By IHG® Rewards Club Premier Credit Card Review (2020.10 Update: 140k+$50 Offer & First Year Annual Fee Waived)
Advertiser Disclosure: This site is part of affiliate sales networks and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites. This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. This site does not include all financial companies or all available financial offers.
2020.10 Update: There’s a better offer: 140k+$50+first year annual fee waived. HT: DoC.
2020.9 Update: The 140k offer is back. Note that the first year annual fee is waived with this offer, so it’s better than the previous 140k offer.
Application Link
Benefits
- 140k+$50 Offer: Earn $50 statement credit after first purchase, and earn 140,000 IHG points after spending $3,000 in 3 months. This is the best recent offer on this card.
- IHG points are valued around 0.5 cents/point (Hotel Points Value). So the 140k highest offer is worth about $700.
- Receive a free night certificate every year after your account renewal anniversary date. Anniversary free night certificate is only valid at IHG hotels with a current point redemption level of 40,000 points or less.
- Earn 10x points at IHG property, 2x points at dining, supermarket and gas station, and 1x point on other purchases.
- Earn 10,000 bonus points after you spend $20,000 on purchases and make one additional purchase each account anniversary year.
- 20% off 20% on when you purchase IHG points with your card.
- 4th reward night free when you redeem points for any stay of 4 or more nights.
- Complimentary IHG Platinum Membership.
- Get up to $800 per claim in cell phone protection against covered theft or damage for you and your employees listed on your monthly cell phone bill when you pay it with this card.
- Global Entry or TSA PreCheck $100 credit every 4 years.
- No foreign transaction fee.
- Refer a friend. Please click this link to start referring. You can earn 10,000 bonus IHG points for every approved account you refer, up to a maximum of 5 approved referrals (50,000 IHG points) per calendar year.
Disadvantages
- $89 annual fee, waived fist year.
- Free night is only valid for one year, and only valid at IHG hotels with a current point redemption level of 40,000 points or less.
Recommended Application Time
- [5/24 Rule] If you have 5 or more new accounts opened in the past 24 months, Chase will not approve your application on this card, no matter how high your credit score is. The number of new accounts includes all credit card accounts, not only Chase accounts. See this post for details about how to possibly bypass this rule.
- You are not eligible for this sign-up bonus if you received a sign-up bonus on this card within 24 months. Note that what matters here is the time you got the sign-up bonus, not the time you open the account or close the account.
- Don’t apply for more than 2 Chase credit cards within 30 days, or it’s highly likely that you will get rejected.
- We recommend you to apply for this card after you have a credit history for more than a year.
Summary
Now the anniversary free night is only valid at IHG hotels with a current point redemption level of 40,000 points or less, and this makes it harder to redeem it in big cities. You may find some good redemptions outside of the US. If you only compare the face value of a hotel, it is mostly higher than the $89 annual fee; however, it is not easy to find a fantastic redemption any more. This card is not a good card for everyday use because IHG points are not very valuable, so the 10k spending bonus is basically just a joke. Keeping this card for a long time is basically equivalent to use $89 to buy a hotel night, whether it’s worth it really depend on your traveling frequency etc.
Related Credit Cards
| Chase IHG Premier | Chase IHG Traveler | |
|---|---|---|
| Annual Fee | $89 | $0 |
| Free Night | up to 40k | none |
| Best Sign-up Bonus | 140k | 100k |
After Applying
- Call 800-436-7927 to check Chase application status. This is an automated telephone line, and the information has the following meanings: Receive decision in 2 weeks means your application is probably approved; Receive decision in 7-10 days means your application is probably rejected; Receive decision in 30 days simply means your application requires further review and there’s nothing to tell you for now.
- Chase reconsideration backdoor number: 888-270-2127 or 888-609-7805. Call it if you didn’t get approve immediately. Your personal information will be acquired and they will then review it. You seldom answer questions, instead, just enjoy the music and then you get approved or rejected, or further information is needed to be handed in to the branch or be faxed.
