100,000-Point Welcome Bonus with Chase Ink Business Preferred Is Now Available After Spending $8,000

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Until recently, the Chase Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card has been offering 100,000 points to new cardmembers who spend $15,000 or more on their card within the first three months after account opening. However, as of June 29, 2023, Chase has lowered the spending requirement to earn this welcome bonus, making this already-great deal even more lucrative. 

Now, you can earn the welcome bonus by spending $8,000 (nearly half the previous spending requirement) in the first three months after account opening. This is great news for small business owners who want to earn a large sum of Chase Ultimate Rewards points quickly without spending a lot of money. 

This 100,000-point welcome bonus is worth $1,000 if redeemed for cash back. Or, the bonus could be worth $1,250 because the Chase Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card gets a 25% value boost when redeeming for travel through the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal. 

Alternatively, if you want to maximize the value that you get out of your Ultimate Rewards points, you could redeem them with one of Chase’s 14 transfer partners (all of which offer a 1:1 transfer ratio). Transferring to partners allows you to find outsized value redemptions and is generally considered to be the best way to redeem Ultimate Rewards points. 

However, the Chase Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card has a lot more to offer than just its welcome bonus. This card offers excellent spending bonuses, including 3X points on the first $150,000 in combined purchases per year on shipping purchases, advertising purchases with social media sites and search engines, internet, cable and phone services, and travel. This card also doesn’t charge any foreign transaction fees and comes with extended warranty and certain purchase protections.

Of course, to qualify for this card, you’ll need to be a small business owner. However, the definition of a small business owner is pretty broad in this case and includes gig economy workers, freelancers and self-employed business owners. 

Earn 100,000 Points by Spending $8,000 in the First 3 Months

Currently, the Chase Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card is offering new cardmembers 100,000 Ultimate Rewards points for spending $8,000 or more on their card within the first three months after account opening. This offer became active on June 29, prior to which new cardmembers would’ve had to spend $15,000 in three months to earn the 100,000-point bonus. This was a major improvement in this offer as the spending requirement was cut nearly in half. 

This change has made earning the welcome bonus, one of the largest in the entire credit card industry, more achievable for small business owners who don’t spend a lot of money or who spread their spending across multiple credit cards. If you were to divide the $8,000 spending requirement by three months, you’d need to spend about $2,667 per month to earn the bonus. In the past, that monthly spending requirement was $5,000.  

As previously mentioned, this 100,000-point bonus is worth $1,000 when redeemed for cash back (or one of the several other Chase Ultimate Rewards redemption methods that offers 1 cent per point in value). However, due to the Ink Business Preferred Card’s 25% value boost, the bonus would be worth $1,250 when redeemed for travel through the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal. This portal allows you to book flights, hotels, rental cars and more from all of the world’s major travel companies. 

However, the best way to maximize the value of your 100,000-point bonus would be to transfer it to one of Chase’s transfer partners. By doing so, you can find redemptions through these partner programs that offer value far exceeding 1 cent per point. 

At the current moment, Chase hasn’t made any statements about how long this new welcome bonus offer will be available for, but if it interests you, you probably want to move fast to make sure you don’t miss out.

Chase Ink Business Preferred Card Overview

Before you open the Chase Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card, you should consider all of its other features beyond just the welcome bonus and make sure that it’s a good fit for you in the long term. Let’s take a look at the advantages and disadvantages of this card. 

First of all, the Ink Business Preferred Card has a $95 annual fee (which is pretty modest considering how many points it can earn you). This card is only available to those with excellent credit (which is usually considered to be a score of 680 or above). 

In addition to the impressive welcome bonus, the Chase Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card also offers regular spending bonuses in several categories. Here are spending bonuses offered by this card:

• 3X points on the first $150,000 in combined spending per year in the following categories:
  • Shipping purchases
  • Advertising purchases made with social media sites and search engines
  • Internet, cable and phone services
  • Travel
• 1X point on all other purchases

These spending bonuses allow business owners to earn the highest rewards in categories where many businesses spend the most. Plus, the “travel” category is widely defined to include things like timeshares, cruise lines, taxis, limousines, ferries, toll bridges and highways, parking lots and garages, buses, campgrounds and passenger trains. 

Considering this card’s annual fee is $95, you would need to spend at most $3,167 per year in those 3X categories (which would earn you 9,501 Ultimate Rewards points) to offset that annual fee. However, considering that Chase Ultimate Rewards points are typically worth more than 1 cent apiece and the fact that you’ll also earn 1X points on all purchases outside of those 3X categories, you’ll probably need to spend even less to break even. 

Not to mention that the 100,000-point welcome bonus (which is worth at least $1,000) instantly offsets the $95 annual fee for more than 10 years. 

