You have to seek out the 5-night link, it is Googleable.
Personal referrals never change to that offer, they stayed at 3-nights.
Oh gosh, what an awful start to a year that turned out to be awful all around. I’m so sorry. <3
Do business cards not count toward 5/24?
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No! 
Most business cards do not show up on your personal credit report, so don’t add to your 5/24.
(You’d have to Google the biz cards that do show up, but they are less common.)
What many people get confused with though: You still have to be under 5/24 to get a Chase business card approved.
(As with anything, there are exceptions and people share successes getting cards when over all the time, but I think they are mostly unique situations. Last year there was a short run of time where people were getting Inks even if over.)
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So, DH and I both have Chase Sapphire cards in our names and then we are authorized users on each others. I also have a SW card, the higher one (can’t recall the name.) Anyway, we used accumulated Chase points to fly to Rome and back this summer by transferring to different airlines (AirFrance to get there, Aer Lingus to come home.) We’ve also been using Chase points transferred to SW now for 5 ish years to get all of our flights to MCO on points-4x in 2023. I buy online at places that are linked to Southwest no matter which card I use and I get SW points that way too. Oh, and I’ve used the points to stay at Dolphin (Marriott) and Loews Royal Pacific (booked thru Chase.)
DH is self employed and we’ve use the cards for his many business expenses plus all of our utilities, insurance etc. I’ve kind of spent down the points and want to plan another big (further away) trip for our 30th anniversary in 2025. We received an offer from Amex Platinum with 150,000 bonus points available at a spending level we could reach if we shifted our big expenses to Amex. Or, we could get DH an Ink business card since he is a business owner but all of our household bills couldn’t be charged there I guess. Or, I could get one of the airline cards with a big bonus but I don’t know our intended location yet.
All of this to say…any suggestions on a new card for us?
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There will be many many options for you guys, but my immediate question is how old are those sapphire and SW cards? An easy option would be to cancel/downgrade the existing sapphire cards in stages and renew those bonuses. Cancel his first and then send him a referral link from your card - hit the bonus and then repeat the process for yourself. Then maybe look at a United card if they are a viable option for your airport. Then you can dump your chase points and fly United or a partner to your next big trip.
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Okay, I was seriously considering getting a Chase Ink card because the SUB is good right now…but I’m getting very nervous about it. I sold an item on eBay ($120) so I know that qualifies, but I don’t really have a business. It feels shady to have a business card in this case.
Are there any implications I need to be aware of? What about when filing my 2023 taxes? What do I need to know?
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Sam’s got good advice there - if those Sapphire bonuses were earned more then 48 months ago, I’d definitely go with his suggestion first and replace them using each other’s referral links. That way you can get that 48 month clock restarted.
(Note, the 48 months start the date you earn the bonus, not the date you got the card which is often months earlier.)
Because of Chase’s 5/24 rule (5 new personal cards from any company over 24 months), I’d tend to focus on Chase cards as long as the UR transfer partners still work for you as they seem to.
I know many people like to use their Amex MR to transfer for flights, and Chase UR for Hyatt etc because of favorable transfer values.
After the Sapphires, there are 3 different Ink cards that earn UR* and all 3 have elevated bonuses right now. The Ink PREFERRED has a 100K bonus for a reduced $8K spend (usually is $15K!) Also, the Ink Cash and the Ink Unlimited both have 90K bonuses for $6K spend. (The 90K offer is only via direct links right now, but personal referral links may increase to the 90K over the coming weeks.They did last time.)
(*AVOID the Ink Biz PREMIER as it is just cash back, NOT points.)
I really love the Ink Cash, as you can use that at Staples and Office Depot to buy gift cards and you get 5x Chase UR. The big play is to buy bunches of $200 Visa or MasterCard gift cards there when they are selling them without fee, then use those GCs to pay your regular bills.
That being said, if you value the perks of the Amex Plat and that bonus, could be worth getting that then hitting the Inks afterwards. I did that myself - got the Sapphire then Plat in a row. Wanted to use the Plat benefits for Global Entry, CLEAR, and airline fee, lounge credits etc. If you take time to use all the credits it offers it can be an annual money maker.
So, I’d suggest you crunch the number on a couple of variations - there’s very likely no wrong answer.
My 2 player timeline over the last year is below - you can see there’s all sorts of variations.
BTW: I tend to not want to transfer my Chase UR to SW because I get a MUCH better redemption rate using them at Hyatt and I earned over 165K SW points getting the Companion Pass. This year going to have P2 get her own CP with 2 credit cards so we both have it for our family of 4.
