Highest IHG credit card offer ending soon! 150,000 points plus waived annual fee the first year

UPDATE: This offer has expired. 

If you are looking for a new credit card to start traveling again, now might be the perfect time to consider the IHG Rewards Club Premier Credit Card. This highest ever offer is ending Dec. 1, 2021, so if applying for this card has been on your ‘to-do’ list, you’ll want to act soon. With this offer, you’ll receive 150,000 points after you spend $3,000 on the card within the first three months. And while the card usually comes with an $89 annual fee, the current offer will waive the fee for you the first year. If you are a fan of IHG hotels, this is a card to consider.

Aside from a strong welcome offer, this is also a card that you’ll want to keep year-after-year due to the money saving benefits. Although you’ll pay an annual fee starting at your second year, it is well worth it since the value received on an annual basis equates to way more. You are also eligible for this card and the welcome offer even if you have the old IHG Select Credit Card.

The best perks of the card include:

Reward Night Every Single Year

With this card you’ll receive a reward night certificate on every anniversary year at eligible hotels. Although you are now capped at a hotel that costs 40,000 points or less, this perk alone should pretty much pay for the yearly annual fee, if not more. For example, you can use this reward certificate at the Holiday Inn Aruba which is right on the beach and can easily go for $300+ a night during peak season.

Even if you aren’t traveling right now, the reward night benefit doesn’t kick in until your first anniversary year (so your second year as a cardmember) and hopefully you’ll be back to traveling at that point.

I personally used my annual night last year at a Holiday Inn Club Vacations Resort in the Berkshires where peak leaf-popping rates were well over $250/night. Best of all, the certificate books you into a 2-bedroom suite at this particular property.

4th Night Free on Award Stays

Not only that, if you still have the old IHG Select Credit card, you can combine the 10% rebate you receive with that card with the 4th night free on IHG Rewards Club Premier Credit Card. So let’s say you are looking to stay four nights at a hotel that typically costs 40,000 points, for example. You’ll end up redeeming just 120,000 points (due the 4th night free benefit) and then you’ll receive 12k points back as a rebate after your stay. This means you are looking at spending just 27,000 points a night for a four night stay! That is an incredible value since there are many opportunities to purchase IHG points at just 0.5 cents a point throughout the year if you are running low on points. That equals out to just $135 a night at a 40k point property.

Global Entry or TSA Precheck Fee Credit

This is a popular benefit amongst many cards but typically only appears on the very expensive credit cards. So to have this benefit on a normal annual fee card is pretty rare and awesome. Essentially, you pay for your Global Entry application fee and you’ll receive a $100 statement credit — ultimately giving you free Global Entry. While you can also use the fee credit on TSA Precheck instead (which is only $85) you might as well get Global Entry as it comes with TSA Precheck as well. The good thing about this credit is that the application doesn’t have to match the name on the credit card. This means if you already have Global Entry all you have to do is pay for another friend or family member’s application and you’ll still get the $100 statement credit. You can receive this statement credit every 4 years.

Platinum Elite Status

While IHG Platinum status won’t get you too much when staying at their properties, there are a few benefits to having this status, such as:

• Your points will NEVER expire. Typically IHG points expire if there is no activity in the account for a 12 month period. When you have Platinum status (even if it is just earned from having the credit card), your points will not expire even if there has not been any activity in 12 months. This is definitely one of the shorter expiration periods amongst hotel chains, so not having to remember to keep your account active is nice.
• Raid the Bar Credit. Platinum status also matches to Kimpton’s “Tier 3†status which will get you a $10 Raid the Bar credit when staying at Kimpton properties.

Also, just having some sort of status when you walk into a hotel is much better than no status at all as it can definitely increase your chances of an upgrade.

Overall…

The IHG Rewards Club Premier Credit Card has a great welcome bonus right now — and significantly better than what we’ve seen in the past — but is ending soon. With that being said, I wouldn’t personally use this credit card for my everyday spend, as the real benefits are simply for just having the card, not necessarily using the card often. With a high welcome offer, a yearly reward certificate, your 4th night free on award points and reimbursed Global Entry, this is a great opportunity for travelers.

Related blog posts:

• Yes, You Can Get the New IHG Credit Card Even If You Have the Old One
• Combining Two IHG Credit Cards Benefits to Get 32% Off Point Reservation

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