Chase Ink Business Premier Review: $1K Bonus, 2.5% Cash Back, $195 Fee

The Ink Business Premier® Card is potentially an incredible cash back business rewards. While the card has a fairly steep $195 annual fee, it offers up to 2.5% cash back, which is industry leading. On top of that, the card offers excellent protection, including for rental cars, cell phones, and more.

However, there’s one thing that makes this card different than the rest of the Chase Ink Business card portfolio, which is that this is a pure cash back card, and rewards can’t be converted into airline miles or hotel points at an efficient ratio. Still, if you’re looking for a small business cash back card, this is pretty tough to beat, especially if you spend a good amount.

This post is my in-depth Chase Ink Business Premier review, so let’s go over the details, including the welcome offer, annual fee, rewards structure, how to redeem rewards, and benefits. But let’s start with the very basics.

Link: Learn more about the Ink Business Premier® Credit Card

Chase Ink Business Premier Card summary & key details

Before I get into my in-depth Chase Ink Business Premier review, here’s a summary of the basics of the card:

• Chase Ink Business Premier annual fee: $195
• Chase Ink Business Premier welcome offer: $1,000 cash back after spending $10,000 within the first three months
• Chase Ink Business Premier rewards earning rate: 5% cash back on travel purchased through Chase Travel℠, 5% cash back on Lyft (through September 30, 2027), 2.5% cash back on purchases of $5,000 or more, and 2% cash back on all other purchases
• Chase Ink Business Premier foreign transaction fees: None
• Chase Ink Business Premier best for: Business owners who frequently make large purchases in non-bonused categories, and want an unbeatable cash back rewards structure

Below are the pros and cons of the Chase Ink Premier, as I see it.

Chase Ink Business Premier welcome bonus of $1,000 cash back

The Chase Ink Business Premier Card has a big welcome bonus of $1,000 cash back after spending $10,000 within the first three months. That’s a solid bonus, especially for those looking to earn cash back.

Let me emphasize that this bonus is exclusively for cash back, so you can’t convert those rewards into airline miles or hotel points. In other words, the $1,000 cash back is truly worth… $1,000!

Chase Ink Business Premier bonus eligibility rules

The good news is that eligibility for the Chase Ink Business Premier Card, including for the welcome bonus, is completely independent of having any other Chase card. So that means you can apply for this card and potentially earn the bonus if you have the other cards in Chase’s Ink lineup, including the Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card (learn more), Ink Business Cash® Credit Card (learn more), and Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card (learn more).

Beyond that, Chase’s standard application rules apply. Many are aware of the Chase 5/24 rule, though in practice, this isn’t consistently enforced anymore.

There’s no published credit score you need to qualify for the Chase Ink Premier. I’d hope to have a credit score of 700+, ideally, but people with lower credit scores have been approved, and people with higher credit scores have been denied. After all, credit score is only one of many factors that’s considered when it comes to card eligibility.

Chase Ink Business Premier annual fee of $195

The Chase Ink Business Premier Card has a $195 annual fee. While this is one of the higher annual fee business cards out there, you should quickly be able to recoup the annual fee on the card if you have a lot of business spending.

Chase Ink Business Premier authorized user fee of $0

You can add authorized users to the Chase Ink Premier at no additional cost, beyond the $195 annual fee for the primary cardmember. So that’s a great way to be able to earn cash back rewards on employee spending, especially given the card’s excellent rewards structure.

Chase Ink Business Premier rewards of 2-5% cash back

The Chase Ink Business Premier Card offers 2-5% cash back on all purchases, all with no foreign transaction fees. Let’s go over how that’s structured, as this is an unbeatable return on spending for large, non-bonused purchases on a business card.

2.5% cash back on $5K+ purchases

The Chase Ink Business Premier Card offers 2.5% cash back on all purchases of $5,000 or more. There’s no limit to how many purchases you can make where you earn 2.5% cash back, as long as each transaction is at least $5,000.

While there are lots of great cash back credit cards, we’ve never before seen a “no strings attached” 2.5% cash back business card feature on large purchases. Obviously this won’t be for everyone, but I know all kinds of people who have businesses where they spend millions per year on cards (typically in large transactions), so earning 2.5% cash back on those purchases is going to add up quickly.

2% cash back on other purchases

The Chase Ink Business Premier Card offers a minimum of 2% cash back for all other purchases. That’s typically in line with the best return on spending you’ll find on most cash back cards, so that’s still really good.

