About a year ago, IHG announced a new credit card in their portfolio — the IHG Rewards Club Premier Credit Card. Although this was to replace the old IHG Rewards Club Select Credit Card, it came out as a new product and did not require those cardmembers to upgrade to the new card. Many times when Chase introduces a new card, interested cardmembers are not able to get the new product if they are currently a member of the old product. We are currently seeing this with the Hyatt Credit Card and some of the Marriott Credit Cards. Fortunately, with the new-ish IHG credit card, this does not apply! If you are still a cardmember for the IHG Rewards Club Select card, you are still eligible for the welcome offer. (The old IHG Rewards Select card is no longer available to new applicants).
The reason why it is good to know this little bit of info is for two reasons:
1. The IHG Rewards Club Premier Credit Card has a pretty high welcome offer which you can add to your current IHG account balance. Both cards can be linked to the same account which means your points earned from both cards will just be combined. You can learn more about this limited time offer here.
2. You can stack the benefits of both cards. Although you can no longer apply for the old version of the card, if you are still a card member, you’ll receive a 10% rebate when you go to redeem your points. There is no minimum number of nights to receive this rebate. Although you are capped at receiving 100k points back per year. With the new IHG Premier Credit Card, the benefit is that you’ll receive your 4th night free on all stays. Now, if you have both cards and you happen to have a 4 night stay, this means you’ll get both your 4th night stay for free plus receive a 10% rebate on all the points redeemed. This ultimately means you’ll be spending 32.5% less points which is pretty amazing! You can learn more about combining these two benefits here.
Spend 4 nights on the beaches of Aruba for just 27,000 IHG points per night!
Overall…
Having both credit cards in your wallet can absolutely help you stay at IHG properties for less! The strong benefits and low annual fees make the card a must have. IHG also sells points at a significant discount quite often. Many times you can purchase points at just .5 cents per point. This means a 4-night stay with both benefits comes out to just $135/night!
If I upgrade to the new card, will I qualify to earn the 120k points?
@August – Unfortunately no. You’ll need to apply as a new applicant.
So can I apply on Wednesday May 1, or is April 30 the last day? Thanks.
I just applied on May 1 and it led me to believe I would get the 80k+40k bonus like this article suggests so I felt May 1 is the last day to apply
@Doug – Yes, May 1st is the last day!
@James – The last day is Wednesday May 1.
I assume Chase’s 5/24 still applies to this card?
@Shine Morris – Unfortunately, yes.
I tried several options….Chase stated that I had too many credit cards and declined
my attempts.
Must be something related to the fact that Chase Money Market and Checking
Interest are at a whopping 0.03 % interest?
@Steve – Have you been approved for 5 or more personal cards (across all issuers) in the past 24 months?
This one is new that others may like too, since the May 1st offer is gone. I prefer to stay with the original card and just buy annual Ambassador membership.