Marriott Bonvoy Bold® Credit Card review: Not enough for regular travelers

You’ll receive 5 Elite Night Credits every year, starting when you open your account, which automatically qualifies you for Silver Elite status. At this level, you’ll get 10 percent more points on eligible hotel purchases and priority late checkout. 

The Bonvoy Bold card also comes with decent purchase and travel protections, which isn’t commonly found with no-annual-fee cards. While they don’t measure up to premium cards, they can still provide solid value. Here’s what you get if you pay for your travel using the Marriott Bonvoy Bold card:

• Baggage delay insurance: You can get reimbursed for travel essentials like toiletries and clothing up to $100 a day for five days for baggage delays over 6 hours.

• Lost luggage reimbursement: Receive up to $3,000 per covered traveler in the event your luggage is lost or damaged.

• Trip delay reimbursement: When your travel is delayed for over 12 hours, you’ll receive up to $500 in reimbursement per ticket for delay costs, such as meals and lodging.

• Purchase protection: Your new purchases are covered against theft or damage for 120 days, up to up to $500 per claim and $50,000 per account.

• Complimentary Visa Signature Concierge: Get help with anything you need 24/7.

• Travel now, pay later: Break up purchases into equal monthly payments with no interest plus no plan fees on qualifying travel purchases. Terms apply.

In addition to redeeming points for hotel stays, you can also use points to pay for other forms of travel, bid on unique experiences or transfer points to one of Marriott’s many airline loyalty programs. Transfer rates are 3 Marriott points for every 1 airline point or mile, but Marriott will add 5,000 bonus miles when you transfer over 60,000 points to select partners. Marriott has several international airline partners that are uniquely partnered with them, so there are some intriguing possibilities for complex airline award redemptions. For example, you could transfer your points to Asiana Airlines, which you could use to book a first-class award with Etihad Airways for significantly fewer miles. However, you'd need to set up an Asiana frequent flyer account in advance and call them to book the award.

You can also use Chase’s Pay Yourself Back® feature to redeem points for a statement credit for qualifying airline ticket purchases made directly with the airline or purchases at Marriott Bonvoy hotels. You can redeem points in any amount at a value of 0.8 cents per point with a $750 maximum per year. This isn’t a great use of points, even with a slightly higher value.

The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card has one of the best travel rewards programs around, giving you 25 percent more value when you redeem your points for travel through the Chase Travel℠ portal. The card also has an impressive sign-up bonus and superior travel protections. Marriott is also a Chase Ultimate Rewards transfer partner, so you can transfer points to top off your account when booking award stays.

If you want to stick with no-annual-fee cards, the Bilt Mastercard® offers better earning rates than the Bold, especially during the monthly Bilt Rent Day promotion. Like with Chase, you can transfer your points to Marriott Bonvoy to help accumulate your balance for award bookings.

Both the Marriott Bonvoy Bold and Hilton Honors American Express Card are entry-level hotel cards that offer some perks at no cost.

The Hilton card doesn’t earn as much on hotel spending as the Bonvoy Bold card and lacks the Bonvoy Bold card’s travel and purchase protections. However, the Hilton card has a better welcome offer and more versatile everyday spending categories, with better value at U.S. grocery stores, U.S. gas stations and U.S. restaurants. 

The Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card* comes with automatic Silver Elite status and offers more elite night credits that help you reach Gold status quickly. The welcome offer is significantly better, you’ll get a Free Night Award every year (worth 35,000 points) and you’ll get 3X earnings in multiple everyday spending categories.

The Boundless card also comes with more chances to reach elite status faster. For every $5,000 you spend, you’ll earn an additional elite night credit, and if you spend $35,000 in a calendar year, you’ll automatically earn Gold Elite status. Considering all the value you can get, frequent Marriott guests will likely find the Boundless card to be a far better option — even with a $95 annual fee.

To have the best chance of approval, we recommend having good credit or better, meaning a FICO score of 670 or higher.

Both Chase and American Express offer co-branded cards. Here are your other options:

• Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card (Chase)

• Marriott Bonvoy Bountiful™ Credit Card* (Chase)

• Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant® American Express® Card 

• Marriott Bonvoy Bevy® American Express® Card

• Marriott Bonvoy Business® American Express® Card

You can, but Marriott’s rules are quite complicated. Generally speaking, opening another card within the past two years may prevent you from being eligible for another card. 

The primary criteria for a rewards or cash back card’s rating is its rewards value. This includes the card’s average rewards rate, estimated annual rewards earnings, sign-up bonus value and reward redemption value.

To estimate a card’s average annual rewards earnings, we first calculate its average rewards rate based on how much it earns in different bonus categories and how closely its categories align with the average person’s spending habits, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

The most recent BLS data estimates average total spending in 2022 was $72,967 per consumer. We then narrow our focus to which purchases are likely to be put on a credit card and earn rewards, subtracting expenditures like housing, vehicle purchases and education. This gives us a total “chargeable” annual spend of around $22,500.  

Some of the major spending categories that contribute towards the annual spend include:

• Groceries: $5,700

• Dining out: $3,600

• Entertainment: $2,400

• Gas: $3,100

• Apparel and services: $1,900

Using this data, we assign a weighting to each of a card’s bonus categories. For example, a card’s grocery rewards rate receives a 22 percent weighting based on how much of the average person’s budget is spent on groceries. We also estimate the redemption value of points or miles from various issuer, airline and hotel rewards programs.

This weighting and rewards valuation allows us to estimate a card’s average annual rewards earnings — how many points or miles you’d earn with a given card if your spending was about average and you used the card for all of your purchases, as well as what those points are worth. We also use point valuations to determine a card’s sign-up bonus value.

With these calculations complete, we assign each card a score based on how its average rewards earnings, sign-up bonus value, rewards rate and redemption value stack up against other rewards cards.

We also rate cards based on how much it costs to keep them in your wallet or carry a balance. 

To start, each rewards or cash back card is scored based on whether it offers an intro APR and how its ongoing APR compares to the rates available on other rewards or cash back cards. 

We also score each card based on how its annual fee influences its overall value. 

We consider a card’s annual fee in two ways — how it ranks relative to the fees you’ll find on other cards in the category and how it impacts a card’s overall rewards value. Cards with an annual fee will always be at a slight disadvantage in our scoring system since annual fees inherently cut into your rewards value, but if a card offers terrific value via its ongoing rewards and perks, it can earn a high score even if it carries a high annual fee. 

With this in mind, we rate a card based primarily on how its ongoing rewards value and ongoing perk value (such as annual credits or bonuses) stack up against other cards in the category when you subtract its annual fee.

We rate each card’s flexibility based on the restrictions it imposes on earning and redeeming rewards and factor this rating into a card’s overall score. 

Flexibility factors include whether a card only allows you to earn a high rewards rate on a small amount of spending or requires you to meet a certain earning threshold before you can redeem rewards. We also examine whether your points are worth less when you redeem for some options versus others and whether a card gives you the flexibility to transfer rewards to airline and hotel partners.