Question re: credit card points travel

[Vickilynn307]

I currently use a hybrid of a cash/credit card budget every month. I'm intrigued at the thought of using a credit card for all our monthly spending, and treat it like debit- paid off monthly so I don't deal with interest. I'd like to find the best card to help with travel expenses to Disney, etc., either with cash back or points for flights etc. Hubby and I have excellent credit, but only have one big vacation yearly if that, so I don't want a card with a really high annual fee. Can anyone recommend a card/s that can help with that, and also any sites online that go over the basics of travel using points that are easy to understand. It all seems so complicated to me! TIA

 

[Marionnette]

I currently use a hybrid of a cash/credit card budget every month. I'm intrigued at the thought of using a credit card for all our monthly spending, and treat it like debit- paid off monthly so I don't deal with interest. I'd like to find the best card to help with travel expenses to Disney, etc., either with cash back or points for flights etc. Hubby and I have excellent credit, but only have one big vacation yearly if that, so I don't want a card with a really high annual fee. Can anyone recommend a card/s that can help with that, and also any sites online that go over the basics of travel using points that are easy to understand. It all seems so complicated to me! TIA

A lot will depend on how you spend your money and how you will use those travel rewards. Having a card that rewards mostly for air travel is not going to benefit you if you're only flying once per year. OTOH, having a card that offers a higher reward for grocery and gas purchases might be of interest to you. I suggest reading the I Love Credit Cards thread here, as well as checking out travel hacking blogs like thepointsguy and millionmilesecrets.

 

[Vickilynn307]

A lot will depend on how you spend your money and how you will use those travel rewards. Having a card that rewards mostly for air travel is not going to benefit you if you're only flying once per year. OTOH, having a card that offers a higher reward for grocery and gas purchases might be of interest to you. I suggest reading the I Love Credit Cards thread here, as well as checking out travel hacking blogs like thepointsguy and millionmilesecrets.

Thanks, I'll check those out! I think I would fly more if we had a way to cut the expenses down

 

[LYSE]

First you should read about all the different points programs and which ones would be most useful for you, then find the best credit card or cards that will help you earn that "currency" the fastest.


For instance my home airport is dominated by AA and South West, so I tend to earn a lot of Amex points since those can be xfered to British airways which can then be used to book on American (and the value for shorter domestics flights is quite good) The Amex everyday preferred is easy to earn with since the bonus is everyday type of spending at grocery stores (3x) and gas stations (2x) + 50 percent points when used 30 times a month.

I also rack up Chase UR points because I like using them for hyatt stays but they can also be xfered to Southwest (and many others including BA for merging with my Amex points)

if you want the most simple card with 0 annual fee check out the citi double cash..it's 2% cash back on everything there are other cards with annual fees that offer 2 percent toward travel statement credits..and these are both okay and come with slightly more perks/better customer service..I tend to use these 2 percent cash or fixed value cards toward Disney since Disney does not have a points program.

Lastly, don't be scared of annual fee's a lot of them easily make up for the fee very very quickly.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

First you should read about all the different points programs and which ones would be most useful for you, then find the best credit card or cards that will help you earn that "currency" the fastest.


For instance my home airport is dominated by AA and South West, so I tend to earn a lot of Amex points since those can be xfered to British airways which can then be used to book on American (and the value for shorter domestics flights is quite good) The Amex everyday preferred is easy to earn with since the bonus is everyday type of spending at grocery stores (3x) and gas stations (2x) + 50 percent points when used 30 times a month.

I also rack up Chase UR points because I like using them for hyatt stays but they can also be xfered to Southwest (and many others including BA for merging with my Amex points)

if you want the most simple card with 0 annual fee check out the citi double cash..it's 2% cash back on everything there are other cards with annual fees that offer 2 percent toward travel statement credits..and these are both okay and come with slightly more perks/better customer service..I tend to use these 2 percent cash or fixed value cards toward Disney since Disney does not have a points program.

Lastly, don't be scared of annual fee's a lot of them easily make up for the fee very very quickly.

I never thought I'd ever give up my SW visa for anything but I was offered a 50,000 pt bonus for Chase Sapphire Preferred last year and I love it!

Yes, it's an $85/yr AF but I earn double points on all dining & travel and you can transfer them 1:1 to many other programs such as SW points, Hyatt, Marriott, British Airways, American and more.
For our Disney visit last Feb we booked the BW directly through the Chase UR website, using UR points + cash. A moderate resort would have been free.

I steer clear of Amex only because so many vendors don't accept it.

 

[LYSE]

I steer clear of Amex only because so many vendors don't accept it.

You really shouldn't most vendors accept Amex..sure there are some that don't but those are usually smaller places that are outside of the Bonus category your going to use your Amex for anyway.

Amex has actually been working hard with small businesses to help boost acceptance and the Amex Shop small events are always a nice way to pick up bonus points.

I find MR points the easiest to stock up on.

