Why I’m Canceling My IHG Business Card After the Recent Changes

I’ve carried the IHG One Rewards Business Credit Card for 2 years, but not for much longer.

When my renewal comes up next spring and the new annual fee posts, I’m canceling. The changes Chase is making to the card take effect in 2027, and after comparing them to my lifestyle and travel goals, they don’t add up for me. This card isn’t bad for everyone, but it no longer fits the way I travel and spend.

Here’s how I came to this decision.

The Higher Annual Fee Is the Main Problem

The fee is what drives everything else. The IHG Business card‘s annual fee is jumping from $99 to $200, more than double, and it’s the steepest increase across the entire IHG lineup in the changes announced on October 1, 2026.

A higher annual fee isn’t automatically a dealbreaker, but it changes the math. Every perk on the card now has to justify an extra $101 per year, not just sit in a list of bullet points under a credit card’s description. When I got the card, part of the appeal was a sub-$100 annual fee paired with benefits I actually used. That balance is gone.

Losing a Benefit I Valued: United TravelBank Cash

The card is also dropping its annual United TravelBank benefit, which provided $50 in annual TravelBank Cash that I could use to book United Airlines flights. On its own, that’s a small cut. What bothers me is the timing: The fee is going up at the same time as a benefit I like is going away. I’m being asked to pay more and get less in return — at least as far as this benefit is concerned.

The New Credits Don’t Work for Me

To offset the higher annual fee, Chase is adding 3 new credits. I looked hard at each one, and none of them help me.

The first is up to $100 toward Expensify. That’s useful if you already run your expenses through Expensify. I don’t, and I’m not going to adopt a new expense platform to chase a credit. For me, it’s worth $0.

The second is a $100 airline statement credit on tickets over $250 booked directly with an airline. The credit is fine in theory. The problem is that I don’t want to put airfare on this card at all. I book my flights using the Platinum Card^® from American Express, which earns 5 points per $1 spent on airfare booked directly with airlines and through AmexTravel.com (up to $500,000 of these purchases annually, then 1x earnings).

Redirecting that spend just to capture a $100 credit could cost me more in lost points than the credit gives back.

The third is up to $100 in Food & Beverage Rewards, available as $25 each quarter. My issue with this benefit is the friction. The money arrives in 4 small pieces, each of which expires if I don’t use it that quarter, and I’d have to track another complicated benefit in a wallet full of credit cards. That’s a lot of babysitting for $100 that I might not even capture in full, given that IHG isn’t my most frequently visited hotel chain.

This Card Still Has Some Positives

The IHG Business card isn’t losing everything. It keeps up to 26x earnings at IHG properties, which is strong if you’re a frequent IHG guest. It holds on to automatic Platinum Elite status, unlike the The New IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card, which drops to Gold Elite after the recent changes.

And the value of the Anniversary Free Night award is rising from 40,000 to 50,000 points, so that certificate can cover pricier properties than it could before. For a business owner who stays at IHG often and will actually use the new credits, this card can still earn its place in your wallet.

I’m just not that cardholder anymore.

Final Thoughts

I came to this card 2 years ago for 3 reasons: automatic elite status, an annual free night, and a fee under $100. Even after the recent changes were announced, 2 of those remain true. The third is going away, and the perks meant to justify that value proposition are ones I don’t see myself using.

In a crowded wallet, a card has to do a job that no other card does better. At $200 a year, with credits built for someone else’s spending, this one no longer meets that standard for me.