Compare the Features and Benefits of Chase Sapphire Reserve for Business℠ and
Graphite™ Business Cash Unlimited Card

💳 This card earns Chase Ultimate Rewards points. Chase often runs transfer bonuses where you can get even more points when you transfer to airline or hotel partners at designated times. Transfer bonuses are awesome. Get 20%, 30%, 40% or more bonus miles when you transfer points at the right times. But they are easy to miss!

You can see all past Transfer Bonuses from Chase Ultimate Rewards here.

Even better? Get notified when a new transfer bonus comes out and again before it ends (either or both, your choice). Sign up for free alerts right here. 🔔

The Chase Sapphire Reserve for Business is clearly marketed at very high spending businesses that value the benefits and statement credits on offer. That’s why it has a high spending pay-in-full limit that also has Flex for Business, a credit line which allows payments over time with interest.

If you need a less powerful but still amazing Chase Business credit card, you can still get the Chase Ink Business Preferred® card with just a $95 annual fee.

However, I want to highlight one underrated feature that sets this card apart for any business owner with a super high level of ad spend. I want to highlight that the card earns 3X points on social media and search engine advertising. Before you say “so does the Chase Ink Business Preferred® card!,” let me remind you that the Ink Preferred is capped at $150,000 a year on all 3X spend combined.

If you spend a million dollars a year (and I know many small growing businesses that spend in the millions on social media and search engine advertising), you are earning 3 million Chase Ultimate Rewards points which we value at 1.75 cents per point due to the power unlocked with their airline and hotel transfer partners. So using our valuation, $1MM in annual spend on this category is worth $52,500 a year in rewards value. Now to be clear that is an average value for your points, but this card has Points Boost where you can redeem at 2 cents a point for a variety of (always changing) luxury oriented air and hotel redemptions in the Chase Travel℠ portal. Used that way, $1MM in social media and search engine advertising is worth $60,000 in Points Boost travel.

That’s, well, insane…. and if you are a high spender in those categories, you’ll probably want this card now before I go further.

Let’s say that’s not your reason, though.

When you look at the features and benefits outlined above, it’s easy to see how this card provides great value for the right small business owner. The $300 annual travel credit is valid on any travel and is therefore extremely easily used. That brings it down to a level where you are looking at $95 more in value to break even or come out ahead – maybe way ahead. We firmly believe that high annual fees are simply an opportunity to see if you can get more value from the fees – with minimal effort – than you are paying. And the annual fee on a small business card should be a deductible expense for your business (not financial advice).

It’s hard to see not being able to get $100 from the bi-annual $50 credit for GiftCards.com, for example. Between that and the $300 travel credit, we are only looking to offset $395 more to make the annual fee worth it.

I’ll make it simple: look at the Unique Card Benefits section and Annual Statement credits sections above, add to that the lounge access for your and 2 guests, and see if you are ahead before breaking out a pen and paper. If so, this card is a match for you. If you really struggle to see what you’d use, then maybe not…

But don’t forget the bonus categories. In addition to the 3X on social media and search engine advertising purchases, you’re getting 4X on airfare and hotels booked directly. That’s the highest multiplier we know of for a business card when booking directly in these categories. And if you don’t mind booking via Chase Travel, then it’s even better with all travel earning 8X points.

Here’s a reminder on where you can transfer your Ultimate Rewards points besides redeeming via Chase Travel / Points Boost:

The bottom line is this card is packed with opportunities to absolute crush it in value whether through the bonus categories, card benefits, and statement credits. If this card is for you, you already know it.

Note that you cannot product change into this card from any other Chase card. You can only apply outright.

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

It’s easy to look at this card and wonder how it differs from the American Express Blue Business Cash™ card, with no annual fee, and wonder why you’d pay a $295 annual fee on this card.

The primary two reasons are:

1) This card is a No Preset Spending Limit card. If you put heavy spend on a business card, you would max out the credit limit on the Blue Business Cash™ very quickly.

2) Importantly, that card only earns 2% on the first $50,000 spent annually on eligible purchases and just 1% thereafter. Terms apply.

This card will earn you the full 2% on unlimited spend. You’ll earn back the $295 annual fee (in Rewards Dollars) after the first $14,750 in eligible spend. If you are spending $500,000 on the card annually, that is a rounding error on the way to 2% cash back on everything else.

Previously, you had few options for such high spend, with the Business Platinum Card® as the obvious choice.

However, the Business Platinum  earns just 1% in Membership Rewards points on all spend outside select categories. Specifically, it earns 2X Membership Rewards® points per dollar on up to $2 million in eligible purchases in the U.S., per calendar year, in the following select business categories combined:

• Electronic goods retailers
• Software & cloud system providers
• Construction materials and hardware supplies.
• Shipping providers.
• Purchases of $5,000 or more

The Business Platinum card also earns 5X per dollar on airfare and prepaid hotel purchases with American Express Travel. Terms apply.

So the cash back from an unlimited 2% on this Graphite Business Cash Unlimited may be far more worthwhile to you, especially if you don’t play the “points game.”

And don’t forget you’ll also get an unlimited 5% Cash Back on American Express Travel® on flights and prepaid hotel bookings through Amex Travel®. That can really add up for business travel collectively booked on the Amex Travel platform.

Card Members can get metal Employee Graphite™ Business Cash Unlimited Cards for $95 per year for the first 5 Cards, and $95 for each thereafter, with the ability to earn Reward Dollars on purchases and receive alerts to help Card Members know who’s spending and where.

This card competes squarely against the Capital One Spark Cash Plus and the Venture X Business which earns 2X Capital One Miles.

Rates & Fees for the Graphite™ Business Cash Unlimited Card

Rates and Fees for the The American Express Blue Business Cash™ Card

Rates and fees for The Business Platinum Card® from American Express