Marriott Bonvoy Bold Review: Hotel Perks for No Annual Fee
The Bottom Line
3.3
This card is a catch for those seeking valuable Bonvoy perks — including automatic elite status — for an annual fee of $0.
Rates, fees and offers
Annual fee
$0
Rewards rate
1x-14x
Bonus offer
Earn 30,000 Bonus Points after you spend $1,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Intro APR
N/A
Ongoing APR
APR: 20.99%-27.99% Variable APR
Cash Advance APR: 29.74%, Variable
Penalty APR: Up to 29.99%
Balance transfer fee
Either $5 or 5% of the amount of each transfer, whichever is greater.
Foreign transaction fee
$0
More details from Chase
- Earn 30,000 Bonus Points after you spend $1,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
- Pay no annual fee with the Marriott Bonvoy Bold® Credit Card from Chase®!
- Earn up to 14X total points per $1 spent at thousands of hotels participating in Marriott Bonvoy® with the Marriott Bonvoy Bold® Card.
- New! Earn 2X points for every $1 spent at grocery stores, rideshare, select food delivery, select streaming, and internet, cable, and phone services.
- 1X point for every $1 spent on all other purchases.
- New! Travel now, pay later - Break up purchases into equal monthly payments with no interest plus no plan fees on qualifying travel purchases. Terms apply.
- No Foreign Transaction Fees.
- Member FDIC
Pros and Cons
Pros
No annual fee
Automatic elite status
Cons
No free anniversary night
Rewards have limited flexibility
Detailed Review
For budget-conscious travelers seeking a hotel card with an annual fee of $0, the Marriott Bonvoy Bold® Credit Card is a strong option. It comes with attractive perks, including a sign-up bonus, solid ongoing rewards and automatic elite status. It lacks a free anniversary night — to get such a benefit, you'd have to go with the annual-fee version instead — but the card can still prove valuable, even for those who don't stay at Marriott properties frequently.
Marriott Bonvoy Bold® Credit Card: Basics
Card type: Hotel.
Annual fee: $0.
Sign-up bonus: Earn 30,000 Bonus Points after you spend $1,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Ongoing rewards:
3 points per dollar spent at participating Marriott Bonvoy hotels.
2 points per dollar spent on grocery store purchases, rideshare purchases, and select food delivery.
2 points per dollar spent on select streaming, internet, cable and phone services.
1 point per dollar spent on all other eligible purchases.
Rewards earned by using the credit card are in addition to points you earn as a member of the Marriott Bonvoy program.
NerdWallet values Marriott points at 0.9 cent each. This is drawn from real-world data, but it's not a maximized value. In other words, you should aim for award redemptions that offer 0.9 cent or more in value from your Marriott points.
Redemption options:
At Marriott Bonvoy hotels.
For flights or car rentals.
For travel by transferring points to multiple airline partners, usually at a 3:1 ratio (for every 3 Bonvoy points, you'll get 1 airline mile).
APR: The ongoing APR is 20.99%-27.99% Variable APR.
Foreign transaction fees: None.
Other benefits:
How the Marriott Bonvoy Bold® Credit Card fits into the Bonvoy family
There are five cards in the Marriott Bonvoy universe. Among them, only the Marriott Bonvoy Bold® Credit Card has a $0 annual fee. As a result, it also offers fewer perks than the others. Most notably: You don't get a free anniversary night every year, and you earn points at lower rates. For more analysis, read NerdWallet's comparison of these cards. Here’s how they stack up.
Marriott Bonvoy Bold® Credit Card (from Chase, $0 annual fee) |
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Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card (from Chase, $95 annual fee) |
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Marriott Bonvoy Bevy™ American Express® Card ($250 annual fee) |
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Marriott Bonvoy Bountiful™ Card (from Chase, $250 annual fee) |
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Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant® American Express® Card ($650 annual fee) |
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Compare to Other Cards
Benefits and Perks
Flexible, fee-free rewards on spending
Annual fees are like subscriptions you forgot you still had — they sneak on to your credit card statement so rarely that it doesn't really feel like you're spending money. But a wallet full of rewards cards can get expensive. The $0-annual-fee Marriott Bonvoy Bold® Credit Card still earns decent rewards on several useful categories that can help you rack up rewards quickly, even if you don't stay in Marriott hotels that often.
