Quick highlights
- Rewards rate: 17X points on IHG hotel stays, 3X points on monthly utilities, gas station purchases, streaming service purchases and restaurant purchases; 2X points on all other purchases
- Welcome offer: Earn 80,000 bonus points for spending $2,000 in the first three months after account opening, plus up to $50 in IHG statement credits on purchases at IHG Hotels and Resorts during the first 12 months from account opening.
- Annual fee: $0
- Purchase intro APR: N/A
- Balance transfer APR: N/A
- Regular APR: 21.49 percent to 28.49 percent (variable)
Current welcome offer
New cardholders can earn 80,000 bonus points after spending $2,000 on purchases in the first three months. You'll also get a chance at up to $50 in IHG statement credits on IHG hotel and resort purchases during your first 12 months. While this bonus offers decent value considering the IHG One Rewards Traveler charges no annual fee and IHG property reward stays can cost as little as 10,000 points, it falls short of previous offers.
Rewards rate
The IHG One Rewards Traveler Card gives you plenty of chances to rack up points you can redeem in a number of ways, though your best redemption option will be to cover stays at eligible IHG hotels and resorts. Here’s a closer look at the card’s rewards program:
How you earn
The IHG One Rewards Traveler Card gives you three ways to earn IHG points:
- 5X points for each dollar spent at IHG hotels and resorts (or up to 15X points with IHG One Rewards membership, adding up to 17X total points with the card’s complimentary Silver Elite status)
- 3X points on monthly utility bills, gas station purchases, streaming services and restaurant purchases
- 2X points on all other purchases
Although IHG locations may not be as immediately recognizable under the brand’s umbrella, your card is eligible for rewards at the following branded properties:
- Atwell Suites
- Avid
- Candlewood Suites
- Crowne Plaza
- Even Hotels
- Holiday Inn
- Holiday Inn Express
- Holiday Inn Club Vacations
- Hotel Indigo
- Hualuxe
- InterContinental Hotels and Resorts
- Kimpton Hotels and Restaurants
- Regent
- Six Senses
- Staybridge Suites
- Vignette Collection
- Voco
How to redeem
When it comes to redeeming your IHG points, you have a few options.
First, you can convert your current points balance into a free night’s stay at participating IHG properties. While some hotels come in at 10,000 per night, most require substantially more points (even up to 100,000). According to IHG’s list of its top five reward night destinations, the Holiday Inn Resort Aruba-Beach Resort and Casino comes in at 35,000 points per night, while a stay at the InterContinental New York Times Square is 60,000 points per night, on average. Additionally, cardholders can pay using a combination of points and cash, giving them the flexibility to use as few or as many points as they’d like then making up the difference with cash.
Other redemption options include transferring your IHG rewards to airline partners, which include American Airlines, Delta, JetBlue, and United Airlines. Cardholders can also redeem IHG points for purchases such as jewelry, electronics, household items and more from the IHG rewards catalog. Redemptions in the catalog start at 1,000 points for magazine subscriptions and go up from there through a variety of categories and spending thresholds.
Plus, cardholders can redeem for gift cards or use points to offset the costs of flights, car rentals and more. It’s also possible to transfer or gift your points to other cardholders as well as donate to charities. But before you consider any of these redemption options, it’s a good idea to think twice before using your points for anything other than booking hotel stays. The value of your points can drop considerably when redeeming for anything beyond hotel stays. For example, a $25 gift card for Dunkin’ Donuts costs 13,000 points. Even if you earned those points making purchases in the card’s top bonus points category worth 17X points, you’ve spent over $764 for that $25 gift card.