5% cash back on Chase Travel portal purchases

The Chase Ink Business Premier Card offers 5% cash back for purchases through Chase Travel℠. You can use this to book flights, hotels, and rental cars, so it’s a good way to rack up extra rewards.

The only catch is that I’m generally hesitant to use portals unless there’s huge upside. For flights, I typically prefer to book direct, to avoid having a “middleman” when things go wrong. Meanwhile for hotels, there are typically benefits to booking directly with a hotel group, including better rates, elite perks and points earning, etc.

5% cash back on Lyft purchases

Through September 30, 2027, the Chase Ink Business Premier is offering 5% cash back for purchases with Lyft. That’s an excellent return on rideshare spending, and of course it’s possible that this feature gets extended in the future.

No foreign transaction fees

The Chase Ink Business Premier has no foreign transaction fees. What’s great is that the card’s key rewards structure is the same globally. So it’s pretty awesome to earn 2.5% cash back on purchases of $5,000 or more, including outside the United States.

Redeeming Chase Ink Business Premier rewards

How does the cash back earned with the Chase Ink Business Premier Card actually work? Well, it’s super easy. You can redeem your cash back as a statement credit, apply it to your card balance, or get cash deposited directly to checking and savings accounts. There are no minimums to redeem your rewards.

Technically there’s a points system, in the sense that each dollar of cash back earns you 100 “points,” and each of those points can be redeemed for one cent of value. It doesn’t matter how you redeem, you’ll get the same value no matter what.

You can also redeem your rewards for gift cards, travel, or purchases with retailers, though you won’t be getting outsized value that way. In other words, $1,000 cash back will still only get you $1,000 worth of travel or gift cards. Therefore, it seems easiest to just redeem your rewards as cash back straight into your account (it’s not like cash back rewards from spending are going to be taxed), and then you can use that however you’d like.

An important thing to understand is that the Chase Ink Business Premier is in no way in the Chase Ultimate Rewards ecosystem. So unlike other Chase Ink Business cards, you can’t transfer these rewards to Chase airline and hotel partners. This card is most valuable for those who want to earn cash back that they can redeem however they’d like.

Chase Ink Business Premier purchase & travel protection

The Chase Ink Business Premier Card offers a variety of valuable purchase and travel protection, including:

• Auto rental collision damage waiver coverage (CDW) — primary coverage against theft and damage in the US and most countries, with up to $60,000 reimbursement for most vehicles, assuming they have an MSRP of $125,000 or less
• Trip cancellation and trip interruption insurance — if a trip gets canceled or shortened due to severe weather, getting sick, etc., you can be reimbursed up to $5,000 per covered traveler, up to $10,000 per trip, for prepaid, non-refundable travel expenses
• Purchase protection — this covers new purchases for up to 120 days against theft or damage, up to $10,000 per item, and up to $50,000 per account
• Cell phone protection — up to $1,000 per claim, with a $100 deductible per claim, and up to three claims per year
• Extended warranty protection — purchases with a US manufacturer’s warranty of three years or less will automatically include an additional year of coverage

As always, you’ll want to consult the cardmember agreement for full details, as the terms can change over time. In general, this is some incredibly useful protection, especially the rental car coverage and cell phone protection.

Is the Chase Ink Business Premier worth it?

With the details of the Chase Ink Business Premier Card out of the way, is this a card you should be considering for your small business? First of all, this card is for those who want to earn cash back. That’s a large percentage of the population, though admittedly in the miles & points world, many of us prefer to earn travel rewards.

If you have a business that spends a ton on credit cards (especially large transaction amounts) and you want to earn cash back rewards, then the Chase Ink Business Premier Card is incredible. Being able to earn 2.5% cash back on business purchases of over $5,000 is unrivaled. It used to be that a card offering 2% cash back was industry leading, so to see a 2.5% cash back card on large purchases is exciting.

In fairness, the card has a $195 annual fee, so you have to make sure you’re recouping that. To crunch the numbers:

• Let’s assume you could earn 2% cash back with a card that has no annual fee
• Here you’re earning an incremental 0.5% back on purchases of $5,000+, so you could earn back that $195 annual fee with $39,000 in spending on purchases of $5,000+
• For businesses that spend a lot, the math very much checks out here, in my opinion

I know there are so many people who have businesses where they spend millions per year on supplies, so getting 2.5% back on that is sweet. So yes, for the right type of consumer, this card is a no-brainer.