 

[Vickilynn307]

Thanks for the information everyone and if anyone else has something to add, please do!

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

Chase Reserve Card. if you spend $300 on travel they give you a $300 reimbursement. You get 3 point for travel and dinning spending. 1 point for all other purchases. Your points are worth 50% more when using the points to book travel. The cost of the card is $450 a year. You get $100 to purchase TSA Pre Check. If you buy something and within 90 days of the purchase date the price drops they will refund you the difference. I love this feature we bought a TV and twice the price dropped and we submitted the claim and got a refund in less than 10 days. You also get an extra year of product protection insurance. If you rent a car and get into an accident the card provides primary insurance coverage for the accident.

Although the fee is $450 subtract the $300 travel and the $100 for pre check and you only pay $50. The following year you can use the $100 pre check amount for anyone you would like. Wife, neighbor, best friend ect.

Transfer point 1:1 to other airline or hotels. I just transfered 10,000 points to SPG when SPG had the offer of transferring points from SPG to Marriott and get a 2000 bonus points with each 5000 point transfer so I earned 4,000 extra Marriott points.

 

[Vickilynn307]

Chase Reserve Card. if you spend $300 on travel they give you a $300 reimbursement. You get 3 point for travel and dinning spending. 1 point for all other purchases. Your points are worth 50% more when using the points to book travel. The cost of the card is $450 a year. You get $100 to purchase TSA Pre Check. If you buy something and within 90 days of the purchase date the price drops they will refund you the difference. I love this feature we bought a TV and twice the price dropped and we submitted the claim and got a refund in less than 10 days. You also get an extra year of product protection insurance. If you rent a car and get into an accident the card provides primary insurance coverage for the accident.

Although the fee is $450 subtract the $300 travel and the $100 for pre check and you only pay $50. The following year you can use the $100 pre check amount for anyone you would like. Wife, neighbor, best friend ect.

Transfer point 1:1 to other airline or hotels. I just transfered 10,000 points to SPG when SPG had the offer of transferring points from SPG to Marriott and get a 2000 bonus points with each 5000 point transfer so I earned 4,000 extra Marriott points.[/QUOTE
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I just heard about this card the other day and it sounds like it has a lot of perks to it- what does SPG stand for?

 

[Albort]

I just heard about this card the other day and it sounds like it has a lot of perks to it- what does SPG stand for?

its a hotel brand. they include W, Westin, Sheraton, Aloft, etc. They are also owned by Marriott, so your hotel list gets bigger, aka fairfield Inn, Marriott, Courtyard, etc.

SPG credit card is one of the strongest out there right now because of its transfer partners, there is a huge list of airlines you can transfer to. The one downside to this card is no free nights like the Marriott, Hilton and IHG does... and the earning potential is really bad(aka its really hard to make the points). Its also an Amex card too.

 

[fifthdimensiondweller]

You've already gotten some excellent advice! Like others have said, it basically comes down to two things: Where will you be using the card, and what would you be using any rewards you earned towards?

DH and I have a variety of cards we use for different things to maximize our benefits. The Amex Blue Cash Everyday Preferred is our main card. It offers us 6% back on groceries and 3% back on gasoline, two of our biggest expenses. this comes back as straight cash back that you can apply as a statement credit towards something.

We have a Discover and a Chase Freedom. The way these cards work is every 3 months a different category is 5% cash back, and everything else is 1%. So for example July through September Chase Freedom had 5% back at restaurants and movie theaters, Oct through Dec it is 5% back at Walmart. ETA: This changes every year, but usually the categories are seasonally appropriate, i.e. home improvement in the spring, big box stores at the holidays, etc.

Lot of people love the Southwest Visa. We prefer the Barclaycard Arrival Plus, but that's simply because we know we may move soon and don't want to commit to a credit card through just one airline right now in case we move and they don't have a hub nearby.

For something that doesn't make you juggle categories and gives you straight cash back, Citi Doublecash is great. That being said, you'll get less back than you would if you're willing to juggle categories, so that's up to you! Good luck!

 

[Princess Minnie321]

We use our credit cards as debit cards for the points. I charge everything that I can and make weekly payments.

My American Express card earns 6% on groceries and 3% on gas. The fee is $75, but we have earned $600 in rewards since January that I take as a statement credit.

For our last Disney trip, my DH and I each got the venture capital for the 40,000 bonus. We had 90,000 points combined so we saved $900 when we booked our airfare. It is a purchase eraser so you book you travel and then apply your points to "erase" the amount of points you have. So my airfare was $2000 and we erased $900 of that and only paid $1100.

This year we got one chase sapphire preferred. They waive the yearly fee for one year, but we saved so much, we may keep this card and pay the fee. We had 75000 points. I transferred them to southwest and when I booked my airfare using points, we saved $1100!

