Recently, IHG and Chase refreshed the IHG credit card lineup, and added a new card to the mix, the IHG One Rewards Premier Select Credit Card.
In this article, we’ve set out all of the substantive benefits of the IHG cards side-by side so that you can compare the cards, whether you’re considering getting an IHG card or considering changing products.
IHG credit card overview
Here’s our top-line overview of each of the IHG credit cards. Scroll down for more details on each of the cards’ benefits.
| Annual Fee | Top-Level Overview of the Card | |
|---|---|---|
| IHG One Rewards Credit Card | ||
 | $0 | A no-cost way to make sure that your IHG points don’t expire. (IHG points normally expire after 12 months, but they won’t expire with Silver status, which you get automatically from this card.) |
| IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card | ||
 | $150 | An easy way to buy an annual free night certificate, IHG Gold status, the 4th night free award stay benefit, and earn a $100 airline credit each year. Probably the best IHG card for most. |
| IHG One Rewards Premier Select Credit Card | ||
 | $350 | The most points on IHG stays and instant Platinum status. Offers a slightly more valuable free night certificate, plus the ability to earn a second through spending. $75 quarterly food and beverage coupons and up to a $200 annual airline credit |
| IHG One Rewards Business Credit Card | ||
 | $200 | A small business card with an annual free night certificate, instant Platinum status, and the ability to earn a second free night through spending. Overall benefits similar to the IHG Premier card. |
IHG benefits: Perks when staying at IHG properties
Most likely you are interested in getting an IHG card for the benefits you receive when staying at IHG properties. With every card, you’ll get some level of elite status instantly, plus the ability to earn higher status through spending. The cards with annual fees also offer a free night each year, just for having the card. Here’s what each card offers.
| | | |
| IHG One Rewards Credit Card | IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card | IHG One Rewards Premier Select Credit Card | IHG One Rewards Business Credit Card |
| Points earned when staying at IHG properties IHG markets this as “up to” a larger number of points, including elite bonuses and base points. We publish only the points you earn directly from the card. | |||
| 5x | 10x | 12x | 10x |
| Redeem 3 nights, get 4th night free | |||
| Earned after $5k spend in a calendar year | |||
| Free night certificates. Certificates may be redeemed for a room up to stated point value, or redeemed for a higher-cost room by using additional points from your account. | |||
| – | Each account anniversary Worth up to 50k points | Each account anniversary + Earn additional night w/ $40k spend Worth up to 60k points | Each account anniversary + Earn additional night w/ $60k spend Worth up to 50k points |
| Food and beverage credit. Coupons redeemable for eligible food and beverage charges. Coupons expire at the end of the quarter and must be used during a single stay. | |||
| – | $100 ($25, quarterly) | $300 ($75, quarterly) | $100 ($25, quarterly) |
In addition to the above, all cards save 30% on reward point purchases.
Our takeaway: The rewards you can earn from charging your IHG stays to your card are pretty generous, and the anniversary nights you receive each year with the cards carrying annual fees can represent a good value. If you redeem points for stays, the 4th night free benefit can be a huge benefit—but how much value you get from this benefit will depend heavily on your redemption patterns.
Elite status: Buying (or earning) status with the cards
With the Fall 2026 refresh of its cards, Chase and IHG introduced a truly dizzying number of ways to earn elite status with the IHG credit cards, so we’ve broken this out into a separate section. Each card offers a base level of elite status for holding the card, and a level of elite status that you can earn with spending on the card. And the higher-tier cards offer the opportunity to earn elite nights for spending on your card.
