davistev

Is this the highest Annual Percentage Rate (APR) ever for a credit card? See IHG Rewards Club Mastercard


https://credit-card.creation.co.uk/m...ampaign=IHG53O

dw

BarneyMcGrew

The annual card fee of £99 is included in the 'headline' APR. As dw says above, the actual interest rate is 19.9%. The offered APR is variable though, depending on one’s 'credit worthiness'.

As an example, I got the card at 19.9%, whilst my brother-in-law (who has an identical credit rating) got his at 24.5%. It is rather irrelevant though as we both clear the cards every month, so neither of us pays any interest.

It is really only worth paying for this card if you stay at ihg hotels frequently in order to recover the annual £99 fee in earned points and/or make use of the 'Platinum Elite' status the card gives.

If you are an infrequent ihg visitor there is a no fee card available which gives complimentary ‘Gold Elite’ status, but earns fewer points. It also has a slightly lower (but variable) APR:

https://www.creation.co.uk/credit-ca...ds-credit-card

chrism20

Raffles

This is how the advertising rules go for UK credit cards:

They assume you spend £1200 and don't pay it back.

They add the £99 fee to the modest bit of interest you pay, and the advertised APR is that number.

Hence 40%+

darthbimmer

Here I was hoping that someone actually does get charged 41.5%. Someone has to pay for all the bonus points we're getting!

BarneyMcGrew

I was thinking of closing down my account on this card just before its renewal anniversary a few months ago and moving over to the Hilton branded card from Barclays.

However the Barclays Hilton branded card is no longer available in the UK for new applications.

It didn't stop me ringing Creation (who run the UK ihg card) and saying that I wanted to close my account. They obviously are trying to keep their customers as they offered me 20,000 ihg points, then 40,000 ihg points and finally 60,000 ihg points to keep my account open, which I 'reluctantly' accepted. The points dropped into my ihg hotels account at the end of that month.

So, it is worthwhile to try ringing Creation just before your renewal is due and enquring about cancelling the card (even if you aren't going to in reality!).

BM

Raffles

BarneyMcGrew

Yes, that is what I thought.

However, when I rang Creation the chap I spoke was very proactive in trying to retain me (even though I have never paid a penny in interest on the account but earned a huge amount of ihg points and generally get the free night certificate for spending over £10k annually). I declined his offers of the 20,000 and 40,000 points to keep the account open. He then he spoke with 'his manager' (probably the tea lady in reality) and came back with 'a final' 60,000 points offer which I accepted. Thinking about it, the staff probably have some sort of retention targets maybe?

I really cannot see how they make any money on this card, unless a lot of people run a balance every month, but there are much cheaper cards available to do that with, judging by the number of zero percent balance transfer offers I receive. Or they pay the £99 fee and never use the card, but then what is the point of doing so?

Whatever, I have just booked two nights at the CP Manchester Airport courtesy of Creation and still have 10,000 points from this offer to put to good use.

BM

:D!

The BAPP's representative APR is 76.0% but I doubt anybody actually has a credit limit as low as £1200

AndrewAndDebbie

Super Mario

We often think that people on Flyertalk are like everyone else. There are tons of people out there who will never use the free night, run up huge balances, pay interest, put everyday spend on there, etc. There's a reason why there are so many credit cards out there. It is a lucrative business.

tangey

Tried similarly and the CSR could only offer creation's usual bad BT offer. When pressed about offering IHG points, he said they had no provision to do so.

Mike0304