The Obvious First Card Choice After Dropping Below “5/24”
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FINALLY! It’s been a struggle for my wife and me to earn some of the best Chase card sign-up bonuses because we were both impacted by the “5/24” rule. Chase will NOT approve you for most of their cards if you’ve opened 5+ cards from any bank (NOT counting Chase business cards and these other business cards) in the past 24 months.
Unfortunately, I’m still under this restriction until August 2018. But my wife fell below the limit as of June 1. To celebrate, she obviously had to apply for a new card right away — the Ink Business Preferred℠ Credit Card.
The Ink Business Preferred has the HIGHEST sign-up bonus of ANY card earning Chase Ultimate Rewards points. And these points have been key to our success in the miles & points hobby! We used these flexible points to save a lot of money on our around-the-world honeymoon and an unbelievable family vacation to New Zealand!
The nice part is my wife and I both have cards that earn Chase Ultimate Rewards points. So after she earns the valuable 80,000-point Ink Business Preferred sign-up bonus, we can combine points in one account to make it easier to book award travel.
Why the 80,000-Point Ink Business Preferred Offer Is an Amazing Deal!
Link: Apply for the Chase Ink Business Preferred
When you sign-up for the Chase Ink Business Preferred card, you’ll earn 80,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points after you spend $5,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
You can redeem the sign-up bonus for $800 in cash back OR $1,000 in travel by booking airfare, hotel stays, or car rentals through the Chase travel portal (with no blackout dates!).
But the sign-up bonus has the potential to be worth MUCH more if you transfer points directly to Chase’s airline and hotel partners, which include:
- Aer Lingus
- British Airways
- FlyingBlue (Air France / KLM)
- Hyatt
- Iberia
- IHG
- Korean Air
- Marriott or Ritz-Carlton
- Singapore Airlines
- Southwest
- United Airlines
- Virgin Atlantic
Thanks to alliances and partnerships, the list of Chase airline partners opens up a lot of opportunities for Big Travel with Small Money! For example, after earning the Ink Business Preferred sign-up bonus myself, I transferred points to United Airlines to book a Business Class award flight on Star Alliance partner Air New Zealand. Paying cash for a similar ticket would have cost more than $4,000! And flying across the Pacific Ocean in a lie-flat seat was awesome!
My wife and I don’t have specific plans for what we’ll do with the 80,000-point sign-up bonus. But I’m confident it will get us at least $2,000 worth of travel!
Ink Business Preferred cardholders also get:
- 3X Chase Ultimate Rewards points for every $1 you spend on travel, shipping purchases, internet, cable and phone services, advertising purchases made with social media sites, and search engines (up to a maximum of $150,000 in combined purchases per account anniversary year)
- 1X Chase Ultimate Rewards points on all other purchases
- Up to $600 in cell phone insurance when you pay your cell phone bill with the card
- 25% bonus when you redeem points through the Chase Ultimate Rewards travel portal
- Primary auto rental insurance (CDW) when renting for business purposes, plus purchase and extended warranty protection
The card has a $95 annual fee, which is NOT waived the first year. But the value of the sign-up bonus and ongoing 3X bonus category make it a card worth keeping in my opinion.
The cell phone insurance perk is handy too! I filed a claim after damaging my iPhone and received a reimbursement check to offset part of the repair cost.
The Ink Business Preferred will be a great addition to my wife’s wallet because she already has other Chase Ultimate Rewards point earning cards, including the Chase Freedom and Chase Freedom Unlimited.
Plus, I have 4 cards earning Chase Ultimate Rewards points. So between both of us, we can earn a lot of points in different bonus categories. Then, combine points to book award flights or free hotel stays!
See related: Best Chase credit cards
Even After Opening a New Card, My Wife Will Still Be Below “5/24”
This is one of the top secrets in the miles & points hobby. Most small business credit cards do NOT appear on your personal credit report. This includes Chase small business credit cards.
When a card doesn’t show up on your credit report, Chase won’t see it either! This means it will NOT count toward your 5-card limit.
So even though my wife recently opened the Chase Ink Business Preferred, she’ll remain below the “5/24” limit because this account will NOT appear on her personal credit report. This means she’s eligible to apply for other valuable Chase cards, like the Marriott Rewards® Premier Plus Credit Card, which currently has a 100,000-point sign-up bonus offer!
Helpful “5/24” Application Tip!
I had been tracking my wife’s “5/24” status like a hawk. I knew that the 5th oldest card on her credit report would drop off in the middle of May. The day after I thought it would fall off, she decided to apply for the Ink Business Preferred. But she was NOT approved because of the typical “too many recent card accounts.”
We called the Chase reconsideration line and the helpful representative advised the 5th oldest card wouldn’t drop off in their system until a new month started. So we waited a couple more weeks and applied for the card on June 1. Sure enough, she was instantly approved!
Bottom Line
My wife and I love earning new cardmember sign-up bonuses to save on travel. But we’ve been limited from earning most Chase card bonuses because of the “5/24” rule.
As of June, my wife dropped below the limit. So she decided to apply for the Ink Business Preferred card, which has the highest sign-up bonus of ANY card earning Chase Ultimate Rewards points.
After she meets minimum spending requirements on the card, she’ll earn 80,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points, worth at least $1,000 in travel!
The best part about getting this small business card is it does NOT appear on her personal credit report. So she’ll continue to stay below the “5/24” limit, which means she has an open slot to apply for other top Chase credit cards!
Are you impacted by the Chase “5/24” rule? What’s your strategy been to continue earning miles & points?
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