Best Western Rewards Card: Status and Perks for No Annual Fee
The Bottom Line
3.4
The card's lack of an annual fee and the status it grants you are nice features. But for luxury perks or greater value on rewards, look elsewhere.
Rates, fees and offers
Rates, fees and offers
Annual fee
$0
Rewards rate
2x-4x
Bonus offer
Bonus points offer of 10,000 to 40,000 points with qualifying spend. You’ll see your bonus points offer before you apply.
Intro APR
N/A
Ongoing APR
APR: 25.99%-29.99% Variable APR
Cash Advance APR: 25.99-29.99%, Variable
Balance transfer fee
Either 4% or $5, whichever is greater.
Foreign transaction fee
None
More details from First Bank & Trust
More details from First Bank & Trust
- Earn up to 40,000 bonus points with qualifying spend.
- No Annual Fee.
- Earn 4 points per $1 on Best Western stays and purchases.
- Earn 2 points per $1 on all other purchases.
- Automatic Gold Elite Status.
- Earn 10,000 bonus points by spending $5,000 during each cardmember year.
- When you pay your monthly wireless bill with your card, your cell phone will be protected for the next calendar month.
- When you book travel with your card, you'll receive up to $300 when you're stuck for more than twelve hours.
- When you purchase travel with your card, you'll be covered for your non-refundable fare up to $2,000 if your trip is interrupted or cancelled.
Pros and Cons
Pros
No annual fee
New cardholder bonus offer
Luxury perks
Cons
No 0% intro APR
Detailed Review
The Best Western Rewards® Visa Signature® Card — issued by First Bank & Trust — is a frugal choice that offers rewards and perks for Best Western loyalists. But the value of those rewards falls short in comparison to the offerings of some other no-annual-fee hotel credit cards and general travel credit cards.
This card does come with a sign-up bonus, and you'll also get automatic Gold elite status, which means additional incentives like 10% bonus points per stay and room upgrades (when available). And with 4,300 Best Western properties in over 100 countries worldwide, you won't have much trouble finding places to use those perks.
But if Best Western isn't always your first choice for travel, plenty of other cards can offer more value and flexibility.
If you are a Best Western devotee, you might do better with this card's more expensive sibling, the Best Western Rewards® Premium Visa Signature® Card. It has an annual fee of $89, but it offers more robust rewards and perks, as well as a free anniversary night award and a chance to earn another, if you spend enough.
Best Western Rewards® Visa Signature® Card: Basics
Card type: Hotel.
Annual fee: $0.
Sign-up bonus: Bonus points offer of 10,000 to 40,000 points with qualifying spend. You’ll see your bonus points offer before you apply.
APR: The ongoing APR is 25.99%-29.99% Variable APR.
Ongoing rewards:
Earn 14 points per $1 spent on Best Western stays: 10 points as a Best Western Rewards member, 4 points with the card. (The Best Western Rewards program is free to join, and cardholders are automatically enrolled.)
Earn 2 points per $1 spent everywhere else.
Redemption options include nights with Best Western, airline miles, gift cards, merchandise and charitable donations. The value of points varies depending on which option you choose.
NerdWallet values Best Western points at 0.6 cent each. In other words, you should aim for award redemptions that offer 0.6 cent or more in value from your Best Western points.
Foreign transaction fee: None.
Other benefits:
Automatic Gold status. This gives 10% bonus points per stay and other perks.
A path to anniversary bonus points. You can earn 10,000 anniversary bonus points when you spend $5,000 in a year.
Compare to Other Cards
Benefits and Perks
$0 annual fee
The Best Western Rewards® Visa Signature® Card packs reasonable value for a $0-annual-fee credit card. Its relative, the Best Western Rewards® Premium Visa Signature® Card, offers better benefits and perks, but it has a $89 annual fee.
Here's how the two cards stack up:
Best Western Rewards® Visa Signature® Card | Best Western Rewards® Premium Visa Signature® Card | |
|---|---|---|
Annual fee | $0. | $89. |
Bonus offers | Bonus points offer of 10,000 to 40,000 points with qualifying spend. You’ll see your bonus points offer before you apply. | Bonus points offer of 20,000 to 80,000 points with qualifying spend. You’ll see your bonus points offer before you apply. |
Rewards |
|
|
Elite status | Automatic Gold status, which includes:
| Automatic Platinum status, which includes:
|
Other benefits |
|
|
Solid sign-up bonus
The card’s sign-up bonus can be enough to jump-start your travel goals: Bonus points offer of 10,000 to 40,000 points with qualifying spend. You’ll see your bonus points offer before you apply.
