Bottom Line

This particular card has a certain appeal to it: namely, you get a lot of good stuff for no annual fee. Its sign-up bonus isn’t bad, and its perks are pretty appealing. That said, we think the IHG Rewards Club Premier Card is better all around. You'll pay an annual fee for the Premier card, but you get an anniversary night which offsets your fee. You also get 20,000 more bonus points, plus automatic Platinum Elite Status. So then why would you go with the IHG Traveler card? Basically, to get your feet wet -- or if you want a no annual fee card. Just one other consideration... if you sign up for this one or the Premier version, you cannot sign up for the other one within 24 months and qualify for the welcome bonus again.

Why You Might Want This Card

Attractive No-Fee Card

This IHG card carries no annual fee, and the 60,000 welcome bonus comes after spending only $2,000 in 3 months. This bonus is good for several nights at an IHG hotel, or at least one free night in any IHG resort. This particular card -- even though it doesn’t pack as much as its big sister IHG card -- still has some solid benefits. That includes a 4th night free, no foreign transaction fees, Gold Elite Status after spending $10,000 annually, and 20% more points when you purchase points with your card. Earn 2x points towards gas, groceries and restaurants, and 15x points on all money spent at IHG Hotels and Resorts. Your options when looking for an IHG hotel are good. There are over 5,000+ hotels across 100 different countries. Wherever you go, IHG has you covered. They're one of the world’s leading hotel companies -- from convenient to all inclusive. Not too bad for a $0 annual fee card.

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 One Rewards Traveler Fits In This Point Ecosystem

Personal Experience