Consumer Reports rates the best travel cards
Getting the most for your money is just common sense. Today's travel cards can be a great way to stretch your dollars,that is if you pay your balance off every month. But it's downright confusing trying to figure out which offers the best deal. Consumer Reports Money Adviser crunches the numbers for you.
You can choose either an airline card or a bank card. Which type is best for you depends on what kind of traveler you are. Choose an airline card if you travel a lot on one particular airline.
Airline cards are also good if you want a free trip fast. Though they are not usually as generous with rewards as bank cards, you can sometimes score a bonus as high as 50,000 points when you sign up.
Some good airline cards are
• Delta SkyMiles American Express Gold
• Southwest Rapid Rewards Premier Visa
• US Airways Dividend Miles Premier World MasterCard
For every dollar spent with the airline, you get two miles or two points.
If you don't fly a particular airline, a bank card is the way to go. Those let you earn rewards on the purchases you make, then use them to buy tickets on any airline.
Consumer Reports says other pluses are that bank cards are not subject to blackout dates and points don't generally expire. Some good bank cards are
• American Express Premier Rewards Gold
• Chase Sapphire Preferred Visa or MasterCard
• PenFed Premium Travel Rewards American Express
A real benefit with all three is there's no annual fee the first year. Choose a travel card wisely and a great vacation could well be within reach.
If you're a member of several frequent-flyer programs, Consumer Reports says you're probably better off with one of the high-end American Express bank cards, such as the Amex Premier Rewards Gold. That's because those cards let you transfer earned points to a number of airlines.
You can choose either an airline card or a bank card. Which type is best for you depends on what kind of traveler you are. Choose an airline card if you travel a lot on one particular airline.
Airline cards are also good if you want a free trip fast. Though they are not usually as generous with rewards as bank cards, you can sometimes score a bonus as high as 50,000 points when you sign up.
Some good airline cards are
• Delta SkyMiles American Express Gold
• Southwest Rapid Rewards Premier Visa
• US Airways Dividend Miles Premier World MasterCard
For every dollar spent with the airline, you get two miles or two points.
If you don't fly a particular airline, a bank card is the way to go. Those let you earn rewards on the purchases you make, then use them to buy tickets on any airline.
Consumer Reports says other pluses are that bank cards are not subject to blackout dates and points don't generally expire. Some good bank cards are
• American Express Premier Rewards Gold
• Chase Sapphire Preferred Visa or MasterCard
• PenFed Premium Travel Rewards American Express
A real benefit with all three is there's no annual fee the first year. Choose a travel card wisely and a great vacation could well be within reach.
If you're a member of several frequent-flyer programs, Consumer Reports says you're probably better off with one of the high-end American Express bank cards, such as the Amex Premier Rewards Gold. That's because those cards let you transfer earned points to a number of airlines.
There are countless factors when choosing which card to use, so this article is flawed. It depends how much you typically spend (annual fee). It's not worth having an annual fee unless you break even. Also, Alaska Airlines has a card that gives you cheap companion tickets, which is another factor. Also, if you travel abroad, it makes sense to have a travel card that partners with foreign airlines you would travel on. If you travel abroad, you will also want to have no foreign transaction fees as a benefit to your card. For people around here who travel to Oregon and California, it probably makes a lot more sense to get an Alaska Airlines card. If you typically travel to NY for example, that card might not make sense. I don't any of the listed cards because they don't match my goals.
The list of hypothetical situations goes on and on. Just make sure you get a card that matches your habits. You can get the best rated card, but if it doesn't match your habits as well as another card, you're making a mistake with your choice.
Whatever card you choose the best method is to run all the bills you can through it and most importantly pay it off entirely at statement cycle. If you don't do this you may as well buy a airline ticket. Â
For people who seldom fly this is pretty much useless information. We use a card that allows us to get cash back at the rate of about 1.5% on our purchases. Since we pay off the card every month we never pay interest and at this time there are no other fees associated with it.
Saying how many points/miles they earn is completely useless unless you say what flights you can buy with them,