Okay I know there isn’t really such a thing as a one “best” card. I mean, if you put a gun to my head and forced me to pick only one card to have for the rest of my life, it would probably be either the Chase Sapphire Reserve or the Chase Sapphire Preferred. One of them won our Card Madness 16-card tournament and the other one is the card I find myself most often recommending to people just starting out
I think that there are 3 reasons to get or keep a new card
- For a good signup bonus
- For ongoing category or spending bonuses
- For benefits attached to having the card (free nights, free checked bags, etc)
In the last category, it was hard to beat the cost / benefit ratio of the Chase IHG card – it’s one of the few “no-brainer” cards and one of the very few cards that I am willing to pay the annual fee on
Chase IHG card perks and benefits
The big benefit of the Chase IHG card is that in exchange for paying the $49 annual fee, you got 1 free night at ANY IHG hotel
In addition to the free night, you also got
- Platinum status (mostly worthless but still)
- 10% rebate on redeemed points
- And all for only a $49 annual fee
- It’s a good one to get with your spouse or partner at approximately the same time so you can combine your free nights into one trip
(SEE ALSO: The 6 best uses of IHG points)
Now, is the Chase IHG card going away?
Now, it appears that the We’ve seen multiple reports (rumors?) that the Chase IHG card is going away. I’ve seen reports from Frequent Miler, Miles to Memories and Ask Sebby
I currently have a link for the Chase IHG card (see below) but as I’ve said many times before, I don’t control what is available at those links, so I don’t have any inside information on when or how long it might be going away.
Doctor of Credit is also proposing that the $49 annual fee card might be going away to be replaced by 2 cards
- One with a $29 annual fee, 60,000 point signup bonus and no anniversary night
- One with an $85 annual fee, 80,000 point signup bonus and a free anniversary night
What that means for those of us who already have the $49 annual fee is still unclear
What’s the best IHG offer and where to get the Chase IHG card
My link has the offer for 60,000 IHG points – you can compare the Chase IHG card to other hotel cards here. It gives 60,000 IHG points after spending $1000 in the first 3 months. The free night certificate is after paying the $49 annual fee on the card anniversary.
I have also seen reports of a targeted 80,000 point offer so that would be worth checking out. I have not yet seen reliable steps to get that offer to show up.
Are you planning on signing up? Let us know in the comments
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
My wife and I just signed up for IHG cards last Saturday, 80k + $50 statement credit. In the process of making a booking on IHG’s site, we each saw the offer on the screen where you enter CC info. We had to be logged in to our IHG account to get the 80k, not logging in only showed 60k.
can’t. chase closed all my accounts, with no missed payments, because they decided i have too many cards. wish ihg would move off chase.
Was too many cards really the reason they cited? If so, that is concerning. Normally, they are concerned about extending too much credit to someone, having them max out their balances, and then go delinquent.
yes, too much open credit and too many inquiries, in 2017. they had just sent me a new chase freedom card, which i hadn’t even activated yet, then cancelled all 4, without telling me in advance. actually, it took 2 weeks for the letters to come to me. when i called them, they agreed i’d never missed a payment. i was just going to pay the annual fee for the ihg card too!
How many Chase cards did you have open at the time, and ho many other open cards did you have?? I really want to get the new IHG card before they migrate me and missing out on the bonus, but I don’t want to get my beloved Ink (5x @ office supply stores) shut down.
Not sure if it is still the case, but it used to be that you would receive the higher offer if you were already a mid tier or higher member