Earlier this year Choice Hotels came out with two new credit cards being issued by Wells Fargo. Today, I am going to go over the card I have which is the no annual fee version. I will cover what comes with the card, how I got this card, and who I think this would be a good card for. This is a relative new card that came out on the market. It came out this past April so it might be new to a lot of people. (1) The Points Guy has a chart on what different rewards points worth and is used by many people, including myself, as to that points are worth. As of July 2023, Choice Privileges points are worth 0.6 cents per point. (2) I will be using this evaluation to help evaluate the earnings of this card.
This new Mastercard for Choice Hotels is one of two new credit cards that is now issued by Wells Fargo. The points that are earned are for the Choice Privileges rewards program. This credit card earns 5x or 3% at participating Choice Hotels and when punching Choice Privileges points. You will also earn 3x or 1.8% at gas stations, grocery stores, home improvement stores, and phone plan services and 1x or 0.6% on everything else. You also get 10 Elite Night credits each year to get you Gold level status with the hotel group, no foreign transaction fees, and cell phone protections up to $800. (3) This is not bad for a no annual fee card, but other than what you earn on Choice Hotels and Choice Privileges points, the earnings are not much to get excited for.
With having other travel cards, I have, you might be wondering why I have this card. I originally got this card when it was a card issued by Barclay’s. The card had much higher earning rates for Choice Hotel stays and everyday purchases. Now with the lower earnings, this is one of my gardening cards, or one my cards I use to help with my average age of accounts. I put some spending on it and then pay it off. This way it still reports as an active card on my credit reports and adds to the average age of accounts. It also helps with my utilization ratio since this has decent credit limit on it. I have also been using it for the cell phone protection for a second cell phone that I have since I use this card to pay for that line.
While this is not the ideal card for me, this could be a good card for someone else. I would say that this card would be good for someone who does not want an annual fee card but wants to earn the most Choice Privileges points as they can and then turn their spending into a free night with Choice Hotels. The other multipliers on this card are just not interesting since it is less than 2%. There are other cards that offer cell phone protection that can earning you more for your spending. A good example of this is the Wells Fargo Active Cash card. You can get 2% cash back and similar cell protection. (4) And there are other cards that can earn you 2% back that don’t have the cell phone protection if that is something you do not need.
That is the no annual fee Choice Hotel Mastercard. It is one two credit cards being issued by Wells Fargo for Choice Hotels. While the earnings rates might seem great, they are just mediocre other than for use at a participating Choice Hotels and is just a credit gardening card for me and is my source of cell phone protection for my second phone. This card would be good for someone who wants to earn Choice Privileges points while not paying an annual fee but that is about it. I do think it is worth to see if this card fits a need for you. Below the references, I will post a current link to the Wells Fargo landing page if you are interested in applying for this card. Until next time, see you out there and be safe.
- Genter, Katie. Choice Hotels Mastercards now available – The Points Guy. The Points Guy. 19 Apr. 2023. Web. 12 Jul. 2023.
- Kelly, Brian. What are points and miles worth? TPG’s July 2023 monthly valuations – The Points Guy. 07 Jul. 2023. Web. 12 Jul. 2023.
- Points Earning Mastercard | Wells Fargo Choice Privileges. Wells Fargo. 2023. Web. 12 Jul. 2023.
- Cash Back Credit Card – Active Cash Visa | Wells Fargo. Wells Fargo. 2023. Web. 12 Jul. 2023
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