Who should (and who shouldn’t) get the Chase Ink Business Premier?

Businesses come in all shapes and sizes — so whether you're an owner of a fine dining restaurant, a nimble startup or an online consulting agency, there are plenty of opportunities to maximize your daily operating expenses with a small-business credit card.

With a $195 annual fee, the Ink Business Premier® Credit Card earns an unlimited 2% cash back on every purchase, unlimited 2.5% back on large purchases of $5,000 or more and unlimited 5% cash back on travel booked through Chase Ultimate Rewards.

In this guide, we'll look at the card's other ongoing benefits to determine who it might be the right fit for.

Key benefits

New applicants approved for the Ink Business Premier will receive a welcome bonus of $1,000 cash back (in the form of 100,000 Ultimate Rewards points) after spending $10,000 on eligible purchases within the first three months of account opening.

However, unlike the other Ink business credit cards, the Ink Business Premier is designed primarily as a business cash-back card. Therefore, the points you earn with it are not transferable to the Ultimate Rewards program's airline and hotel partners, such as United MileagePlus, Southwest Rapid Rewards and World of Hyatt.

Unfortunately, the points you earn with the Ink Business Premier cannot be transferred to other Ultimate Rewards accounts even if you have another Chase card. You can, however, transfer points from other Chase Ultimate Rewards accounts into the one linked to your Ink Business Premier card and redeem them from there. But there are a few reasons you might not want to do so, which we'll get into below.

You'll also get the following:

• A Flex for Business feature that allows cardholders to pay for eligible purchases over time with interest, giving them access to greater payment flexibility
• Cellphone protection with up to $1,000 per claim, with a maximum of three claims per year and a $100 deductible per claim

With all that in mind, let's take a look at the folks whom this card might benefit the most.

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Who should get the Ink Business Premier?

Businesses with large operating expenses

As one of Chase's premium business credit cards, it's clear that the Ink Business Premier is geared toward businesses that have thousands of dollars in operating expenses per year.

First, you'll need to spend $10,000 in the first three months to unlock the $1,000 cash-back bonus.

The $195 annual fee is another consideration. While not expensive, it is still $100 more than the Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card, for example, so anyone who applies will want to make sure they can recoup the cost through their cash-back earning each year. That shouldn't be tough to accomplish, given this card's bonus categories.

Chase's Flex for Business payment feature is also designed for business owners who need greater flexibility to make large purchases and make a plan to pay them off over time.

Someone who already carries the Ink Business Cash Credit Card

The Ink Business Premier pairs well with the no-annual-fee Ink Business Cash® Credit Card since the latter offers valuable bonus categories on business-centered purchases — but only up to a certain limit.

Ink Business Cash cardholders can earn 5% back at office supply stores and on internet, cable and phone services, but only on up to the first $25,000 spent per account anniversary year.

You can then transfer all of your rewards earned from the Ink Business Cash over to the Ink Business Premier, but note that this will not work in reverse. Still, the flat-rate, unlimited 2% earning rate on the Ink Business Premier can be quite valuable to leverage if you've maxed out the spending limits on the Ink Business Cash and, of course, to earn points on those business purchases that fall outside of these bonus categories.

Who shouldn't get the Ink Business Premier?

Small businesses or self-employed individuals

The Ink Business Premier falls short for business owners who don't incur thousands of dollars of annual expenses. Fortunately, Chase's other business card options are a much better fit. These cards offer excellent earning potential for a fraction (or none of) of the cost of the Ink Business Premier.

Someone who wants to double down on earning transferable Chase Ultimate Rewards points

As mentioned above, the rewards earned on the Ink Business Premier cannot transfer over to your other Ultimate Rewards-earning cards. This comes as a major disappointment for many since you can combine rewards earned on other Chase cash-back cards and then transfer them to the Ultimate Rewards program's airline and hotel partners.

Regardless, you'll want to pass on applying for the Ink Business Premier if you hope to unlock thousands of Ultimate Rewards points with this card.

Even if you just want to redeem your Ultimate Rewards points directly for travel booked through Chase, the Ink Business Preferred might be a better choice. That's because, for these redemptions specifically, your points will be worth 1.25 cents apiece with the Ink Business Preferred, but only 1 cent apiece with the Ink Business Premier.

Related: Why doubling down on one rewards program may be better than diversifying

Someone who is over their 5/24 standing

While most business cards won't add to your Chase 5/24 count, you'll likely need to be under 5/24 to qualify for the new Ink Business Premier. Unfamiliar with this rule? Essentially, applicants will probably not qualify for a Chase-issued credit card (not just the Ink Business Premier) if they've opened five or more credit cards from any issuer in the past 24 months. In any case, to maximize your odds of approval, you'll want to be under your 5/24 count.

Bottom line

The Ink Business Premier's inability to transfer your rewards to your other Chase credit cards is rather limiting and won't help you earn more points if you were hoping to incorporate it into your Chase Trifecta cards.

Still, it's clear that Chase has developed this card to target those businesses that aren't interested in travel rewards and would rather earn cash back instead. With an up-to-2.5% earning rate on purchases and no limit to how much cash back you can accrue, the Ink Business Premier offers excellent earning potential — but only for the right business.

Apply here: Ink Business Premier Credit Card