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Chase's lineup of Ink business credit cards is one of the most popular options among small business owners, and it's easy to see why.
Whether you run a lean operation as a sole proprietor or manage a growing team with real travel and overhead expenses, there's an Ink card built to match. The lineup covers everything from high-earning rewards on common business categories to straightforward flat-rate cash back, and the cards work even better together than they do on their own.
Here's a look at what the Ink card family has to offer: how the cards earn, what benefits they come with, and how to get the most out of the ecosystem.
Chase Ink business cards at a glance
The current Ink lineup consists of four cards, each with a different earning structure and a different type of business owner in mind.
Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card
Excellent for elevated rewards and welcome offer
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Reward Rate
Intro Offer
Annual fee
Why We Like It
Card Details
The Ink Business Preferred card ($95 annual fee) is the points-earning flagship of the lineup.
It earns 3X points on the first $150,000 spent in combined purchases on travel, shipping purchases, Internet, cable and phone services, advertising purchases made with social media sites and search engines each account anniversary year; and 1X points per $1 on all other purchases. Those are high-value, common business spending categories. New cardholders could earn 100,000 bonus points after you spend $8,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. The Preferred also comes with no foreign transaction fees — a meaningful perk for businesses that travel internationally or make purchases from overseas vendors.
Learn more in our Ink Business Preferred review.
Ink Business Cash® Credit Card
Excellent for high-rate cash back + no annual fee
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Reward Rate
Intro Offer
Annual fee
Why We Like It
Card Details
The Ink Business Cash card ($0 annual fee) is structured for office-heavy businesses.
It earns 5% cash back on the first $25,000 spent in combined purchases at office supply stores and on internet, cable and phone services each account anniversary year; 2% cash back on the first $25,000 spent in combined purchases at gas stations and restaurants each account anniversary year; and 1% cash back on all other purchases.
New cardholders could earn $750 when you spend $6,000 on purchases in the first three months after account opening. It also offers a 0% intro APR on purchases for 12 months (then 16.74% - 24.74% Variable), making it an ideal choice if you're opening a physical office, allowing you to boost earnings on all those new office supplies and avoid accruing interest on those expenditures during the intro APR period.
Learn more in our Ink Business Cash review.
Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card
Excellent for flat-rate cash back + no annual fee
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Reward Rate
Intro Offer
Annual fee
Why We Like It
Card Details
The Ink Business Unlimited card ($0annual fee) is the simplest option: earn unlimited 1.5% cash back on every purchase, no categories to track, no caps to worry about.
New cardholders could earn $750 bonus cash back after you spend $6,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. It's the best option for purchases that don't fall into any other card's bonus categories.
Learn more in our Ink Business Unlimited review.
Ink Business Premier® Credit Card
Excellent for deluxe small business rewards
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Reward Rate
Intro Offer
Annual fee
Why We Like It
Card Details
The Ink Business Premier card ($195 annual fee) is designed for higher-spending businesses.
It earns 5% cash back on travel purchased through Chase Travel℠; unlimited 2.5% cash back on purchases of $5,000 or more; unlimited 2% cash back on all other business purchases. New cardholders could earn $1,000 bonus cash back after you spend $10,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
One important note: Unlike the other Ink cards, the Ink Premier is a pay-in-full card, meaning a portion of your credit line must be paid down entirely every month. But every cardholder is also granted a limited Flex for Business balance that can be paid off over time (with interest). Purchases are credited toward the Flex for Business balance until its limit is reached, after which any additional purchases fall under the pay-in-full balance that must be paid off that month.
Learn more in our Ink Business Premier review.
What makes the Ink ecosystem valuable
Business-aligned bonus categories
One of the most compelling aspects of the Ink lineup is how well the bonus categories map onto the actual expenses of running a small business. Internet, phone, and cable services are near universal overhead in today's digital world. Shipping is critical for product-based businesses. Online advertising via search engines and social media is a standard line item for virtually any modern business, and travel is a constant cost for client-facing teams or businesses with multiple locations.
Rather than rewarding cardholders for categories like groceries or streaming services, the Ink cards direct their earning power toward the types of spending that are already on most business owners' monthly statements. That alignment is what makes these cards efficient — they help you earn on spending you were going to do anyway.
Chase Ultimate Rewards flexibility
Business-aligned bonus categories are pretty common among business cards, though. Otherwise there wouldn't be much point differentiating them from consumer cards as such. What makes the Ink lineup stand out from other issuers' business card rosters is the Ultimate Rewards ecosystem.
Chase Ultimate Rewards points are among the most flexible business rewards available. Points can be redeemed for cash back, statement credits, gift cards, or travel through Chase's travel portal. They don't expire as long as your account is open.
The real power of Ultimate Rewards, though, lies in two features: point pooling and partner transfers.
Point pooling
While the Preferred is the only Ink card that earns Ultimate Rewards points — at least nominally — the Cash and the Unlimited technically earn cash back that gets treated as Chase Ultimate Rewards points (confusing, we know) in that it can be redeemed via Chase for things like gift cards and travel. However, the rewards you earn on the Cash and the Unlimited can't be transferred to any of Chase's travel partners
Point pooling, however, means you can combine points across certain Chase cards to potentially open up higher-value redemption options. That's what makes holding more than one Ink card an appealing proposition.
