The Priceline Rewards Visa Card will be offering a special promotional sign-up bonus of 10,000 points beginning on January 15, 2018. Priceline is one of many OTAs that you can book travel though and they have a co-branded credit card that is issued by Barclaycard. Here’s a look at whether or not it’s worth it to apply for the Priceline credit card with its special limited time offer.
The Priceline Rewards Visa Card Art bonus offer
- 10,000 bonus points after your first purchase made within 30 days
- 5X on on eligible priceline.com purchases
- 1X on all other purchases
- Get 10% points back every time you redeem for statement credits toward eligible priceline.com or travel purchases of $25 or more made in the last 120 day
- No annual fee
Priceline credit card sign-up bonus
- 10,000 bonus points after your first purchase made within 30 days
The standard sign-up bonus for the Priceline credit card is 5,000 points so this is double the normal public offer. These points can be redeemed at a rate of one cent per point on any purchases of $25 or more made within the last 120 days. This means that you’re getting $100 cash back and don’t have to use those points at Priceline.
What’s more, if you use your points at Priceline.com, you’ll get 1.5 cents per point of value from these points for a total of $150 cash back.
Getting $100 back for a single purchase isn’t too shabby but note that unlike most minimum spend requirements, this offer only give you 30 days to make the offer (not that it should be that difficult).
Bonus category earning
- 5X on on eligible priceline.com purchases
- 1X on all other purchases
This card is made for Priceline customers. If you never think you’ll be booking travel through Priceline then these bonus categories won’t appeal much to you. However, if you regularly shop there then earning 5X will be a solid return rate.
This is especially true if you plan on using your points on priceline.com because then they can be redeemed at 1.5 cent per point. That amounts to a 7.5% return which is better than you would earn even if you used a card like the Chase Sapphire Reserve which earns 3X on travel purchases. (It’s worth noting that it’s possible to get decent return from shopping portals near this range.)
10% rebate
When you redeem your points at priceline.com or when you redeem your points for travel purchases you’ll get a 10% rebate in points. So for example if you spend $100 at priceline.com, you’d earn 5X the points but when you factor in the points rebate it comes out to an effective 5.5 points per dollar spent.
If you go back to the 1.5 cents per point redemption rate for priceline.com purchases then your return on Priceline.com purchases would be 8.25% which is extremely compelling for Priceline customers.
Additional benefits
- Free FICO score
- No foreign transaction fees
- Chip and pin technology
You don’t see a lot of cards that offer these features along with no annual fee. Having chip and pin access can be a major plus when traveling abroad and it’s always nice to have both a MasterCard and a Visa with no foreign transaction fees so you can use them virtually anywhere. Since the Priceline credit card has no annual fee it could be worth holding on to just for these benefits alone.
Final word
For those who never intend to shop with Priceline this credit card is not going to bring about a lot of excitement. However, if you like booking travel through Priceline then this card could offer you a sign-up bonus worth as much as $150 and constant year-round returns of over 8% which is pretty hard to compete with for a no annual fee card.Considering how easy it is to snag the sign-up bonus worth $100 and all of the additional benefits, I think this card could be a solid choice for the right niche of travelers.
Daniel Gillaspia is the Founder of UponArriving.com and the credit card app, WalletFlo. He is a former attorney turned travel expert covering destinations along with TSA, airline, and hotel policies. Since 2014, his content has been featured in publications such as National Geographic, Smithsonian Magazine, and CNBC. Read my bio.
