Chase's Ink Business Preferred has been around for years, but the current offer keeps it near the top of the small business card pile: 100,000 Ultimate Rewards points after spending $8,000 in the first three months, all for a $95 annual fee. At a typical valuation of about 1.7 cents per point, that bonus is worth roughly $1,700 — more than 20 times the fee.
The earning structure is where the card earns its keep. You get 3x points on the first $150,000 per account anniversary year across a set of categories most businesses actually spend in: travel, shipping, internet, cable and phone services, and advertising bought through social media sites and search engines. Everything after that cap earns 1x, and there's no ceiling on total points. Spending in a bonus category effectively returns over 5% when the points are used well.
Redemption flexibility is the other big draw. Points can be used through Chase Travel at up to 1.75 cents each via Points Boost, or transferred to more than a dozen airline and hotel programs — the classic play being business or first class tickets that would cost five figures in cash. One recent change to note: transfers from the Ink Preferred to World of Hyatt now go at a 4:3 ratio rather than 1:1, so premium Chase cards hold a slight edge there.
The perks are modest but genuinely useful. Cell phone protection covers up to $1,000 per claim against theft or damage (three claims per 12 months, $100 deductible) when you pay your monthly bill with the card — and that bill itself earns 3x as a phone service purchase. There's also primary rental car collision coverage, which applies globally for business rentals and internationally for personal ones, plus no foreign transaction fees. Employee cards are free, so their spending earns bonus points too. DashPass comes complimentary for at least a year if activated by the end of 2027.
Approval isn't automatic, though. Chase's 5/24 rule applies — if you've opened five or more personal cards in the past 24 months, you're likely out of luck. You can hold this card alongside the Ink Unlimited, Ink Cash, or Sapphire Reserve for Business since they're considered separate products, but Chase does cap total credit exposure, and spacing out business card applications roughly every 30 days is sensible. The application itself is friendly to freelancers: sole proprietors can simply use their own name and Social Security number, and the reviewer reports an instant approval doing exactly that.
Who is this for? Anyone with even a side hustle who books their own travel. The welcome bonus alone could cover a long-haul business class seat or a week of hotels, and the 3x categories align neatly with how self-employed people already spend. If you're chasing maximum returns in a single narrow category, other cards may beat it — but as an all-rounder with a low fee, it's hard to argue with.
Credit: One Mile at a Time
