Ultimate Comparison Chart Of Chase Ultimate Rewards Cards; Supercharge Your Earnings By Creating Your Own Killer Quinfecta!

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Chase Ultimate Rewards cards

Business cards:

• The Chase Ink Business Preferred Card is currently offering 80,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points after $5,000 of spending within 3 months.
• The Chase Ink Business Unlimited Card is currently offering $500 cash back in the form of 50,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points after spending $3,000 within 3 months.
• The Chase Ink Business Cash Card is currently offering $500 cash back in the form of 50,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points after spending $3,000 within 3 months.
• Previous cards like Ink Bold, Ink Classic, and Ink Plus are no longer being issued.

Consumer cards:

• The Chase Sapphire Preferred Card is currently offering 60,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points after $4,000 of spending within 3 months.
• The Chase Sapphire Reserve Card is currently offering 50,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points after spending $4,000 within 3 months.
• The Chase Freedom Card is currently offering $150 cash back in the form of 15,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points after $500 of spending within 3 months.
• The Chase Freedom Unlimited Card is currently offering $150 cash back in the form of 15,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points after $500 of spending within 3 months.
• The JPMorgan Reserve card has the same offers as Sapphire Reserve, but is only available for JPMorgan Private banking clients.

Current signup rules

• All of the cards above are subject to 5/24 restrictions, read more about that here. Note that business cards, even Chase business cards, do not get added to your 5/24 count of recently opened cards.
• Additional user consumer cards from any bank are counted by the system towards your 5/24 count as they appear on your credit report. However you can have them manually excluded from the 5/24 count by calling reconsideration after you are rejected for a card and pointing out which cards are additional user cards and that you are not responsible for paying the balance on those cards.
• You can receive a signup bonus on the Sapphire Preferred/Sapphire Reserve family of cards once every 48 months. You won’t be approved for a Sapphire family card if you already have an open Sapphire card, though you can change your existing Sapphire card to a Freedom or Freedom Unlimited card before opening a new Sapphire card.
• You can receive a signup bonus on the Freedom card once every 24 months.
• You can receive a signup bonus on the Freedom Unlimited card once every 24 months.
• You can receive a signup bonus on the Ink Cash card once every 24 months for each business that you manage.
• You can receive a signup bonus on the Ink Unlimited card once every 24 months for each business that you manage.
• You can receive a signup bonus on the Ink Preferred card once every 24 months for each business that you manage.
• The 24 or 48 months period starts from when you received the last bonus on that card.

Which cards are best?

All of these are excellent cards that each excel in their own areas. The good news is that you can convert from any of these consumer cards to another consumer card or from any these business cards to another business card as needed. There is no hard credit pull needed to change cards. You will only get a signup bonus for opening a new card, not for a card conversion.

How do these cards stack up against each other?

Ultimate Comparison Chart Of Chase Ultimate Rewards Cards

Create your own bifecta, trifecta, quadfecta, or quinfecta killer combo to supercharge your earnings

I’ve been talking about creating a Chase Trifecta since 2011. Over the years the components have changed, but the overall strategy to maximize your earnings has not.

As each Chase Ultimate Rewards card has their own benefits, the more diverse of a portfolio that you and/or your household has, the better you can optimize your spending. Chase allows you to transfer points between authorized users in your household, so you can maximize your spending and limit annual fees by taking advantage of household members. You can give authorized user cards to everyone in your household so that everyone can maximize their spending strategy.

You can transfer points from all of your Chase cards to your most valuable premium Chase card in the Ultimate Rewards portal. That portal also allows you to transfer points to authorized users, to airline miles, or to hotel miles. You can also check how much free travel or bonus category spending you’ve done on each of your cards in the portal. You can also book travel at a increased value of 1.25 cents or 1.5 cents by clicking on your most premium card in the portal.

Premium cards

The first key is to determine which of the premium cards to get. The no annual fee cards earn lots of points, but they can’t transfer points into airline miles and hotel points unless someone in your household has a premium card with an annual fee. There are 3 premium cards that will allow you to make those transfers, so someone in your household will want to have at least one of these cards.

