Chase Ink Preferred Card Best Downgrade Options

The Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card (review) is one of the all-around most compelling credit cards out there, and there are so many reasons to apply.

While lots of people find the card to be valuable in the long run, there are also some people who may try out the card and decide it’s not for them. For people in that situation, I wanted to take a look at the potential downgrade options available.

Why the Chase Ink Preferred is worth getting

The $95 annual fee Chase Ink Business Preferred Card is one of the most compelling business cards out there. On the most basic level, here are some of the reasons to consider picking up the card:

• The card has a massive welcome bonus, among the best offered by any card; Chase Ultimate Rewards points are valuable, given all the ways there are to redeem them
• The card has a lucrative rewards structure, including several categories in which you can earn 3x points, making it an ideal card for racking up Ultimate Rewards points
• The card offers lots of valuable perks, including cell phone protection, rental car coverage, extended warranty protection, and more

Keep in mind that you can apply for the card even with a sole proprietorship, and you can also pick up this card for multiple businesses. See my guide to eligibility restrictions for the card, and my experience getting approved for the card.

The best Chase Ink Preferred downgrade strategy

Credit card companies often have big upfront bonuses to encourage people to give a card a try. For many people the card will work out, while for others it may not, and that’s fine. If a card isn’t working out for you, you can of course cancel the card, but that’s not the only option. You can also typically downgrade credit cards, which is an opportunity worth considering.

If you have the Chase Ink Business Preferred Card and want to downgrade the card, what are your options? Let me start with a few basics:

• You can typically only downgrade a card after you’ve had it for 12 months, so you can’t downgrade a card within the first year; however, there’s a grace period for the annual fee, so you could downgrade a card while just paying the first year’s annual fee
• You can only downgrade a business card to another business card, and not to a personal card; furthermore, you can often only downgrade to a card in the same family, which in this case is the Chase Ink Business card family
• You’ll want to call Chase to find out exactly what options are available to you, as not everyone will have exactly the same offers
• You don’t earn the welcome bonus on a card if you downgrade to it, in case that’s a consideration

That being said, generally you can expect that if you have the Chase Ink Business Preferred Card and want to downgrade it, you’ll have the option of two lucrative no annual fee cards — the Ink Business Cash® Credit Card (review) and Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card (review). Both of these are excellent products:

• The Chase Ink Business Unlimited offers 1.5x points on everyday spending, making it the best Chase Ink points card for everyday spending; the card also offers some other useful perks, like rental car protection and more
• The Chase Ink Business Cash offers 5x points on the first $25,000 spent in combined purchases per cardmember year at office supply stores, and on cellular phone, landline, internet, and cable TV services, making it a very rewarding card; the card also offers other benefits, like rental car protection and more

These are both fantastic no annual fee cards that are great complements to any other cards earning Ultimate Rewards points. Which of those cards makes more sense for you will depend on whether you’d get more value out of the 1.5x points on everyday spending or the 5x points in select categories.

Of course there are some downsides to these no annual fee cards. They don’t have the same great cell phone protection of the Chase Ink Business Preferred, they have foreign transaction fees, and the Chase Ink Business Cash has a lower cap on how much spend you can earn bonus points on (though some of the bonus categories are bigger, as you earn 5x points rather than 3x points).

Lastly, the Chase Ink Business Cash and Chase Ink Business Unlimited don’t directly earn Ultimate Rewards points that can be transfered to Ultimate Rewards airline and hotel partners. 

However, if you have either in addition to the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card (review) or Chase Sapphire Reserve® Card (review), then the points earned on the cards can be pooled, and can be transfered to airline or hotel partners, or can be redeemed for 1.25-1.5 cents each toward the cost of a travel purchase through the Chase Travel portal.

What about upgrading to the Chase Ink Preferred?

In the interest of being thorough, I should also mention that if you have either the Chase Ink Business Cash or Chase Ink Business Unlimited, you should also be able to upgrade to the Chase Ink Business Preferred, as long as you’ve had the card for a year. You’ll have to call Chase to find out all the options, but this generally is a possibility.

Do remember that if you upgrade or downgrade a card, you maintain the credit history of that card and there’s usually no hard pull. You don’t earn the welcome bonus for product changing, however.

Chase Ink products aren’t mutually exclusive

The collection of Chase Ink Business cards is awesome, though I think there are a few points worth emphasizing:

• Each of the cards is considered a separate product, so you could actually pick up each of these cards, if you wanted to
• If you apply for the cards outright, you’d earn the bonus on each card, which you wouldn’t get if product changing (whether upgrading or downgrading)
• You can even pick up each of these cards for multiple businesses, in the event that you have more than one business (for example, if one is a sole proprietorship, and one is a corporation)

Personally I think there’s huge value to having all the Chase Ink Business products, given that they’re really complements, rather than substitutes.

Bottom line

The Chase Ink Business Preferred Card is arguably the most well-rounded business credit card out there in terms of the bonus, return on spending, and perks, and best of all, it has a reasonable $95 annual fee. If you’re eligible, then I think the card is absolutely worth getting. Personally, I think the card is worth holding onto as well.

For those who end up getting the card and find it’s not working great for them, the Chase Ink Business Cash Card and Chase Ink Business Unlimited Card are excellent alternatives. Both cards have no annual fee, and also offer some great rewards. Which card makes more sense depends on whether you’d rather earn 1.5x points on all your spending, or 5x points in select categories.

If you’ve downgraded the Chase Ink Preferred Card, what was your experience like, and which card did you choose?