If you’re preapproved for the card, you’ll see what your introductory bonus points offer is. You can check whether you’re preapproved for the card without negatively affecting your credit.
According to Best Western's website, you can get a free night starting at 5,000 points, so this bonus alone could snag you a multiple-night stay, depending on which offer you qualify for. However, the company also notes that the range is from 5,000 to 70,000 points per night, so it will vary based on which Best Western property or location you choose for redemption.
Automatic Gold status
By becoming a cardholder, you automatically get bumped up to Gold elite status. Members at this level receive a 10% points bonus, no blackout dates and other perks. To reach this tier without the card, you would have to accumulate eligible stays or nights, or earn 5,000 points from eligible stays only. With the Best Western Rewards® Visa Signature® Card, you don’t have to put in that work to reap the status benefits.
Anniversary bonus points
Cardholders can earn 10,000 bonus points every year they have the card, if they spend at least $5,000 each of those years. This can potentially get you two free 5,000-point nights, depending on which Best Western property or location you choose for redemption.
Drawbacks and Considerations
Other cards offer greater rewards value
True, the Best Western Rewards® Visa Signature® Card offers a hefty number of points for spending with the hotel chain: 4 points per $1 spent on Best Western stays, on top of the 10 base points you already earn as a Best Western Rewards program member, on top of the 10% points bonus at the Gold status level. But general travel credit cards will earn you points that are both more valuable (worth at least a penny apiece) and more flexible, meaning they can be used on things other than stays with a single hotel brand.
A good example is the $0-annual-fee Wells Fargo Autograph® Card. It earns an unlimited 3 points per dollar spent on:
Restaurants.
Travel and transit.
Gas stations and EV charging stations.
Popular streaming services.
Select phone plans.
The card earns 1 point per dollar on all other purchases, and it comes with a solid sign-up bonus: Earn 20,000 bonus points when you spend $1,000 in purchases in the first 3 months - that's a $200 cash redemption value.
You’re not loyal to Best Western
Earning rewards will be a slow process if you don’t frequently stay at Best Western properties, and redemption values are a mixed bag, depending on what you choose. If you prefer a card with more flexibility, consider the Discover it® Miles credit card. It has a $0 annual fee and earns 1.5 miles per $1 spent. You can redeem miles for cash back or as credit toward travel purchases made with your card. No matter how you redeem, 1 mile equals 1 cent.
You want some interest-free breathing room
Like many hotel cards, the Best Western Rewards® Visa Signature® Card does not offer an interest-free promotional period. If you’re looking to finance a vacation or your purchases, the aforementioned Discover it® Miles would again be a good pick.
How To Decide If It's Right For You
The Best Western Rewards® Visa Signature® Card is right for you if you want automatic Gold elite status and an opportunity to earn anniversary bonus points for a $0 annual fee. If you aren't loyal to a particular hotel chain, however, and you want flexibility in how you redeem your rewards, another travel credit card can offer more value.
To see how your options stack up, visit NerdWallet's roundup of the best credit card offers.
Get 1.5 miles per dollar on all purchases. Miles can be redeemed for credit on your statement against a wide variety of travel expenses. There's a $0 annual fee, plus a bonus offer for new cardholders: UNLIMITED BONUS: Unlimited Mile-for-Mile match for all new cardmembers—only from Discover. Discover gives you an unlimited match of all the Miles you’ve earned at the end of your first year. There’s no signing up, no minimum spending or maximum rewards. Just a Miles-for-Miles match. You could turn 35,000 Miles to 70,000 Miles.
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Methodology
NerdWallet reviews credit cards with an eye toward both the quantitative and qualitative features of a card. Quantitative features are those that boil down to dollars and cents, such as fees, interest rates, rewards (including earning rates and redemption values) and the cash value of benefits and perks. Qualitative factors are those that affect how easy or difficult it is for a typical cardholder to get good value from the card. They include such things as the ease of application, simplicity of the rewards structure, the likelihood of using certain features, and whether a card is well-suited to everyday use or is best reserved for specific purchases. Our star ratings serve as a general gauge of how each card compares with others in its class, but star ratings are intended to be just one consideration when a consumer is choosing a credit card. Learn how NerdWallet rates credit cards.
About the author
Melissa Lambarena
Senior Writer & Content Strategist
