The best credit cards for vacation and travel savings

As peak summer travel season heats up, many consumers may be looking for the best way to save for vacations and utilize credit card travel rewards to do so.

Yahoo Finance senior writer Kendall Little joins Wealth! to give insight into saving money and earning rewards with the best credit cards for vacations and traveling for events, such as weddings.

For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Wealth!

This post was written by Nicholas Jacobino

Video Transcript

Well, it’s summer time, and more than 80% of Americans are planning to travel, according to a survey from the vacationer.

And according to Nerdwallet, 1/5 of travellers plan to go into debt for vacations.

But we wanna help you avoid that and figure out how you can save a little money or earn rewards using travel credit cards here with how to pick.

Pick the best card to deploy for yourself.

We’ve got Yahoo finances.

Kendall Little Hey, Kendall.

Thanks, Brad.

Yeah.

So when you are looking for a credit card for your vacation, we like to think about it just like any other credit card.

You know, make sure it fits your budget.

It fits your spending habits.

Um, the first thing that you kind of want to look at is going to be that welcome offer, because you’re gonna be spending some extra money on airline tickets on hotels and all the things you’re doing while you’re travelling, you might be spending some extra money.

You probably saved up some, so this could be a great opportunity to get those hundreds of thousands of dollars in awards value.

Um, when you’re getting that welcome offer, Uh And then, of course, you’re gonna wanna look at your rewards.

So maybe you’ll go all out and get a premium travel card, five X or more points on airline and hotel rewards and rental cars.

Um, you could also think about something like cash back where you’re saving money on the expenses that you’re incurring while you’re travelling things like dining out tourist attractions, um, even gas stations if you’re driving, um, and then you also wanna think about those extras.

So something like no foreign transaction fees is a great benefit.

If you’re travelling abroad, you can save anywhere from 1 to 3% on each transaction that you make internationally, and then things that can help protect you in case anything goes wrong.

So busy travel season we might see delays.

We might see cancellations.

Um, rental, car insurance, baggage delay, insurance, travel, cancellation or interruption Insurance is really gonna help you against of those things that could go wrong.

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And so Kendall as well.

Summertime also means a lot of weddings on the books here.

Maybe some of those credit card rewards could help you pay for travel if you’re a wedding guest.

But if it’s if it’s your wedding, how do people can get the best assessment of which credit cards will help them tap into the most significant savings, too?

Yeah, so travel credit cards can be great for wedding expenses, too, and even cash back credit cards Novel really plays a role.

If you have a destination wedding, maybe you have some friends and family that are coming into town.

You’re gonna help them with their flights or their hotels.

Um, and actually, if your venue is at a hotel, something like a co branded hotel credit card with that chain can really help you get some extra savings or some bonus points on the venue booking on the hotel block that you might have, uh, one other type of card that we really like is a flat cash back credit card.

So because some of those vendors and expenses that you’re taking on might not fall into regular credit card rewards categories, um, earning 1.5% or 2% back on everything that you buy can really help you maximise those expenses.

Um, another thing that you might wanna consider outside of rewards is a 0% APR card So these cards offer no interest on new purchases for anywhere from 12 months to about 21 months right now.

So, you know, if you’ve been saving up for your we but you want some extra time to pay down those big expenses that you’re taking on is gonna be a great way to build out those payments over time.

One thing you want to look out for, of course, is at the end of the intro period, you’re gonna take on the interest on any of the remaining balance, Um, at your cards.

Pretty high interest rate going forward.

Uh, so just make sure that you’re looking out for that and paying down as much as you can before then.

One more thing that you wanna look for is the potential added fees for credit card payments.

So not every vendor that you work with is probably going to accept credit cards in the first place.

But if they do, they might tack on extra fees for credit card payments.

So you wanna make sure that you’re talking to your vendors, you understand the fees and how that kind of weighs out with what rewards you’re getting.

So you can really find that balance and find the right option for you, Kendall.

Excellent breakdown There.

All the need to know items for credit card spending tapping, swiping whatever you’re doing here these days during this summer.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Kendall.