Earlier today we posted about mostly positive changes that were being made to the Wyndham Barclaycard. This information was provided by their media team, usually when we receive this information we get the full landing page with the terms of the offer and changes. In this case we only received information surrounding the positive changes to this card (e.g no foreign transaction fees and elite status). We picked up on the fact that the annual fee was being increased from $69 to $75, but what we missed out on was the fact that the earning rates on this card was also being changed.
Previously both cards earned “2 points per $1 spent on purchases everywhere else”. Now both cards earn “Earn 2 points per $1 spent on eligible gas, utility and grocery store purchases (excluding Target® and Walmart®)”. You can still find the old earning rate on this landing page (and it also offers a larger bonus of 45,000 points instead of only 30,000 points).
At this stage I’m unsure if existing cardholders will be grandfathered into the old earning rate (and annual fee) with the new status benefits or not. To say I’m not happy with Wyndham is an understatement, I’d also like to apologize for missing the change to the earnings structure as well. Thanks to our loyal readers for pointing out this change to me.
The reason that this matters is because all Wyndham properties only cost 15,000 points, previously it was possible to spend $7,500 anywhere and get a free night at any Wyndham property. The annual fee card also came with 6,000 annual anniversary points, so in this case the spend required was reduced to only $4,500.
