Best cards that earn IHG points
Every open US card in our database that pays out in IHG points — 3 of them — ranked by what a dollar of spending is actually worth back: the printed rate times our conservative 0.50¢ value, not the raw multiplier.
There is no clear winner among IHG points cards. IHG One Rewards Premier Business Card and IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card both land on exactly 2.5¢ back per dollar, which is inside the error bar on any point valuation — so calling either one the best would be inventing a result the data doesn't support. Decide on the annual fee, the caps and where the rest of your spending actually goes.
Reviewed: Data verified 2026-09-15 · Credit Upside editorial · Updated 2026-09-16 · How we rank
Featured cards
All 3 cards that earn IHG points, with what each one is actually best at. Tap any card to jump to its row.
- 1 IHG One Rewards Premier Business Card — Best overall for earning IHG points: 5x on travel, $99 a year — 2.5¢ back per dollar
- 2 IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card — 5x on travel, $99 a year — 2.5¢ back per dollar
- 3 IHG One Rewards Traveler Credit Card — Best with no annual fee: 3x on dining, no annual fee — 1.5¢ back per dollar
Ranked by real value, not multiplier
| # | Card | Headline rate | Real value | Annual fee |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | IHG One Rewards Premier Business Card
Chase · business |
5x on travel 10x at IHG only — not ranked |
2.5¢/$ | $99 |
| 2 | IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card
Chase |
5x on travel 10x at IHG only — not ranked |
2.5¢/$ | $99 |
| 3 | IHG One Rewards Traveler Credit Card
Chase |
3x on dining 5x at IHG only — not ranked |
1.5¢/$ | None |
Headline rate is each card's best bonus rate that pays anywhere in its category. A rate that only pays at one brand or through one portal (14x at Hilton, 8x on United fares, 5x via Chase Travel) is printed in grey and excluded from the ranking — it is a loyalty rate, not a category rate. Real value is the headline rate × 0.50¢.
Co-brand rates — only at their own brand
3 brand-locked rates across these cards. Each is real if that is where you spend — IHG One Rewards Premier Business Card really does pay 10x at IHG, worth 5.0¢ per dollar at our 0.50¢ value — and pays nothing extra anywhere else, which is why none of them set a card's headline rate above.
| Card | Rate — where it pays | Value there |
|---|---|---|
| IHG One Rewards Premier Business Card | 10x on hotels at IHG only | 5.0¢/$ |
| IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card | 10x on hotels at IHG only | 5.0¢/$ |
| IHG One Rewards Traveler Credit Card | 5x on hotels at IHG only | 2.5¢/$ |
What IHG points are worth
We value IHG points at a conservative 0.50¢ per point — the same number the optimizer scores your charges with, and deliberately not the best-case figure a points blog would quote. IHG points are spent inside one hotel group. The value swings hard with the property you book. Below a penny, which means a big multiplier in IHG points can lose outright to a plain 2% cash-back card.
Which one should you carry?
On paper IHG One Rewards Premier Business Card earns the most per dollar at its headline rate, but it charges $99 a year — money you have to earn back before the higher rate is worth anything. The best no-fee option is IHG One Rewards Traveler Credit Card at 1.5¢ per dollar. A headline rate only pays on the category it names, so the card that earns you the most IHG points is the one whose bonus categories match your actual spending — which is the whole reason we built the optimizer instead of a top-ten list.
How we rank
One arithmetic rule, applied by code to our maintained card database. There is no editorial pick, no hand-ordering and no sponsored slot.
- Printed earn rate. Each card's best non-portal bonus rate — its headline rate — as printed by the issuer. Where a card has no bonus category, its base rate is used instead, and the table says which.
- Conservative point value. Every rate is multiplied by our conservative 0.50¢ value for IHG points, the same number the optimizer scores real spending with. Because every card here earns the same currency, that value cannot change the order — it sets the scale, and it is what lets you compare this page against a guide for a different currency. Every point value we use, published →
- Annual fee. Printed against every card and used to break ties. The best fee-free earner is IHG One Rewards Traveler Credit Card at 1.5¢ per dollar.
- Caps and limits. Where a headline rate stops after a spending cap, the cap is on the card's own page. Check it before treating a high rate as your everyday rate.
- Pool and cutoff. 221 open US cards are in our database; 3 of them pay out in IHG points and qualify. All 3 are ranked above; there is no cutoff on this page.
- Rotating and pick-your-own categories. Kept out of the headline ranking, because they only pay in the right quarter or with the right election. Issuer-travel-portal-only rates are excluded for the same reason: they pay only if you book through the portal.
- Commission. The ranking code has no access to which cards pay us a commission — the ordering function never reads the affiliate file. Any apply link is attached after the order is already fixed, so it cannot move a card up or down. How that works.
Full methodology, including how each point value is set: how we value points and rank cards →
Common questions
Which credit cards earn IHG points?
3 open US cards in our database earn IHG points: IHG One Rewards Premier Business Card, IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card, IHG One Rewards Traveler Credit Card. Ranked by real value — the printed rate times our 0.50¢ per point valuation — IHG One Rewards Premier Business Card and IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card both land on exactly 2.5¢ back per dollar, so neither is clearly the best; choose on the annual fee and on which bonus categories match your spending.
How much is an IHG point worth?
Credit Upside values IHG points at 0.50¢ per point, a conservative mid-range estimate and the same figure the optimizer scores real spending with.
Which IHG points card has no annual fee?
IHG One Rewards Traveler Credit Card from Chase charges no annual fee and earns 3x on dining, worth 1.5¢ per dollar. It ranks #3 of the 3 cards here.
Is a big IHG points multiplier better than plain cash back?
Not automatically. We value IHG points at 0.50¢, below a cent, so a headline multiplier here can lose outright to a plain 2% cash-back card. Multiply the rate by 0.50¢ before comparing — that is exactly what the table above does.
Do these rankings depend on commissions?
No. The code that orders this page reads printed earn rates, our point values, annual fees and caps — it has no access to which cards pay us a commission. Brand-locked and portal-only rates are excluded from the headline rate, because they only pay at one brand or through one portal — they are listed separately on this page with where each one pays.
Which card should this spending actually be on? The demo re-scores a year of realistic spending against every card in a wallet — free, no signup. See it on sample data →
More guides
Every guide on this site is built by the same code from the same card database, so the numbers on one page mean exactly what they mean on another. Jump sideways:
All 70 best-card guides → · Best card for a specific store or bill →
What IHG points are worth · All best-card guides · Full card database