Apply For Chase Sapphire Or Ink Business Card First?

In the miles & points world, Chase has some of the most lucrative cards for racking up rewards, thanks to its Ultimate Rewards ecosystem.

In particular, there are the Chase Sapphire cards (personal) and the Chase Ink cards (business). If you’re new to these cards, you may wonder if there’s an ideal order in which to pick them up. There is indeed a best way to go about that, so I wanted to discuss that in this post.

Basics of Chase Sapphire & Ink Business cards

For a bit of background, let’s first cover the basics of the Chase Sapphire and Chase Ink Business product lineup.

There are two most popular Chase Sapphire cards that earn points:

• The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card (review) has a $95 annual fee, and offers lots of great perks, like a solid rewards structure, great travel protection, and more
• The Chase Sapphire Reserve® (review) has a $550 annual fee, and offers many awesome benefits, like a $300 travel credit, a Priority Pass membership, access to Chase Sapphire Lounges, a better rewards structure, and more

It’s worth noting that the Sapphire Preferred and Sapphire Reserve are largely mutually exclusive in terms of eligibility, so you’ll want to decide which card makes the most sense for you.

There are also three most popular Chase Ink Business cards that earn points:

• The Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card (review) has a $95 annual fee, and is one of the most well-rounded business cards, with a generous rewards structure, cell phone protection, rental car coverage, and much more
• The Ink Business Cash® Credit Card (review) has no annual fee, and offers 5x points bonus categories, making points rack up quickly
• The Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card (review) has no annual fee, and is one of the best Chase business cards for everyday spending

Unlike the Chase Sapphire cards, Chase Ink Business cards aren’t mutually exclusive. You can apply for all the cards and earn the bonuses (you can even get the same card for multiple businesses, if you have more than one business), and they make excellent complements as well.

The correct order in which to apply for Chase cards

If you’re considering applying for both a Chase Sapphire and Chase Ink Business card, which should you apply for first? Well, there potentially is a right order.

Credit card issuers have all kinds of application restrictions, and in the case of Chase, the most well-known is the 5/24 rule. With the 5/24 rule, you often won’t be approved for a Chase card if you’ve opened five or more new card accounts in the past 24 months. Now, there are some important things to note:

• The 5/24 rule is no longer consistently applied for everyone, but many are still subjected to it; there’s no way to know in advance whether this will impact you or not
• Generally business cards from most issuers don’t count toward that limit of five card applications, since the opening of the account doesn’t show on your personal credit report in the same way
• However, Chase business cards are subjected to the 5/24 rule, in the sense that if you’ve exceeded the limit, you may not be approved for a Chase business card

To simplify this advice as much as possible, it’s generally a best practice to apply for Chase business cards before applying for Chase personal cards.

For example, if you’re “at” 4/24 (meaning you have four new open accounts showing on your credit report in the past 24 months) and you apply for the Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card, you’d still only be at 4/24. Then if you got approved for the Ink Business Cash® Credit Card or Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card, you’d still only be at 4/24. However, if you then applied for the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, you’d suddenly be at the 5/24 limit.

Of course this won’t all impact everyone equally, depending on how many cards you’ve applied for recently, and whether you’re even subjected to the 5/24 rule.

If you have an eligible business, this is why I think the Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card is the ideal card to apply for first, especially with the incredible welcome bonus, plus the unrestrictive eligibility requirements.

Bottom line

Chase has lots of great cards earning Ultimate Rewards points. If you’re looking to pick up both personal and business cards, like the Chase Sapphire Reserve® and Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card, then you’re best off applying for business cards before personal cards.

This is simply because the 5/24 rule, and how applying for business cards first allows you to potentially be able to pick up more Chase cards.

What has your experience been regarding the order in which to apply for Chase cards?