| | | |
| IHG One Rewards Credit Card | IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card | IHG One Rewards Premier Select Credit Card | IHG One Rewards Business Credit Card |
| Automatic elite status. Status level is granted automatically when you have the card. | |||
| Silver | Gold | Platinum | Platinum |
| Earn elite status directly with spending. Status level and annual spending in a calendar year required to earn. | |||
| Gold / $15k | Platinum / $15k Diamond / $40k | Diamond / $25k | Diamond / $50k |
| Automatic elite nights each year. Receive elite night credits each calendar year, as a benefit of holding the card. | |||
| 5 elite night credits each year | 15 elite night credits each year | 20 elite night credits each year | 15 elite night credits each year |
| Earn elite night credits for spending. Earn 2 elite night credits for every $5k spent on your card. | |||
| – | |||
| Earn elite night credits for big spending. Earn a one-time bonus of elite night credits after spending a certain amount on your card in a calendar year. | |||
| – | Earn 5 elite night credits after spending $15k in a calendar year | Earn 5 elite night credits after spending $15k in a calendar year | Earn 5 elite night credits after spending $25k in a calendar year |
Our takeaway: While IHG and Chase (maybe) can get credit for allowing people the most possible ways to earn elite status from their credit cards, they made this much more complicated than it needed to be. If you stay enough at IHG properties that you’re earning status from your stays, you’ll want to pay attention to the elite night credits. If you don’t stay at IHG often enough to earn status from your stays, you’ll want to pay attention to the status levels earned from spending or granted from having the cards.
Rewards: Earn IHG points for spending on your cards
The IHG cards award a generous amount of points for spending at IHG properties, but keep in mind that IHG points will get you substantially less than 1 cent per point of value when you go to redeem them, so don’t be fooled by the large numbers. Earning 5x points in bonus categories is likely to be worth less than the cash back you can get with another no annual fee cash back card.
| | | |
| IHG One Rewards Credit Card | IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card | IHG One Rewards Premier Select Credit Card | IHG One Rewards Business Credit Card |
| Points earned when staying at IHG properties | |||
| 5x | 10x | 12x | 10x |
| Travel | |||
| – | 5x (Flights booked directly and car rentals) | 6x | 5x (Flights booked directly and car rentals) |
| Dining | |||
| 3x | 5x | 6x | 5x |
| Gas stations | |||
| 3x | 5x | – | 5x |
| Grocery stores | |||
| 3x | 5x | – | – |
| Select advertising purchases | |||
| – | – | – | 5x |
| All other purchases | |||
| 2x | 3x | 3x | 3x |
Our takeaway: In most cases, you won’t want to put much non-hotel spending on a hotel credit card because the rewards you can get on other (general travel or cash back cards) are much greater. Keep in mind that, even though the IHG cards offer a large number of points, the points are much less valuable than 1 cent each.
Big spending bonuses: Perks for spending a lot in a calendar year
While it’s generally not a great idea to put too much spending on hotel credit cards—they typically aren’t that rewarding for spending—it can make sense to use your card enough to earn a spending bonus. All of the IHG cards offer some sort of bonus for spending a certain amount on the card in a calendar year.
| | | |
| IHG One Rewards Credit Card | IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card | IHG One Rewards Premier Select Credit Card | IHG One Rewards Business Credit Card |
| Big spending bonus when you spend the given amount in a calendar year. | |||
| Spend $15,000 | Spend $15,000 | Spend $15,000 | Spend $25,000 |
| Earn 10,000 bonus points | Earn 15,000 bonus points | Earn 20,000 bonus points | Earn 20,000 bonus points |
| Gold Elite status | Platinum Elite status | (Diamond Elite earned after $25k spend.) | (Diamond Elite earned after $50k spend.) |
| – | 5 Elite Night credits | 5 Elite Night credits | 5 Elite Night credits |
Our takeaway: If you do choose to put non-hotel spending on your IHG credit cards, you’ll maximize the rewards you earn if you just put enough spending on the cards to earn your card’s big spend bonus.
Travel benefits: Perks when you travel
The fall 2026 refresh added airline credits to the IHG cards for calendar years 2026 and 2027. You can also eke out some value from the semi-annual United TravelBank credits on the personal cards and a credit for enrolling in trusted traveler programs like PreCheck and Global Entry.
| | | |
| IHG One Rewards Credit Card | IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card | IHG One Rewards Premier Select Credit Card | IHG One Rewards Business Credit Card |
| Up to $50 United® Airlines TravelBank Cash each year. Awarded as two separate $25 TravelBank credits, semi-annually. | |||
| – | – | ||
| Airline Statement Credit. Receive a statement credit when you spend at least $250 on flights purchased directly with the airline each calendar year, through 12/31/27. | |||
| – | $100 | $200 | $100 |
| Global Entry, TSA PreCheck® or NEXUS Statement Credit. Up to $120 in statement credits every four years for application fee charged to your card. | |||
| – | |||
Our takeaway: The biggest benefit here is the airline statement credit. Charging a single flight of $250 or more to your card will let you capture this statement credit, but we’d recommend generally using other cards with better travel insurance protections to book most of your flights.
