Which Card Is Easier To Get Approved For - The Chase Ink Bold Or Ink Plus?
On Thursday, Chase announced new limited-time sign-up bonus offers on the Ink Bold and Ink Plus of 60,000 bonus Ultimate Rewards points when you spend $5,000 in 3 months. Because this is as high as the bonuses on these cards have ever gone, many readers are interested in getting one if not both cards while these offers last, and TPG reader HiHello left a comment:
"Which card is easier to get approved for? The Ink Bold or the Ink Plus?"
The Ink Bold and the Ink Plus are some of Chase's top cards and are geared toward small business owners, and Chase has pretty high standards when it comes to accepting applicants for either. The two cards are almost identical in terms of the benefits they carry - including earning 5x points per $1 at office supply stores and on telecommunications, 2x points per $1 on gas and hotels, Lounge Club membership and the ability to transfer the Ultimate Rewards points you earn with them to any of Chase's 10 travel partners including United and Hyatt. They each also come with a $95 annual fee that is waived the first year.
However, there is one major difference. The Ink Bold is a charge card, which means there is no preset spending limit limit but, but the balance must be paid off monthly or you can incur very high penalty fees. On the other hand, the Ink Plus is a credit card, which means there is a set spending limit on it, but cardholders can carry a balance if they need to, and pay it off over time, though you'll get hit with substantial APR's. The Ink Plus also gives you access to Chase’s Blueprint service which helps you design a plan to pay off purchases in flexible ways and track your spending. Charge cards like the Ink Bold often give cardholders bigger spending power and flexibility, but credit cards give you the option of carrying a balance if you really need to.
With that in mind, applying for the Ink Plus might be a good option for you if you already have a lot of lines of credit open with Chase and need to consider shifting one of them to your new card in order to open it. Because it is a credit card, Chase might be willing to let you do so. Because the Ink Bold is a charge card without a spending limit or line of credit in the same way that credit cards operate, you cannot shift your lines of credit around to it.
I would actually say that if it's in your spending ability and you can strategize properly to meet the minimum spending requirements on both, that you could consider getting both cards at once while the bonuses are at an all-time high of 60,000 points. If you can hit the $10,000 requirement getting both cards would incur, you could get 120,000 Ultimate Rewards points in one fell swoop. To put that in context, that's 4 nights at a top-tier Hyatt like the Park Hyatt Sydney or the Park Hyatt Paris Vendome, where rooms regularly go for over $1,000 a night. It's also worth $1,175 in Wanna Get Away fares on Southwest - another Ultimate Rewards transfer partner - so you're looking at a very decent return on your spending.
For more information, see these posts:
- Detailed Look at the Benefits of the Ink Bold and Ink Plus Cards
- Top 10 Benefits of the Ink Bold and Ink Plus Cards,
- A Detailed Look at Ink Bold Benefits You Might Not Know About,
- Maximizing Chase Ink Bonus Spending Categories,
- Maximizing the Ink Office Category Bonus Spending,
- Maximizing the Ink Bold’s 5X Spending Bonuses With Gift Cards,
- Maximizing Ultimate Rewards With the Chase Ink Cards,
- Chase Ink: Which Card Is Best For You,
- Can You Get Both The Ink Bold and Ink Plus?
- Ranking the Chase Ultimate Rewards Transfer Partners
- Top 10 Ways To Maximize Each Ultimate Rewards Transfer Partner
- Why I Love Chase Ultimate Rewards
- Ranking the Top Chase Travel Credit Card Offers
Have any other questions? Let me know by messaging me on Facebook, tweeting me or emailing me at info@thepointsguy.com.
