Update 1/27/22: Available again
The Offer
- FNBO Best Western Rewards Premium MasterCard is offering a bonus of 80,000 points after $3,000 in spending bonuses.
The Fine Print
- $89 annual fee, not waived first year
- 40,000 points when you spend $5,000 every 12 billing cycles
- Card earns 20 points per $1 spent at Best Western for a limited time (4/30/2021 then 10 points), 2 points on all other purchases
- Automatic Platinum Elite Status
- Early Check-In
- Late Check-Out
- No Foreign Transaction Fee
Our Verdict
Standard bonus on this card is 50,000 points, so this is an additional 30,000 points. Rewards nights cost 5,000 – 70,000 points. I’d probably have some idea of what I would want to use the points on before signing up for this offer. It’s also issued by FNBO, for more information on their cards read this linked post.
Does anyone know if Best Western reward points are lost if the card is cancelled? I’ve found most programs separate the rewards from the credit card, like most of the airlines, but again, this program makes it sound like you will lose current points you have already earned in the rewards program.
I would just open up the no AF just in case but I read where this guy did his spend for the anniversary and cancelled it before it gave it to him, in the end he got his 50k points or whatever in his account. But I think that you lose the points if you have not already transferred it over if that makes sense. Why do you want to cancel for anyway?
Info about my experience (I was auto-approved; first card with FNBO that I recall and am lol/24):
– Points post after statement and I have had no problems in that department. 80k bonus points posted in the next statement after hitting spend.
– Some other travel seems to count as ‘Best Western’ spend, which is a boon (10x)! Presumably an error, so we’ll see if that lasts.
– The one hiccup that I wasn’t aware of is that the 40k yearly points don’t post until your year is up. I spent 5k and was hoping for the 40k to post along with the other bonus points. Here’s hoping (a) that it’s true that 5k *total* gets one 80k + 40k (that seems to be the wording and what we believe, but I was hoping to get that verified) and (b) they post with enough time to cancel the card in Aug 2023.
Good news follow-up: the 40k points posted in Aug 2023 – and before the annual fee. That means 5k spending total (including the original spend requirement) results in the bonus posting. So, 120k points total bonus for $5k total spend.
Your application has been submitted. You should receive written status of your application in 2-4 weeks.
Had to mail my SSN card and DL. Received a call a week later, approved the next day.
Approved.
FICO 750
7/12 inquiries
Same offer almost since mid pandemic
Approved instantly, to my surprise. Well over 5/24 (can’t remember exactly, but I know I’m at 6/12), resident of MA, never banked with FNBO before. 7k limit. Bizarre.
Some good locations by national parks, I’ll actually take a look at this one. FNBO is one of the card issuers I can use for tradeline sales and getting 40k points a year annually for $5k spend and no extra HP if I’m interpreting that correctly seems like a potentially good deal. Grab it once and season for tradeline sales.
I got that FNBO cashback biz card last November with a VERY generous limit- anyone know if they divvy up credit limits? They gave me about 25% of my income on that as CL.
Any idea of how long this offer is good for? I’d like to get that IHG biz card first if possible
You are correct on 40K for $5K in any given year (12 monthly cycles).. but besides year 1 when you get extra 40K for extra $2K spend beyond your MSR for the main bonus… in the following years you would be paying extra annual fee of $89 and spending $5K for 40K points.. No HP, but 40K points would probably value roughly at $200. Minus AF, you are netting $120 (if you add points from spend) worth of points for $5K spend… Does not make sense. You can get a full new bonus somewhere else for that spend (extra HP), or just $100 actual cash on any 2% card.
Tradeline sales aside not worth the spend beyond year 1. Not to mention it is a personal card.
Would they bring back BW Biz card, I would have applied for Year 1.
Good luck.
My cell phone number isn’t in my name so they said I can’t prove my identity. LOL
Applied for P2 with a specific redemption in mind for this summer. Online status says pending for days and then received snail mail request for DL/SS card/2yrs W2s and a warning that the application will be closed after 20 days (from app or letter?) without requested docs. This isn’t a mortgage application, FNBO, so piss off.