IHG has launched two new points earning debit cards with Revolut, here's the simple round-up

IHG and Revolut have teamed up to release two new debit cards in the UK. Both earn IHG One Rewards points and hand you IHG status. One is free, and the other costs £18 a month. But the intended customer for these cards is not your average joe.

Quick bit of background, IHG One Rewards is the loyalty scheme behind Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza, InterContinental, Kimpton, Six Senses, etc.

These are debit cards, not credit cards. That means no credit check to worry about and no APR to read, and that's also one of the reasons cards like this keep turning up. We've explained before why major brands keep choosing debit over credit in the UK, but the short version is that credit cards are a regulatory headache to sell in the UK, so a hotel group can more easily sell it's debit card through its own app, emails and front desk.

As it's a debit card, the money comes straight out of your account when you spend. Which brings us to the major catch...

The catch

You need a Revolut account. If you don't have one, Revolut opens one for you as part of applying. Every payment you make on the card comes out of that Revolut account, so unless you already bank with Revolut, you'll be topping it up from your normal bank account before you can spend a penny.

This is a different process compared to the much simpler Marriott and Hilton debit cards run by Currensea, as these connect and take money directly from your normal bank account.

For a lot of people it'll be the dealbreaker before they get anywhere near the points because that's just too much hassle, so I'm telling you now before you think I've baited you in too deep.

The two IHG cards at a glance

	Essential	Elite
Monthly fee	Free	£18
The card itself	Virtual, on your phone, by default. Physical card (optional) – £10 one-off charge + delivery fee.	Metal, and free of charge.
IHG status, kept as long as you hold the card	Silver Elite	Platinum Elite
Free status nights ("Elite Night Credits") each year	5	15
Extra status nights	1 for every £4,000 spent, no limit	1 for every £4,000 spent, no limit
Sign-up bonus (apply by 25 August)	10,000 points, spend £1,000 in 3 months	30,000 points, spend £3,000 in 3 months
Spend-based extras	None	Yes, see below

A couple of notes:

• "Elite Night Credits" are how you climb IHG's status ladder. Normally you earn them by actually staying in hotels. These cards give you some for free, plus more as you spend, and they count towards reaching higher tiers.

• There's a bigger sign-up bonus if you held the old IHG credit cards which were discontinued in 2023.

What you earn per £1 spent

Where you spend	Essential	Elite
UK and Europe	0.5 points	1.5 points
Rest of world	0.5 points	3 points

Spending at IHG hotels, where the Elite rates are boosted until 31 October 2026:

At an IHG hotel in…	Essential	Elite, until 31 Oct 2026	Elite, from 1 Nov 2026
UK and Europe	1 point	4 points	3 points
Rest of world	1 point	6 points	4.5 points
Canada, Japan, Singapore, Thailand, UAE, USA	1 point	9 points	6 points

Points land in your IHG account within 14 days.

For spend in foreign currencies, the fees will depend on which Revolut account you hold, with additional fees being levied on weekends for standard and plus accounts (see more here).

With IHG One Rewards points you redeem these against hotel stays. The price in points broadly mimics the price in cash, with one point getting you between 0.5p and 0.3p worth of value.

The Elite card's spend perks

The Elite card unlocks extra rewards as your annual spend climbs. They stack, so you collect each one as you pass it.

Spend in a card year	What you get
£10,000	A choice of one: 5,000 points, two £15 hotel food and drink credits, or a suite upgrade
£15,000	A free reward night, worth up to 40,000 points
£25,000	Another reward with the same choices as the £10,000 one
£35,000	Diamond Elite, IHG's top tier, for the rest of that year and all of the next

The free Essential card has none of these.

This section tells you who the Elite card is built for. This is a card for the IHG loyalist who spends more time on the road than at home.

Verdict

I've tried my best to summarise as best I can these two cards, but truthfully, they're not aimed at the typical Points Well Made reader, and therefore speak a language inaccessible to most.

These are specialist cards, aimed at pleasing the high-spending loyalist, trying to collect as much of their money as possible, and there is nothing wrong with that.

All that being said, if you already have a Revolut account, getting the free essentials card and pocketing the sign-up bonus is probably the smartest move here.

To read more, or apply, click here.

Sam

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