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Double IHG points with the IHG Rewards Club Visa cards in August

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The IHG Rewards Club Black Visa card is one of the better Visa or Mastercard options available.  Whilst there is a £99 annual fee, the earnings rate is OK and there is a decent sign-up bonus.  You also get a free night at any InterContinental, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn, Indigo etc hotel when you spend £10,000 in a year.

There is also a free version of the card (IHG Rewards Club Visa) but this is less interesting unless you are a modest spender.  Your earning rate is halved and there is no free night voucher.

IHG Rewards Club

The cards are not currently available to new applicants whilst Barclaycard – which runs it – updates its IT systems.  They should reappear during August.

If you have the card you should have received an email yesterday offering double points for all spending during August.  This means you would earn:

On the free card:

2 IHG Rewards Club points per £1 spent

4 IHG Rewards Club points per £1 for spending in IHG hotels

On the Black card:

4 IHG Rewards Club points per £1 for UK spend

8 IHG Rewards Club points per £1 for spending in IHG hotels

8 IHG Rewards Club points per £1 equivalent for overseas spend

This is an attractive deal, especially on the Black card.

I tend to value IHG points at 0.5p each, based on spending 50,000 of them for a free night worth £250+ at a top InterContinental hotel in New York, London, Paris etc.

This means that with the Black card IHG is giving you the equivalent of 2% back on your UK spend and 4% back on your foreign spend (albeit the card has the standard 3% foreign exchange fee).

I like the look of this and I will be putting the card back into my wallet for a few weeks.

The only point which is unclear is whether transactions have to be made by August 31st or whether it also needs to post to your credit card statement by August 31st – implying an end date a few days earlier.  I am assuming that as long as you make the transaction in August you will be OK.


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.

Comments (12)

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  • joe says:

    I’ve been waiting months for them to relaunch the black card. Does anyone know if the black card still comes with platinum status hotel card.?

    • Alan says:

      Yes it does, if anything they’ve made this bit clearer now 🙂 Just wish they’d told us about this double points offer earlier rather than quarter of the way through!

    • Rob says:

      Yes – it isn’t even a ‘secret’ benefit now!

  • Chris says:

    This is great news and thanks for the heads up especially as I haven’t received an email! Additionally I also recently received an email offering a 60% bonus on points purchases, seem to recall in the past that this was only really beneficial at 100%, any views?

  • Kevin says:

    Will IHG waive the fee for renewal of the card once the year is up, or don’t they particpate in those type of card incentives like Amex does? anybody ever had there fee waived? Iv spent 12k but don’t want to pay the renewal but would like to keep the card.

    • Rob says:

      I have never heard of anyone trying to get a discount or deal over the phone …. now the card has come fully in-house with Barclaycard it may have changed anyway. Certainly does no harm, in the worst case scenario cancel and reapply in a year for another bonus.

  • matt says:

    is this only for UK members or does it include US members as well?

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  • pgw says:

    I’m slightly intrigued by the term ‘in’ IHG hotels. Does the spend have to be during the stay as opposed to on the stay itself. In particular, do pre-paid reservations attract the bonus?

    • Rob says:

      No, pre-paid would be fine – it is still processed by the hotel so it is coded the same way (to Barclays eyes)

      • Alan says:

        Although if you’re making a booking for some time in the future be aware that some properties only charge your card nearer to the check-in date.

  • PGW says:

    Thanks to both!

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