Chase Launches 50,000 Point Sign-up Bonus for Ink Bold
Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.
Chase just officially launched a new 50,000 point sign-up bonus for their Ink Bold with Ultimate Rewards business card when you spend $10,000 within 3 months and the $95 annual fee is waived for the first year.
These Ultimate Rewards points, which are the same as the Sapphire Preferred (Personal) points, can be instantly transferred at a 1:1 ratio to Continental, British Airways, Korean Air, Hyatt, Marriott, Priority Club and Amtrak. Chase is extremely flexible with these programs and allows you to instantly transfer points to other Chase member's Ultimate Rewards accounts, which allows for maximum flexibility when pooling a group or family of people's points together to make a trip happen.
The key differences between this and the Sapphire Preferred card (which also has a 50,000 point bonus are:
The Ink Bold is a charge card, which means there is no pre-set spending limit (which is the flexibility that many businesses require).
The Ink Bold is a business card, which means that it is secured by your personal credit (they will run an inquiry against your SSN), but it will sit on your business line of credit, meaning it won't show up on your personal credit reports after you get it.
The Ink Bold also has category bonuses:
Earn 5X points per $1 on the first $50,000 spent annually at office supply stores, on cable and wireless service, and landline communications
Earn 2X points per $1 on the first $50,000 spent annually on gas and hotels
Additionally, the new card will give Priority Pass membership and waive foreign transaction fees.
Additionally, if you have Chase Business checking accounts, having an Ink Bold card attached will waive any monthly fees (so you don't have to require a minimum monthly balance).
The Ink Bold card also has a bunch of interesting technologies that makes business bookkeeping a lot easier - like automatic categorizing of expenses and electronic receipt keeping - I'll cover more of those in a future post.
The great thing is that this is a business card, so even if you've had a bunch of personal cards from Chase this year, you should be eligible to get this card and the sign-up bonus. You don't need to be incorporated or have an LLC to get this card - you can list sole proprietership and use your SSN as the Tax ID number. Many people have small businesses - heck this site started out as a sole proprietorship before I made it an LLC when it started growing. In fact I still have an old Chase Business Checking account from the Continental checking account gravy train days.
I'm not recommending people to apply for this card who has no intentions of starting a business, but I can recommend (as a small business owner) that keeping all business finances separate from personal funds is a good thing to do even in the very early stages of creating your business.
Overall, this is a solid deal since these points can be easily combined with your existing Ultimate Rewards points and transferred to all three alliances and hotel partners. Remember, there are some phenomenal awards out there that these 50,000 points can get you - like 2 free nights at the Park Hyatt Maldives or a one-way Cathay Pacific business class ticket to Asia with a stopover in Hong Kong (via British Airways until they change their program November 16, 2011).
Full details:
[card card-name='Ink Plus® Business Credit Card' card-id='22129636' type='javascript' bullet-id='1']
TPG featured card
at Bilt's secure site
Terms & restrictions apply. See rates & fees.
| 1X | Choose to earn up to 1X points on rent and mortgage payments with no transaction fee |
| 2X | Earn 2X points + the option to earn 4% back in Bilt Cash on everyday purchases |
Pros
- Choice to earn up to 1 Bilt Point per dollar spent on rent and mortgage payments
- Elevated everyday earnings with both Bilt Points and the option to earn Bilt Cash
- $400 Bilt Travel Portal hotel credit per year (up to $200 biannually)
- $200 Bilt Cash annually
- Priority Pass membership
- No foreign transaction fees
Cons
- Moderate annual fee
- Designed primarily for members seeking a premium, all-in-one card
- Earn points on housing with no transaction fee
- Choose to earn 4% back in Bilt Cash on everyday spend. Use Bilt Cash to unlock point earnings on rent and mortgage payments with no transaction fee, up to 1X.
- 2X points on everyday spend
- $400 Bilt Travel Hotel credit. Applied twice a year, as $200 statement credits, for qualifying Bilt Travel Portal hotel bookings.
- $200 Bilt Cash (awarded annually). At the end of each calendar year, any Bilt Cash balance over $100 will expire.
- Welcome bonus (subject to approval): 50,000 Bilt Points + Gold Status after spending $4,000 on everyday purchases in the first 90 days + $300 of Bilt Cash.
- Priority Pass ($469/year value). See Guide to Benefits.
- Bilt Point redemptions include airlines, hotels, future rent and mortgage payments, Lyft rides, statement credits, student loan balances, a down payment on a home, and more.