IHG Rewards Club Account Audits & Terminations

Last year, I wrote about an incident that had lead to an IHG Rewards Club Account termination for a member in China (you can access the piece here).

In the past month, I have had two LoyaltyLobby readers contacting me regarding issues that have lead to their accounts being audited and closed.

Let me start saying that I don’t believe that merely signing up for the promotions and staying at IHG properties lead to account audits and terminations. If that would be the case, my email inbox would be flooded with emails from the readers. Usually there are other issues involved.

Here’s one reader email:

My girlfriend had her IHG rewards club account closed due to breach of T&C.

Now since they won’t tell us anything I’m thinking why would that be.

I do admit we did play the system a bit. Yes we did book stays for our friend and family to get points and qualifying stays for the big win. Yes we stacked up the promo codes to get even more points. We’ve used our family’s address in China to qualify for the China Dream Promo.

In total we’ve lost 85,000 points. After her account was closed they’ve run an audit on mine. Waiting for outcome. I’d be devastated if they’d close mine as I have even more points.

Follow up:

A quick update: my account has been closed as well. I’ve lost my ambassador status and waiting for the stays booked with points to be cancelled soon. Some of the recent stays were only booked because of the BIG WIN. I’m devastated Had my account for 2 years. No explanation given apart from standard “breach of the T&C”

Second follow up:

Just to put a bit more light on the case. The only reason this was picked up by the system was the fact we’ve used same credit card for both accounts.

Pretty much a schoolboy error.

This was flagged by their system as when I was enquiring about my gf’s account missing points the agent told me he’d get back to me as he needs to check something. Also it was about idea in the first place to ring and ask about someone else’s account. The account was treated as a duplicate.

However don’t know how much the “other activity” had an impact on the account closure. I don’t think registering for China Dream promo did as we had the access to the property and there was no clear definition of residency(actually I had a plan to visit my family in China and pick up the ambassador package).

It really sucks to have accounts closed. The reader had had some problem with a stay posting to his or her account and had contacted IHG Rewards Club to resolve the issue.

It is probably bad idea to use the same credit card number for more than one account. If you have someone as an additional user on your account, the number doesn’t change.

Here’s second one:

I’ve got a problem with IHG Rewards Club and would like to seek for advise from you.

Few days ago, I was trying to log in to my account but it was unsuccessful. I’ve tried to called the CS hotline service and they said I have registered some codes that my account was “not supposed” to registered for, so they freeze the account, the CS said they’ll take a look at the account and will get back to me shortly.

May I know how often does it happen? I’ve registered some IHG codes which were written from your blog, but sometimes I’m confused if the T&C is suitable for my account or not, as most T&C are very long and confusing. It would be great if you can give me some advise on the best way to deal with them regarding the issue and future code registering.

And do you have any information or clue on how long will they get back to me? I have quite a few upcoming stays with IHG, but I felt a bit disappointed with them because of this matter and probably switch some of my stays to other hotels.

I’m also a bit confused with IHG that when they’re offering the code for members, aren’t they set a bar for who can and who can’t register? Because with Hilton or SPG, if I’ve tried to enter some code that my account is not qualified to register, it won’t like me do so, but with IHG, seems like they allow “anyone” to register, then later will catch up with those who’re not qualified, isn’t it weird? Just my feeling.

Here’s follow up:

Nope. I have only one account and I’m the only one who uses the account.

My account was not closed, just unable to log in and visit the IHG website. I’m confused. I’ve called CS hotline of IHG Rewards, I’ve been told that because I’ve signed up with some promotion codes that aren’t supposed to be available for my account.

The CS said they’ll contact me within 72 hours. 24 hours has passed and I’m still waiting, and I can’t visit IHG website still. Though I’m a bit upset on how they treat their loyalty customer.

This one really boggles me. I truly doubt that there would be folks working for IHG Rewards Club just searching for accounts that have registered for the promotions.

How these audits usually start?

Well. I recently received an email (couldn’t find it) from a reader that had registered for all the promotions listed here on LoyaltyLobby, but they were not showing up on his account. He had decided to contact the IHG Rewards Club customer service to inquire about their status and if they would post for his upcoming stay.

Nooooooooooo! You should not contact IHG Rewards Club or any other loyalty program if you have signed up for a targeted offer and for some reason it doesn’t show up on your account or the points won’t post for your stay.

You will find that your account is under audit or closed, when trying to login in to your account. Rather than logging you in, the site will inform you that there is problem with your password.

Conclusion

It is sometimes easy get carried away with the promotions that IHG Rewards Club is offering. I remember that there was quite a lot of activity with the old quizzes that you could do over and over and some did only to find out their accounts closed in due course.

I don’t believe that signing up for the promotions and staying would lead to terminations. There are usually other issues behind such as duplicate accounts, others staying on one’s accounts etc.

If you have had your account(s) audited and/or closed, please leave your interpretation what to lead to it and if the issue(s) have been resolved.