Chase has increased the welcome offer on the no annual fee IHG Traveler card to 100,000 IHG One Rewards points after $2K in spend. This 100K offer seems to come around every few months or so and is 20K lower than all-time best for the card.
Although this is a good deal on a card with no annual fee, it’s worth noting that you can currently get up to 200K points with IHG’s premium cards.
The Offer and Card Details
| Card Offer and Details |
|---|
80K Points ⓘ Affiliate 80K points after $2K spend in 3 monthsNo Annual Fee Recent better offer: 120K after $2K spend (expired 7/4/22) FM Mini Review: A good no annual fee card for anyone who values the 4th night free benefit. Earning rate: ✦ 5X IHG ✦ 3x dining, gas stations utilities, cable, Internet, phone, and select streaming services ✦ 2X everywhere else Card Info: Mastercard World issued by Chase. This card has no foreign currency conversion fees. Big spend bonus: 10K bonus points after $10K in purchases and one additional purchase each calendar year ✦ Gold status after $20K in purchases and one additional purchase each calendar year. Noteworthy perks: Fourth night free on award stays ✦ 20% discount on points purchases ✦ No foreign transaction fees |
Quick Thoughts
The 100,000 point offer on the IHG Traveler card is an excellent offer for a card which never has an annual fee and which also comes with IHG’s 4th night free benefit on award stays. It only earns 5x when paying for IHG stays, but if you rarely pay for hotels then that lesser earning rate isn’t as important.
Despite being a great offer for the Traveler card, it might not make sense to actually apply for it instead of the Premier card. Although the Premier has an annual fee and requires an extra $1,000 in spend, you’d get an additional 40,000 bonus points and an anniversary free night certificate after one year. Even if you didn’t want to keep it, you could then product change to the Traveler card at renewal if you don’t want to pay the $99 annual fee.
Chase Application Tips
- 5/24 Rule: You most likely will not get approved for a new card if you have opened 5 or more cards (with any bank) within the past 24 months. Most business cards do not count towards that five card total. Business cards that DO count include: TD Bank, Discover and the Capital One Spark Cash Select, Spark Miles and Spark Miles Select.
- 24 Month Rule: If you’ve previously had a card before, you can only get a welcome offer on that card again if you no longer have the card AND if it has been more than 24 months since you last received a welcome offer for that card. This rule does not apply to the Sapphire Preferred and Reserve cards (see below). There can be exceptions with some business cards.
- 48 Month Rule (Sapphire cards): If you’ve previously had either the Sapphire Preferred or Sapphire Reserve cards, you can get the welcome offer for another Sapphire card only if you no longer have either card AND if it has been more than 48 months since you last received a welcome offer for the card.
- Southwest "Family" Rules: In addition to Sapphire cards' 48-month rule, Chase applies additional "family" rules to the Southwest cards. You're not eligible for the welcome offer on a personal Southwest card if you currently have one, or if you've received a welcome offer on any personal Southwest card within the last 24 months. This doesn't apply to business cards. You also can't be approved for Southwest consumer card if you already have one open.
- IHG "Family" Rules: You're not eligible for the welcome offer if you've received a welcome offer on any personal IHG card within the last 24 months. You also can't be approved another IHG consumer card if you already have one open.
- 2 per month Rule: Most applicants are limited to 2 new cards per month. Business cards are usually limited to one per month.
- Marriott cards: Approval for any Marriott card is governed by a labyrinthine set of unintuitive rules. You can see the full eligibility chart here.
- Card Limits: Chase doesn't have a strict limit on the amount of cards that you can have, but it does place limits on the total amount of credit that they will issue you across all cards. Because of this, reconsideration can sometimes be successful by moving credit from one existing card to the new card that you want.
- Application Status: Call (888) 338-2586 to check your application status.
- Reconsideration: If denied, call (888) 270-2127 for personal cards, or (800) 453-9719 for business cards, and ask for your application to be reconsidered.
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Figures. Wonder if they are going to bump the bonus for the Premier card, which I just got approved for 3 days ago.