The cash back you earn on the Ink Cash and Ink Unlimited can be transferred to the Ink Preferred, where those same points could be worth more toward travel redemptions through Chase's portal thanks to Points Boost. This makes the no-annual-fee cards significantly more valuable when used alongside the Preferred.
Note that the cash back rewards earned on the Ink Premier can neither be pooled nor transferred to partners. If point flexibility matters to your strategy, it's worth factoring that limitation in.
Chase transfer partners
Ultimate Rewards points attached to an Ink Preferred account can be transferred directly to Chase's airline and hotel partners — including United MileagePlus, Southwest Rapid Rewards, JetBlue TrueBlue, World of Hyatt, Marriott Bonvoy, and IHG One Rewards, among others. Transfers can be made at a 1:1 ratio, but depending on the program and how you redeem, this can yield considerably more value per point than a direct cashback redemption.
Protections that go beyond the rewards
The headline benefits on any business credit card tend to be the welcome offer and the earning rates, but the Ink cards also carry a solid set of protections that have real practical value, especially for businesses managing equipment, employees, and travel.
Purchase protection covers new purchases for 120 days against damage or theft, up to $10,000 per claim and $50,000 per account. This applies across all four Ink cards and is particularly useful when buying equipment or supplies that would be costly to replace out of pocket.
Extended warranty protection adds one additional year of coverage to eligible manufacturer warranties of three years or less. For businesses that regularly invest in tech, tools, or appliances, this can meaningfully extend the useful life of a warranty.
Cell phone protection is available on both the Ink Business Preferred and Ink Business Premier. If you pay your monthly phone bill with the Preferred, the card covers up to $1,000 per claim for damage or theft of your phone or any eligible employee phones listed on the same bill. You can submit up to three claims per 12-month period, with a $100 deductible per claim. Coverage kicks in the day after your bill is paid and extends through the end of that calendar month.
To file a claim, you'll need the phone's make, model, and serial number, a description of the incident, and recent card and phone statements. A police report is required if the phone was stolen.
For business owners who provide phones to employees, this benefit alone can offset the cost of a separate insurance plan , especially given that typical carrier protection programs can run from roughly $10 to $30 per month per line, often with higher deductibles.
Travel protections that come with the Ink cards include trip cancellation and interruption insurance, trip delay reimbursement, emergency roadside dispatch, and an auto rental collision damage waiver. Exact coverage types and amounts vary by card, but these are particularly useful perks for frequent business travelers.
Getting the most out of multiple Ink cards
You can hold all four Chase Ink cards simultaneously, and for many business owners, that's a viable strategy worth considering. The combined total you'd be paying in annual fees to hold all four cards is just $290 (the $95 Preferred fee plus the $195 Premier fee — the Cash and Unlimited carry no fee), which is relatively modest given the combined earning potential and protections across all four.
The most effective approach is to route spending to the card with the highest earning rate for each category. Put internet, cable, and phone services on the Ink Cash or the Ink Preferred. Put travel and business advertising on the Preferred. Put high-ticket purchases of $5,000 or more on the Premier, and use the Unlimited as a catch-all for anything that doesn't qualify for a bonus category elsewhere.
Then, transfer your Cash and Unlimited points into your Preferred account to pool them where they can all be redeemed for travel at a potentially higher rate or transferred to a partner loyalty program.
Who can apply for an Ink card
Sole proprietors, freelancers, small business owners, and established corporations are all eligible to apply for Chase Ink cards. The application process asks for standard business information including your business name, type, and tax identification number (either an EIN or your SSN for sole proprietors). Chase will check your personal credit during the application review — a good to excellent FICO score (670+) generally improves your odds of approval.
Like personal Chase cards, the Ink cards are subject to Chase's unofficial 5/24 rule: if you've opened five or more credit cards from any issuer in the past 24 months, your application may be declined. Business credit card applications may take slightly longer to process than personal ones due to the additional information Chase verifies.
The Ink cards generally don't report to your personal credit as long as your account is in good standing. If you miss payments or default, however, Chase may report that to your personal credit reports.
Bottom line
The Chase Ink lineup is hard to beat for small business owners who want to earn meaningful rewards on the expenses they're already running. The bonus categories are practical, the protections add real value beyond the points, and the ability to pool rewards and access Chase's transfer partners makes the ecosystem considerably more powerful than any single card on its own.
Whether you're looking for a single card to simplify your spending or building a multi-card strategy to maximize every dollar, there's a strong case for starting with Chase Ink. For a side-by-side comparison of each card, check out our Ink business card comparison.
Or, explore our list of the best small business credit cards to see how the Ink lineup compares to other top options.
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Current Offer
Earn 100,000 bonus points after you spend $8,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening
Annual Fee
$95
Rewards Rate
3X points on the first $150,000 spent in combined purchases on travel, shipping purchases, Internet, cable and phone services, advertising purchases made with social media sites and search engines each account anniversary year; and 1X points per $1 on all other purchases
