Chase Ink Plus

The Fab Chase Ink Plus Retention Offer My Husband Nixed

Chase Ink Plus Business Credit CardI just noticed that a $95 annual fee had posted on my December statement for the Chase Ink Plus credit card.  Ugh.  I really don’t like to pay bank fees!

I opened the Chase Ink Plus card in November 2012 for the 50,000 bonus Ultimate Reward Points (worth $625 in travel) which easily transfer to Southwest Airlines, United Airlines, and Amtrak for award travel.

The Chase Ink Plus is a small business credit card and I have been using it for my environmental consulting business.  The card pays 5x points on routine purchases at office supply stores, and on various telecommunications expenses, 2x points on gas and hotels, and 1x point on everything else.   I have set up most of my routine business expenses like the phone bill, long distance provider, web hosting fees, internet access, etc. as automatic payments on the Ink Plus credit card.  

By the time I noticed the annual fee, I had already missed the 60-day deadline for closing the card and requesting a fee waiver.   I called Chase to see if it would be possible to get a fee waiver anyway.  Frankly, I really didn’t want to close the card or downgrade it at this point, because it would mean transferring automatic payments from a dozen different vendors to another credit card.

The customer service rep offered me a nice deal:

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Eight Reasons Why I Stopped Applying for Travel Rewards Credit Cards

I am stepping off the credit card application merry-go-round — for the time being.

Here are 8 reasons why:

1.  I am still holding unspent gift cards.  I acquired a number of gift cards to meet the  minimum spend requirements for the Chase Ink Plus rewards credit card  I opened last year.  These include  ITunes, Starbucks, Amazon, and  Trader Joes gift cards.  I have about $500 of credits on these various cards that I want to spend down before incurring another minimum spend requirement.

2. I need to give my credit score a break.  My credit score took a hit from numerous credit inquiries and from lowering the average age of my accounts.  A hiatus from credit card applications will allow my accounts to mature and give my credit rating a chance to recover.

3.  I can meet my immediate travel needs with points/miles already in hand.  My family has lots of travel planned for this summer, but with 180,000 points/miles in the bank, I should be able to finance about half a dozen cross-country flights.  At a recent Frequent Flyer University conference, the advice from the experts was to use your miles to protect against program devaluations.

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