Why I churned the Priority Club Black Visa card
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‘Hypocrite!’ I hear you cry. ‘This guy wrote a long post last week saying that he rarely churns cards, and now here he is admitting to it’.
Well, not quite. What I said is that I had never applied for the same card more than twice. This is my only second application for the Priority Club (now IHG Rewards Club) Black card.
Why?
Because they made me do it!
Let me explain. I was looking at my personal targets for IHG’s ‘The Big Win’ promotion. You can check your own personal targets here by logging in.
My original plan was to ignore it completely as I had no stays lined up. However, I ended up staying at InterContinental Le Grand in Paris two weeks ago (review to follow) which changed the dynamics a bit.
Firstly, one of my ‘Big Win’ targets is 20,000 points for booking a room with the Priority Club Black Visa card.
In addition, I knew that a special link which offers a whopping 40,000 IHG Rewards Club points for signing up was still working.
Every few weeks a reader uses the link – which is on our ‘Credit Card Offers’ page – and confirms they got the points. The latest report was only a fortnight ago. Note, though, that the link is currently not working as of Friday night as Barclays is having technical issues with the Priority Club Rewards card site.
Thirdly, I found myself with a large chunk of expenditure coming up in a fairly short period of time. This includes a £2,000 council tax bill which – with certain Visa and Mastercards, but not all – my council mistakenly treats as debit cards and so processes without a fee. I have a good chance of achieving the £10,000 of spending required to trigger my free night voucher relatively quickly.
The free night voucher is valid for a year and is good for a reward night at any IHG property. This is worth up to 50,000 IHG Rewards Club points if used at a top-end InterContinental, which is definitely where I will use it.
I was therefore looking at receiving a total of 60,000 IHG Rewards Club points (40k from the application and 20k from booking one stay via ‘The Big Win’ with the card) which I would value at £300. I would also value the free night for spending £10,000 at £250 as that is what I would otherwise pay at a good InterContinental.
In total, I make that £550 of value for £99 spent.
Barclays does not have an official policy on churning. It is 18 months since I cancelled my original Priority Club Black and two years since I originally applied. That seems to be good enough for Barclays.
Other reports from people who have reapplied for the Barclays-run Hilton HHonors card imply that a year from cancellation seems to be enough.
I have no moral qualms about churning this one:
IHG personally targeted me via ‘The Big Win’ with the additional 20,000 points for taking it out
My £99 card fee is non-refundable
I will definitely spend £10,000 on the card in relatively short order
Barclays will do OK out of me here.
My full review of the Priority Club (IHG Rewards Club) Black Visa is here if you want to find out more.
IHG One Rewards update – April 2024:
Get bonus points: IHG One Rewards is offering 2,000 bonus points for every two cash nights you stay (not necessarily consecutive) between 1st April and 31st May 2024. You can read our full article here and you can register here.
New to IHG One Rewards? Read our overview of IHG One Rewards here and our article on points expiry rules here. Our article on ‘What are IHG One Rewards points worth?’ is here.
Buy points: If you need additional IHG One Rewards points, you can buy them here.
Want to earn more hotel points? Click here to see our complete list of promotions from IHG and the other major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.
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