The premium cards also don’t have foreign transaction fees.

Personally, I’d recommend the Sapphire Reserve, but you can definitely make the argument for the Sapphire Preferred or Ink Preferred.

• The Sapphire Reserve is a consumer card with a $450 annual fee, but it’s actually only going to cost you $150 out of pocket.
  • The signup bonus on this card is 50,000 points, worth $750-$1,000.
  • The card offers $300 in annual refunds that post automatically whenever you charge something that is categorized as travel, which includes airfare, Airbnb, car rentals, cruises, hotels, Lyft, subways, taxis, tolls, trains, Uber, UberEats, etc. It’s pretty easy to spend $300 over the course of a year given the wide range of eligible categories.
  • You’ll earn 3 points per dollar on all travel or dining spend.
  • You’ll get a Priority Pass lounge membership that allows you to bring 2 guests with you into over 1,000 airport lounges, including lounges with kosher food and wine in Newark and Tel Aviv. There are now many airports with restaurants that have $28 credit per person with Priority Pass membership. I’ve used that to get free granola bars, potato chips, and drinks to go!
  • You’ll get a full rebate every 4 years when you buy Global Entry/Pre-Check membership. That means you can skip the lines and forms when flying back from abroad and you can leave your shoes on, laptops in their bags, and go through metal detectors when flying from the US. It makes flying so much easier!
  • You’ll get free roadside assistance and a plethora of travel/medical/baggage insurance and benefits.
  • All of your Chase points can be used for a minimum value of 1.5 cents each if you have this card. Or you can transfer Chase points from any of your household’s cards into airline miles or hotel points.
  • This is the only card that charges an annual fee for additional cardholders as they each get their own Priority Pass lounge membership. If you don’t care about that membership, you can always request replacement cards or non-metal to have spare cards. If you do add an additional user card you can cancel the card within 30 days to get back the fee. The secondary Priority Pass membership will be cancelled, but the credit card will still work as secondary Chase consumer cards have the same exact card number, expiration date, and CVV as the primary cardholder’s card.
• The Sapphire Preferred is a consumer card with a $95 annual fee.
  • The signup bonus on this card is 60,000 points, worth $900-$1,200.
  • This card offers 2 points per dollar on all travel or dining spend.
  • All of your Chase points can be used for a minimum value of 1.25 cents each if you have this card. Or you can transfer Chase points from any of your household’s cards into airline miles or hotel points.

Note: The Sapphire Preferred and Sapphire Reserve’s spending categories are similar, so you’ll only need one of these cards as part of an optimized spending strategy. Personally, I prefer the Sapphire Reserve as that card allows you to redeem all of your Chase points (including the points of an authorized user) at a minimum value of 1.5 cents per point on paid airfare, car rentals, hotels, and vacation activities. You will still get trip insurances, even when you use points to pay for the trip.

My goal is to receive a value of 2 cents per point via transfers to miles, but having a minimum value of 1.5 cents per point when mileage redemptions aren’t valuable can be very useful and it makes your points much more versatile.

It’s always important to check and see if you’ll do better with airline miles/hotel points for a redemption or if you’ll do better by just using Chase points for a redemption. You’ll also need to bear in mind the taxes owed on an award ticket and the miles you can earn by using Chase points towards a paid airline ticket or hotel stay. Finally you also need to bear in mind that it is typically cheaper to cancel an award ticket than a Chase point redemption towards a paid airline ticket or hotel stay.

