you and anyone in your household to transfer Chase points into miles and earns a Points Boost redemption value up to 1.75 cents per point.

The Sapphire Reserve or Sapphire Reserve for Business also allows you and anyone in your household to transfer Chase points into miles and earns a Points Boost redemption value up to 2.5 cents per point.

The Points Boost value is excellent and can mean that a $500 hotel room will cost just 25K points or a $1,000 business class redemption will cost just 50K points. Or you can make your points potentially even more valuable by transferring them into airline miles or hotel points.

• If I want to stay in a 5 star Park Hyatt in the Maldives, Melbourne, NYC, Paris, Sydney, or Tokyo that would cost over $1,000/night, I can instantly transfer 25-40K points to Hyatt to do that, a value of up to 6 cents per point.
• If I need a one-way flight from Cleveland (or Chicago, Detroit, Miami, Montreal, Orlando, Pittsburgh, Toronto, etc) to NYC that can cost $500 each way, I can instantly transfer 9.5K points to Avios to book a short-haul on American with no last minute booking fees. Or if American doesn’t have availability I can instantly transfer 10K points to United for their short-haul award. That’s a value of up to 7 cents per point.
• Air Canada offers one-way short haul awards for just 6K miles. You can also get stopover awards for 5K miles, build round-the-world awards, and get free lap child awards in the US/Canada and bring lap children to anywhere else in the world for just C$25!
• United offers excellent award availability, especially to their cardholders, and awards can be changed or canceled for free.
• Flying Blue has award flights to Israel for 25K miles for adults or 18,750 miles for kids.
• If I want to fly in a $25,000 ANA First Class Suite round-trip from the US to Tokyo, I can instantly transfer 145K or 160K points to Virgin Atlantic. That’s a value of up to 23 cents per point. You can now redeem one-way awards for half the price as well!
• And thousands of other possibilities from Singapore couples suites to booking Southwest awards with 2 free bags and free cancellations, to stealing 2nd base in middle of an MLB game.

Dan’s quick thoughts:

The Ink Cash is one of Chase’s best cards for bonus category spending, as it earns up to 5 points per dollar in excellent categories, plus as it’s a business card, spending on the card won’t hurt your credit score.

The $1,000 signup bonus in the form of 100,000 points is truly an incredible and unprecedented bonus for a card with no annual fee. If you’re eligible for the bonus, you won’t want to miss out!

Will you signup for the Ink Cash Card?