Ink Business Premier® Credit Card Review: Big Rewards for Big Purchases

The Ink Business Premier® Credit Card offers businesses extra rewards for big-ticket purchases of $5,000 or more. 

Those rewards, however, are surprisingly inflexible for an Ink Business card. But if you want straight-up cashback, it could be the card for your business needs.

Just keep in mind there are alternatives with lower annual fees and comparable features that might make more sense for outfits operating with smaller budgets.

Overview of the Ink Business Premier

The Ink Business Premier® Credit Card’s rewards structure squeezes out extra cashback on pricey expenses. And although it’s fundamentally a cashback card, it has a few features of interest for those who occasionally travel overseas for work. 

However, smaller-scale businesses may not benefit from the Business Premier’s rewards rate, especially since it charges an annual fee.

Ink Business Premier Rewards 

Like its main competitors, the Ink Business Premier is primarily a “flat-rate” cashback card — it earns a steady stream of 2% cashback on any eligible purchase you make. But unlike its main competitors, the Premier earns an extra 0.5% in unlimited cashback beyond its base rate on purchases costing $5,000 or more. 

An added 0.5% in cashback doesn’t sound like much. But if you make four $5,000 purchases, that’s an extra $100 in cashback that can be reinvested into marketing your business or plushing up your workspace with an ergonomic office chair.

Rewards earned with the Business Premier card can be redeemed for: 

• Cashback applied to your card balance
• Deposits into most savings or checking accounts
• Business travel expenses (flights, hotel stays, or car rentals) booked via Chase Travel℠
• Apple products purchased in the Apple® Ultimate Rewards Store
• Gift cards for over 150 brands of electronics retailers, office supply stores, and hotel chains

Ink Business Premier Benefits 

The Ink Business Premier® Credit Card provides some insurance and purchase coverages that give it value beyond its rewards. 

That said, there are a few other business credit cards with lower annual fees — like the Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card — that offer comparable protections. 

Auto rental collision damage waiver

If you charge a rental car to the card and decline the collision insurance offered by the rental company, your card’s primary rental car insurance will cover theft of the car and any collision damage it sustains (in most circumstances).

READ MORE: Credit Card Rental Car Insurance: What You Need to Know

Purchase coverages

Products with an eligible U.S. manufacturer’s warranty of three years or less purchased with the Business Premier gain an extra year of warranty, courtesy of the card’s extended warranty protection. 

And if you use the card to buy a new item and it’s damaged or stolen within 120 days of purchase, purchase protection covers that item for up to $10,000 per claim and $50,000 per account.

Finally, pay your business’s monthly cellphone bill with your Premier card, and you can make up to three annual claims against covered theft of or damage to the phones on that bill. Each claim can be made for up to $1,000 and is subject to a $100 deductible. 

READ MORE: Credit Card Purchase Protection: What You Need to Know

What We Like About the Ink Business Premier

While there are technically other business credit cards out there with higher-value welcome offers than the Ink Business Premier® Credit Card, they tend to require astronomical levels of spending that many small businesses won’t naturally meet.

As well, you can earn big rewards for big purchases — the extra cashback on purchases of $5,000 or more can pay off if you periodically make those big buys.

Finally, we like that the Premier doesn’t charge foreign transaction fees. While it isn’t a travel card per se, you at least won’t take a hit if you need to travel overseas and cover expenses while you’re there.

What We Don’t Like About the Ink Business Premier

Perhaps the most disappointing aspect of the Ink Business Premier card is that the rewards it earns aren’t as flexible as rewards earned with other Chase Ink cards, despite the Premier having the highest annual fee of any card in the Ink suite. 

For instance, if you have the Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card (which has no annual fee) and one of the following cards, you can combine your Ink Business Unlimited rewards with the rewards from the other card:

• Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
• Chase Sapphire Reserve®
• Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card

Those pooled Chase Ultimate Rewards® can be transferred to 14 airline and hotel loyalty programs or redeemed through Chase Travel℠ at an enhanced per-point value. But Chase currently doesn’t allow the Premier’s rewards to join that party.

READ MORE: Your Ultimate Guide to Chase Ultimate Rewards®

Who Should Get the Ink Business Premier? 

The Ink Business Premier is worth considering if at least two of the following apply to you:

• You can pay your card balance in full each month. The Premier mixes features of a credit card and a charge card — while purchases of $500 or more can be repaid gradually with interest, purchases under $500 must be paid in full monthly.
• Your business has around $3,350 or so of cumulative expenses each month. That purchase volume will earn enough cashback each year to justify the card’s annual fee.
• Your business makes at least four major annual purchases — like inventory, equipment, or advertising — of $5,000 or more each.

Who Shouldn’t Get the Ink Business Premier? 

The Ink Business Premier’s annual fee might be dead-ish weight in your budget if you:

• Have a side hustle or a lower-key business with anticipated annual expenses below $40,000. 
• Have the Sapphire Preferred, Sapphire Reserve, or Ink Business Preferred card. You should consider a different Ink Business card, like the Ink Business Unlimited, to get more flexibility from the rewards earned.
• Frequently travel for business meetings, conferences, etc. In this case, it might be wiser to get a full-fledged business travel card rather than a business cashback card.

COMPARE: Best Business Credit Cards

Alternatives to the Ink Business Premier 

The Ink Business Cash® Credit Card has no annual fee and a high cashback rate on the categories where small business owners tend to frequently spend. 

It also comes with several of the same perks that the Premier offers, including auto rental collision damage waivers, purchase protection, and extended warranties.  

However, note that the highest rewards categories are capped at a combined $50,000 per year, so you’ll benefit the most from this card if your business falls under that spending range. 

The Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card has a lower annual fee than the Premier, and rather than flat cashback, it earns Chase Ultimate Rewards®. If you’d rather the option to redeem credit card points for travel (and transfer them to partner airlines and hotels), this may be a better option.

Like the Premier, it also offers extended warranties, purchase protection, and cellphone protection. It also has trip delay/cancellation, baggage delay, and lost baggage insurance, so it’s best suited to business owners who frequently travel for work.

The Capital One Spark Cash Plus earns unlimited cashback and has a lower annual fee than the Premier — and if your business spends at least $150,000 in a calendar year, the annual fee will be credited back to your account. 

The catch is that it’s a charge card, rather than a credit card, so you need to pay off your balance in full every month.

However, if you travel frequently for work, it could be a good option, since it earns the highest rewards for hotels and rental cars, and it has no foreign transaction fees.  

Bottom Line: Is the Ink Business Premier Worth It?

The Ink Business Premier® Credit Card is a cashback card designed specifically for business owners who frequently have large purchases over $5,000. If that’s you, you could earn some nice cashback on big-ticket items you need to buy anyway.

The downside is there's an annual fee, and your cashback can’t be converted to Chase Ultimate Rewards®. However, you can use the cashback to get reimbursed for travel purchases through Chase Travel℠ — which may be more appealing if you prefer straight-up reimbursement instead of calculating points redemption values.

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Disclosure: Opinions expressed here are the author's alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post.