In case you didn’t already know, Barclaycard is no longer the card issuer for Best Western credit cards. The new card issuer is First National Bank of Omaha (FNBO) and today they’ve released four new Best Western credit cards: rewards, premium, secured and business. Let’s have a look at each of these cards.
Rewards
- No annual fee
- 10,000 points after $1,000 in spend within three billing cycles
- An additional 10,000 points after $3,000 in spend within the first six billing cycles
- Card earns at the following rates:
- 3x points on all Best Western stays
- 1x points on all other purchases
- Automatic gold elite status
- 0% introductory APR for 6 billing cycles on purchases and balance transfers (fee of 3% or $10 whichever is greater – this increases to 5%/$10 after introductory period ends)
- 10% discount on Flexible Rate Stays at bestwestern.com
Premium
- Annual fee of $59 is waived the first year
- 25,000 points after $2,500 in spend within the first three billing cycles
- An additional 25,000 points after a total of $5,000 in spend within first six billing cycles
- 20,000 points after $10,000 in spend during each 12 billing cycles (this is an annual bonus). This is paid out 4-8 weeks after the end of the twelve billing cycles, meaning you’d need to need to pay the annual fee to get it.
- Card earns at the following rates:
- 10x points on all Best Western purchases
- 1x points on all other purchases
- Automatic Platinum Elite Status
- 0% introductory APR for 6 billing cycles on purchases and balance transfers (fee of 3% or $10 whichever is greater – this increases to 5%/$10 after introductory period ends)
- 10% discount on Flexible Rate Stays at bestwestern.com
Secured
- $40 annual fee
- 5,000 bonus points after your first purchase
- Card earns at the following rates:
- 3x points on all Best Western purchases
- 1x points on all other purchases
- Basic Best Westen Rewards status (e.g none)
- 10% discount on Flexible Rate Stays at bestwestern.com
Business
- No annual fee
- 10,000 points after $1,000 in purchases within first three billing cycles
- An additional 10,000 points after a total of $3,000 in spending within first six billing cycles
- Card earns at the following rates:
- 3x points on all Best Western purchases
- 1x points on all other purchases
- Automatic platinum elite status and gold elite status for employees
- 0% introductory APR for 6 billing cycles on purchases and balance transfers (fee of 3% or $10 whichever is greater – this increases to 5%/$10 after introductory period ends)
- 10% discount on Flexible Rate Stays at bestwestern.com
My Thoughts
These cards are much more appealing than the offers that Barclaycard had, in particular the Premium card looks great value. If you put $10,000 in spend on that card you’d end up with a total of 80,000 points (although you’d need to pay the annual fee of $59 the following year), which would be enough for $300 in gift cards, you can also redeem points for airline miles (although the rates of 5:1 are not very attractive as you’d only earn up with 16,000 airline miles). Obviously you can also redeem your points for free nights at the following rates:
- Category one: 8,000 points
- Category two: 12,000 points
- Category three: 16,000 points
- Category four: 20,000 points
- Category five: 24,000 points
- Category six: 28,000 points
- Category seven: 32,000 points
- Category eight: 36,000 points
I’m going to do some more research on Best Western to find out if there are any good value hotels to be found. What are your thoughts on the new cards issued by FNBO? Let me know in the comments below.
Update: the more I think about it, the more this deal sucks. If you put $10,000 spend on a 2% card you’d earn $200 cash back, by the time you pay the annual fee you’d be left with $241 in gift cards. A sign up bonus of $41 is hardly exciting.
Pass for me, unless I can find some Best Western properties that make sense.
P.S FNBO is known to be inquiry sensitive, so watch out for that. I’ll have more information once I’ve completed my more in depth reviews.
P.P.SÂ Because these cards are issued by FNBO, they also come with a free FICO score.
