Have you ever seen people with pockets full of credit cards? It may look weird but in reality they get numerous benefits from free miles on airlines to free nights and loyalty points. Every such product offers its own set of bonuses. Their number is so large that people request special services to choose the most appropriate one. Clients don’t need any advisor if they know basic rules of travel hacking with credit cards.
What to Expect from an Average Travel Credit Card?
There is nothing new in this world. Any company issuing a credit product offers the same set of benefits which can be very handy for client’s pocket. Sometimes a single product has so much options that only effectify’s services can help you decide which card to choose. Typical offers are:
- Fascinating entrance bonus. The market for travel products is very competitive. So, in order to attract their client, agencies offer a particular bonus for everyone acquiring their card. It can be the amount of free miles on flights or a fixed cash amount. Anyway, they are so generous that a client can do several flights paying nothing at all;
- Special loyalty perks. If one comes to an airport and automatically receives priority boarding and free baggage check, it is always attractive. All products offer such bonuses. Your task is to choose a set bringing the best benefits especially for you;
- Spending bonuses. It is very common for credit card issuers to negotiate with retailers so clients can get special bonuses and rewards purchasing goods in partnering stores.
These benefits are generous but don’t think that the more accounts clients have the more they reduce their spending. All products have special requirements which clients should satisfy in order to activate their bonus system:
- Any credit card requires paying the annual fee. Although most fees are less than the amount of money you raise, spending it in a more efficient way, this sum can be very high;
- Any credit product assigns special amount one should spend on issuer’s service to activate the bonus system. Although you may choose the option with the lowest spending minimum one should think carefully because options with high spending minimum often lead to tastier offers;
- Clients will not receive a travel credit card unless they have inappropriate credit history or some problems with your current loan. Check your credit history before applying for the right service and you won’t obtain unexpected troubles.
Comparing all these offerings are rather tedious but you don’t need a financial advisor to choose the best one. Select one which uses services of companies you use more often and you will reduce your spending by much more than you pay for card services.
How to choose the best set of offerings
If you come to any travel cards website, you will see 2 basic types of them:
- Cash Back travel cards, which return 1-5% amount from any purchase you make;
- Travel rewards products, which help you earning points that can result in a lot of discounts or special perks.
While most people are stuck with the question, which of them to choose, it is not really dependent on the type of your account. Clients choose the set of services they are planning to get the most benefits from and the client alone knows rewards from which shops or airlines will be more applicable to individual needs.
If individuals study at a college, they may be interested in special offers designed for their social status, there are also some products for business or for those wanting a higher level of security. Everybody has a temptation to get as much as possible but there are also some issues which one should consider before getting lost in all offerings.
One credit card is never enough. People often acquire 5 or even 10 products in order to get more discounts and benefit from all the offerings. If clients don’t want their pockets to tear from a large number of credit cards, it is necessary to choose a fixed amount of them and use them in a full volume. Choosing the best set is not that difficult if you know why exactly you need this product.
Choose hotel cards only if you spend a lot of time in hotels, choose the card partnering with airline only if you often use its services for flights. Clients will not benefit from free hotel rooms if they always stay with their relatives or book rooms in hostels. They will also not benefit from free miles if they don’t travel by plane a lot. Keep in mind what you want and you won’t get lost in all these products and lost much money paying annual fees. Never forget to follow all promotions and discounts announcements, additional 100$ will always be a good thing to have.
Which cards will be better for traveling?
If you love traveling a lot there are 2 best travel credit cards offered at effectify.com:
- Barclaycard Arrival Plusâ„¢ World Elite MasterCard. Although it requires annual 89$ fee, it will not make you poorer as you will get 525$ bonus from 50000 miles;
- Chase Freedom Unlimited. Although it returns less, there is no annual fee required and you still have an opportunity to earn 150$ bonus if you spend over 500$ on airline services.
As you see, the more people travel, the more refund they gain so the amount of savings becomes so high that they can even make an additional flight with it. Travel offerings are also useful because they don’t require large commissions while you want to buy something going abroad. Clients don’t need to wait for queues near currency exchanges, they can buy anything they like with their card the same way as they do it in your home city.
Although all offerings remain intrinsically pleasant, you should still ask yourself whether you really need additional car and whether the value of attained bonuses cover the annual payment. But if you travel a lot and often use services of airlines and hotels, there is no way to spend your travel budget more efficiently than acquiring such alternatives.