Barclays and Wyndham recently unveiled three new “Wyndham Earner” rewards credit cards. While I don’t consider any of them to be “must have” cards, they’re better than I expected and I’m actually kind of excited about the business card…
Those who want a nice welcome bonus plus the ability to save 10% off award stays will do well with the fee-free Wyndham Rewards Earner Card. Many will find the $95 business card more attractive because it includes the same 10% discount plus 15,000 bonus points each anniversary and Wyndham Diamond status which matches to Caesar’s Diamond status. The $75 Wyndham Rewards Earner Card is less attractive, in my opinion, because it offers only 7,500 points each anniversary and Wyndham Platinum status. If you have the ability to pay $20 more per year for the business card, I think it’s totally worth it.
What if you aren’t interested in staying at Wyndham properties? How about staying in vacation rentals instead? Wyndham makes it possible to book vacation rentals with points in multiple ways. The best value option at the moment is undoubtedly Vacasa Vacation Rentals. See this post for full details: Wyndham Vacasa: Great Value is Real!
Here’s my review of the three Wyndham Earner cards:
Perks available to all three Wyndham Rewards Earner cards
Go Free Faster (10% award discount)
Cardholders automatically get a 10% discount on free night (Go Free) awards. Normally, free nights cost either 7.5K, 15K, or 30K per night. With this discount, free nights will cost 6.75K, 13.5K, or 27K per night.
Note that this sounds similar to the 10% rebate on the JetBlue cards and on the old IHG Club card, but it’s better than that because it’s not a rebate but a discount — with Wyndham you get a discount at the time of booking so you do not need to have the full points in your account the way you do with JetBlue or IHG.
Cardmember Rate (paid stay discount)
Cardholders save 7% or 12% off the Best Available Rate, depending upon the property. This is slightly better than the Member Rate which is either a 5% or 10% discount off the Best Available Rate.
No foreign transaction fees
That’s good!
Wyndham Rewards Earner Card
| Card Offer and Details |
|---|
75K Points ⓘ Non-Affiliate 75K points after $2K spend in first 6 monthsNo Annual Fee Recent better offer: None, this is best we've seen. FM Mini Review: Sign up for the bonus. Keep for the 10% award discount. Earning rate: ✦ 5X Wyndham & gas ✦ 2X restaurants & grocery ✦ 1X everywhere else Card Info: Visa Signature or Platinum issued by Barclays. This card has no foreign currency conversion fees. Big spend bonus: 7,500 points each anniversary year after $15K spend Noteworthy perks: Gold status ✦ 10% discount on free night awards ✦ Cardmember discount on paid stays ✦ No foreign transaction fees |
Review Summary: Sign up for the bonus. Keep for the 10% free night discount.
For a fee-free consumer card, this one offers a very good welcome bonus (at least at the time of this writing it does) and it’s worth keeping for the 10% discount on free night awards. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend spending $15K per year to get the 7,500 point bonus, but it does have strong earnings (5X) at gas stations and Wyndham properties.
Wyndham Rewards Earner Plus Card
| Card Offer and Details |
|---|
100K Points ⓘ Non-Affiliate 100K points after $2K spend in first 6 months$75 Annual Fee Recent better offer: None, this is best we've seen. FM Mini Review: Not bad, but the business version is better. Earning rate: 6X Wyndham & gas ✦ 4X restaurants & grocery ✦ 1X everywhere else Card Info: Visa Signature or Platinum issued by Barclays. This card has no foreign currency conversion fees. Noteworthy perks: 7,500 points each anniversary year ✦ Platinum status ✦ 10% discount on free night awards ✦ Cardmember discount on paid stays ✦ No foreign transaction fees |
Review Summary: Decent card, but most would be better off with free version or business version.
If the business card didn’t exist, I’d say that this card was worth considering for Wyndham fans. The annual 7,500 point bonus is almost enough to offset the card’s $75 annual fee (at our Reasonable Redemption Value of 0.82 cents per point, 7,500 points is worth $61.50) and if you stay in Wyndham or Caesar’s properties often enough, Platinum status may be valuable. The card also has slightly better earnings at gas stations and Wyndham properties than the free card (6X instead of 5X). That said, if you find 7,500 points and Platinum status valuable, you should be willing to pay $20 more per year for for the business card in order to get 15,000 points and Diamond status. Plus, the business card offers 8X rewards at gas stations and Wyndham properties!