Travel insurance benefits: Protection for your trip
Booking your travel with a card that offers travel insurance benefits can protect you in a variety of situations, like trip interruptions, baggage damage, or damage to rental cars. Here are the benefits that each of the IHG credit cards offers.
| | | |
| IHG One Rewards Credit Card | IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card | IHG One Rewards Premier Select Credit Card | IHG One Rewards Business Credit Card |
| Auto Rental Coverage | |||
| Baggage Delay Insurance and Lost Luggage Reimbursement | |||
| – | |||
| Trip Cancellation and Interruption Insurance | |||
Our takeaway: The basic travel insurance benefits offered by the IHG personal cards mean the cards are a reasonable enough card to use to book air travel, but we’d recommend booking most of your air travel with a card offering Trip Delay protection and more robust travel insurance beneifts.
Consumer insurance benefits: Protection for the stuff you buy
Consumer insurance benefits can protect the things you buy with your card. With Chase now publicly publishing its Guide to Benefits for each card, we now know for certain that all of the cards offer both Purchase Protection and Extended Warranty Protection.
| | | |
| IHG One Rewards Credit Card | IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card | IHG One Rewards Premier Select Credit Card | IHG One Rewards Business Credit Card |
| Purchase Protection | |||
| Extended Warranty Protection | |||
Our takeaway: We’d recommend using cards with both purchase protection and extended warranty protection when making expensive purchases or purchases of durable goods where an extra year of warranty coverage can come in handy. The IHG cards fit the bill here.
Partner benefits: Additional perks with select partners
Chase also offers some perks for DoorDash and Instacart when you have one of the IHG cards. These perks aren’t terribly valuable, but they can provide a small discount if you are using these services anyway.
| | | |
| IHG One Rewards Credit Card | IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card | IHG One Rewards Premier Select Credit Card | IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card |
| Complimentary DashPass. Receive one year of complimentary DashPass. After your complimentary year, you are automatically enrolled in DashPass at the current monthly rate. Activate by December 31, 2027 | |||
| – | |||
| $10 monthly non-restaurant DoorDash promos. Get up to $10 off monthly on groceries, everyday essentials, and more on DoorDash through Dec 31, 2027 as long as you remain enrolled in your Chase DashPass membership. | |||
| – | |||
| $10 monthly Instacart credits. Receive a $10 monthly Instacart credit for purchases made with your card. | |||
| – | |||
| $100 annual Expensify credit. Receive up to $100 in statement credits for Expensify purchases each calendar year, | |||
| – | – | – | |
Welcome offers: Earn points with IHG cards
Each of the IHG cards offers a sign-up bonus to new cardmembers. Here are the details on the best current offers. These are continuously updated when the offers change.
IHG One Rewards Credit Card welcome offer
Welcome offer: Earn 125,000 Bonus Points after you spend $2,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
The headline number on this bonus is often advertised including points after spending a certain amount, plus an extra few points per dollar on spending up to a larger amount. Consider your opportunity cost of using this card when evaluating the bonus.
Annual fee: $0
IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card welcome offer
Welcome offer: Earn 180,000 Bonus Points after you spend $3,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
This bonus is earned as IHG bonus points.
Annual fee: $150
IHG One Rewards Premier Select Credit Card welcome offer
Welcome offer: Earn 200,000 Bonus Points after you spend $5,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
This bonus is earned as IHG bonus points.
Annual fee: $350
IHG One Rewards Business Credit Card welcome offer
Welcome offer: Earn 190,000 Bonus Points after spending $5,000 in the first 3 months from account opening. Plus, earn 10,000 bonus points after you add an employee card to your account in the first 3 months from account opening.
This bonus is earned as IHG bonus points.
Annual fee: $200