Of course it would be nice if the card offered some sort of statement credits to help offset the annual fee, but it’s clear that much of Chase’s “investment” into the card goes into the actual rewards structure, given that the 2.5% rewards on large purchases are greater than the interchange fees in many situations.

Let me just share a couple of other considerations.

How do other Chase Ink Business cards compare?

The Chase Ink Business Premier Card is the fourth product in the Chase Ink Business card lineup, so how do the other options compare?

• The Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card (learn more) has a $95 annual fee, and offers 3x points on the first $150,000 of combined purchases per account anniversary year on travel, shipping, internet, cable, phone services, and advertising purchases made with social media sites and search engines
• The Ink Business Cash® Credit Card (learn more) has no annual fee and offers 5x points on the first $25,000 of combined purchases per account anniversary year on office supply stores, internet, cable TV, mobile phones, and landlines, and 2x points on the first $25,000 of combined purchases per account anniversary year on restaurants and gas stations
• The Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card (learn more) has no annual fee and offers 1.5x points on all business purchases

For those looking to earn travel rewards, I’d say picking up a combination of the Ink Business Preferred and either the Ink Business Cash or Ink Business Unlimited would make a lot of sense. Meanwhile for those looking to earn cash back, the Ink Business Premier is better.

Personally, I greatly value being able to earn travel rewards, so I prefer the strategy of earning Ultimate Rewards points, rather than cash back. However, understandably a lot of others would rather just earn cash back that they can spend however they’d like.

Chase Ink Business Premier vs. Capital One Spark Cash Plus

I’d say the closest competitor to the Chase Ink Business Premier Card is the Capital One Spark Cash Plus (learn more).

The card has a $150 annual fee, and offers a flat 2% cash back on all purchases, with no foreign transaction fees. On top of that, if you spend $150,000 annually on the card, Capital One will refund this fee every year, so that bonus will offset the annual fee for big spenders.

While this is also a cash back card, the benefit is that cash back can be converted into travel rewards in conjunction with another Capital One travel card, like the Capital One Venture Business (learn more) or Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card (learn more).

If you ask me, the Chase Ink Business Premier Card makes a lot more sense if you spend hundreds of thousands a year on credit cards, and frequently have transactions of over $5,000. Meanwhile if you spend a fair bit but don’t typically have transactions of over $5,000, I think the Capital One Spark Cash Plus could be a better bet.

Chase Ink Business Premier vs. Amex Graphite Business Cash Unlimited

I’d say Amex’s most direct competitor to the Chase Ink Business Premier Card is the Graphite™ Business Cash Unlimited Card (learn more). The card has a $295 annual fee, and offers a minimum of 2% cash back on everyday spending, with no caps and no foreign transaction fees (Rates & Fees).

If you ask me, the Chase Ink Business Premier Card is more compelling, given its lower annual fee, plus the better rewards structure on purchases of over $5,000. The only potential additional upside with Amex’s card is that you can earn up to $2,400 in American Express One AP statement credits after spending $250,000 on eligible purchases on the card in a calendar year. If that’s something you value, that could factor into the math. But otherwise, it’s not something I’d put much thought into.

Chase Ink Business Premier vs. Sapphire Reserve Business

The Sapphire Reserve for Business℠ (learn more) is another popular business card, which some people might be considering in lieu of the Chase Ink Business Premier Card. As I see it, this card is targeting a completely different type of customer.

The Sapphire Reserve Business has a $795 annual fee, but it’s all about travel rewards, airport lounge access, and a large number of credits and benefits that can help offset the annual fee.

If you’re looking for a lucrative, premium travel rewards card, get the Sapphire Reserve Business. If you’re looking for a lucrative cash back card that’s all about the return on spending on large purchases, get the Ink Business Premier.

Chase Ink Business Premier FAQs

Bottom line

The $195 annual fee Ink Business Premier Card is Chase’s lucrative cash back business card. The card has a welcome bonus of $1,000 cash back upon completing minimum spending, and offers up to 2.5% cash back on purchases, which is almost unheard of.

This is the best business credit card for those looking to earn cash back, who also make large purchases, as earning 2.5% cash back is unrivaled. However, for those of us who like to collect points, rewards on this card can’t be transferred to Ultimate Rewards airline and hotel partners.

What do you make of the value proposition of the Chase Ink Business Premier Card?

The following links will direct you to the rates and fees for mentioned American Express Cards. These include: Graphite™ Business Cash Unlimited Card (Rates & Fees).