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Wyndham Rewards Visa Review

Verified by Matthew M Klammer
Updated December 08, 2021

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This card is no longer open to new applicants. It has been replaced with the Wyndham Rewards Earner and Wyndham Rewards Earner Plus cards.

The Wyndham Rewards Visa card, which has no annual fee, allows you to earn points from staying at one of the chain's 7,000 properties in 14 brands. Those rewards can be used toward further stays, transferred to other loyalty programs, or redeemed for gift cards. There's a one-time offer large enough to redeem for up to two free nights as well as a 0% APR introductory offer for Wyndham Timeshare purchases and balance transfers.

Full Review of Wyndham Rewards Visa

table of contents
Pros

  • 0% APR on balance transfers for 15 months

  • One-time offer worth up to two free nights after first purchase

  • Automatic Gold status in Wyndham Rewards

Cons

  • Rewards value is only middling

  • 0% APR offer has some weak points

Pros Explained

  • 0% APR on Balance Transfers for 15 Months: The Wyndham Rewards Visa comes with a one-time offer of 0% APR on balance transfers for 15 billing cycles, a relatively unusual perk in a hotel card. For consumers looking to transfer higher-rate debt and pay it down faster, this could potentially be a useful feature, although there is a fee for balance transfers, as we detail below.
  • One-Time Offer Worth Up to Two Free Nights: Cardmembers receive the bonus after spending their first $1,000, amounting to 15,000 bonus points. Since the cost of redemptions for a free night at a Wyndham property starts at 7,500 points, it's possible to redeem the one-time offer for up to two free nights of lodging—although a single night or less is more likely for most properties.
  • Automatic Gold Status in Wyndham Rewards: With this credit card, members receive automatic Wyndham Rewards Gold Membership status, a level usually achieved through five nights of stays. The main benefit with this status is a 10% bonus on points earned. Other perks are preferred room selection and late checkout.

Cons Explained

  • Rewards Value Is Only Middling: With two or three points earned per dollar spent, rewards with this card sound relatively impressive. But Wyndham points are less valuable than those of many other rewards programs, whose points are worth a cent or more apiece through most methods of redemption. Because of that modest value, other cards may provide richer rewards. That's especially true when it comes to the 2 points per dollar earnings on gas and groceries, which you could beat with some other cash-back cards with no annual fee, like the American Express Blue Cash Everyday. However, one bright spot for the Wyndham Rewards Visa is that you earn 2 points per dollar spent on your utility bills, a better rate for that category than many other cards, including the Amex Blue Cash Everyday, provide.
  • 0% APR Offer Has Drawbacks: To benefit from this card's 15-billing cycles of 0% APR on balance transfers requires paying a 3% balance transfer fee. While some others provide the same interest-free period for new purchases, the Wyndham Rewards Visa's 0% APR allows only six billing cycles at 0% APR for those.

Who This Card Is Best For

This card should only be considered by those who are loyal to Wyndham properties. It reserves its best rewards, of 3 points for every dollar spent, for Wyndham spending, and also provides the biggest return on points when used for stays at Wyndham hotels and resorts.

The card's best introductory perks are also Wyndham-oriented: a one-time offer, which alone would buy one or two nights at a less-expensive Wyndham property, and automatic membership in Wyndham Rewards at the Gold level, which affords you an additional 10% in points earnings as well as late checkout and a choice of preferred rooms.

Wyndham Card One-Time Offer

This card comes with a one-time offer of 15,000 points. Cardmembers receive the bonus after spending $1,000. Redemptions start at 7,500 points, so there’s a potential for two free nights with the bonus.

Rewards Earning Details

You earn 3 points for each dollar spent on eligible Wyndham purchases. Additionally, you receive 2 points per dollar spent on groceries, gas, and utilities. Note, however, that grocery purchases made at Walmart, Target, and warehouse clubs do not earn the 2 points per dollar, which are common exclusions for grocery rewards on other cards, too. Utility purchases also include cable and satellite purchases, in addition to electric, gas, water and heating oil.