Wyndham Rewards Earner Business Card
| Card Offer and Details |
|---|
100K Points ⓘ Non-Affiliate 50K after after $4K spend in first 90 days, additional 50K after a total of $15K spend in first year$95 Annual Fee Recent better offer: None, this is best we've seen. FM Mini Review: Excellent earning rate at gas stations and Wyndham hotels. Diamond status plus 15K annual bonus makes this card a keeper. Earning rate: 8X Wyndham & gas ✦ 5X marketing, advertising, and utilities (telecommunications, cable, satellite, electric, gas, heating oil and water) ✦ 1X everywhere else Card Info: Visa Signature issued by Barclays. This card has no foreign currency conversion fees. Noteworthy perks: 15,000 points each anniversary year ✦ Diamond status ✦ 10% discount on free night awards ✦ Cardmember discount on paid stays ✦ No foreign transaction fees |
Review Summary: Surprisingly strong for gas station spend. This one is a keeper.
Dare I say that this card is almost exciting? Let’s look at the features that make it well worth the $95 annual fee:
15K annual point bonus: Our Reasonable Redemption Value for Wyndham points is 0.82 cents per point, so we value 15K points at $123 per year. In other words, I’d be happy to pay $95 per year for 15,000 points because I should be able to get at least $123 value from those 15,000 points (but would likely get much more value). As a general rule, I always prefer earning points rather than free night certificates with hotel credit cards. Unlike free night certificates, points don’t expire after only one year (Wyndham points do expire 4 years after acquisition though!) and points are more flexible: You can use 15,000 points for 2 cheap 7.5K nights, 1 mid-tier 15K night, or towards a top-tier 30K night (by combining with other points). Plus, thanks to the 10% free night discount, you’ll have points left over for the next stay.
Wyndham Diamond status: Wyndham offers some perks exclusively to those with Diamond status such as suite upgrades (including on free nights), welcome amenity, and ability to gift Gold status to others. Even better, Wyndham Diamond status freely matches to Caesar’s Diamond which offers perks like waived resort fees, free $100 Celebration dinner (read Nick’s Celebration Dinner trip report here), and much more. Wyndham Diamond status is a more important perk than it was in the past because Wyndham has stopped offering status matches from other hotel chains.
Strong earnings for gas station purchases, Wyndham hotels, and utilities: This card offers 8X rewards at gas stations and Wyndham properties! With our Reasonable Redemption Value of 0.82 cents per point, that’s like a 6.56% rebate (which is excellent). The card also earns 5X for marketing, advertising, and utilities (utility purchases are defined as telecommunications services, cable, satellite, electric, gas, heating oil and water).
Extra bonus at Marathon & Arco gas stations: If you sign up for Marathon Make it Count Rewards, you can save money & earn extra rewards in addition to the 8 points per dollar you’ll earn with your Wyndham card. See: Wyndham Rewards — Save 10c per gallon at Marathon / Arco.
Visa Savings Edge: Visa Savings Edge is a card-linked program for business Visa cards. By enrolling and linking your Wyndham business card, you can earn additional cash back on top of the strong rewards the card already offers. Visa Savings Edge offers automatic rebates for purchases with certain merchants including:
- Wyndham Hotels: Get 4% to 5% back depending on the brand. This means you can earn 8X Wyndham points plus up to 5% cash back at Wyndham hotels!
- Chevron:
Get 2% back. This means you can earn 8X Wyndham points plus 2% cash back at Chevron gas stations! Unfortunately it looks like this rebate is no longer available.
Do you think you’ll apply for any of the Wyndham Rewards Earner Cards?
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Ok, I feel like I’m perhaps losing it in my old age (but not that old!…), but for the life of me i can’t seem to figure out why I have been thinking the Wyndham Business Earner card’s 8X gas station bonus is limited to $25k spend per year on the card?? I can’t find any mention of there being a cap on the 8X gas, but I have been thinking this was a thing since I’ve begun using multiple of these cards in my household (for multiple businesses x p1 and p2)… is the 8X gas actually uncapped and I’ve probably just had a brain switcheroo (probably mentally mashing up this 8X gas with the $25k limit on office supply 5X with the chase ink cash cards…)? If there is no cap that’s actually even better, or if there was a cap and it was removed I’d feel less silly, but if the 8X has always been uncapped someone please tell me and I’ll go sit in the corner puzzled thinking about why I thought there was a $25k limit!!
I’ve never heard of there being a limit to the 8x earnings. I think that you got mixed up with the Chase Ink limit as you suggested.
Ok thanks, well silly me – at least that’s simpler!
What you do both the Earners + and the Business version? Earning 4X on dining and groceries would be the perfect complement to the 8x on gas and 5x on Utilities. I would think you would benefit more than the 3x you would get from Citi Premier if you are primarily using it to transfer to Wyndham anyways
Yep, if you’re really into Wyndham points, that’s a great option. Personally, though, I’d prefer to earn 3x dining and groceries with, for example, the Citi Premier; or 4x with the Amex Gold. Both will give you more options for things you can do with your points.
Hi there! I applied for the business earner card with my old Wyndham Rewards member number and got approved. It is still showing blue though—do you know how long it updates to Diamond? Do I need to activate the card first? I called Barclays but no direct answer given.
