As I mentioned yesterday, here at Points with a Crew, we are back with a new batch! (and a hatchet that I borrowed from scratch?)  Okay, okay, just busy reliving my ska-infused college days!! 😀

Again, a variety of reasons that aren’t particularly exciting have kept me from posting over the past few months, but I think my situation has stabilized enough that I should be able to get back to regular posting.  While I do have several different topics I want to cover, but before that, I want to spend some time reviewing some of the travel-related things that have came out while I’ve been ‘gone’.

Today’s topic (as you may have guessed from the title!!) is that the bonus for the Chase Ink card has increased, from 50,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points to 60,000.  This change will only last through June 1st, so you only have a few days left to take advantage of this.  To get the bonus points, you must spend $5,000 in the first 3 months of having the card, and the $95 annual fee is waived for the first year.

The Chase Ink card is a business card, so applying for one is slightly more involved than applying for a personal card, but not by too much.  We have talked about business credit cards before on PWaC, but the highlights are:

1. You do have to put down that you have a business on your application
2. That business does not have to have anyone in it but yourself (Sole Proprietorship)
3. It does not even have to have any revenue (think start-up)

One of the best features IMO is the 5x bonus on office supply stores.  Now if you spend a lot of money on office supplies well then that’s one thing, but what makes it even nicer is that places like Staples or Office Depot sell many different kinds of gift cards for sale.  Depending on the store, they limit or do not allow buying the straight up VISA cash-equivalent cards, but the other ones typically work out fine.  Here in Cincinnati, there is a Lowe’s right next to an Office Depot, so if we have any home improvement spend, instead of just going to Lowe’s and getting 1x or 2x on my spend, we stop by Office Depot, buy a Home Improvement Gift Card (good at Lowe’s), use the Ink card to get 5x, and then pay for our Lowe’s spending with the HIGC.  In theory you should be able to double or triple dip with this, but I haven’t quite gotten that to work for me.

I have a Chase Ink card and I love it.  Now for me, I’m at a bit of an advantage in filling out the application because I actually have a real business (I actually have a few), but we are planning on picking one up for Carolyn this week.  As a stay-at-home mom, she does not work outside the home (but don’t tell her she doesn’t work!!), but we are going to put down her photography business.

If you know her, you might ask, what photography business is that?  Well, like I said above, it has no revenue but that doesn’t make it not a real business.  She has a professional Nikon camera, and she has experience in taking family pictures and other photography.  Now just because her clients haven’t paid her (because it’s mostly been for her family!), again, doesn’t mean that it’s not a real business.

Again, you don’t want to lie on your application.  In addition to that not being particularly honest, if Chase finds out, they’ll deny your application as well as possibly sever their relationship with you (which would mean you’d possibly miss out on any future benefits from Chase cards).  So if you’re in a situation like ours, don’t put down that you have thousands of dollars in revenue and hundreds of employees.  Just put down $0 in revenue and 1 employee.

Your application may not be approved initially and you may have to call the reconsideration line and talk to an analyst who will ask questions about your business.  So be prepared to talk about your business.  I haven’t told Carolyn about this and she’s not going to enjoy this but she’ll (probably) do it because she’s awesome!  And maybe your application won’t be approved at all, and if that’s the case, it’s not the end of the world, right?  But from personal experience as well as the experience of other travel bloggers, as long as you don’t have a ton of other Chase business cards, your odds are pretty good.

So whaddaya say?  Have you already applied for the Ink card?  Or are you going to apply before the bonus goes back down?  Let me know in the comments!

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