IHG and Chase are out with new limited-time offers on the personal IHG credit cards. While the headline number on the Traveler card is larger, personally I’m more of a fan of the bonus on the Premier card. Here are the best current offers on the IHG credit cards.
IHG One Rewards Traveler Credit Card welcome offer
Welcome offer: Earn up to 120,000 Bonus Points: Earn 90,000 bonus points after spending $2,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. Plus, up to 30,000 bonus points by earning an additional 3x on purchases, except at IHG Hotels & Resorts, in the first 6 months from account opening on up to $10,000 spent.
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 175,000 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: $99
IHG One Rewards Premier Business Credit Card welcome offer
Welcome offer: Earn 140,000 Bonus Points after spending $4,000 in the first 3 months from account opening.
This bonus is earned as IHG Bonus Points.
Annual fee: $99
My take: I like more points, but I don’t like where Chase is going with the Traveler card offer
If you’re a regular reader, you know that I am pretty critical of bonuses that advertise a large number of points… and then when you read the fine print, a large part of the bonus is structured as “earn X additional points per dollar on $YY,000 of spending.”
This structure was pretty common on the Hyatt credit cards’ welcome offers for as long as I can remember and it’s disappointing to see it coming to the IHG cards.
Why don’t I like bonuses structured like this? Simply because it requires shifting your spending to a card that gives relatively mediocre rewards on spending. Remember, your spending has an opportunity cost. In most cases, you could be earning 2 cent per dollar of cash back—and often more, if you’re spending in bonus categories or if you’re a Bank of America Preferred Rewards member. And when you consider opportunity cost, the total value you get from that “extra X points per dollar” is usually fairly minimal.
If I were in the market for a new IHG card, I’d definitely go for the bonus on the IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card. But IHG is a program where I’m fairly points-rich at the moment, so I’m passing on these offers.