• The Ink Preferred is a business card with a $95 annual fee.
  • The signup bonus on this card is 80,000 points, worth $1,200-$1,600.
  • This card offers 3 points per dollar on up to $150K in annual spending on online advertising, shipping, and travel.
  • All of your Chase points can be used for a minimum value of 1.25 cents each if you have this card. Or you can transfer Chase points from any of your household’s cards into airline miles or hotel points.
• The Ink Bold and Ink Plus business cards are no longer offered to new customers. Ink Bold cards were recently converted into Ink Plus cards. The Ink Plus card is a premium card with a $95 annual fee. Benefits are similar to the Ink Cash card, with 5 points per dollar earned at office supply stores and telecom, but it has a higher annual cap of $50K in 5x spending instead of $25K on the Ink Cash card. The Ink Plus card also earns 2 points per dollar on up to $50K of annual spending on gas and hotels and it has no foreign transaction fees. You can convert an Ink Plus card into any existing business card, but you can’t convert back to an Ink Plus card again.
• The JPMorgan Reserve card is only available to JPMorgan private bank clients. It mimics the Sapphire Reserve card, with some added benefits like United Club membership and a credit line that is not reported on your personal credit report.

Non-premium cards

The next step is to determine which of the non-premium cards to get. These no annual fee cards earn lots of points, but they can’t transfer points into airline miles and hotel points unless someone in your household has a premium card with an annual fee. There are currently 4 non-premium cards to choose from, and it’s ideal for someone in your household to have 1-3 of these cards. These cards all carry a 3% foreign transaction fees.

• The Chase Freedom Unlimited is a consumer card with no annual fee.
  • The signup bonus on this card is marketed at $150, but will actually come in the form of 15,000 points. Used correctly, those points will be worth $225-$300.
  • This card markets itself as earning 1.5% cash back, but really it earns 1.5 points per dollar everywhere. Used correctly, that’s 2.25%-3% back everywhere.
  • 0% APR on purchases and balance transfers for 15 months.
• The Chase Ink Unlimited is a business card with no annual fee.
  • The signup bonus on this card is marketed at $500, but will actually come in the form of 50,000 points. Used correctly, those points will be worth $750-$1,000.
  • This card markets itself as earning 1.5% cash back, but really it earns 1.5 points per dollar everywhere. Used correctly, that’s 2.25%-3% back everywhere.
  • 0% APR on purchases and balance transfers for 12 months, with the added benefit of there being no effect on your personal credit score as this is a business card.

Note: The Freedom Unlimited and Ink Unlimited cards are very similar, so you’ll only need one of these cards as part of an optimized spending strategy.

• The Chase Freedom is a consumer card with no annual fee.
  • The signup bonus on this card is marketed at $150, but will actually come in the form of 15,000 points. Used correctly, those points will be worth $225-$300.
  • This card markets itself as earning 5% cash back in rotating categories, but really it earns 5 points per dollar in rotating categories. Used correctly, that’s 7.5%-10% back in rotating categories.
  • The maximum spending in the rotating categories is $1,500 per quarter.
  • Rotating categories have included restaurants, Amazon, Walmart, telecom, department stores, grocery stores, gas stations, wholesale stores, mobile payment purchases, and more.
  • 0% APR on purchases and balance transfers for 15 months.
• The Chase Ink Cash is a business card with no annual fee.
  • The signup bonus on this card is marketed at $500, but will actually come in the form of 50,000 points. Used correctly, those points will be worth $750-$1,000.
  • This card markets itself as earning 2% cash back or 5% cash back in select categories, but really it earns 2 or 5 points per dollar everywhere. Used correctly, that’s 3%-4% or 7.5%-10% back in those categories.
  • The 2 point categories include up to $25,000 of annual spending on gas stations and restaurants.
  • The 5 point categories include up to $25,000 of annual spending at office supply stores and on internet, cable, and cell phone bills.
  • Stores like Office Depot/Max and Staples sell gift cards to hundreds of other stores and you’ll earn 5 points per dollar. If you shop at Amazon, Airbnb, Bed Bath & Beyond, Bloomingdale’s, BP, Cabela’s, Delta, DisneyLand/DisneyWorld, eBay, Express, Gap, Google Play, Groupon, Home Depot, iTunes, JCrew, Kohl’s, Lands End, LLBean, Lowe’s, Macy’s, Marshalls, Nike, Nordstrom, Safeway, Sears, Shell, Southwest, Starbucks, StubHub, Target, TJMaxx, Uber, Whole Foods, and more, you can be earning 5 points per dollar by buying their gift cards. Some gift cards are available online and many more are available in store.
  • You can even buy $300 Visa gift cards from Staples from the comfort of your home, which will earn 5 points per dollar. Office Depot/Max and Staples often run promotions to save even more on Visa gift cards.
  • Your local school or charity will be more than happy to accept donations of Amazon gift cards for supplies or any other useful gift cards for chinese auctions, raffles, fundraisers, etc. They will give you a tax deductible receipt for the full face value-the price you paid for the gift cards. And at the same time you’ll earn 5 points per dollar. So while doing good you can still get a nice chunk of points and you’ll save on your taxes.
  • 0% APR on purchases and balance transfers for 12 months, with the added benefit of there being no effect on your personal credit score as this is a business card.
• The Ink Classic business card is no longer offered, but mimics the features found on the Ink Cash card.

