The new Hilton Honors payment cards are here! What are the benefits?

Hilton Honors has launched two new Mastercard payment cards.

And, very interestingly, they are DEBIT cards and not credit cards.

You can see full details of the new Hilton Honors debit cards, and apply, by clicking here.

Even if you have the (closed to new applicants) Hilton Honors Barclaycard or another debit card issued by Currensea, who is behind this card, you can still apply for these new Hilton Honors debit cards and receive the sign-up bonus.

This is a two-part article.  This part is basically ‘the facts’.  The second part, also published today, is a Q&A piece.

Here are the key features of the new Hilton debit cards

• You can choose between the Hilton Honors Debit Card (£60 annual fee) and the Hilton Honors Plus Debit Card (£150 annual fee)

• The cards are linked to your existing current account – virtually all UK banks participate – and transactions are charged to it in the same way as if you used your normal bank debit card

• Both cards come with a sign-up bonus, which is triggered by FX spend

• Both cards come with instant Hilton Honors status – Silver Elite for the £60 card and Gold Elite for the £150 card

• Status is NOT a one year offer – you will retain your Hilton Honors status for as long as you retain your debit card

• These cards are aimed at foreign spending and have far better FX rates than all travel rewards credit cards – 0.5% FX fee on the £60 card and 0% FX fee on the £150 card

• You earn points on both domestic and foreign currency spend, with a far higher rate for FX spending and Hilton spending

• Because the cards are debit cards, you will be accepted irrespective of the number of credit cards you hold or your income or employment status – these cards are for everyone. You will need to hold a UK current account with a participating bank and pass a ‘soft’ credit check for ID purposes.

Let’s look at the two cards in detail.

The premium card – Hilton Honors Plus Debit Card

Unlike most of our card content, I don’t need to quote an APR interest rate because there isn’t one. This is a debit card, with the money taken straight from your existing bank current account.

As you can see from the picture above, it’s a minimalist design – although in reality it is vertical rather than horizontal as we show. All of your personal information is on the back.

This is what you get (full details are on the application website here):

• £150 annual fee
• Gold status in Hilton Honors for as long as you hold the card
• 0% FX fees when spending in foreign currency
• 1.5 Hilton Honors points per £1 spent in the UK
• 3 Hilton Honors points per £1 spent in Hilton properties in the UK
• 3 Hilton Honors points per £1 spent in foreign currency
• 4.5 Hilton Honors points per £1 spent in Hilton properties outside the UK

There is a sign-up bonus of 12,000 Hilton Honors points if you apply by 30th November 2024. You need to spend £2,500 in foreign currency in your first six months to receive the bonus.

You can apply for the Hilton Honors Plus Debit Card here.

The basic card – Hilton Honors Debit Card

Again, unlike most of our card content, I don’t need to quote an APR interest rate because there isn’t one. This is a debit card, with the money taken straight from your existing bank current account.

This is what you get (full details are on the application website here):

• £60 annual fee
• Silver status in Hilton Honors for as long as you hold the card
• 0.5% FX fees when spending in foreign currency
• 1 Hilton Honors point per £1 spent in the UK
• 2 Hilton Honors points per £1 spent in Hilton properties in the UK
• 2 Hilton Honors points per £1 spent in foreign currency
• 3 Hilton Honors points per £1 spent in Hilton properties outside the UK

There is a sign-up bonus of 3,500 Hilton Honors points if you apply by 30th November 2024. You need to spend £1,000 in foreign currency in your first six months to receive the bonus.

You can apply for the Hilton Honors Debit Card here.

What benefits do I get with the elite status I receive?

Hilton Honors covers 8,000+ hotels globally under 24 main brands – Waldorf Astoria, LXR, Conrad, Hilton, Hilton Grand Vacation, Embassy Suites, DoubleTree, Hilton Garden Inn, Homewood Suites, Hampton Inn, Canopy, Curio, Tru, Tapestry Collection and Home2Suites.  New brands include Signia (convention focused), Tempo, Spark (economy), LivSmart (budget extended stay) and Motto (group focused).

There are three levels of elite status in the Hilton Honors programme. Of the two status levels which you can receive from taking out a Hilton Honors debit card:

Gold

• Comes with the £150 per year Hilton Honors Plus Debit Card

• Status is kept for as long as you hold the debit card

• Gold usually requires 20 stays or 40 nights or $7,500 of pre-tax spending in a calendar year

• Key bonus are an 80% bonus on base points on every stay, ‘preferred’ room of some sort (often just a higher floor or better view, not necessarily next category up), free breakfast for two people (or a cash credit towards any food or drink spend in the US)

Silver

• Comes with the £60 per year Hilton Honors Debit Card

• Status is kept for as long as you hold the debit card

• Silver usually requires 4 stays or 10 nights in a calendar year

• Key bonus are a 20% bonus on base points on every stay, free bottled water at most Hilton brands and eligibility for ‘5 nights for the points of 4’ when redeeming

For clarity, you are given the status directly and do NOT receive the equivalent number of elite nights.

This means that if you receive Silver status you will still need to do the full 20 stays or 40 nights or $7,500 of pre-tax spending to become Gold.

Similarly, if you receive Gold status you will still need to do the full 30 stays or 60 nights or $12,000 of pre-tax spending to become Diamond.

In Part 2 ….

What I have written above are the ‘hard facts’ about the new Hilton Honors debit cards.  In Part 2 – click here – we’ll look at the pros and cons and try to anticipate some of your questions.

You can learn more about both cards, and apply, via this special Hilton Honors / Currensea website here.