Looking for a no annual fee travel credit card with a free Hotel night welcome bonus? OK. How about no minimum spend to achieve your bonus? Makes sense. Free room upgrades? You bet. 1.99% balance transfer promo for 10 months? Why not.

The Best Western Rewards MasterCard comes with a strong 20,000 point welcome bonus and no minimum spend requirement. There are no black-out dates and points never expire.  Not only that, when you get the card, you automatically get bumped to Gold Member status. As a Gold member you earn an extra 10% in rewards. But you also get free room upgrades when available!

To top it all off, the Best Western MasterCard also has a super compelling balance transfer offer of 1.99% for 10 months. It’s the only balance transfer card offering a free hotel night welcome bonus!

With no annual fee and a free nights stay welcome bonus, why wouldn’t you get the card? It truly is a free nights stay. All you have to do is activate the card with a purchase and the hotel night is yours.

Best Western Rewards MasterCard Benefits

One Best Western Rewards point equals about .90%, when you redeem for hotel stays. Redeem for cash or other merchandise and the value could be half.

You earn 5 points per dollar spent on Best Western stays, giving you approximately 4.5% per dollar spent on the credit card alone, when redeeming for hotel nights, which is our recommendation to maximize value. For non-Best Western spend you earn 1 point per dollar spent, which comes out to .90% – not exactly great value, but not terrible either.

The real value in the Best Western MasterCard is in the welcome bonus, which gives you 20,000 points.

The 20,000 point welcome bonus is yours just for activating the card with a purchase – it could even be a pack of gum. With no annual fee, that makes the bonus hotel night truly free.

Best Western Hotels are ranked from Tier 1 to Tier 4, with Tier 1 hotels only requiring 8,000 points per night and tier 4 hotels requiring up to 36,000 points. There are plenty of great options available at the 20,000 point range. As an example, we found the Best Western Toronto North York Hotel & Suites available mid-week for 16,000 points.

The Best Western MasterCard also gives you automatic upgrade to Gold status. Gold status will get you an additional 10% in Best Western Rewards when you stay at a Best Western Hotel, and it will get you free room upgrades – which we love. Now not all hotel will have an upgrade available, but it’s free to ask, and if available, why not?

Here’s a summary of the perks that help the Best Western MasterCard stand-out from the pack:

1) Annual Fee: There is no annual fee for this travel card – not ever.
2) 5 points per dollar spent at Best Western Hotels
3) 1 point per dollar spent everywhere else
4) 20,000 bonus points: Get a free night’s stay, just for activating the card!
5) Status upgrade: Get automatically enrolled in Gold status, and you can even get Platinum status if you spend $10,000 on your credit card.
6) Balance Transfer Promotion: Get a balance transfer at 1.99% for 10 months with a 1% transfer fee – one of the top promotions in the country! 

Eligibility

There is no specified minimum income requirement, since the card is not a World Elite MasterCard. That said, we’d recommend you have at least $15,000 in income.

Worth It?

This card offers tremendous value in three respects. First, with no annual fee you get a free nights welcome bonus. Why not get the card for that reason alone? Second, if you ever stay at a Best Western Hotel, you’ll get 5 points per dollar spent, which is a rewards rate of 4.5% – unbeatable. Third, it comes with a great balance transfer promotion of 1.99% for 10 months – one of the most competitive offers in Canada.

You could also think of it as the only no annual fee balance transfer card offering a free hotel night welcome bonus!

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