Rewards Redemption Details

You redeem rewards through the Wyndham website. Cardmembers can see how many points they have, and how many they need to book various rooms. When redeeming points for stays at Caesar’s properties, keep in mind that there are often resort fees included. Points can’t be used to pay resort fees, so these will need to be paid with cash.

There are also options to redeem your points for a range of other rewards, from gift cards to gas at Marathon Gas outlets to merchandise. But your points generally earn you far less than they will when used for Wyndham stays

Transferring Points

It's possible to redeem Wyndham points for airline miles and other partner programs, starting at 6,000 points. Partners include:

  • Aeromexico
  • Air Canada
  • Air China
  • American Airlines
  • Amtrak
  • Avianca
  • China Eastern
  • Frontier Airlines
  • Hawaiian Airlines
  • PAYBACK
  • Turkish Airlines
  • United

Again, however, Wyndham points are worth far less when transferred to these programs than when used for Wyndham stays. That said, cardholders who might need a few more miles for a flight redemption might find that it makes sense to turn in some Wyndham points to achieve their goals.

How to Maximize Your Rewards

The most effective way by far to get the most from the Wyndham Rewards Visa is to use it to pay for Wyndham hotel lodging, and then redeem its points for more such stays. Wyndham purchases with this card essentially earn 3.3 points per dollar spent—the basic 3 points per dollar, supplemented by an additional 0.3 points from the 10% bonus from the Wyndham Gold status that comes automatically with the card. 

You could of course also use the card for everyday spending. You’ll earn less (2 points per dollar spent) but rewards will still add up with regular use. In 2020, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average household spent $4,942 on groceries and about $1,568 on gas. With the 2.2 points earned per dollar spent (including the 10% points bonus for Gold status), those two items alone could earn 14,422 points a year. Additionally, the annual energy bill for the American family is $2,060, according to EnergyStar.gov. A consumer can earn another 4,532 points per year by setting up automatic payments for their utilities with this card. Together, all of these everyday purchases could earn you about 19,000 points a year—which is enough, potentially, to earn a night or two every year in a Wyndhams property. 

Wyndham Credit Card's Outstanding Benefits

  • Automatic Gold Membership status
  • Concierge service
  • Visa global assistance services
  • No foreign transaction fees

Standard Benefits

  • $0 fraud liability
  • 24/7 assistance in the event of a lost or stolen credit card.

Cardholder Experience

The 2021 Credit Card Satisfaction Survey from J.D. Power rates Barclays, the issuer of the Wyndham card, as average in its rankings.

It is possible for cardholders to get personal assistance for concierge services, like recommendations for dining, hotels, entertainment and other experiences. Additionally, there is access to Barclays also offers customer service for cardmembers by phone, as well as offering social media assistance on Meta and Twitter.

Security Features

Most security features with this credit card are fairly standard. The Wyndham card comes with $0 liability on fraudulent purchases and access to Visa's global assistance services, which allows for reporting lost or stolen cards 24/7.

Fees to Watch Out For

There aren't too many fees with this credit card. However, cardmembers hoping to take advantage of the 0% introductory APR on balance transfers might want to pay attention to the balance transfer fee of 3%. Double-check to ensure that the interest savings by transferring the balance will offset the fee.

Final Verdict

Those loyal to Wyndham properties can’t really lose by acquiring this card. In part, that’s because it has no annual fee, unlike its sibling, which is also (confusingly) named the Wyndham Rewards Visa, which costs $75 a year. And, through its automatic Gold status in the Wyndham Rewards program, the card immediately grants you some perks that you’d otherwise have to stay at least 5 nights at the chain to earn. 

Beyond its Wyndham advantages, however, this card doesn’t have a great deal to offer. There is, unusually for a hotel card, a 15-billing cycle introductory offer for balance transfers at 0% APR. But anyone planning to transfer a balance of any significant size from a high-interest card they own should pause before sending it to the Wyndham Rewards Visa. 

