Why Chase Ink cards are the best value
If you want to start building up your Chase Ultimate Rewards balance, these cards are no brainers and if there was ever an article to give 5 minutes of your time - this would be it.
Read to the end, as it gets even better.
Chase Ink business cards, specifically the Chase Ink Unlimited (CIU) and Chase Ink Cash (CIC) are the absolute best cards for accumulating points because:
- There is no annual fee on those 2 cards specifically
- The spend / welcome bonus ratio is one of the best
- You can repeatedly apply for new cards every 91 days
If you are unsure whether to apply for a business card or not, feel free to check out my article here Should you get a business card?
Ink cards can net you 1.2 million UR points in the same time you can get 60,000 from a Sapphire
You read that right - 1,200,000 Chase UR points. Let me explain.
The personal Chase cards (i.e. the Chase Sapphire Reserve) are limited to one welcome bonus of any sapphire product every 48 months. That means, with the current welcome bonus of 60,000 points for a CSR, the maximum amount of Ultimate Rewards points you can get from personal Chase Sapphire cards is 60k points in a 4 year period, excluding any additional daily spend you put on the card.
But as detailed in the my other article Should You Get a Business Card, you can safely apply for a new Chase Ink business card every 91 days. That means you can get the current welcome bonus for a Chase Ink Unlimited (CIU) of 75,000 Ultimate Rewards points approximately every 3 months. This is what is commonly referred to as the ‘Ink Train’.
In a 4 year span, that is up to 16 individual new CIU cards opened up, totaling 1.2 million Ultimate Rewards points, and that is also excluding any additional daily spend.
But don’t I have to spend more to get more points?
Obviously, the amount of money you need to spend is much higher. The current CSR offer gives 60,000 UR for $4,000 in spending while the CIU gives 75,000 UR for $6,000 in spending per card.
The difference is in the ROI - how many points are you getting per dollar spent, for all of your spending.
I can only assume that if you are looking to travel, you will be spending more than $4,000 in a 4 year period. Don’t let that additional spend go to waste!
With a CSR, because you cannot get a new card until 4 years later, every additional dollar over the minimum spend requirement will have to be on the same card, and will only net you somewhere between 1x for every day spend, 3x on dining, 5x on travel booked through the chase portal.
With a CIU, because you can get a new card every 91 days, you likely will have every additional dollar over the minimum requirement net you 12.5x points!! (75,000 points / 6,000 in spending)
Let’s do the math.
Let’s pretend you spend $12,000 in a year, all on dining.
Putting that $12,000 on the same CSR will give you: 96,000 UR Points.
- 60,000 points for the welcome bonus + 36,000 points (12,000 x 3x dining bonus) for the spend
Putting that $12,000 on 2 different Inks will give you: 168,000 UR Points.
- 150,000 points for the 2x welcome bonus + 18,000 points (12,000 x 1.5x flat bonus) for the spend
That’s almost double the points, for the same amount of spending.
And the more money you spend, the larger the difference gets, making the Chase Ink cards even more of a no brainer.
But wait - there’s more! (Referrals)
Is your spouse interested in accumulating points? What about your family member? Close friend? Well did you know that with the Chase Ink cards, for every new card you want to open, someone can refer you to that card even if you already have another one of the same cards?
That means if you and your best friend Stephanie both want to build up your Chase UR balance, you two can literally keep referring each other back and forth for the exact same card.
The referral for a Chase Ink is at an ALL TIME HIGH (40k points)
And right now, as of March 9th, 2023, Chase just increased their Ink referral bonus to an all time high of 40,000 points per referral.
That means if you refer Stephanie for a Chase Ink Unlimited, she will get 75,000 points after spending $6,000 and you will get 40,000 points RIGHT AWAY. Assuming she then returns the favor for you, both of you will essentially get 115,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points for each new Ink card you open up with the other’s referral.
So remember the calculations we did earlier and how a Chase Ink nets you 12.5x on each dollar you spend? That number is actually even higher - at a little more than 19x.
And if we re-run the calculations on the $12,000 yearly spend assuming every chase card you open with someones referral link they also do the same for you:
Putting $12,000 in spending on 2 different Inks with referrals will give you: 248,000 UR Points. That is almost 3x better than having just having a Chase Sapphire Reserve.
- 150,000 points for the 2x welcome bonus + 18,000 points (12,000 x 1.5x flat bonus) for the spend + 80,000 for the 2x referral bonus
In Conclusion
Getting a Chase Ink card is an absolute no brainer. It’s probably one of the biggest ‘hacks’ in the credit card points world.
My recommendation is the Chase Ink Unlimited because of the no annual fee and 1.5x multiplier on everything.
Get one today and start referring your friends as well!