What are the chance 90k offer for the biz card returns? I want the card and have been holding my breath…
I don’t know about the 90K offer, but I think its reasonable to expect an enhanced offer to appear approx once per year.
Makes sense to me. Thanks for the feedback.
The best offers page listing for the Business Earner card appears to be out of date.
It shows a 65k (+10k for an AU) offer, but the landing page shows 45k.
All the Wyndham cards SUB are 15k less than the best offers page is listing.
Hey Greg, I applied to one of the cards and got approved. How long does it take for Wyndham to pick up that I am a cardholder and show 10% discount (I added my Wyndham number during the application process)? Or do I need to add this CC number to my Wyndham profile to start seeing it?
It will happen automatically but I’m not sure how long it takes. My guess is that it’s immediately after you activate the card (but that’s just a guess)
Thank you!! I asked that immediately after I was approved. I got the card since then. It took between 24 to 48 hours for the discount to show up provided you added your loyalty number during application process. Did not require adding CC to Wyndham profile or activating it
My Barclay’s Wyndham Business card earns 9x at Costco.
wow, will test mine; do u think it’s a result of the 4x visa savings edge + 5x utilities?
I posted a confusing message. The Wyndham Business card earns 8x only when getting GAS at Costco.
I’ve seen several places that you can pool your Wyndham points with another person for a fee. But I haven’t been able to find what that fee is, does anyone know? P2 and I both got the 90k biz offer and looking at booking a big Vacasa stay. Guessing it’s probably not worth the fee in the long run, whatever it is, but I’m still curious.
Applied (once) before the 10/14 deadline and I was sent 3 different cards all with the same credit limits. Customer service couldn’t figure out what was going on nor could they confirm that I was eligible for the sign up bonus in effect when I applied. All of this lead me to close all 3 accounts before activating any of the cards. I’m not impressed with Barclays.
The Business card AF in the promotion is $95. I have been charged $149. I have filed a dispute – 16 days ago, no response. I suppose I have to reach out again – this is just weak, pathetic.
Applied and received the Business card here. Heads up – they charged me a $149 AF versus $95 advertised. Had to file a claim to get that corrected. Still waiting. Also they only issued it with a $2K spend limit (although my credit record is very strong), so not even enough to go for 90K awards. I called to get limit raised. They told me it’s a hard pull and can take several days. Also, cash advance cannot be lowered….ugh. These folks make Chase look like angels.
I transferred most of my Barclays Business AA credit line to my Wyndham Business Credit card.
Can you have all three of these cards at the same time or does barclays have any limits on multiples of the same product family?
I don’t know. I’m confident that you can have both a business card and a personal card, but I don’t know if they’ll let you have both personal cards.
As a datapoint, I applied for the personal Wyndham Earner Plus a week or so ago and went pending and then soon after denied. I already have the business card. I waited for the letter to arrive and when it came it said I was denied because I already had the maximum allowable number of this product and that they didn’t pull my credit report. I called in this morning and the agent quickly verified that I in fact did not already have a Wyndham personal card and moved forward with pulling my credit report and then approving me for the card.
TLDR: Barclays denied my personal Wyndham application because I have a Wyndham business, but recon approved after calling in. There may be a system issue that is auto denying the consumer card if you have the business card because it looks like the same product. Or it may have just been human error.
I have been having all kinds of issues with this card. Payments not posting (even after receiving confirmation) credit line being on hold for 10 days AFTER payment, and the point totals are a mess. This last statement I spent $4700 and received 8 points. Yeah, 8 whole points. Calling in is like talking to a 4 year old. Who are their reps? A call center at a day care in Asia? Seriously, Barclays is a mess.
Wow, that’s awful. Sorry to hear that.
Hi Greg, thanks for the article. Long time reader, first time commenter. 🙂 I got approved for this card a month ago and just got my first statement and was super surprised to see a finance charge (~$8) on the *first* statement. Any idea what may have happened? I reached out to Barclay and the reps have not been helpful so far. Was wondering if this was a card I need to pay as soon as the charge hits or something like that. Thank you in advance.
I was charged $1 finance charge on my first statement. I put $1k spend on my card. No signup bonus yet. No points have hit Wyndham.
They reversed the finance charge. I was afraid that they had somehow categorized an insurance payment as a cash advance.
The points earned after the new site went active are showing in my Wyndham account. Points earned prior to the conversion have not posted as of yet.
I have no idea. Neither my wife nor I got hit with a finance charge on our cards.
No worries. Thanks for the reply, Greg!
Just added the Wyndham Earner Rewards Biz card to my existing Visa Savings edge account. At this time and at least for me, Chevron is no longer a benefit. The current auto parts & fuel category benefits are: Sears Parts Direct and AutoZone.
Thanks. I’ll update that section