I used to apply for multiple rewards-earning credit cards each year. My over-stuffed (mobile) wallet tells that tale as it’s stacked with over 20 rewards credit cards from a long list of banks.
And while it is probably time for a good credit card culling, they all have made sense for me to have in different ways. But I realized that it had been close to a year since I had applied for a new card, and while ongoing earnings and card benefits are great, so is a big, nice sign-up bonus.
I’ve got enough cards with (big) annual fees for now, so this time, I targeted a card with a big bonus and no annual fee: the Ink Business Cash Credit Card.
The Ink Business Cash has no annual fee, and for a limited time is currently offering a $900 bonus after spending $6,000 in the first three months from account opening, which matches the best-ever offer that we’ve seen for this card. And I went ahead and did this now, as the offer is ending soon.
You may be thinking, that sounds fantastic, but I’m not out there running a small business, so it doesn’t help me at all. Well, that may be true. But you also may be running a small business without realizing it.
Here’s how and why I applied without an LLC and without very much business revenue or expenses.
Related: Who might qualify for a small business credit card?
Why I picked the Ink Business Cash Credit Card
No annual fee, a big, limited-time sign-up bonus and good ongoing points-earning rates made this card an easy pick for me.
The word ‘cash’ is in the card’s name, and it’s often marketed as $900 in cash after spending $6,000 in the first six months, which is great, but you can choose to instead use that as 90,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points if you also have a premium Chase card like the Chase Sapphire Preferred or Chase Sapphire Reserve.
TPG values transferable Chase points at 2.05 cents each (which is what these can become when paired with a premium Ultimate Rewards card), taking that $900 cash bonus and making it worth $1,845 in points that I can use with Hyatt, United and any of Chase’s hotel and airline transfer partners.
With some big award stays coming up this year at Hyatt properties in Tokyo, Paris and even a beachy Hyatt all-inclusive in Mexico, the odds are high that these points help fund some of those trips.
On top of that, the card has no annual fee but will earn me 5 points (or 5% cash back) per dollar on the first $25,000 I make in combined purchases each account anniversary year at office supply stores and on internet, cable and phone services.
I’m a sucker for earning 5 points per dollar on gift cards sold at office supply stores for places like Disney and Amazon, so this will come in handy for my spending and earning strategy, too.
Related: Reasons to apply for the Chase Ink Business Cash Card
How I applied — and got approved — with a very small business
I have an LLC, but that’s not the business I used to apply for this card. Instead, I wanted to keep expenses from my LLC venture separate, so I didn’t use it for this (and I have a few Ink cards attached to that business already anyway).
I’ve started selling a few things online (think closet cleanouts, a timeshare stay I can’t use, etc.) from time to time, to the tune of a few thousand dollars a year in revenue.
I applied for this card with a (very small) business with just a few thousand dollars a year in revenue and minimal expenses. As a sole proprietor without much formalization on this venture so far, I applied with my name as the business name and my social security number instead of an Employer Identification Number (EIN), as I don’t have one to use for this.
Instead of immediate approval, I received a pending status after I applied. It took about 10 days to process my status and the end result was an approval that didn’t require any additional action on my part.
Related reading: Do I need a business to get a business credit card?
Bottom line
My credit limit for my shiny new small-business credit card is very low at just $3,000, but for now, that’s fine. I’ll still be able to get to $6,000 in spending in the first three months to earn the 90,000 point bonus, and then I’ll have a new venture to play with in 2024 and over $1,800 in points to put to good use, too. All without any annual fees.
If you want to try to replicate my plan, you absolutely should, but you’ll want to do it sooner rather than later before this best-ever offer comes to an end.
And if the Chase Ink Business Cash isn’t the right card for you, there are other Chase small-business cards with welcome bonuses that currently go as high as 100,000 bonus points.
Apply here: Chase Ink Business Cash Credit Card and earn $900 after spending $6,000 in the first three months
