IHG Rewards Club Select 60k Signup Bonus + 2k for Applying

At this point, hopefully everyone is aware that you can get matched from the standard 60,000 point IHG offers to an 80,000 point IHG offer by SMing Chase — though you’ll need to spend $2,000 in total, instead of $1,000. I stumbled across a landing page for what I believe to be a new offer (at least, I haven’t seen it before, and I’ve looked!), and I wanted to do a quick write-up of it because I think it has some limited usefulness when paired with an 80k match.

The Offer

Direct link to offer.

• Earn 2,000 points just for applying for the IHG Rewards Club Select Credit Card, AND
• Earn 60,000 bonus points upon approval, after spending $1,000 on purchases within the first 3 months of account opening

Card Details

• $49 annual fee, waived the first year.
• Annual free night certificate, valid at any IHG property, after each account anniversary.
• Earn 5,000 bonus points after you add your first authorized user and make your first purchase in the first three months from account opening.
• Earn 5 points per $1 spent when you stay at IHG hotels.
• Earn 2 points per $1 spent on purchases at gas stations, grocery stores & restaurants.
• Earn 1 point for every $1 spent on all other purchases.
• Automatic 10% point rebate on redemptions.
• Platinum Elite Status as long as you’re a Select credit cardmember (points don’t expire for members with elite status).
• No foreign transaction fees.

Our Verdict

I won’t go deep into whether or not you should apply for the IHG card — I do think it’s excellent, but your needs may vary and I think that’s better explored in other posts.

Rather, I would like to explore why you might considering choosing this offer if you’re looking to get matched to the 80,000 IHG offer. The two standard offers are 60,000 points for $1,000 in spend (via Chase website) and 60,000 points for $1,000 in spend + $50 statement credit after first purchase (via IHG website when booking, or a quick Google search).

There are also two targeted offers: one for 60,000 points after $1,000 in spend in three months and then 20,000 more points after $8,000 in spend in the first year; and another for 80,000 points after $2,000 in spend in three months and then 20,000 more points after $8,000 in spend in the first year.

Back to the public offers: the obvious choice is the 60,000 point + $50 statement credit. However — with very rare exceptions — Chase will not allow you to get the 80,000 point match without giving up the $50 statement credit (they re-bill it to your account). On the other hand, this link gives you 2,000 points just for applying! Sure, it’s a small number and some people would argue they’re only worth $10 — fair enough. The expected value of getting upgraded to an 80,000 + $50 match is much less than 20% though, so it might make sense to forego that avenue and stick with 2,000 points — if it’s a guaranteed pay out.

Please note: while I have written this verdict under the assumption that the 2,000 points are “safe”, and I believe that’s a relatively safe assumption (because it has held in the past — ~2+ years ago), there are no recent DPs about this, to my knowledge. Chase could take into account the 2,000 points and decide to only top you off with another 18,000.

If you’re considering applying for this card, you’ll definitely want to review the things everybody should know about Chase credit cards first.