IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card: Review
Is the IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card worth it?
The IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card could be worth it, especially if you’re a loyal IHG® Hotels & Resorts customer. Deciding if this hotel credit card is right for you ultimately comes down to your ability to maximize benefits tied to booking stays at IHG properties.
However, something the IHG Premier offers that many other elite travel cards don’t is hard-to-top everyday rewards for gas, dining, and everyday purchases. With 3x back on non-bonus purchases from a card with a $99 annual fee, most people will find the card beneficial even though it does tier its reward values by spending category.
Like a true travel credit card, IHG Premier offers 5x back on travel and a fee credit of $120 every four years for Global Entry, TSA PreCheck or NEXUS. You can even earn $50 back in United® TravelBank Cash each year if you register your Premier card with your MileagePlus® account.
What we like
Stacked rewards
By stacking 10x points on stays at IHG properties, 10x points for being an IHG Rewards member, and 6x points for Platinum Elite Status, cardholders can earn a staggering 26x points per dollar.
Rewards on everyday spending
Although the IHG Rewards Premier is a hotel credit card, it offers 5x on travel, dining, and gas station purchases, as well as 3x on everything else, proving it’s a solid everyday rewards card, too.
Useful travel perks
Considering the low annual fee, the IHG Rewards Premier includes valuable travel benefits such as baggage delay insurance, lost luggage reimbursement, and trip cancellation/interruption insurance. You’ll also get a fee credit for Global Entry, TSA PreCheck, or NEXUS with this card.
What we don’t like
Skimpy redemption rates with transfer partners
IHG Premier is a hotel credit card that utilizes transfer partners to offer airfare redemptions. Unfortunately, the redemption rates are not great value compared to airline-branded cards. You really need to be committed to earning and using points at IHG properties to get the biggest bang for your buck with this card. Overall, reward rates for non-IHG spending are very bland.
$99 annual fee
The $99 annual fee is definitely more affordable than other premium cards. However, to offset the cost, you’ll need to utilize the travel benefits and have a preference for IHG hotels.
Rewards are IHG-focused
If you’re already an IHG fan and regularly stay at IHG properties, this won’t bother you. However, if you only stay at IHG hotels a few times a year, you miss out on the opportunity to fully maximize your rewards.
Who is the IHG One Rewards Premier Card best for?
You will love this Chase card if you’re already committed to the IHG family of hotels and resorts. However, the beauty of the IHG Premier card is that it allows you to combine eye-popping travel benefits with a generous 5x back on gas and 3x back on everything else. This feature makes this card a top choice if you’re looking for something that resembles a hybrid everyday/travel card.
IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card: Rewards
IHG One Rewards Premier ups the ante in every way with its lofty 26X back on hotel stays for cardholders. However, the big travel perks don’t outshine the everyday spending perks that make this a well-rounded choice for a hotel-branded card.
Earning rewards
Points can start piling up quickly in some categories with IHG One Rewards Premier:
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10x back on hotel stays: You’ll earn a standard 10x back whenever you book a stay at an IHG property. There’s also the potential to earn up to 26x back using an additional 10x back for being an IHG One Rewards member and up to 6x back for having IHG Platinum Elite Status.
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5x back on travel: While this isn’t an airline card, this secondary benefit puts IHG on par with many airline-branded rewards credit cards.
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5x back on dining and at gas stations: Earn points every time you use the card when dining out or filling up your gas tank.
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3x back on everything else: While most rewards cards max out at 1x to 2x back on everyday purchases, IHG One Rewards Premier is more generous with regular spending than most “everyday rewards” cards.
Redeeming rewards
Here’s how you can use the bounty of rewards most users can expect to rack up with the IHG Premier Card:
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Stays: Once you have 5,000 points, you can start trading them in for reward nights at more than 6,000 hotels and resorts worldwide.
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Points and cash: IHG One Rewards Premier cardholders can combine earned and purchased points needed for stays.
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Events and experiences: Points can be redeemed for IHG One Rewards Access experiences, including VIP concert passes, celebrity meet-and-greet events, tickets to sporting events, and more.
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Airline miles: You can redeem points for airline miles with partner airlines. Current IHG airline partners include United, Virgin Atlantic, JetBlue, Delta, American Airlines, British Airways, Air France, Aeromexico, and more than a dozen more.
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Gift cards: Cardholders can shop the IHG One Rewards catalog to redeem points for gift cards from popular retailers and brands.
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Digital Rewards: You can apply your points to magazine subscriptions, e-books, movies, and more.
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Donations: Cardholders can “do good” by donating points to charitable organizations with the click of a button.