On top of all that, there are also several other notable benefits that come with this card. These include: 

• Receive a 25% value boost when redeeming your points for travel through the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal. For example, 100,000 points would be worth $1,250. 
• Add employee cards at no additional cost. You can also set individual spending limits and other controls on each card. 
• No foreign transaction fees. Use your card abroad without paying any additional fees. 
• Cell phone protection against covered theft or damage up to $1,000 per claim. 
• 120 days of purchase protection up to $10,000 per claim and $50,000 per account. 
• Extended warranty of one additional year to the U.S. manufacturer’s warranty, eligible for warranties of three years or less. 
• Trip cancellation and trip interruption insurance up to $5,000 per person and $10,000 per trip. 

There are a lot of things to like about the Ink Business Preferred Card. And now that the spending requirement on the 100,000-point welcome bonus has been lowered to $8,000, it’s more attractive than ever. 

Who Can Qualify for a Business Credit Card?

In general, any small business owner can qualify for a business credit card if they have a high enough credit score. However, the definition of a small business owner is broader than you probably think. The four most common legal business structures are limited liability companies (LLCs), corporations, partnerships and sole proprietorships. If you’re unsure whether or not you can qualify for a business credit card, then you probably fit into that last category. 

The legal definition of a sole proprietorship covers most gig economy workers (such as Uber or DoorDash drivers or babysitters on Care.com), freelancers (such as web developers or freelance graphic designers) and self-employed business owners (such as Airbnb hosts or eBay sellers). 

As you can see, the definition of a small business owner is pretty loose in this case. However, you’ll have to provide the credit card issuer with some information before you can get approved for a business credit card. 

First of all, just like with a personal credit card, you’ll need to provide the issuer with personal information such as: 

• Name 
• Birth date 
• Social Security number
• Home address
• Email 
• Phone number
• Annual income
• Monthly rent or mortgage payment

However, when applying for a business credit card, you’ll also need to provide some additional information about your business, including: 

• Business name, address and phone number
• Annual revenue, number of employees and years in business
• Business type and legal structure
• Monthly expenses 
• Employer identification number (EIN) if you have one

Again, an EIN isn’t required for all small business owners, only ones who have employees on payroll. If you’re a freelancer or gig economy worker, you can simply enter your own name as the business name and your own address and phone number as well.  

Best Ways to Redeem 100,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards Points

As previously mentioned, the Chase Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card gets a 25% value boost when you spend your points on travel through the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal. So, if you want to keep things simple, you can rest assured that you’ll always get a value of 1.25 cents per point when redeeming this way. 

However, you can actually get much more value out of your Ultimate Rewards points by redeeming them with one of Chase’s 14 transfer partners. Many of the redemptions that you can find through these partners offer far better value than 1.25 cents per point. 

When trying to determine the value of the redemption, you simply need to divide the cash price of the redemption by the amount of points that it would cost you. For instance, if the cash price of a hotel stay is $800 and it’s available to book as an award stay for 50,000 points, then redemption would offer a value of 1.6 cents per point ($800 / 50,000 points = $0.016). If you’re serious about maximizing the value of your points, you should do these kinds of calculations whenever you look at a redemption option. 

In general, though, the best way to get the most value out of your Ultimate Rewards points is to transfer them to one of Chase’s transfer partners (all of which offer a 1:1 transfer ratio). Here are all of the programs to which you can transfer your Chase points: 

• Aer Lingus AerClub
• Air Canada Aeroplan
• Air France-KLM Flying Blue
• British Airways Executive Club
• Emirates Skywards
• Iberia Plus
• IHG Rewards Club
• JetBlue TrueBlue
• Marriott Bonvoy
• Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
• Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards
• United Airlines MileagePlus
• Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
• World of Hyatt

In general, there are some programs that tend to offer more value than others. For instance, Marriott Bonvoy and IHG One Rewards are usually considered to be less valuable than the other programs listed above, so you’ll probably want to avoid transferring your points to these programs. 

With all of these programs, you should keep an eye out for transfer bonuses. Chase occasionally offers bonuses for transferring your points to certain partners. Currently, they’re offering a 20% bonus for transferring your points to Air Canada Aeroplan. For instance, if you transferred 100,000 Chase points, you would receive 120,000 Aeroplan points. These kinds of transfer bonuses can help you get a lot more value out of your Chase points.

Book a Hotel Stay Through World of Hyatt

While hotel points are generally less valuable than airline miles (which is why Marriott Bonvoy and IHG One Rewards should probably be avoided as transfer partners), World of Hyatt points are the exception to that rule. 

If you’re willing to do a bit of searching, you can find some redemptions through World of Hyatt that offer great value. 

For instance, if you want to book a trip to New York City, you can book nights at the Andaz 5th Avenue for 30,000 points per night. So, with your 100,000-point bonus, you could stay three nights at this property and still have 10,000 points left over for a future redemption. 

