A short time ago, the largest world hotel chain – Marriott International together with Chase Bank have pleased their customers with a new hotel credit card – the Marriott Bonvoy Bold™ Credit Card. Marriott loyal fans are most likely aware that the Bold card is not the first Marriott and Chase joint credit card. Their first co-branded card is the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless™
Credit Card.
The main advantage of the new credit card is that it comes with a $0 annual fee. But does the absence of an annual fee imply bigger APRs and poorer perks? Let’s have a look at the Bold card’s main features in comparison to the Boundless card.
Fees and APRs
As it was mentioned above, the Bold card imposes no annual fee, while the Boundless credit card charges $95 per year for membership. The difference seems to be rather significant. However, moving forward, we can see that both cards have the same 18.24%–25.24% variable APR for purchases/balance transfers, $5 or 5% balance transfer fee and $0 foreign transaction fee.
Rewards
The new Bold card offers maximum 3X points per $1 that apply to payments at eligible Marriott Bonvoy™ hotels in contrast to the Boundless card’s 6X points per $1. The minimum amount of points the Boundless card owners can earn is 2X points per $1 spent for any other purchases, while the Bond card owners get 2X points per $1 for other travel purchases and only 1X points per $1 for all other purchases.
Sign-up Bonus
Fortunately, holders of both cads have the opportunity to receive extra rewards. The Boundless card allows its users to get 75,000 bonus points after spending $3,000 on purchases in the first 3 months. Owners of the new card are limited with 50,000 bonus points for $2,000 purchases made in the first 3 months.
Travel Benefits
As we can notice, both of these Chase cards are accompanied with welcome travel perks, like compensations for trip and baggage delays, damaged or lost baggage, damaged or stolen purchases, plus 15 Elite Night Credits each calendar year, and round-the-clock Visa Signature® Concierge Service. But what is sadly lacking with the Bold Credit Card is a free yearly one-night stay and a possibility of switching to Gold Status.
Bottom Line
As expected, the new no-annual fee card provides fewer benefits. However, all basic APRs and fees remain unchanged. As a result, the Marriott Bonvoy Bold™ Credit and can become a worthy alternative to frequent Marriott hotels visitors who are not ready to pay almost $100 annually with the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless™ Credit Card.