My long-time girlfriend uses this card often for travelling, because she stays at the Hyatt whenever possible. That part of the card is great! She earns extra nights, and then we go on vacation! Apart from the Hyatt rewards, however, this card doesn't have much going for it. There's no intro period, which isn't too big of a deal. The rate isn't too bad, maybe under most rates out there, but you just don't get many perks other than with the actual Hyatt hotels. This is the type of card you want to use while you're staying there, but other than that you'll probably be better off with a different card.

I got the Hyatt card thinking that it would be a great card for my husband and I seeing as how much we like to travel. We always enjoy staying at the Hyatt when on vacation so we thought it would be a great perk to have available and rack up free nights to help in cutting our expenses. It was proving to be beneficial at first seeing that we received two free nights after we made our first purchase. It didn't go well from there. I hadn't paid attention to the fact that we only were getting one point per dollar on our transactions outside of the Hyatt purchases. It was a little disappointing. It is a decent card, however unless you frequently go to the Hyatt, it's not as great as competitor cards.

My husband and I decided to get the Hyatt credit card after realizing how much we travel to see out of state family. We were so ecstatic about the idea of getting a couple of free stays at the hotel as part of the sign up deal that we didn't pay attention to the fact that the hotel is a far drive from where most of our family lives. We don't use the card as often as we had expected to, but our experiences with it have been positive. The company honored our free stays, and customer service was helpful in answering my questions about the reward system. We hope to get more use out of the card this holiday season!

Very poor customer service with Hyatt. They do not honor their free nights. They expire in less than a year and hide that fact in micro sized print. Forget this one. Horrible experience with Hyatt when trying to redeem this. Rude and unresponsive personnel.

The Hyatt Credit Card is decent, but I don’t see it as being a great option for anyone who isn’t a diehard Hyatt customer. The reason is simple, it doesn’t offer enough value for someone who isn’t routinely staying at a Hyatt hotel and earning the 3 points per dollar that the Hyatt Card provides on Hyatt purchases. This is especially true in light of the Hyatt Credit Card’s competition, which will become clear after this quick pro/con list.

Pros

- 2 Free nights: You get 2 free Hyatt nights after your first purchase, and free hotel accommodations are always nice, especially with summer coming up.
- With a Hyatt Credit Card account, you get one free night each year on your cardholder anniversary.

Cons

- 2 Free Nights: The Hyatt Card’s initial bonus is both a pro and a con given that it’s attractive in a vacuum but unattractive when considered along with the competition. The Hilton Credit Card gives you up to 8 free nights and the Chase Sapphire Preferred offers $500 for travel or $400 in cash.
- Annual fee: The Hyatt Credit Card charges a $75 annual fee, which pretty much counteracts the free anniversary night.
- Ongoing rewards: One point per dollar for non-Hyatt purchases isn’t great, and neither is the 3 points for Hyatt purchases, unless you’re constantly racking them up.
- No low interest rates: Despite its lacking rewards, the Hyatt Credit Card is a rewards credit card through and through, seeing as it doesn’t offer 0% intro rates on purchases or transfers.

Long story short, I wouldn’t get the Hyatt Card. Instead, if an initial bonus is what I’m after, I’d go with the Chase Sapphire Preferred or the Hilton Card. If I wanted ongoing travel rewards and I’m not a loyal Hyatt customer, I’d probably go with the Capital One Venture because it gives you basically 2% cash back when you redeem for travel of any kind.

A good rule of thumb for hotel rewards credit cards is to only get a card affiliated with a particular hotel if you stay at it almost exclusively. One caveat to this rule is created by initial rewards bonuses, since you don’t need to be a frequent patron to benefit from free nights doled out after account opening, first purchase or spending a certain amount in the first couple months. That means there are two types of people for whom this Hyatt Credit Card could be a good fit, Hyatt loyalists and deal hunters. Obviously the deal hunters would only really be interested in the two free nights the Hyatt Card provides, one after you make your first purchase and one after you spend $1,000 during the first three months. These nights would be a big draw for Hyatt loyalists too, but they’d also be interested to know that the Hyatt Credit Card offers 3 Hyatt Gold Passport Points for every dollar spent at Hyatt hotels and one for every dollar spent on everything else. The real question though is how this card, which has a $75 annual fee and requires excellent credit, stacks up against the competition.

Seeing as the Marriott Credit Card offers up to 6 free nights in initial bonuses and a few other cards offer at least 2 free nights, the Hyatt Credit Card probably isn’t your best bet if you don’t have any allegiance to Hyatt hotels and only really want the most value from your card’s initial bonus. This is especially true, since a number of the other top tier hotel cards don’t charge annual fees in the first year. Hyatt loyalists obviously aren’t going to get credit cards tied to other hotels, but they could decide to pass on the Hyatt Rewards Credit Card in favor of a generic hotel credit card or a cash back credit card. Which you decide to do really depends on just how frequently you stay at Hyatt Hotels because if you’re limiting your rewards to one type of purchase, this type of purchase had better be one of your top 2-3 expenses.