The is the IHG hotel card that includes a sign-up bonus and special IHG perks but with no annual fee. They just improved the sign-up bonus from 60k to 75k points. Here are the highlights:
- 75,000 bonus IHG points after $2,000 in purchases within the first 3 months.
- Earn 15X points total per $1 spent when you stay at an IHG hotel.
- Earn 2X points at gas stations, grocery stores, and restaurants and 1 point per $1 on all other purchases.
- No foreign transaction fees.
- Fourth Reward Night Free when you redeem points for any 4+ night stay.
- No annual fee.
This is a new card, but please note the following:
This product is not available to either (i) current cardmembers of this credit card, or (ii) previous cardmembers of this credit card who received a new cardmember bonus for this credit card within the last 24 months.
This offer is for the new “IHG Club Traveler” card, so this language means that if you have the older and different “Premier” or “Select” card, you can still apply for this card and get the sign-up bonus.
What can you get with IHG points? The best redemption value for IHG points is for free hotel nights. The other options offer significantly less value. While the points don’t translate directly to a dollar value, but overall you should expect around 0.60 cents of value per point, which would make 60,000 IHG points worth an estimated $360 value. Not bad for a no annual fee card. You can perform the calculations for hotels that fit your needs. I tried a bunch of other various combinations and got between 0.5 cents and 0.8 cents per point equivalent value.
IHG stands for Intercontinental Hotel Group which has over 5,000 hotels including the following brands:
- Intercontinental Hotels & Resorts
- Crowne Plaza
- Kimpton
- Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express
- Staybridge Suites
- Candlewood Suites
- Hotel Indigo
- EVEN Hotels
IHG points expire after 24 months of inactivity, which is relatively long so with occasional activity you can easily save up these free nights for later. Chase Ultimate Rewards points also convert to IHG points.
Total of 15x points per $1 spent when you stay at IHG. Here’s how this breaks down: Earn 5X points per $1 spent as an IHG® Rewards Club Traveler credit cardmember + 10X points per $1 spent from IHG® for being an IHG® Rewards Club Member, for a total of 15X points total at any of their 5,400+ IHG® hotels & resorts.
Given my 0.6 cent per IHG point valuation, I would book my IHG nights on this card, but not my everyday purchases on an ongoing basis.
- 2 IHG points per $1 spent at gas stations, grocery stores, and restaurants.
- 1 IHG point per $1 spent on all other card purchases
Upgrade to Premier? Downgrade to Traveler? If you can reliably use a anniversary night certificate (40,000 point maximum value) and get $89 value out of it, you should consider going with the mentioned on the same application page. The Premier card also adds some other small perks like Platinum Elite status and a TSA Precheck fee credit.
If you already have the Premier card and don’t want to pay for those added perks, you may consider asking if you can downgrade to this Traveler now without any annual fee.
Bottom line. The now comes with no annual fee and an improved sign-up bonus boost of 75,000 IHG points. As with most of these co-branded cards, the best value is obtained if you can redeem for IHG hotel nights.
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