The card also comes with a generous sign-up bonus: Earn 30,000 Bonus Points after you spend $1,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
The value you get per point will vary depending on which redemption option you choose, and generally points are worth the most when redeemed for hotel stays. Still, it's nice to have options.
Automatic elite status
This card gives you Silver Elite status, which gets you late checkout (based on availability), compensation if the hotel can't honor your reservation, free Wi-Fi, a dedicated elite reservation line and a 10% point bonus on eligible hotel purchases.
Ordinarily, to earn Silver Elite Status, you'd have to spend at least 10 nights a year at Bonvoy properties.
The 10% bonus that comes with Silver Elite status applies to the base points earned during a stay, not on bonus points earned through your credit card. For example, say you charged a $300 Marriott hotel stay to your card and got 900 bonus points from your card and 3,000 base points from Marriott. The 10% bonus for Silver Elite status would apply to the base points earned, so you'd get an additional 300 bonus points from Marriott. In all, you'd earn 4,200 points from this purchase.
Drawbacks and Considerations
Other cards offer higher rewards
If the rewards categories on the Marriott Bonvoy Bold® Credit Card match your spending, the card could help you rack up Marriott points quickly. But other no-annual-fee cards still offer higher rewards. The Wells Fargo Autograph℠ Card, for instance, earns 3 points per dollar spent on:
Restaurants.
Travel and transit.
Gas stations (and electric vehicle charging stations).
Popular streaming services.
Select phone plans.
Other purchases earn 1 point per dollar. Points are worth 1 cent apiece and can be redeemed for travel, gift cards, statement credits or on purchases made using PayPal. New cardholders can also earn a sign-up bonus: Earn 20,000 bonus points when you spend $1,000 in purchases in the first 3 months - that's a $200 cash redemption value.
Locked into the Bonvoy system
If you don't stay exclusively at Marriott Bonvoy hotels, you might not get as much value out of the Marriott Bonvoy Bold® Credit Card as you would with a general travel card with versatile rewards.
Consider the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, which earns bonus rewards in a variety of popular spending categories, including dining and travel. You can use points to book travel through Chase, or transfer points to airline and hotel partners (which includes Marriott Bonvoy) at a 1:1 value. It offers this generous sign-up bonus: Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. The annual fee is $95.
How To Decide If It's Right For You
With its generous bonus and benefits, the Marriott Bonvoy Bold® Credit Card doesn't feel like "Bonvoy-lite." But for some, a more robust version of this card is the better bet, even with an annual fee. However, if you'd like the option to stay at a variety of hotels, opt for a more flexible card from our list of best credit cards to get.
All information about the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant™ American Express® Card has been collected independently by NerdWallet.
To view rates and fees of the Marriott Bonvoy Bevy™ American Express® Card, see this page.
Information related to the Marriott Bonvoy Bountiful™ Card has been collected by NerdWallet and has not been reviewed or provided by the issuer of this card.
Earn 6 Bonvoy points per dollar spent at participating Marriott Bonvoy hotels and 2 points per dollar spent on all other purchases. A free night award every year after your account anniversary helps offset the $95 annual fee.
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Methodology
NerdWallet reviews credit cards with an eye toward both the quantitative and qualitative features of a card. Quantitative features are those that boil down to dollars and cents, such as fees, interest rates, rewards (including earning rates and redemption values) and the cash value of benefits and perks. Qualitative factors are those that affect how easy or difficult it is for a typical cardholder to get good value from the card. They include such things as the ease of application, simplicity of the rewards structure, the likelihood of using certain features, and whether a card is well-suited to everyday use or is best reserved for specific purchases. Our star ratings serve as a general gauge of how each card compares with others in its class, but star ratings are intended to be just one consideration when a consumer is choosing a credit card. Learn how NerdWallet rates credit cards.
