About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Editorial note: any opinions, analyses, reviews or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any card issuer. Comments made in response to this post are not provided or commissioned nor have they been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by any bank. It is not the responsibility of advertisers Citibank, Chase, American Express, Barclays, Capital One or any other advertiser to ensure that questions are answered, either. Terms and limitations apply to all offers.

Comments

  1. with three kids on my phone account, that’s enough of an inducement, thks Gary.

    do we know if Chase still has a five card in two maximum?

  2. Nice find! I also have three kids and two adults in insurance plan. Does the current Ink Plus offer this too?

  3. As someone with a more expensive phone (iPhone 7 Plus 256gb not on contract) I did the math and this is a worse value than paying AT&T $8 a month for insurance.

    Phone = $950 (not including tax)

    AT&T insurance = $96/yr, $150 deductible (if no claim for 12 months, $200 if no claim for 6 months), no limit to phone value (deductible takes into account higher value phone) = $246/year for a new (not refurbished) phone in case of total loss.

    Ink Preferred = $95/year (after first year, and since I have the ink cash and the CSR it would be pointless to keep this past the first year EXCEPT for this benefit), $100 deductible, $600 total phone value = $450 first year, $545 each subsequent year.

    All this is just to say, do your research. It’s a no-brainer to pay your bill with the card just to keep your options open, unless the 2 extra points per dollar (ink cash or plus or bold) are worth more to you than that ‘option’. And for people with more than one phone on their account, (and phones of lower value) and less likelihood of loss/damage (I travel a lot and not always to super safe places) this is probably a better option since it doesn’t involve a constant outlay of money. Just crunch the numbers first.

  4. Oh wow! I hadn’t read much about the new Ink and didn’t realize social media was a bonus category! That’s much better than the AMEX options for social media.

  5. I don’t see anything in the offer about current Ink Bold or Ink Plus cardholders being excluded from the signup bonus, whether it’s been more than 24 months or not since getting a previous bonus, or a lifetime ban. Any take on this?

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