Does the Chase Ink Business Premier® Card Earn Transferable Ultimate Rewards® Points?

This article is designed to hopefully clear up some confusion about the Ink cards and which can have their points transferred.

Chase issues four “Ink” branded business credit cards:

• Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card
• Ink Business Cash® Credit Card
• Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card
• Ink Business Premier® Credit Card

I’m not going to go into card features or benefits here. After all, we already have a pretty solid article that compares all of the Chase Ink Business Credit Cards to try and answer the question of Which Chase Ink Business Card is Right for you?

But I constantly see people get into trouble where they open an Ink Business Premier® Credit Card and assume that the Ultimate Rewards points earned are transferable to either the Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card or the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card or Chase Sapphire Reserve®.

Of course the reason one cares is generally so that they can transfer points to one of the Chase Ultimate Rewards transfer partners (list below).

Some might also want book travel in the Chase Travel(SM) portal at increased point value rates (each Ultimate Rewards point from the Sapphire Preferred or Ink Preferred is worth 1.25 cents per point while the Sapphire Reserve has points worth 1.5 cents per point at Chase Travel.

But the Ink Business Premier® Credit Card is super easy to get confused about. This is mainly because the Ink Business Cash® Credit Card, Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card, and the Ink Business Premier® Credit Card all have identical terms and conditions stating that you are earning Ultimate Rewards points. 

If you read the fine print in for the Ink Premier, which only earns Cash Back and has points which cannot be transferred to any other card, the terms say:

Earning in the Rewards Program: “Cash Back rewards” are the rewards you earn under the program. Cash Back rewards are tracked as points and each $1 in Cash Back rewards earned is equal to 100 points.

And here is what the terms say for the Ink Cash and Ink Unlimited: 

Earning in the Rewards Program: “Cash Back rewards” are the rewards you earn under the program. Cash Back rewards are tracked as points and each $1 in Cash Back rewards earned is equal to 100 points.

Confused? That is understandable!!

The terms are THE SAME.

And yet, the points do not function the same.

Points earned on the the Ink Business Cash® Credit Card and the Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card CAN be transferred to any other Ultimate Rewards card – so yes, you can move them to a Sapphire Preferred or Reserve or an Ink Preferred and transfer them out to partners like Hyatt and United.

And yet, points earned with the Ink Premier cannot be moved anywhere. They can be redeemed for cash back and that is all. And not only are the terms identical for the card which cannot have its points transferred as the ones that can, the names “Ink Preferred” and “Ink Premier” are similar enough to non-credit card junkies that we very often hear from readers and Facebook group members that they have accumulated X points on their Ink Premier and can’t figure out how to transfer the points over to another card or out to transfer partners.

Oh, and even more confusing is that the conventional wisdom is that Chase Ultimate Rewards-earning cards with no annual fee earn points that cannot directly be transferred to airline / hotel partners but CAN be moved to a card with an annual fee (Sapphire or Ink Preferred). So adding to the contusion is the $195 annual fee on the Ink Premier. 

To be clear, I understand why the points on the Ink Premier are not transferable. After all, you earn an industry leading 2% cash back on all purchases and 2.5% on purchases of $5,000 or more. That is massive for non-bonus category spend. If they could then be transferred to partners, the card economics might not make sense.

So let’s just run back through the four Ink cards and what you can do with the Ultimate Rewards earned from each:

• Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card – Points are transferrable to airline / hotel partners or can be redeemed in Chase Travel with a value of 1.25 cents per point.
• Ink Business Cash® Credit Card – Points are only redeemable for cash back directly, but points can be transferred to any other Ultimate Rewards earning card (except Ink Premier). 
• Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card – Points are only redeemable for cash back directly, but points can be transferred to any other Ultimate Rewards earning card (except Ink Premier). 
• Ink Business Premier® Credit Card – Points are only redeemable for cash back and cannot be transferred to any other card or program.

I truly hope this helps you avoid getting the Ink Business Premier® when your goal is transferrable points – but not at all to discourage you from getting it if you do indeed want the richest cash back across any and all spend categories – 2% cash back on all purchases and 2.5% on purchases of $5,000 or more.

If you have any questions or comments, drop them below. And if you have a friend confused about this very thing? Send them this article…

Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card - Best Offer This Year! Earn 100,000 bonus points after you spend $5,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. How to apply for this offer.

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