Bottom Line

The IHG Premier card has some easy-to-use perks right from the start. With the sign-up bonus, the 4th night free, Platinum Elite status and the fact that there are 5,000+ IHG brand hotels globally, this is a great card if you stay often at IHG properties. It does count against Chase's 5/24 rule, though, so make sure you'll take full advantage of the benefits before getting this card.

Why You Might Want This Card

Earning For Free Nights

If you map it out right, your next long weekend away can be free just from this one card. With a nice sign-up bonus, finding 3 nights in the 25,000-point range is realistic. Then add on the 4th night free perk when you book with your points. As long as you book the entire stay with points -- and you have enough points for the whole time -- you won’t actually be paying for the free night. This card also gets you complimentary Platinum Elite status, plus a free anniversary night. And when you do a price check, you'll find that a 40,000-point night is worth at least your annual $89. So this is a great card to keep around for the long haul.

Exceptions To The Rule

About IHG Rewards

The IHG Rewards Club offers points toward a substantial network of hotels, including Holiday Inn, StayBridge Suites, Crowne Plaza, InterContinental and Hotel Indigo. It’s one of our personal favorite cards because you have options in more than 5,400 properties in approximately 100 countries, including hotels in major cities like New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, Paris and London.

Once you pick your stay, there are 4 membership levels to benefit from, each with its own perks: Club, Gold Elite, Platinum (which comes with the IHG Chase Visa) and Spire Elite. Earning is super easy through hotel stays within the IHG network, and on everyday purchases with partner vendors like GrubHub, OpenTable and Hertz.

Points can be transferred to more than 200 partner airlines -- but you'll lose 30% of their value. It's an option if you need to get that last-minute flight or if you're desperate to use your account to ensure that your points won't expire after 12 months of inactivity.

But the best redemption will be for hotel stays. When it comes time to book, make sure to check out the IHG PointBreak list that comes out every few months, where you can book hotels starting at just 5,000 points per night and extend your stay with your anniversary night and your fourth night free bonuses that come with the IHG Chase card.

(WRITER’S NOTE: While traveling through France, we were able to use our complimentary anniversary night in the beautiful city of Lyon. We stocked up on stinky cheese, delicious local wine and warm, fresh bread -- and took it all back to our beautiful hotel room. The room was exceptional: a loft layout with plenty of room for 4 more people, even though it was just the 2 of us. Everything was great. But upon check out, they actually charged us the extremely high one-night hotel rate, claiming they didn’t have any record of it being my anniversary night booking. We paid it with our card and when we got back to the States, we called the card company. Here is where a potentially extremely frustrating situation turns to our favor... It was a total of a 5-minute phone call and with a very apologetic tone the IHG rep sent out a check with the total amount of the hotel stay. So, not only did we walk away with 10x points per $1 from “paying” the nightly rate with our IHG card, but we also got completely reimbursed with no hassle. We’re all human and no system works flawlessly, but it sure is nice when customer service actually caters to … customers).

Where IHG Rewards Club Premier Fits In This Point Ecosystem

Personal Experience