Welcome offer
The IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card offers one of the largest points totals with one of the lowest spending thresholds out there. You can earn 140,000 bonus points if you spend $3,000 on purchases within the first three months. IHG points are valued at roughly half a cent each, so this bonus is worth approximately $700.
IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card: Benefits
Here’s why the IHG is hard to beat for frequent travelers who enjoy seeing perks build up with each stay at their favorite hotels.
IHG benefits
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Free anniversary night: You’ll get a free anniversary night annually (capped at 40,000 points). If you need to bridge the gap between your anniversary reward and your stay cost, you can pull from your existing points.
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Fourth night free: When you redeem your points for a consecutive four-night stay with IHG®, you can get your fourth night free for that stay.
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Automatic Platinum Elite status: Your status remains as long as you’re an IHG One Rewards Premier card member.
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Path to Diamond Elite status: You can earn IHG Rewards Diamond Elite status (through December 31 of the following year) after spending $40,000 on purchases each calendar year with the card.
Other travel benefits
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Global Entry, TSA PreCheck, or NEXUS: Every four years, you can get a statement credit covering the application fee for any of the three programs.
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United® Airlines TravelBank Cash: Cardholders get up to $50 annually if they have MileagePlus® accounts.
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Baggage delay insurance: When baggage is delayed by six hours or more, you can get up to $100 daily for up to three days to cover the costs of toiletries and essentials.
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Lost luggage reimbursement: Covers up to $3,000 per passenger when a carrier loses or damages your luggage.
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Trip cancellation/interruption insurance: If your trip is canceled or truncated by illness, weather, or another covered situation, you can be reimbursed up to $5,000 per person/$10,000 per trip for your prepaid and nonrefundable travel expenses.
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Complimentary DoorDash: Cardholders get a free one-year DashPass membership, which provides unlimited deliveries with a $0 delivery fee and reduced service fees. Activate by 1/31/25.
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Purchase Protection: New purchases are covered for 120 days against damage or theft up to $500 per claim and $50,000 per account.
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Statement credit: Earn a $100 statement credit and 10,000 bonus points when you spend $20,000 in a calendar year.
IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card: The fine print
Fees
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Annual fee: $99
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Foreign transaction fee: $0
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Late payment fee: Up to $40
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Cash advance fee: The greater of $10 or 5% of the amount of each transaction
Interest rates
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Regular APR: 21.99%-28.99% variable
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Cash advance APR: Up to 29.99% variable APR
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Balance Transfer APR: 21.49%-28.49% variable
Credit limit
The minimum credit limit for the Chase IHG Premier card is $2,000. However, most cardholders are in the $5,000 to $15,000 range. Your creditworthiness will determine your limit based on your credit score and income.
How IHG One Rewards Premier compares
IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card vs. Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
With its 1x back on non-bonus purchases, Chase Sapphire Preferred® is already behind IHG One Rewards Premier straight out of the gate. While Sapphire Preferred® does come on strong with its 5x total points on travel for travel purchases made through Chase Travel℠, this is still meager compared to the potential 10x to 26x back when booking IHG stays with One Rewards Premier.
One major difference between these cards is that Chase Sapphire Preferred® guarantees a 1:1 ratio of transfer values when you move points to Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards®, United MileagePlus®, Virgin Atlantic Flying Club, British Airways Executive Club, Emirates Skywards, JetBlue TrueBlue and other popular airline loyalty programs.
The 3x back on online grocery purchases does help to boost the Sapphire Preferred® as a good everyday card. Unfortunately, it doesn’t apply to grocery orders from Target, Walmart, and wholesale clubs.
IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card vs. Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card
Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card manages to do one of the only things that the IHG One Rewards Premier can’t do by opening up the Hilton portfolio to cardmembers when they book stays.
For Hilton fans, this card is nearly irresistible because it offers 6x Hilton Honors bonus points for every dollar spent at U.S. restaurants, supermarkets, and gas stations, 12x for hotel stays, and 4x for online retail purchases. All other purchases get the same 3x offered by IHG One Rewards Premier.
While this Hilton credit card gives Premier strong competition, any extra perks come at the expense of a higher $150 annual fee. The bonus programs of these two cards work out to be about even.
Note: All information for The Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card has been collected independently by LA Times Compare. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.
Should you get an IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card?
If you can live with confining your travel habits to hotel brands under the IHG umbrella, IHG Premier card benefits can take you far! This is an excellent card if your lifestyle already has you charging many stays per year.
While redemption ratios can be poor when using your points outside of the IHG sphere, the 5x back on gas and dining mixed with 3x back on all other purchases can relieve any disappointment you’re feeling.
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For rates and fees of the Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card, please visit this page.
