The IHG Rewards Club Premier card from Chase will be getting one new benefit and losing a couple of old ones, as of Nov 17th 2019. First we will talk about the good news…
The IHG credit card is set to gain Cellphone protection, as long as you pay your bill with the card. The insurance will cover you up to $800 per claim ($600 on the IHG select card), with a $50 deductible and be limited to 2 claims in a 12 month period and $1000 total coverage per year.
This is a great move for the IHG card and the protection goes a little further than other similar cards in the range, most of which limit coverage to $600 per claim. Thus the IHG card’s $800 limit will almost cover some of the newer iPhones that are approximately $1000 in price, almost.
Now let’s look at the bad news…
Price protection will no longer be available on the card, as of Nov 17th. Price protection is a benefit whereby cardholders can get a partial refund for a product they have bought, if they see it advertised for a lower price within a period of time after their purchase, in the case of the IHG card and other cards, 90 days. The IHG card offered price protection for uptp $500 per claim and up to $2500 per year. Losing the benefit follows a trend on Chase cards and in the credit card industry in general.
Another benefit that the IHG card will be losing is Mastercard concierge, which will probably not really be noticed by many people.
My take
I would say it is great that Chase is adding cellphone protection, which is certainly a very practical benefit. However, just remember that you will earn only 1 IHG point per dollar on your cellphone spending, so if your monthly bill is low, you will be getting a good deal. But if you spend a lot on your cellphone bill, then there will be an opportunity cost in the form of points you are missing out on. A card like the Chase Ink Business Preferred earns 3x back on cellphone spending, for example.
As for the two other benefits, price protection will be missed, but probably not by that many people. It takes really keeping an eye on the prices of products you buy to actually utilize the benefit, and most people probably find it too much hassle. But the ones who do manage to utilize the benefit definitely save a lot of money.
In total I don’t think these changes are too bad, I would say it is pretty neutral, and more of a re-shuffling rather than a gain or cut.
