Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card review: Best for unlimited 1.5% cash back on business purchases

• Small-business beginners

  The Ink Business Unlimited card can useful if you’re a business owner just starting out. With flat-rate rewards and an intro APR offer, you’re given a lot of flexibility for earning rewards while you figure out your expenses. 

• Chase cardholders

  You’re a step ahead if you’re a business owner with another Chase card that earns Chase Ultimate Rewards. With the Chase trifecta, you can combine points from other Chase cards to ensure you’re always earning maximum redemption value. This can be a great reinvestment strategy for redeeming a nest egg of points for cash back or covering the cost of an upcoming business trip.

• Rewards value

  The best business cards offer rewards in key business spending categories, so a primary factor in a business card’s rating is its rewards value. This includes the card’s average rewards rate, estimated annual rewards earnings, sign-up bonus value and reward redemption value.

  To estimate a business card’s average annual rewards earnings, we first calculate its average rewards rate based on how much it earns in different bonus categories and how closely its categories align with the average small-business owner’s spending habits. In other words, we assess whether the card earns rewards at a high rate in the most popular business spending categories. 

  We researched 10 key business spending categories including dining, gas, office supplies, travel, telecommunications, insurance and more to get a sense of the average small-business owner’s spending habits. We assumed an average annual spend of around $40,000 per year based on Bankrate survey data. 

  Using this data, we are able to assign a weighting to each of a card’s bonus categories. We also estimate the redemption value of points or miles from various issuer, airline and hotel rewards programs.

  This weighting and rewards valuation allows us to estimate a card’s average annual rewards earnings — how many points or miles you’d earn with a given card if your spending was about average and you used the card for all of your business purchases — as well as what those points are worth. We also use point valuations to determine a card’s sign-up bonus value

  With these calculations complete, we assign each card a score based on how its average rewards earnings, sign-up bonus value, rewards rate and redemption value stack up against other business cards, factoring in the card’s annual fee.

  The better these values, the higher its score will be, making it more worthy of inclusion in our list and increasing its potential ranking.

• Fees and intro APR

  We also score business cards based on how much it costs to keep them in your wallet or carry a balance. 

  To start, each business card is scored based on whether it offers an intro APR and how its ongoing APR compares to the rates available on other business cards. This is because an intro APR on new purchases or balance transfers can be a lifesaver if you need to pay down debt, finance a large business purchase or free up cash flow. 

  While intro APRs are not uncommon on business cards, they aren’t a given, so cards that offer this sort of payment flexibility will score higher in our card rating system.

  Even more important to both a card’s score and its inclusion in our list, however, is how its annual fee influences its overall value. We consider a card’s annual fee in two ways — how it ranks relative to the fees you’ll find on other cards in the category and how it impacts a card’s overall rewards value. 

  Cards with an annual fee will always be at a slight disadvantage in our scoring system since annual fees inherently cut into your rewards value. However, if a card offers terrific value via its ongoing rewards and perks, it can earn a high score and a spot in our list even if it carries a high annual fee. 

  With this in mind, we rate a card based primarily on how its ongoing rewards value and ongoing perk value (such as annual credits or bonuses) stack up against those of other cards in the category when you subtract annual fees.

• Flexibility

  We rate each business card’s flexibility based on the restrictions it imposes on earning and redeeming rewards. 

  Flexibility factors include whether a card only allows you to earn a high rewards rate on only a small amount of spending or requires you to meet a certain earning threshold before you can redeem rewards. We also examine whether your points are worth less when you opt for some redemption options over others and whether a card gives you the flexibility to transfer rewards to travel partners. 

• Perks

  We also score each card’s set of features – its perks and benefits — against five tiers of features to provide a rating. Top-tier perks include benefits like airport lounge access, travel credits, elite status with an airline or hotel and credits for expedited security screening membership programs.

  We give extra weight to perks especially useful or valuable for small-business owners, like being able to qualify with no personal guarantee, digital advertising credits, free employee cards and accounting perks.

What cardholders think

Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card

4.3

36 ratings

In May 2024, Bankrate collaborated with third-party SliceMR to survey 6160 cardholders nationwide. Bankrate and Slice MR collected, averaged and presented website analytics and cardholder responses to six questions on a 5-point scale. Responses are unedited and have not been reviewed or approved by credit card issuers.

83% of customers recommend this card

Score breakdown

5 stars

47%

4 stars

36%

3 stars

14%

2 stars

3%

1 star

0%

Score by category

Overall 4.3 / 5

Extra perks 4.0 / 5

Meets financial needs 4.3 / 5

Privacy and security 4.3 / 5

Customer service 4.1 / 5

Online portal or mobile app 4.3 / 5

In May 2024, Bankrate collaborated with third-party SliceMR to survey 6160 cardholders nationwide. Bankrate and Slice MR collected, averaged and presented website analytics and cardholder responses to six questions on a 5-point scale. Responses are based on individual cardholder’s product details, and therefore cannot be verified for accuracy. Users received an incentive for their feedback. User ratings are unedited and have not been reviewed or approved by credit card issuers, nor do these ratings reflect Bankrate’s own reviews of these cards.