When booked with cash, the same standard room on the same dates at the Andaz 5th Avenue would cost $654. So, this redemption would give you a value of about 2.2 cents per point ($654 / 30,000 points = $0.0218), which is fairly good. 

It’s worth noting that the Andaz 5th Avenue also charges a resort fee of $35 per night if you book with cash. So, if you wanted to stay at this property, it would cost you $654 plus $35 in resort fees. However, World of Hyatt waives all resort fees and taxes on award stay bookings, which means you’d be getting even better value for your points by avoiding these fees. 

However, if your idea of the ideal vacation involves palm trees and sandy beaches, you could instead use your 100,000-point bonus to book three nights at the Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort & Spa. You can also book award stays at this property for 30,000 per night, meaning that you could book three nights with the points from your bonus and then have 10,000 more points left over.

If you were to book this same standard room with cash, it would cost you $932. That means that this redemption would give you a value of about 3.1 cents per point ($932 / 30,000 points = $0.031), which is great.

However, if you were to book this stay with cash, the Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort & Spa charges a $45 resort fee per night, which means you’d have to pay $135 in resort fees for a three-night stay. So, you’d be saving an additional $45 per night by choosing to pay with points because World of Hyatt waives resort fees on award bookings. 

Book Flights Between the West Coast and Hawaii Through Air Canada Aeroplan

In general, one of the best Chase transfer partners is Air Canada Aeroplan. This is because they still use award charts to price their award flights. These award charts are region- and distance-based, meaning that you can find great deals on flights within the same region that have high cash prices. 

For instance, flights to Hawaii from Los Angeles would fall into the distance range of 1,501 to 2,750 miles, and both locations are within the North America region.

So, one-way economy flights between Los Angeles and Honolulu would cost just 12,500 Aeroplan points. Below, we found a United-operated flight on that route for that exact price. That means that you could use your 100,000-point bonus from the Ink Business Preferred Card to book round-trip flights from Los Angeles to Honolulu for a family of four. 

There are plenty of other sweet spots in the Aeroplan program to exploit, particularly when you look for flights within the same region that typically have a high cash price. 

You can also find some amazing deals on flights between the East Coast of the United States and India through Aeroplan. For instance, we found a one-way Air India flight from New York City to New Delhi for 55,000 points in economy class, 90,000 points in business class and 130,000 points in first class. 

If you were to book that flight in first class through Air India, it would cost you a whopping $7,682.40. That means that this first-class redemption would give you a value of 5.9 cents per point ($7,682 / 130,000 points = $0.059), which is outstanding. 

Book Flights Between the U.S. and the Caribbean Through Flying Blue

Another good program to transfer your Chase Ultimate Rewards points to is Air France-KLM Flying Blue, which is great for booking award flights with SkyTeam partners. In particular, you can find a lot of good deals on flights between the U.S. and the Caribbean. 

For instance, we found round-trip Delta Air Lines-operated flights in economy class from New York City to Havana for 39,000 points and $118.50 in taxes and fees. That means that you can use your 100,000-point welcome bonus from the Chase Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card to book two tickets between New York and Havana for 78,000 points and $237.10 in taxes and fees and still have 22,000 points left over for future redemptions. 

You can also find plenty of other affordable award flights between the United States and other Caribbean destinations (including Jamaica, Grand Cayman, Bermuda and Dominican Republic) through the Flying Blue program and its SkyTeam partners.  

The Bottom Line

Prior to June 29, the 100,000-point welcome bonus offered by the Chase Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card was fairly difficult to achieve for many consumers as it required you to spend $15,000 on your card in the first three months after account opening. However, now that you’re required to spend $8,000 in the first three months after account opening, earning this welcome bonus just got a whole lot easier. 

If redeemed for cash back or one of the other redemption methods through Chase Ultimate Rewards portal that offers 1 cent per point in value, this 100,000-point bonus is worth $1,000. But because the Ink Business Preferred Card offers a 25% value boost when redeeming for travel through the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal, the bonus would be worth $1,250 when redeemed this way. 

However, if you really want to maximize the value of these points, then you need to transfer them to one of Chase’s transfer partners. If you’re willing to do some digging, then you can find outsized value redemptions that over value far exceeding 1 cent per point. For instance, one of the redemptions referenced earlier in this article offered 5.9 cents per point. At that rate, the 100,000-point welcome bonus from the Chase Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card would be worth $5,900. So, as you can see, where you redeem your Chase points greatly affects their value. 

Regardless, this is one of the largest welcome bonuses in the entire credit card industry, and it’s being offered by a card with a modest annual fee of just $95. Plus, since the spending requirement to earn this bonus got dropped to $8,000, it just got even easier to earn.