P1:
- Sapphire Preferred
- Amex Platinum
- Ink Cash
- SW personal Priority
- SW Biz Performance (both to get 135K rewards to earn Companion Pass)
- Amex Blue Biz Plus (lowish points, but used to fill in empty spots when no other SUBs and to hold Amex MR if I cancelled my Platinum)
- Marriott Boundless (couldn’t pass up free night certificates.)
The last 2 cards are likely down lower on the timeline on most “best” cards lists, but they worked to fill gaps for me or to help cover our Swan stay.
(Amex all referral links from P2, other cards used Liner or friend referrals.)
P2:
- Amex Gold card (90K MR then upgraded ancient Amex gold to “new” Amex gold for another 90K)
- Sapphire
- Ink Unlimited
(All using referral links.)
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You might want to read the Frequent Miler blogs on having a small business, but the short answer is: even the smallest business qualifies, in fact even really the intention of having a small business works.
You have to start somewhere, after all! I would not lie on an application, but would make a decent guess of income and spend if you were to, say, selling things online etc.
This FM post is probably better for the how-to on applying.
If your business is smallish, you will very likely want to make your application as a “sole proprietor” - otherwise the banks may start asking you for incorporation docs etc. Here in NY, there is no paperwork needed to operate as a sole prop (that is what I do), so very easy to do. When you apply as a sole prop you enter an amount of income you expect - plus there is another spot in the app to enter your regular household income.
And, want to mention something @magical_jo alluded to - while there may be wording on business card terms saying a card should be used for business expenses, no bank is checking on that at all, nor could they really. That wording is really there for due to some federal laws on how banks handle business vs personal accounts.
But, after all: banks want you to spend on their cards.
In any case, when it comes to biz expenses, that comes down to your business type! The banks can’t really tell what is what. For example - I write for Touring Plans, technically if I had to do some traveling for research Disney hotel and park tickets would absolutely be something I would charge on my card. (Note: I do not travel for TP at all, just an example.) Might not look “business-y” to others, but just about anything you spend on might be.
Always important to note: While the banks do not care what you are using biz cards for, the IRS does care what you write off as business expenses so I would not be putting biz expenses on my taxes unless they were 100% legit.
The important point is: doesn’t matter what card you use to spend your money, does matter what you write off to the IRS. (I write off nothing. When I used to do more IT consulting as a larger side gig, even then I wrote off very little if anything.)
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Thank you @SamRothstein and @JJT for your detailed responses! I think I need to do a number crunch with DH as suggested and see which would be the most beneficial. I’ll keep you posted!
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Few questions that I thought should be put under this thread:
Car rentals- capital one has rewards for renting through their site, are there any underlying issues to do this versus renting directly? (Also anyone have opinions on Hertz as we’ve only used Alamo in the past and the credit card doesn’t utilize Alamo for discounts)
Bjs Disney gift cards- do they ever go on “sale “ during the year?
(Right now $50” is $479, do they ever go lower?)
TIA
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I can answer this part of your question - and it kind of depends, but you have to work at it. I did score a few 10% off (but max of $50 purchase) through chase rewards, and target visas offer 5% off. $479 for a $500 gift card is nearly 5% off so not bad overall. You’d have to look at specific retailers near you for past gift card purchasing incentives.
So, I used a referral code from my sister for a Chase Ink business card. I was approved right away. The deal was 75k points for $6k in 3 months. Through my chase acct, it’s 90k points, but she gets a great referral bonus (40k!!) so we are going to split that amount. I wanted to message chase to see if they would offer the higher SUB amount…I figure it’s worth a chance.
Here is where I need help…I cannot see my new business card in my personal chase account. Will I need to create a new account? Am I able to merge my two accounts? Google is mixed. Any insight would be great.
You will create a biz account with Chase, from there you can add your personal account to the biz account and keep track of all the cards in your biz account if you wish (I do). That’s how I transfer my UR from my Inks to my CSP, etc.
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I definitely want it all in one place.
So which one will I use when I pick “sign up”? Business & personal or just business?
uhhhhhhhhhhh
I don’t think that was an option when I signed up. My husband just created his and I showed him this and he looked at it and then at me, back at the screen, and shrugged
I would try the “business and personal” because that seems like a new option…or maybe just an app option (I’ve always created my accounts on the site). I would assume, though of course my dad would remind me what happens when you assume, that you will be able to access all your accounts via a “business and personal” account.
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Just in case anyone was wondering what my dad would remind me:
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I’ll do some more digging too! Thanks for your help
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