Faceoff: The 3 Best Personal and Small Business Card Combos

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Credit Card Combo		Why These Cards Go Well Together
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card and Ink Business Preferred℠ Credit Card	and	Earn our favorite flexible points Get access to bonus spending categories like travel, dining, cable and internet, and more!
The Platinum Card® from American Express and The Blue Business® Plus Credit Card from American Express	and	Rack up flexible AMEX Membership Rewards points which you can redeem for gift cards or transfer directly to travel partners like Delta and Hilton Get up to $200 worth of statement credits for airline incidental fees such as baggage fees
Capital One® Venture® Rewards Credit Card and Capital One® Spark® Miles for Business	and	Very simple rewards system, which makes it easy to earn and redeem miles

Signing-up for certain personal and small business card combos means you can earn multiple welcome bonuses.  And that’s the quickest way to put extra cash in your pocket or earn fulfill your wildest travel dreams!

Plus, smartly pairing the right cards can help you earn bonus rewards in multiple spending categories.  This can mean extra cash back or miles & points to use for free travel!

Keeping a personal card AND business card in your wallet also makes it simpler to organize your expenses.  For example, team member Keith uses a business card for his eBay reselling side hustle.

And don’t forget, you might be eligible for a small business card without realizing it!  You just need a for-profit venture to qualify yourself as a small business.  You can even apply as a sole proprietor by using your social security number on the application.

Best Credit Card Combo

• Chase Sapphire Preferred – Chase Ink Business Preferred (Best for Newbies!)
• American Express Platinum – American Express Blue Business Plus
• Capital One Venture – Capital One Spark Miles for Business

Ranking the Best Personal and Business Credit Card Combos

1.   Chase Sapphire Preferred – Chase Ink Business Preferred

Apply Here:   Chase Ink Business Preferred

Read our review of the Chase Ink Business Preferred

Apply Here:   Chase Sapphire Preferred

Read our review of the Chase Sapphire Preferred

You can earn extremely flexible Chase Ultimate Rewards points with the Ink Business Preferred and Sapphire Preferred cards.

If you’re new to the miles & points hobby, this is the best card combo to consider getting first.  Because Chase has strict application rules, which makes it difficult to get most of their cards if you apply for lots of other cards from other banks.

Points with these cards are valuable because you can redeem them for:

• Cash back (1 cent per point)
• Airfare, hotels, and car rentals with no blackout dates through the Chase travel portal (1.25 cents per point)
• Award flights and hotel stays by transferring points directly to travel partners like Hyatt and United Airlines
  

Prices on Chase’s travel portal are usually the same as booking directly.  But you’ll likely get the most value from your points by transferring them to travel partners.

With both cards, you’ll also get access to multiple bonus categories!

With the Ink Business Preferred, you’ll earn:

• 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)

And with the Sapphire Preferred you’ll get:

• 2X points for every $1 you spend on travel and dining

That’s in addition to the the lucrative welcome bonus available on both cards!

With the the Ink Business Preferred, you’ll earn:

• 80,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points after spending $5,000 on purchases in the first 3 months of opening your account.

And with the Sapphire Preferred, you’ll earn:

•  60,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points after spending $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months of opening your account.

So with this card combo, you can earn a total of 140,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points after meeting minimum spending requirements.  That’s worth $1,400 in cash back or $1,750 worth of flights, hotels, and more through the Chase Travel Portal.  Or you can get even more value by transferring points to partners to book travel!

Having lots of options for using your points and lucrative welcome bonuses makes this 2-card combo the 1st place winner!

2.   AMEX Platinum – AMEX Business Platinum

Apply Heree:   The Platinum Card® from American Express 

Read our review of the AMEX Platinum

Apply Here:   The Blue Business®️ Plus Credit Card from American Express

Read our review of the AMEX Blue Business Plus Card

Having both the personal AMEX Platinum card and the no-annual-fee AMEX Blue Business Plus card (See Rates & Fees) can be a powerful combo for many reasons.  Most importantly, you can potentially rack up LOTS of AMEX Membership Rewards points!

With the AMEX Platinum Card, you can earn 60,000 AMEX Membership Rewards points after spending $5,000 on purchases within the first 3 months of opening your account.

Plus get valuable benefits like:

• $200 in statement credits per calendar year for airline incidentals with your selected airline (luggage fees, in-flight food & drink, etc.)
• $200 in Uber credit per year (but there are restrictions)
• Access to airport lounges (Delta, Escape, Priority Pass, Airspace, Centurion, and American Express International Lounges)
• … and more!
• Terms apply

There are also unique perks with each card, which can help boost your points balance.

With the AMEX Platinum card, you earn 5X AMEX Membership Rewards points for booking flights and hotels through AMEX Travel.

And with the AMEX Blue Business Plus card, you’ll earn 2 AMEX Membership Rewards points per $1 spent on all purchases, on up to $50,000 spent each calendar year (then 1X thereafter).  It doesn’t get much simpler than that.  And those points can really add up!

American Express Membership Rewards points are valuable because you can transfer them to airline and hotel partners.  But I don’t recommend cashing them in for statement credits or merchandise, because you’ll get less than 1 cent per point that way.

The downside of this combo is that you’ll have to spend $50,000 in order to make the most bonus AMEX Membership Rewards points with the AMEX Blue Business Plus card.  And the restrictions on the up to $200 in Uber credits per year with the personal AMEX Platinum makes this benefit less useful.  And it also makes it harder to justify paying the card’s $550 annual fee (See Rates & Fees).

3.   Capital One Venture – Capital One Spark Miles

Apply Here:   Capital One® Spark® Miles for Business

Read our review of the Capital One Spark Miles Card

Apply Here:   Capital One® Venture® Rewards Credit Card

Read our review of the Capital One Venture Card

This is an excellent card combo if you’re looking for a simple rewards program.  You don’t have to worry about bonus spending categories, blackout dates, or transfer partners.

If you apply for both of these cards, you can get $1,000 worth of travel after meeting minimum spending requirements.  This can offset essentially any travel purchase, like airfare, Airbnb stays, seat upgrades, baggage fees, and much more!

With the Capital One Spark Miles for Business card, you’ll earn 50,000 Spark miles (worth $500 in travel) after spending $4,500 on purchases in the first 3 months of account opening.

And with the Capital One Venture card, you’ll earn 50,000 Venture miles (worth $500 in travel) after spending $3,000 on purchases within the first 3 months.

You’re now also able to transfer your Capital One miles to airline partners.  So your miles are even more flexible!

Bottom Line

The best credit card combos include:

• Ink Business Preferred – Chase Sapphire Preferred
• AMEX Platinum – AMEX Blue Business Plus
• Capital One Venture – Capital One Spark Miles for Business

Chase wins the top spot for the best credit card combo with the Ink Business Preferred and Sapphire Preferred.

With both cards, you can earn huge (and valuable!) welcome bonuses.  Plus, you can redeem the points you earn with these cards for cash back or for free travel!  It’s our #1 combo for folks new to miles & points.

If you’re looking for the most straightforward rewards program, consider the combo from Capital One.  And if you spend a lot and can make the most of perks like lounge access and Uber credits, the card combo from American Express could be your best option!

I’d love to hear your opinions on the best credit card combo!

For rates and fees of the Blue Business Plus Card, please click here.
For rates and fees of the Amex Platinum Card, please click here.