Killer Combos

Stacking multiple Ultimate Rewards cards together can supercharge your earnings by getting you more points per dollar while increasing the value of all your points.

A Chase Bifecta would consist of a household that has the Sapphire Preferred or Sapphire Reserve and the Freedom Unlimited or Ink Unlimited. The total effective annual fees would be either $95 or $150. With the Sapphire Preferred you would earn 2 points per dollar on travel/dining and 1.5 points per dollar elsewhere. With the Sapphire Reserve you would earn 3 points per dollar on travel/dining and 1.5 points per dollar elsewhere. Either way you’ll be able to transfer all of your points into airline miles or hotel points, but with the Sapphire Preferred you can also use the points with a value of 1.25 cents each towards travel, while the Sapphire Reserve allows you to use the points with a value of 1.5 cents each towards travel.

A Chase Trifecta adds a no annual fee card like Ink Cash or Freedom into the mix, so your total effective annual fee will still be just $95 or $150. Both of those cards give options to earn a whopping 5 points per dollar in various categories on top of the 2-3 points per dollar that the Sapphire cards offer and the 1.5 points per dollar everywhere else with an Ink Unlimited or Freedom Unlimited card.

A Chase Quadfecta would add both the Ink Cash and Chase Freedom on top of a Sapphire card and an Unlimited card, so your total effective annual fee will still be just $95 or $150. The Quadfecta is the sweet spot and allows you to really supercharge your spending everywhere.

A Chase Quinfecta could add the Ink Preferred to that mix, adding $95 to the annual fee total. This make sense if you spend money on shipping, social media advertising, or search engine advertising, or if you want free cell phone insurance.

Alternatively, you can create a Chase Quinfecta by adding a card like the Chase United Explorer card into the mix. This card also carries a $95 annual fee like the Ink Preferred card, but may be more useful to many people if they don’t need the Ink Preferred’s bonus categories. This card doesn’t earn Ultimate Rewards points, but it makes your Ultimate Rewards points more valuable. Having that card enables you to have access to significantly expanded United saver and standard award space in addition to benefits like 2 free club passes, a free checked bag, a free carry-on bag, and priority boarding, even when you’re on a basic economy fare. See more about those benefits here.

Again, all of these cards don’t need to be in one person’s name. 2 people from the same household can split up the requisite cards that make up the Quinfecta, as they can transfer the Ultimate Rewards points back and forth between themselves freely and they can add each other as an authorized user on their cards!

Once you have these cards and create your own killer quinfecta, here is the the correct way to spend

