Today, Chase increased the bonus on the IHG Premier card to a whopping 175,000 IHG points. This a huge offer for the Premier. We’ve seen 140K offers in the past, but this is easily the best welcome offer that we’ve ever seen on this card.
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Quick Thoughts
We recently redid our Reasonable Redemption Values for IHG points and found that they went up slightly in value, to .63 cents each. That would make this welcome offer worth ~$1000, the most valuable for a Chase consumer card on our Best Offers Page.
While that’s the value you can expect when not cherry-picking awards, I find that I’m often able to get much higher value by doing exactly that, and can usually get around .8cpp-1.0cpp. Regardless of how selective you are, this is a terrific welcome offer and absolutely worth going for if the IHG program suits your needs.
The Premier card also comes with an annual free night certificate that’s awarded every card anniversary. IHG increased the utility of these certificates for Premier cardholders last year as part of an overhaul of their rewards program. Now, you can “top off” the certificates by adding an unlimited number of points as necessary in order to book a standard room reward at a property with a higher point redemption level. I did this in Seville, Spain, where I redeemed 40K certificates for a room at a Mr and Mrs Smith property that was 70K points/night by adding an additional 30K pts/night from my account. This is a great feature and makes it much easier to max out the value of these certificates. To me, the cert is easily worth the $99 annual fee, making this card a keeper even after the the first year anniversary.
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$3000 spend for $175K IHG points. Hmm? I wonder if I could spend the $3K on IHG cash and point reservations, cancel the reservations, get refunded in points @ about 5.6 CPP. Essentially buying 535K+175K (bonus) + 30K(10X spend at IHG) IHG points for $3k. Purchasing for IHG at ~0.4CPP. Is anyone else tempted by this?
Just applied and got stuck at “Verifying your information”, has been in this stage for 110-15 minutes now. Is there a number I can call to see if my application was submitted?
thank you for the post! I was able to successfully get a match after 40 days of my application with the prev 140k bonus via secure message portal
correction: 29 days*
Applied for Premier. Denied. Reason given is that I already have this card(I don’t, I have $49 AF Select). Called reconsideration line. They are adamant that only one card from this “Family” can be had. I inquired about Marriott, they said the same thing. Thoughts? Comments?
Yes, these cards have a “family rule” for the consumer cards, meaning that you can’t be approved for one if you already have another (there’s a pretty extensive discussion below in the comments as one person seems to have been able to get around it). You CAN be approved for a business card if you hold a consumer card.
…so big deval coming?
stealth since it’s dynamic!
I’m concerned about the same thing.
If you have the select ($49) and get the business, will you be able to top off the 40k cert from the select? Surely they will bump the bonus on the business aoon and then it’s a way to get both. Or at least be able to get the 4th night free and keep select.
Unfortunately, no. The Select 40k stays “untopoffable.”
Can you get both? I was thinking you could only get the business one if you still have the old $49 Select card. I’m in this situation.
Edit: NM I see we’re all wondering the same thing, did the “IHG family rule” stick? Will be nice to get some info.
You’re correct, although a commenter below seems to have been able to get approved while holding another IHG consumer card, so follow his updates.
Was thinking about getting both the business and personal version- wanted to start with the business for 5/24 reasons. Do they usually have the same bonus on two cards. Business is currently 140k. Wondering if I should wait til they increase it
They’re so new, it’s hard to say whether or not they’ll move in concert.
Can you have 2 of Premier? I love these cards. The free nights are quite easy to use and easy to cancel. Once you cancelled, they instantly went back to my account with no hiccups. I already have Club/Premier/Business. Interesting the 175k is only for personal version but not the biz version. Really nice to combine the 4th night free with the IHG Club 10% back plus the new IHG Diamond benefits. They sometimes run sale for points though at 0.5 cpp so minimally it’s worth that.
I have notes saying, this product is not available to current cardmembers of this credit card…. also language stating 24 months from SUP.
The only way that I know of is by product-changing an older consumer card to the Premier.
I have the IHG RewardsClub Card ($49 AF). Opened in 2017. I have one unused anniversary night reward. If I close the account to apply for the 175k offer will I lose my free night?
No, you will not lose the cert. Keep in mind that you will not be able to get the Premier Select card again. Has anyone tried applying for this card that has the old select rewards card?
You won’t lose the cert, but you will lose the 10% point rebate and the $49 free night (capped at 40k) forever.
Even if the bonus on the business card stays at 140k, you’d almost surely be better off in the long run retaining the select and getting approved for the business card if possible.
That’s before considering that this tactic would keep your 5/24 count better and improve your average age of accounts, thereby likely increasing your credit score.
