Chase IHG One Rewards Credit Card Eligibility Rules Explained

Chase and IHG have four co-branded credit cards currently open to new applicants — this includes The Brand New IHG One Rewards Premier Select Credit Card (learn more), The New IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card (learn more), The New IHG One Rewards Credit Card (learn more), and The New IHG One Rewards Business Credit Card (learn more).

There’s often confusion about who is eligible for these cards (based on which cards you currently have), so in this post, I’d like to cover the basics of what you need to know to get approved for these cards.

Chase IHG One Rewards credit card basics

To start, let’s cover the annual fees and welcome bonuses available on the four IHG credit cards issued by Chase that are currently open to new applicants. The following limited time welcome offers are currently available for applications through November 18, 2026:

• The no annual fee IHG One Rewards Credit Card has a welcome bonus of 125,000 IHG bonus points after spending $2,000 within the first three months
• The $150 annual fee IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card has a welcome bonus of 180,000 IHG bonus points after spending $3,000 within the first three months
• The $350 annual fee IHG One Rewards Premier Select Card has a welcome bonus of 200,000 IHG bonus points after spending $5,000 within the first three months
• The $200 annual fee IHG One Rewards Business Card has a welcome bonus of 190,000 IHG bonus points after spending $5,000 within the first three months

Eligibility for welcome bonuses differs between each of these cards, so let’s try to make sense of those details.

IHG One Rewards personal credit card eligibility

IHG One Rewards’ personal credit cards have somewhat strict eligibility requirements, though there is some important nuance to it.

In the case of the no annual fee IHG One Rewards Credit Card and the $150 annual fee IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card, you’re not eligible for the welcome bonus on either card if:

• You currently have any IHG One Rewards personal credit card
• You’ve received a new cardmember bonus on any IHG One Rewards personal credit card in the past 24 months

Just to explicitly copy and paste those terms from the application:

This credit card is not available to either (i) current cardmembers of any personal IHG One Rewards Credit Card, or (ii) previous cardmembers of any personal IHG One Rewards Credit Card who received a new cardmember bonus for any personal IHG One Rewards Credit Card within the last 24 months.

The good news is that the $350 annual fee IHG One Rewards Premier Select Card has less strict terms. You’re not eligible for the welcome bonus on this card if:

• You currently have this exact card
• You’ve received a new cardmember bonus on this exact card in the past 24 months

Just to explicitly copy and paste those terms from the application:

This product is available to you if you do not have this card and have not received a new Cardmember bonus for this card in the past 24 months.

In other words, if you want to pick up more than one personal IHG card, the best play is to get the IHG One Rewards Credit Card or IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card, and to then later apply for the IHG One Rewards Premier Select Card.

That’s because applying for the no annual fee or $150 annual fee doesn’t preclude you from getting the $350 annual fee card, while getting the $350 annual fee card first does preclude you from getting the no annual fee or $150 annual fee card.

IHG One Rewards business credit card eligibility

Eligibility for the IHG One Rewards Business Card is independent of eligibility for any of the personal IHG cards. You’re not eligible for the welcome bonus on this card if:

• You currently have this exact card
• You’ve received a new cardmember bonus on this exact card in the past 24 months

This means that it’s possible to earn the welcome bonus on this card regardless of which personal IHG card you have, as long as you’re otherwise eligible for Chase cards.

General Chase credit card application restrictions

In addition to the IHG One Rewards specific restrictions, be aware of Chase’s general application restrictions:

• Chase has the 5/24 rule, whereby you typically won’t be approved for a card if you’ve opened five or more new card accounts in the past 24 months; however, there are increasingly data points that this is no longer being consistently enforced
• Chase doesn’t generally have a strict limit on how many total cards you can have at any given point, but rather the limiting factor is regarding the overall credit you’ll be issued
• You can typically be approved for at most two Chase credit cards every 30 days, and I generally wouldn’t recommend applying for more than one Chase business credit card every 30 days

These are just general guidelines, though do note that there’s always some inconsistency based on what other cards you’ve applied for, your overall relationship with Chase, etc.

What credit score do you need for an IHG One Rewards credit card?

There’s not a consistent rule as to what credit score you need to be approved for a Chase IHG One Rewards credit card. Broadly speaking, I’d recommend having a credit score in the “good” to “excellent” category if you’re going to apply for any of these cards.

Personally, I probably wouldn’t apply if my credit score were under 700, and ideally, I’d hope to have a credit score of 740 or higher. That being said, people with scores lower than that have been approved for these cards, and conversely, people with scores higher than that have been rejected. There are lots of factors that go into approval — your income, your credit history, how much credit Chase has already extended you, etc.

Lastly, anecdotally I’ve found that IHG cards are among the easiest co-branded Chase cards to be approved for, so that’s at least good news.

Best IHG One Rewards credit card application strategy

If you do intend to apply for more than one IHG One Rewards credit card, what’s the best strategy? As I see it, there are just two general guidelines I’d follow:

• If you plan to apply for both a personal and business IHG card, get the IHG One Rewards Business Card first; that’s because applying for a business card won’t count as a further card toward the Chase 5/24 limit
• If you plan to apply for two personal IHG cards, you’ll want to apply for the IHG One Rewards Credit Card or IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card before you apply for the IHG One Rewards Premier Select Card; that’s because eligibility for that last card is unrelated to whether you have either of the first two cards, but the inverse isn’t true

Bottom line

Chase and IHG One Rewards have a portfolio of four credit cards, including three personal cards and one business card.

On the business card front, the most important thing to understand is that eligibility for the IHG One Rewards Business Card is considered completely independently from eligibility for the personal IHG cards, which is great news.

Then among the personal cards, you’re not eligible for the welcome offer on the IHG One Rewards Credit Card or IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card if you have either card, or if you’ve earned a new cardmember bonus on either card in the past 24 months. Meanwhile eligibility for the IHG One Rewards Premier Select Card is considered independently, so you could pick up that card even if you’ve had either of those two cards.

If you’ve applied for an IHG One Rewards credit card, what was your experience with getting approved?