• Airfare: Sapphire Reserve 3x (4.5%-6% back) or buy gift cards at office supply stores on Ink Cash 5x (7.5%-10% back)
• Airbnb: Sapphire Reserve 3x (4.5%-6% back) or buy gift cards at office supply stores on Ink Cash 5x (7.5%-10% back)
• Amazon: Buy gift cards at office supply stores on Ink Cash 5x (7.5%-10% back)
• Car rentals: Sapphire Reserve 3x (4.5%-6% back)
• Cruises: Sapphire Reserve 3x (4.5%-6% back)
• Everyday spending: Freedom Unlimited or Ink Unlimited 1.5x (2.25%-3% back)
• Federal taxes (1.87% processing fee applies): Freedom Unlimited or Ink Unlimited 1.5x (2.25%-3% back)
• Foreign currency transactions: Sapphire Reserve 1x or 3x depending on the spending.
• Gas: Ink Cash 2x (3%-4% back or 5%-6% back on Chevron, Sheetz, or Texaco with Visa Savings Edge) or buy gift cards at office supply stores on Ink Cash 5x, or buy during Freedom 5x Quarterly spending (7.5%-10% back).
• Gift cards for other stores or Visa gift cards: Ink Cash 5x (7.5%-10% back)
• Groceries: During rotating quarter on Freedom 5x (7.5%-10% back), buy gift cards for stores like Safeway or Whole Foods at office supply stores on Ink Cash 5x (7.5%-10% back), or Freedom Unlimited 1.5x (2.25%-3% back).
• Hotels: Sapphire Reserve 3x (4.5%-6% back)
• Lyft/Taxis: Sapphire Reserve 3x (4.5%-6% back)
• Office supplies: Ink Cash 5x (7.5%-10% back)
• Restaurants: Sapphire Reserve 3x (4.5%-6% back)
• Rotating category spending (Up to $1,500 of mobile payments, gas, grocery, dining, Amazon, Walmart in their respective quarters): Freedom 5x (7.5%-10% back)
• Shipping: Ink Preferred 3x (4.5%-6% back)
• Social media and Search Engine advertising: Ink Preferred 3x (4.5%-6% back)
• Starbucks: Sapphire Reserve 3x (4.5%-6% back) or buy gift cards at office supply stores on Ink Cash 5x (7.5%-10% back)
• Subways/Trains: Sapphire Reserve 3x (4.5%-6% back)
• Telecom/Internet/Cell Phones/Cable: Ink Cash 5x (7.5%-10% back)
• Uber/UberEats: Sapphire Reserve 3x (4.5%-6% back) or buy gift cards at office supply stores on Ink Cash 5x (7.5%-10% back)
• Wholesale Clubs: During rotating quarter on Freedom 5x (7.5%-10% back) or Freedom Unlimited or Ink Unlimited 1.5x (2.25%-3% back)

There are some caveats to all this of course…

• This scenario is just for Chase cards and ignores other point currencies. It’s a good idea to have multiple currencies.
• Using gift cards means the loss of credit card protections like extended warranty or air travel protections, so use them only when it makes sense to earn more points at the expense of potential protections.
• While Ink Cash does earn 4% cash back at Alamo and National in addition to 1 point per dollar, it only offers primary car rental insurance on business trips. Sapphire Reserve offers coverage on all trips worldwide.
• You may want to prioritize Sapphire Reserve spending for travel related categories like Uber/UberEats before buying gift cards on an Ink Cash card if you otherwise would not hit the $300 in annual free travel spending.
• The value received per point is highly variable based on how you will use it. The nice thing about having a killer combo with with a Sapphire Reserve is that you’ll receive a minimum of 1.5 cents per point. 2 cents is a good goal to set, so just compare the cost of a ticket or hotel to the amount of miles you’ll need for it to see how much value you are receiving.

Business card information, benefits, and 5/24

The Ink cards are business cards, but you may already have a business that needs a card to keep track of expenses. For example if your name is Joe Smith and you sell items online, or if you have any other side business and want a credit card to better keep track of business expenditures you can open a business credit card for “Joe Smith” as the business name. You don’t need to file any messy government paperwork to be allowed to do that. Just be sure to select “Sole Proprietorship” as the business type and just use your social security number in the Tax Identification Number field.

It’s important to just write your own name as the business name if you are just applying for your own small business as a Sole Proprietorship that doesn’t have any business paperwork.

If you’re like me and you run more than one business you can signup for multiple of the same card for each business to manage each businesses expenses separately.

All Chase cards that earn Ultimate Rewards are subject to 5/24 restrictions. That means it will be nearly impossible to get approved if you have been approved for 5 or more consumer credit cards in the past 24 months. Read more about that here. 