That’s mostly because the card imposes a 3% balance-transfer fee, where some other cards with no annual fee that extend 0% APR offers of comparable length do not. And many of those other cards also offer a respite of a year or more from paying interest on new purchases, too, where the Wyndham Rewards Visa offers only six months on Wyndham Times purchases. 

You’ll get poor value when redeeming this card’s points for anything except Wyndham stays, too. Those looking to earn rewards that can be redeemed for travel more widely would be better off with such general travel cards as the Capital One VentureOne or, perhaps better still, the Bank of America Travel Rewards, which has no annual fee and earns a flat 1.5 points on every purchase. 

You can also do better than this card’s 2 points per dollar spent on groceries. The Capital One SavorOne card offers 2% cash back on groceries, which is more lucrative than the Wyndham card’s rewards on food, as well as a generous 3% cash back on dining and entertainment.

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Overall Star Rating Explained
To rate credit cards we objectively assess, score and weight nearly 100 individual card features which roll up into five major feature sets: fees, interest, rewards, benefits and security/customer service. Here’s how we weighted those feature sets for the overall star rating of a card:
We have applied our proprietary rating methodology to every generally-accepted credit card in the U.S. domestic market to allow consumers to make fully informed choices. It’s important to note that for our overall score that we make a number of assumptions about how you would be using your credit card:
  1. While we make no assumption as to whether balances are carried on a given card we do assign varying weights to all credit cards’ introductory APR (if present) in addition to the regular, long term purchase and balance transfer interest rates.
  2. We utilize BLS (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics) income and average category spending data to calculate annual earnings rates for rewards cards that offer cash back, points or miles rewards at a set rate on all spending or in consideration of bonus rewards for certain spending categories, like gasoline, groceries, restaurants or travel.
  3. We determine the maximum points value of rewards cards by dividing the points, cash back or miles required to exchange for the retail price of the most valuable redemption option (for example, in the case of a card that offers a domestic roundtrip airline ticket as a redemption option vs. another redemption option of lesser value that requires the same amount of points or miles to acquire, we would base the rewards value on the airline ticket).
  • Cards that are selected best overall in their respective categories generally feature most if not all of the following attributes:
  • Low or Reasonable Fees Credit card fees come in many forms but the primary ones involve those for annual card membership and balance transfer. There are a myriad of reward and non-reward card options that charge no annual fee but for the many that do assess an annual fee the cost is often justified by their lucrative ongoing rewards and initial signup bonuses. Balance transfer fees are occasionally waived during introductory periods with certain cards, a factor which is heavily and positively weighted in our scoring model for cards offering this benefit. When charged, balance transfer fees range between 3% - 5%, which we grade accordingly. Other standard fees can generally be avoided, such as those for paying late or taking cash advances but we rate those relative to other cards in the market for reference, though with less weight assigned
  • Competitive Interest Many cards offer 0% introductory APR on purchases and balance transfers for varying lengths and then revert to a permanent or regular APR (based on a variable rate tied to the prime rate) that applies to any balances not paid in full. We rate both introductory APR percentage and length (in months) along with the midpoint of the variable regular APR interest rate range.
  • Valuable Rewards Credit card reward programs can be based on cash back, points or travel rewards (which can be generic or travel partner-specific, as with airline and hotel co-brand card programs). For cards that offer rewards we determine the value per dollar spent along with average redemption values and assign more favorable ratings to cards that offer superior consumer value. We also assign value to sign-up bonus offers and their initial spending requirements, when present.
  • Excellent Benefits Credit card benefits cover a range of offerings like concierge service, TSA Pre-check, auto rental coverage, travel accident insurance, lost luggage assistance and free credit scores. We rate cards on the number and level of over a dozen standard and upscale benefits and provide extra weighting emphasis for those travel-related perks that apply to premium travel cards when present.
  • Solid Security/Customer Service Security and customer service features like lost or stolen card replacement, being able to lock one’s card from an issuer app and 24 hour customer support are becoming more standard across the card market and we provide a significant amount of weighting to features in this area.
  • You can also read the full version of our methodology for a more in-depth look at how we assess cards and award them the best in various categories.