Compare the Features and Benefits of Chase Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card and
United Club℠ Infinite Card

The Chase Ink Business Preferred credit card is a staple credit card for any business owner than understands the power of Chase Ultimate Rewards, one of my favorite rewards currencies (See the feature entitled “Earns Transferable Points” above for more on why.)

The Ink Preferred has two distinctions among the Chase Ink business credit card lineup with also includes the Chase Ink Business Unlimited® and Chase Ink Business Cash®.

1) While those cards have no annual fee, they also do not have the power, on their own, to transfer points to Chase’s airline and hotel partners – and that is where you get the most value. The Chase Ink Preferred, with its small annual fee, gives it the distinction of being able to transfer the points to partners like World of Hyatt.

So, for instance, you can earn 5X on office supply stores with the Ink Cash and 1.5X on spend categories that don’t otherwise have a bonus multiplier and then combine them all to your Chase Ink Preferred. In addition to being able to transfer to air and hotel partner programs, you also have the option to simply book travel on the Chase Travel site with each point worth 1.25 cents. Comparatively, the Ink Cash and Ink Unlimited would have points worth just 1 cent there – unless you also had an Ink Preferred to combine the points to.

2) The Ink Business Preferred has the highest bonus offer of any card, with 100,000 bonus points on offer when you meet the minimum spend in the allotted time from account opening. (See current offer above in “Key Facts.”)

But beyond that, the Chase Ink Business Preferred is a super powerful credit card for small business owners that spend a lot on select business categories like travel, internet, cable, and phone services, search engines/social media and shipping purchases, where you will earn 3X Ultimate Rewards points per dollar spent – up to a combined maximum of $150,000 per year. (You would earn 1 point per dollar over that limit.)

That’s some amazing earning power! If you max that out in a year, you are earning 600,000 points which we would value (at 1.75 cents a point) as worth over $10,000 in rewards value. Like I said – it’s a powerhouse of a card all on its own!

Even if you had no interest in travel and treated these points as cash back (which I certainly don’t think is the best way to use these points!), you are still earning 3% cash back on this spend.

And then there’s the benefits. This card absolutely rocks the benefits.

My favorite benefit is its included primary rental car insurance when you book for business purposes, put the entire rental cost on your Ink card and decline the rental company’s collision insurance. That means that you can decline the expensive collision insurance that your rental car company offers and, if there is damage or theft, Chase’s insurance will cover you on most rentals without involving your personal insurance. That could save you on future premiums.

Note: The list of credit cards that offer primary rental car insurance is extremely limited, so take advantage of this one.

But that’s far from the only benefit worth mentioning. Other notable card benefits include:

• Trip cancellation/interruption insurance, up to $5,000, for non-refundable passenger fares, hotels and tours.
• Up to $1,000 per incident for cell phone protection. The insurance covers you and your listed employees on the cell phone bill, when you pay your monthly cell phone bill with your Chase Ink Business card. You can make up to 3 claims per year with a $100 deductible.
• Extended warranty. For a manufacturer’s warranty of 3 years or less, Chase will add an additional year.
• Purchase Protection. Chase covers your new purchases for 120 days against damage or theft up to $10,000 per claim and $50,000 per account.
• No foreign transaction fees. Feel free to pay for goods abroad with the Chase Ink Business Preferred card and you won’t have to worry about foreign transaction fees.
• Of course, it comes with expected fraud protection and real time fraud monitoring with zero liability for you if you are a victim of fraud.

Note: You will only be approved for a Chase business credit card if you have applied for fewer than 5 personal credit cards within the last 24 months from any issuer. (Business credit cards do not count against the total, except for Capital One and Discover, but are subject to the policy).

Lastly, you will only be approved for (at most) one Chase business card every 30 days so please do not apply for two at once.

If you have applied for a Chase credit card and don’t get an instant approval, you may want to phone the Chase reconsideration line.

This card is also mentioned in the article Business Credit Cards That Don’t Report to Personal Credit Bureaus.

The United Club Infinite Card is a surprisingly robust offering from United Airlines and Chase.

The primary reason to get this card is because you fly United enough that you would like to have United Club lounge access for all of your flights.

The average person will save $125 by gaining United Club access via this credit card than by buying it directly. Even United 1K members come out $25 ahead. Why would anyone buy United Club access directly when it’s cheaper to pay a lower annual fee on the credit card?

By the way, the exact same thing applies to the Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite MasterCard® and as well as the Delta SkyMiles® Reserve American Express Card and the Delta SkyMiles® Reserve Business American Express Credit Card. The Delta cards even offer American Express Centurion Lounge access when flying Delta, although they also have a limit on lounge visits per year.

You also have the ability to earn the most Premier Qualifying Points towards United elite status of any of the United credit cards. You’ll earn 25 Premier Qualifying Points (PQPs) for every $500 you spend on purchases.

Now, sure, outside of 4X miles per dollar spent on United purchases, the earn rate on other categories aren’t particularly strong. But the card’s features and benefits that we’ve described above that come on top of the United Club lounge access are incredibly compelling.

To recap, those benefits include:

• United Club lounge access
• First and second free checked bags
• Receive 25% Back on United inflight and Club Premium Drink Purchases
• Earn up to 10,000 Premier Qualifying Points (PQP) (You’ll earn 25 Premier Qualifying Points (PQPs) for every $500 you spend on purchases.)
• 10% Saver Award Flight Discount
• Expanded Award Availability
• Premier Upgrades on Award Tickets
• Premier Access including priority check in and priority boarding
• Return Protection for Items a Store Won’t Take Back + Extended Warranty and Purchase Protection
• Access to The Luxury Hotel & Resort Collection
• Primary Car Rental CDW Insurance
• Global Entry / TSA PreCheck / NEXUS Reimbursement as a Statement Credit
• IHG Platinum Status
• Top Tier Avis President’s Club status

That’s not all of the card features, but it sure is enough to see that the value you are getting for that annual fee is pretty amazing.