However, it’s important to note that business cards from most banks, including Chase business cards, do not get added to your 5/24 count of recently opened cards. That’s because business cards from most banks don’t show up on your personal credit report and the 5/24 count is based off of your personal credit report. That means that applying for these cards won’t “hurt” your 5/24 count.

Another benefit of business cards not reporting on your personal credit report is that your credit score won’t be hurt when you spend money on your cards. When you spend money on personal cards your score will be hurt even if you pay your bill on time. That’s because a whopping 30% of your credit score is based on credit utilization, so you lose lots of points even if you pay your bills before the statement due date. You can pay off your credit card bill before your statement close date to avoid that, but that takes effort and laying out money well before you have to. Additionally it’s good to have the statement close with a couple dollars to show the card is active and being paid every month. On business cards from banks like AMEX and Chase the spending is not reported on your personal credit report, so you can wait until the money is due without it having a negative effect on your score. That also means if you close the card, it won’t have an effect on your credit score.

The great thing about Chase Ultimate Rewards is how versatile and valuable they are

The Sapphire Preferred or Ink Preferred card allow you and anyone in your household to transfer Chase points into miles. They also allow you to use points at a value of 1.25 cents each towards travel.

The Sapphire Reserve also allows you and anyone in your household to transfer Chase points into miles. Plus it allows you to use points at a value of 1.5 cents each towards travel.

The fixed value is excellent and doesn’t require hunting down award space, but those points can be much more valuable by transferring them into airline miles or hotel points.

• If I want to stay in a 5 star Park Hyatt in the Maldives, Melbourne, NYC, Paris, Sydney, or Tokyo that would cost over $1,000/night, I can instantly transfer 25-30K points to Hyatt to do that, a value of up to 6 cents per point.
• If I need a one-way flight from Cleveland (or Chicago, Detroit, Miami, Montreal, Orlando, Pittsburgh, Toronto, etc) to NYC that can cost $500 each way, I can instantly transfer 7.5K points to British Airways to book a short-haul on American with no last minute booking fees. Or if American doesn’t have availability I can instantly transfer 10K points to United for their short-haul award. That’s a value of up to 7 cents per point.
• If I want to stay in a non-chain hotel that costs $300/night and don’t want to pay cash, I can redeem 20K points for the room thanks to my Sapphire Reserve card’s minimum redemption value of 1.5 cents per point.
• If I want to fly in a $25,000 ANA First Class Suite round-trip from the US to Tokyo, I can instantly transfer 110K or 120K points to Virgin Atlantic. That’s a value of up to 23 cents per point.
• If I want to book a $2,285 business class ticket on Air Canada to Tel Aviv I can redeem 152K points for the flight thanks to my Sapphire Reserve card’s minimum redemption value of 1.5 cents per point. Plus I’ll earn 25K United miles as it’s considered a paid flight.
• And thousands of other possibilities from Singapore couples suites to booking Southwest awards with 2 free bags and free cancellations, to stealing 2nd base in middle of an MLB game.

Chase 1:1 transfer partners include:

• United (Star Alliance)
• Singapore (Star Alliance)
• Air France/KLM Flying Blue (Skyteam)
• British Airways (OneWorld)
• Aer Lingus (OneWorld)
• Iberia (OneWorld)
• JetBlue
• Southwest
• Virgin Atlantic
• Hyatt
• IHG
• Marriott

What cards do you have in your killer combo?

I have 14 active Chase credit cards, including all of the cards in the Quinfecta mentioned in this post (Sapphire Reserve, Ink Preferred, Freedom Unlimited, Ink Cash, United). I also have multiples of cards like Chase Freedom, Ink Cash, and discontinued Ink Plus cards, as those cards have caps on their bonus spending categories.

That has allowed me to build up a nice stash of Ultimate Rewards points over the years:

By transferring points into airline miles and hotel points, I’ll make them worth far more than Chase thinks they are worth.

I don’t save the points as they don’t earn interest. Instead I spend 7 figures of miles every year and see the world in ways that I never imagined possible.

Some will call that crazy, but I just call it the best hobby on Earth.

So, which cards do you have to create a killer combo?