Thanks to the advice here, I feel like I'm on way!
Pulled my credit report to see what accounts were on there and would count towards the 5/24. Only 1 on mine (amex spg that will off april 2018).
Need to get DH's credit report, but I don't think he has anything newly opened within last 24 months. Possibly an
Amazon Visa...but that should be it.
Feel like I'm starting to get a strategy together, but I wanted to ask the professionals before I went on
- For myself: Have already gotten approved for Chase freedom & Chase Ink Business Pref. Will use mine primarily for travel and shipping which are in the 3% cat.
- DH - haven't done anything yet but this my plan (is it a good one?) - DH is also self employed (diff business than mine). Thinking of applying for the Chase Ink Business Cash Back for him. The 5% categories are pretty good and applicable to us office supply stores and on Internet, cable and phone services. As are the 2% ones. Gas and restaurants. I feel like we could really use this card for those expenses.
- The reason I'm thinking of doing 2 diff cards is to fully utilize the bonus categories of each.
- After we've met the spend on the first two, then we'll refer one another.
I'd would add that if you and your husband each have "legitimate" businesses, you may want to call into the your local Chase branch(es) and ask to speak to a Business Relationship Manager ("BRM"). Tell the BRM about your interest in applying for the Chase Ink Business Preferred ("CIP") and Chase Ink Business Cash ("CIC") cards and ask whether these cards have any higher in-branch bonuses currently. As you know, the public offer that's available online has the CIP with a 80,000 Ultimate Rewards points bonus and the CIC with a $300 cash back (effectively, 30,000 UR points) bonus.
Occasionally, Chase has in-branch promotions that give higher signup bonuses when you apply for certain cards through a BRM, Chase Private Client, or a Chase banker. Chase had a promotion recently, which I think ended on 8/27, where you could get a 100,000 UR bonus on the CIP if you applied through a BRM. There was some talk that the CIC also had a higher 50,000 UR bonus through a BRM until 8/27, too. I've seen some chatter that these higher in-branch offers may still be ongoing. It's worth a phone call to ask. Even if the in-branch offer is the same as the public offer right now, one reason you might still want to apply with a BRM is if there's a higher in-branch offer that comes around in the next 90 days, you can secure message Chase to be matched to the higher offer and they'll want to see that you applied through a BRM.
If these offers are still ongoing, applying through a BRM for your first CIP will get you 100,000 UR instead of the public offer of 80,000 UR. If your husband applies through a BRM and is approved, he'll also get 100,000 UR for the CIP, but you lose the opportunity to refer him for your own 20,000 UR referral bonus (which would net you effectively the same result anyway: 80,000 UR for DH's CIP and 20,000 UR for your referral vs. 100,000 UR for signing up through a BRM). Similarly for CIC, if the higher signup bonus is still good, then you get 50,000 UR for applying through a BRM, your husband would get 50,000 UR for applying through a BRM, but you wouldn't be able to refer him for a 30,000 UR offer to get a 10,000 UR referral bonus.
I see there are some suggestions that you might want to apply for the CIP first for the much higher signup bonus, then eventually product change to the CIC. This is a common suggestion because the perception is that it's hard to get more than one business card with Chase. But it's that way because a lot of people applying for business cards are applying with a less than formal "business." Since you and your husband seem to have your own legitimate businesses, I wouldn't worry too much about applying for additional business cards. You've got actual businesses that you can show to Chase, and you've already articulated the reasons why you might want to have both CIP and CIC -- aside from the signup bonuses -- very well in just a forum post. If Chase has any issues approving additional business cards for you or your husband, I have no concerns about you getting answering all their questions and getting approved on reconsideration.
Go for both CIP and CIC! Since the CIP and CIC are subject to the 5/24 rule, you have to be under 5/24 to be approved; but since they are business cards, they won't count against your 5/24 slots. Keep in mind that Chase also has a 0/24 rule for business cards -- you can't have made any other credit card applications in the past 30 days to be approved for a CIP or CIC. So when you and your husband get a CIP, wait 31 days before applying for the CIC.
