These are hands down the best no annual fee card bonuses of all time (potentially worth $1,275+ each)

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No annual fee credit cards are a vital tool in the miles and points game. They are great cards to start with if you’re just dipping your toe into the free travel world, but for a veteran points collector, most are ignored because they usually have inferior benefits and a smaller sign-up bonus.

Usually, I said. There are currently two cards that have the absolute best sign-up bonuses I’ve ever seen from no-annual-fee credit cards:

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

Both cards come with $750 bonus cash back (75,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points) after you spend $7,500 on purchases in the first three months from account opening. Not only has an offer like this never happened before, but it may never happen again.

This bonus is more than enough for a round-trip business class flight to Europe in lie-flat seats. (Photo by Christian Kramer)

Chase Ink Cash and Unlimited — best no annual fee bonuses of all time

Imagine receiving a $750 check with no catch at all. If you make $50,000 per year, that might be a full week’s net income.

That’s what Chase is offering you. Neither the Ink Business Cash® Credit Card or the Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card have an annual fee (i.e. there’s no risk to opening the card), and you’ll get $750 in cash. The only stipulation is that you’ll need to spend $7,500 in the first three months of account opening.

And while that sounds like a lot, it’s probably significantly easier than you might think. Here are a few reasons:

  • You can pay for all kinds of stuff with your credit card — including rent! Read my post on emergency ways to meet minimum spending requirements for some ideas
  • The holidays are coming up (the most expensive time of year for many). So why not save $750 on your shopping?
  • You can prepay things like taxes and insurance on a credit card. Only do this if you can float the money. It’s not worth hanging a balance on your card that you can’t pay off

Between these things, spending $7,500 in three months shouldn’t be an issue. It’s little trouble for a stack of 15 Ulysses S. Grants.

But you can even get significantly more value from these Chase Ink bonuses.

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(Photo by lendy16/Shutterstock)

Here’s where the power of the Ink bonuses really comes from

Chase advertises the Ink Cash and Ink Preferred bonuses as “cash back,” but you’re actually earning Chase Ultimate Rewards points, which you can cash out at 1 cent per point — or, you can do much better stuff with them if you’ve got one of the following cards:

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

If you don’t have one of those cards, you should. Read our post on the Chase Trifecta to learn why — you can maximize every dollar you spend with this combination of cards.

With these cards, you can reserve travel through the famous Chase Travel Portal for up to 1.5 cents per point. Or, if you have the Sapphire Preferred or Sapphire Reserve, you can cover grocery, dining and home improvement purchases through Chase’s Pay Yourself Back program at a rate of up to 1.5 points (through Sept. 30, 2021). That means 75,000 points would cover up to $1,115 of purchases in the aforementioned categories.

Or, you can transfer your points to valuable Chase transfer partners. We estimate that you’ll receive an average Chase points value of 1.7 cents per point when you transfer to partners like Hyatt, United, Iberia, etc.

For example, the Andaz Peninsula Papagayo in Costa Rica can easily cost $500 per night. But Hyatt only charges 20,000 points per night. By transferring 80,000 Chase points to Hyatt (remember, you’ll have at least 82,500 points after meeting minimum spending), you could stay four nights for free. That’s a potential value of $2,000+ for your stay!

Andaz Peninsula Papagayo in Costa Rica. (Photo courtesy of Hyatt)

Read our post on the best ways to use Chase points for inspiration. You can fly across the world in a fancy lie-flat business class seat that costs thousands of dollars. You can reserve all-inclusive resorts in the Caribbean. You can book free cruises! The travel possibilities are nearly endless.

Chase Ink cards are small business cards

The Ink Business Cash® Credit Card and Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card are for those who operate small businesses. However, something you may do at home as a side-gig counts as a small business. Even babysitting or dog walking is a for-profit venture. And with the state of the economy, many of us have dabbled into making extra money outside our main jobs.

Just be honest on your application with Chase. If you haven’t made much money yet — or even if you’re opening the card before you’ve made a cent — just write that when you apply. I’ve had several friends who have been approved when writing $0 for their business income.

Read our step-by-step guide for how to apply for a Chase business card. And also check out our Ink Business Preferred approval tips. The advice in that post 100% applies to the Chase Ink Cash and Chase Ink Unlimited.

Bottom line

Can’t decide which no annual fee Chase Ink credit card to open? Why not do both? They have different points-earning-structures and complement each other well. And if you can achieve the welcome bonus for both cards, you’re sitting atop 150,000 Chase points!! That’s worth $2,550, according to our points valuations.

Read our Chase Ink Business Cash review and our Chase Ink Business Unlimited review to decide which card best suits you. And subscribe to our newsletter for more info like this delivered to your inbox once per day.

Joseph Hostetler is a full-time writer for Million Mile Secrets, covering miles and points tips and tricks, as well as helpful travel-related news and deals. He has also authored and edited for The Points Guy.

Editorial Note: We're the Million Mile Secrets team. And we're proud of our content, opinions and analysis, and of our reader's comments. These haven’t been reviewed, approved or endorsed by any of the airlines, hotels, or credit card issuers which we often write about. And that’s just how we like it! :)

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