I’ve had the card over two years and just paid $89 for the annual fee on November 1st. I’m under 5/24. What are folks thoughts on canceling the card and reapplying for the bonus? I’d have to pay $99 again and wait an extra 3 months for the cert but it’s probably worth it.
You can absolutely do that. If you can get approved again (which seems likely given that you’re under 5/24), I’d say trading a 3-mo later cert for 175,000 points works out pretty heavily in your favor.
I have the $49 card (got it maybe 5 years ago) and just applied.
Got approved immediately.
Sweet.
So you never canceled the $49 card and they approved you for this one ?
Yes. At least I was approved initially. I posted just after I got the ‘Approved’ message from Chase website. I have not however received any emails, so we’ll see if it ‘sticks.’
You should call and confirm that the sign up offer was attached to your card. It would suck if you did the spending and then find our that an offer was not attached.
Hmm didn’t think about that. Thanks, will do. Admittedly didn’t read the small print when I saw the ‘approved’ message. Also assume I’ll get an email.
Will respond back when I know.
Keep us updated, Tommy. Thus far, you’re only positive DP that I’ve heard and IHG confirmed that you’re not “supposed” to able to get approved if you have another IHG consumer card. If you can get the card + the bonus, we’d see that there’s indeed some (if only small) portion of YMMV to that rule.
Sorry for the long delay in overall response (basically been on the road since posting). Guessing it is a swing-and-a-miss even though I got the ‘Approved’ screen. Haven’t seen an email confirmation nor is the card showing up with my other Chase cards on website.
Will be home in a couple of days and see if I have a card there. And if so will call to confirm I’m eligible.
Will keep everyone updated (but after seeing all the other responses don’t see how I’d be an exception).
Thanks.
If this sticks, this would be a valuable data point. Their updated T&C say this should no longer be possible. Thanks for keeping us updated.
Agree, this would be welcome news and different from my understanding based on previous posts.
How long after cancelling the current card would you suggest waiting to reapply?
Will they match if we got the 140k point offer in the last few months?
There’s never any harm in trying, but I’ve heard very few positive DP’s about Chase matching offers.
I have good success in doing so w/ two of our Chase Ink cards.
Yep, I’ve heard from a lot of folks who’ve had success with recent Ink bonuses. By the sounds of another poster, they’re doing it on this card as well. Maybe the worm is turning!
I don’t know about few months, but I was able to successfully match it for me. (applied for the card on Jan 2)
I opened the card on December 2 for the 140,000 offer and completed the spend. I emailed Chase and they matched the new offer without a problem.
Great! Thanks for letting us know!
Hello, the 20% discount on points purchases overlaps when they offer 100% bonus, making the point price reach 0,4 cents?
The terms say that it doesn’t, but I’ve never heard of a dp from someone who has tried.
No it does not. The T&Cs specifically say this, and none of us CC carriers who regularly purchase during sales have ever enjoyed this 20% discount as stacking.
I have the old IHG Club card. If I canceled it today, when could I be eligible to sign up for the IHG Premier card? I’ve held onto IHG Club for the low annual fee but this would be enough to get me to upgrade.
I’ll defer to the experts, but I have and use both cards. They each have their own unique perks.
Why not just keep both? An annual free night certificate for $49 seems well worth it, even if the other benefits aren’t needed.
I should have asked it differently. Can I have both cards simultaneously? I was under the assumption you could only hold one.
There was a window where one could hold the old card and be approved for the new one. I believe it was closed last year.
Last year we were told that when the program switched over in March of ‘22, it wouldn’t be possible to get the Premier of you had either the Select or the Club (the “family rule”), but if you already had them, you could hold them both.
That said, it’s IHG and Chase, so I want to make sure they actually implemented that and am going to try and verify it.
If it is the case, I think that you could cancel your Club, wait a few days and be fine. But before you cancel, let me see what I can come up with on my side.
Is there still hope for current IHG Select cardmembers, when the offer terms state clearly: This product is not available to either (i) current cardmembers of any personal IHG® Rewards Credit Card?
Probably not. I’ve seen at least one major blog say that you can get the Premier if you hold another personal card. That said, it’s one that I sometimes find outdated and incorrect info on. So, I want to make certain that’s the case.
Thanks for checking on this Tim. Would be big news if Chase backtracked on this.
No, you cannot have both cards simultaneously.
But you can have the IHG business credit card and the $49 IHG card at the same time.
We need “Tommy D” above to confirm if he does in fact receive the IHG Premier despite current having the $49 IHG Select card.
2nd that!
Just heard back from IHG and they confirmed that folks are now limited to one consumer card and one business card. There is one DP from someone above who appears to have ben approved while holding the Select, so follow that thread. I’ve also heard from several folks who tried and were denied.