IHG One Rewards Traveler Credit Card review: Good value for IHG loyalists

You can really only make the most of this card when you use it at IHG locations and redeem your points for IHG stays, particularly for a three-night stay to earn the fourth night free. Here’s the value you can expect with an assumed spending amount of $14,500 annually in the spending categories we outline in our methodology. This table does not include rewards for IHG or other travel purchases, a spending category that is not included in our estimated spend.

You’ll definitely want this card on your radar if you’re already an IHG customer who spends reliably on IHG stays every year. You can make the most of this card’s rewards rates and redemptions.

Rewards: Boosted rates for IHG purchases

The IHG One Rewards Traveler Card gives you plenty of chances to rack up points you can redeem in a number of ways. Your best redemption option will be to cover stays at eligible IHG hotels and resorts, and, fortunately, there are plenty to choose from with over 6,000 locations worldwide.

You can redeem your points for gift cards or to offset the cost of flights, car rentals and more, but think twice before using your points for anything other than booking hotel stays. Like with most hotel credit cards, the value of your points drops considerably when redeeming for anything beyond hotel stays. If you want plenty of redemption options without losing value, you might enjoy the value and flexibility of a different rewards credit card.

Welcome offer: Good first-year value

New cardholders can earn 80,000 Bonus Points after spending $2,000 on purchases within the first 3 months of account opening. Based on Bankrate's current valuation of 0.7 cents per point on average for IHG One Rewards points, this offer could be worth about $560 (80,000 points).

An offer like this presents a great opportunity to make any upcoming travel fund your future travel plans. If you have an IHG stay coming up, or can squeeze one in, you might want to grab this card so you can secure its welcome offer and then redeem those points for a future stay. It also helps that you’ll earn a fairly generous rate for other everyday purchases. Even if your next hotel stay won’t cover the $2,000 spending requirement for this card’s welcome offer, you can make up the difference with routine spending while still earning a decent rewards rate.

That said, the new bonus may be less desirable for cardholders who'd prefer a points-only bonus instead of a combination of points and free nights, as this would give you the flexibility to book multiple nights at a lower point cost.

Fees: A low-cost card for IHG customers

The IHG Traveler card doesn’t charge an annual fee or foreign transaction fees, which is great, but you can find several cards that are just as rewarding (or more rewarding) that also skip these fees. While the low end of its APR also hovers around the current average credit card interest rate, its high-end can be costly if you carry a balance: a practice you’ll certainly want to avoid on this card.

Although most of the card’s other fees, like late and returned payments, are pretty standard, this card has unremarkable rates and fees for a no-annual-fee card. If you’re an IHG customer who can make the most of this card, you shouldn’t let its rates and fees be a deal-breaker if you plan to never carry a balance. Outside of its APR, late and returned payment fees, you’ll never pay to hold and use this card if you pay your balance by your due date every billing cycle. 

If you want flexible rewards no matter where you spend your money, another travel card might be a better fit. This card lacks the value general travel rewards cards are known for, and skips a few convenient perks that make other travel cards worth bragging about.

Redemptions: Lacks flexibility and value

If you’re booking a night’s stay at IHG properties, your points redemption value will typically hover around 0.7 cents per point on average, according to our points valuation. You can improve this conversion rate by taking advantage of special hotel offers or traveling in off-peak season, but these offers can be tricky to make the most of when planning travel.

While earning up to 17X points for IHG purchases is impressive, it’s the credit card rewards equivalent of filling a basket with feathers instead of bricks. Your basket might look full, but it isn’t heavy.

By comparison, American Express Membership Rewards points are worth an average of 2.0 cents. You’ll earn these points at a slower rate than 17X, but they’re worth a lot more so you’ll typically use less of them when you redeem them. The same can be said for Chase Ultimate Rewards and Capital One Miles, which each have average point values over 1 cent per point. These travel rewards programs are the pinnacle of flexibility and value, outpacing the value of just about any hotel or airline rewards cards’ rewards currency, like IHG One Rewards.

Perks: Limited convenient travel perks

The IHG One Rewards Traveler card has one perk that makes it a worthy contender in the travel cards space: its fourth reward night free when you redeem three reward nights. Outside of this, it lacks the travel card staples like Global Entry and TSA Precheck, lounge access, travel credits and more.

Although you’ll typically pay an annual fee for cards with the best travel perks, it’s often worth the added cost because the perk outweighs the annual fee. If you want to avoid annual fees to keep your credit card stack simple, then this is a great option to do just that as long as you stay regularly at IHG locations. If you’re looking for a travel card that comes with all perks and credits your friends and family members like to brag about, this isn’t the one. You should consider some of our best travel cards, many of which have perks that offset their fees.

Bankrate contributor Stephanie Zito, a financial specialist on our Expert Review Board, notes the IHG One Rewards Traveler Credit Card’s ability to bring a lot of value to IHG’s suite of brands:

If you’re looking for another card to pair with your IHG Traveler card, consider a cash back credit card for everyday spending. While the Traveler card gets you 2X points per dollar for day-to-day spending, you’ll be better served solely using this card for spending at IHG properties and using a tiered cash back card for gas stations, grocery stores and restaurant purchases. You can redeem your extra cash back earnings as direct deposits into your checking or savings account to offset travel expenses you make with your IHG card.

The IHG One Rewards Traveler card is a good choice for travelers who are loyal to the IHG brand but don’t want to pay an annual fee. But if you want a travel rewards card with more benefits or greater flexibility in how you redeem your rewards, there are other options available to you.

If you’re a frequent guest of IHG properties and combine the Traveler card with another cash back option, you can reap solid benefits to help reduce the cost of travel. But if IHG properties aren’t your preferred locations, consider another travel or cash back card.

Another travel card might be a good fit for you if most of your spending is not on IHG stays, but on everyday purchases like gas, groceries and dining. Or, if you use one card for everything, a flat-rate travel card could be the best fit for you.

Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card

Best for flat rate rewards

Wells Fargo Autograph Journey℠ Card

Best for travel perks

We rate credit cards using a proprietary card scoring system that ranks each card’s estimated average rewards rate, estimated annual earnings, welcome bonus value, APR, fees, perks and more against those of other cards in its primary category.

Each card feature is assigned a weighting based on how important it is to people looking for a card in a given category. These features are then scored based on how they rank relative to the features on other cards in the category. Based on these calculations, each card receives an overall rating of 1-5 stars (with 5 being the highest possible score and 1 being the lowest). 

We analyzed over 150 of the most popular rewards and cash back cards to determine where each stacked up based on their value, cost, benefits and more. Here are some of the key factors that influenced this card’s overall score and how the score influenced our review: