Chase Sapphire or Ink Business Preferred? Why My Upgrade Decision’s Easy

Chase Sapphire or Ink Business Preferred

Friendly reminder – I’m done with the Chase Sapphire Reserve for the foreseeable future.  Things are going swimmingly in the meantime.  I’m continuing to cash out Ultimate Rewards at one cent per point, something I did for years before Pay Yourself Back arrived.  I don’t have any need to transfer Ultimate Rewards to a travel partner, and I’ve only done it once before.  But if this unlikely requirement ever came up again in the future, should I upgrade to a Chase Sapphire or Ink Business Preferred?  We could upgrade a Freedom card to the former or an Ink Business Cash to the latter.  The following reasons make our decision a simple one.

A Dormant Card

I hold multiple Ink Business Cash accounts.  Similar to previous cardmember years, I finished up the $25k cap of spend in 5%/5x categories fairly quickly.  The cardmember years are spread out widely on these various accounts, too.  I’ll be working on another soon, and fingers crossed, I should hit that cap rapidly, as well.

Beyond 5%/5x categories, I do not spend on Business Cash cards.  I can do better than the cards’ 2x restaurants and gas stations category with other cards.  Long story short, my Ink Business Cash cards sit unused the last 11 or so months of the cardmember year.

Upgrading one of those cards after maxing out the 5%/5x categories is quite attractive.  With a phone call, I can turn a largely-useless (at least for the remainder of the cardmember year) card into an easily-useful one for transfer partners and attractive earning (more on that later).  I can then downgrade back to the Ink Business Cash at the appropriate time for a fresh tank of 5%/5x capacity.

Freedom’s Expansive Value

The Freedom is more structured to provide attractive earning on a scheduled timeframe throughout the calendar year.  The card’s biggest perk, 5%/5x earning, is capped at $1.5k spend each quarter, and the compatible categories substantially change every three months.  What categories will be included is relatively unpredictable, too.   Unlike the Ink Business Preferred, maximizing the Freedom more directly entails permanently holding it.

More importantly, the Freedom Flex version offers attractive, uncapped 3%/3x categories such as dining and drug stores.  (Reminder, dining is a 5%/5x Freedom category this quarter).  I’d rather have those categories for ongoing use than the Ink Business Cash’s 2%/2x restaurants and gas stations (which are actually capped at a combined $25k per cardmember year).

Sapphire’s Perks Are Minor

But wait, what about those Sapphire Preferred perks?  Indeed, the Ink Business Preferred doesn’t offer anything similar.  In our situation, however, we have little to no need for a $50 hotel credit to use on with Chase Travel.  I’d benefit from DoorDash DashPass membership and a $10 monthly credit, but these aren’t perks I’d normally seek.  Earning 3x on dining is nice but superfluous since we can already earn that on the Freedom Flex.  The same goes for the 5x earning for Chase Travel bookings.  (We generally don’t pay out of pocket for travel, so that category’s meaningless to us, anyway.)  We prefer in-person grocery shopping, so 3x online grocery is a nothingburger.  An extra 10% in points on total spend doesn’t substantially move the needle, either.

Beyond enabling travel partner transfers, the Sapphire Preferred isn’t offering us anything substantial.  But that’s a different story with the Ink Business Preferred.

Ink Business Preferred Earning

The Ink Business Preferred doesn’t offer a free credit or membership like the Sapphire Preferred does.  We find the card’s earning categories more interesting, anyway.

The Ink Business Preferred earns 3x in the following categories, up to a combined $150k spend per cardmember year:

• Travel
• Shipping purchases
• Advertising purchases made with social media sites and search engines
• Internet, cable, and phone services

Only one or two of those categories matter to me, but that’s all I need for this card to make more sense than the Sapphire Preferred.

Chase Sapphire or Ink Business Preferred – Conclusion

If I ever need to make travel partner transfers, my decision to upgrade an Ink Business Cash to an Ink Business Preferred is an easy one.  While the Sapphire Preferred and Ink Business Preferred each unlock travel partner transfers, the similarity ends there.  The Ink quickly outpaces the Sapphire beyond – for our situation, at least.  Also, by doing so, I’d be keeping open the option of maximizing earning across multiple Freedoms while creating new utility for the business account after hitting the $25k spend cap for 5%/5x categories.

Which mid-tier card do you prefer – the Sapphire or Ink Business Preferred?  Why?