Barclay Choice Privileges Card Has an Increased 50K Points Bonus
The Barclay Choice Privileges Visa Signature Card has an increased welcome bonus that can earn you 50,000 points. This is not one of the most valuable points currency out there, but the spending requirement is low and these points can come in handy when you just need a cheap stay. The best redemptions are for stay overseas.
Offer
- Receive a one-time 50,000 bonus points after you spend $1,000 in Net Purchases within the first 90 days of Card Account open date.
The bonus will be reflected on the billing statement in which you have qualified to earn the bonus. Please allow 4-6 weeks for bonus points to be deposited into your Membership account after the qualifying purchase(s) have posted to your Card Account. This offer may be canceled at any time without notice.
You also earn 8,000 anniversary bonus points every year you spend $10,000 or more on purchases with your card by your account anniversary date—enough points for up to 1 free night!
Card Benefits
- Earn 8,000 anniversary bonus points every year you spend $10,000 or more
- Earn 15 points per $1 spent at eligible Choice Privileges locations
- 10% point bonus every time you purchase a stay with Choice Hotels
- Earn 5 points per eligible $1 spent on the purchase of Choice Privileges points or Choice Hotels gift card purchases
- Earn 2 points per $1 spent anywhere else
- Elite Gold Status
- No Annual Fee
Applying for The Card
Direct link to Application Page
Barclay will usually only approve you for a card every 6 months. If you have a Barclay card, is bet to put some spend on it before applying for another card. They don’t like dormant cardholders. There’s no real limit on the number of cards you can have with Barclay.
They also have a 6/24 rule. That means that they might not approve you if you’ve had more than 6 new cards in the last 24 months. I say might, because we’re not sure if it still applies, and even before it was never really a hard rule.
Now they also added the following language:
In addition, you may not be eligible for this offer if, at any time during our relationship with you, we have cause, as determined by us in our sole discretion, to suspect that the account is being obtained or will be used for abusive or gaming activity (such as, but not limited to, obtaining or using the account to maximize rewards earned in a manner that is not consistent with typical consumer activity and/or multiple credit card account applications/openings).
Choice Privileges Loyalty Program
Choice Privileges loyalty program is a bit different from other programs and a bit confusing. There’s no rewards chart as far as I know but you can still check the rate for any hotel at their website. Just select your destination and preferred dates and select “Choice Privileges Reward Night” in the drop down menu.
You might not find anything decent at that rate stateside, but there’s some great properties overseas that surely are worth it. There’s actually some properties that can be booked at 6,000 a night. Now you can also use Points Plus Cash for reward nights starting at just 6,000 points plus cash.
The worst part is availability. Mainly because you can’t book more than 30 days prior to planned arrival. With this card you have Elite Gold Status, so that gives you 50 days, but it’s still not a lot of time when you’re planning a vacation, especially now.
In the US there’s not many opportunities that would be considered great redemtpion options. But you can find good properties for 8,000 points in Paris, Rome, Stockholm, Prague, Japan etc. Also check their points forfeiture policy here.
Guru’s Wrap-Up
We have seen a welcome bonus as high as 64,000 points for this card, but it required $3,000 spending. With this offer you get 50,000 points, but you only need to spend $1,000. This is a decent bonus for a no fee card and the spending requirement is easy. Just make sure you check your booking options before applying and see if it is a good value for you.