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

Chase Reserve Card. if you spend $300 on travel they give you a $300 reimbursement. You get 3 point for travel and dinning spending. 1 point for all other purchases. Your points are worth 50% more when using the points to book travel. The cost of the card is $450 a year. You get $100 to purchase TSA Pre Check. If you buy something and within 90 days of the purchase date the price drops they will refund you the difference. I love this feature we bought a TV and twice the price dropped and we submitted the claim and got a refund in less than 10 days. You also get an extra year of product protection insurance. If you rent a car and get into an accident the card provides primary insurance coverage for the accident.

Although the fee is $450 subtract the $300 travel and the $100 for pre check and you only pay $50. The following year you can use the $100 pre check amount for anyone you would like. Wife, neighbor, best friend ect.

Transfer point 1:1 to other airline or hotels. I just transfered 10,000 points to SPG when SPG had the offer of transferring points from SPG to Marriott and get a 2000 bonus points with each 5000 point transfer so I earned 4,000 extra Marriott points.

Chase Reserve Card. if you spend $300 on travel they give you a $300 reimbursement. You get 3 point for travel and dinning spending. 1 point for all other purchases. Your points are worth 50% more when using the points to book travel. The cost of the card is $450 a year. You get $100 to purchase TSA Pre Check. If you buy something and within 90 days of the purchase date the price drops they will refund you the difference. I love this feature we bought a TV and twice the price dropped and we submitted the claim and got a refund in less than 10 days. You also get an extra year of product protection insurance. If you rent a car and get into an accident the card provides primary insurance coverage for the accident.

Although the fee is $450 subtract the $300 travel and the $100 for pre check and you only pay $50. The following year you can use the $100 pre check amount for anyone you would like. Wife, neighbor, best friend ect.

Transfer point 1:1 to other airline or hotels. I just transfered 10,000 points to SPG when SPG had the offer of transferring points from SPG to Marriott and get a 2000 bonus points with each 5000 point transfer so I earned 4,000 extra Marriott points.

OH forgot to mention you also get a free membership to the Priority Pass Club lounges. There are two lounges that you can use the card at MCO. There are many other lounges at other airports too. The lounge offers free food and free alcoholic drinks. We used the one at MCO a few times. this weekend they offered: deli sandwiches, pasta salads, hummus and chips, cheese and crackers, veggies and dip, soups, cookies. We figured it saved us about $30 (food plus 2 glasses of wine) since it was lunch time and we would have had to buy food if we had not visited the lounge.

 

[Vickilynn307]

OH forgot to mention you also get a free membership to the Priority Pass Club lounges. There are two lounges that you can use the card at MCO. There are many other lounges at other airports too. The lounge offers free food and free alcoholic drinks. We used the one at MCO a few times. this weekend they offered: deli sandwiches, pasta salads, hummus and chips, cheese and crackers, veggies and dip, soups, cookies. We figured it saved us about $30 (food plus 2 glasses of wine) since it was lunch time and we would have had to buy food if we had not visited the lounge.

I always wondered what the lounge was about- I didn't realize the food was free! What a nice perk! Thanks for the info

 

[Vickilynn307]

We use our credit cards as debit cards for the points. I charge everything that I can and make weekly payments.

My American Express card earns 6% on groceries and 3% on gas. The fee is $75, but we have earned $600 in rewards since January that I take as a statement credit.

For our last Disney trip, my DH and I each got the venture capital for the 40,000 bonus. We had 90,000 points combined so we saved $900 when we booked our airfare. It is a purchase eraser so you book you travel and then apply your points to "erase" the amount of points you have. So my airfare was $2000 and we erased $900 of that and only paid $1100.

This year we got one chase sapphire preferred. They waive the yearly fee for one year, but we saved so much, we may keep this card and pay the fee. We had 75000 points. I transferred them to southwest and when I booked my airfare using points, we saved $1100!

Great information- thanks!

 

[Vickilynn307]

You've already gotten some excellent advice! Like others have said, it basically comes down to two things: Where will you be using the card, and what would you be using any rewards you earned towards?

DH and I have a variety of cards we use for different things to maximize our benefits. The Amex Blue Cash Everyday Preferred is our main card. It offers us 6% back on groceries and 3% back on gasoline, two of our biggest expenses. this comes back as straight cash back that you can apply as a statement credit towards something.

We have a Discover and a Chase Freedom. The way these cards work is every 3 months a different category is 5% cash back, and everything else is 1%. So for example July through September Chase Freedom had 5% back at restaurants and movie theaters, Oct through Dec it is 5% back at Walmart. ETA: This changes every year, but usually the categories are seasonally appropriate, i.e. home improvement in the spring, big box stores at the holidays, etc.

Lot of people love the Southwest Visa. We prefer the Barclaycard Arrival Plus, but that's simply because we know we may move soon and don't want to commit to a credit card through just one airline right now in case we move and they don't have a hub nearby.

For something that doesn't make you juggle categories and gives you straight cash back, Citi Doublecash is great. That being said, you'll get less back than you would if you're willing to juggle categories, so that's up to you! Good luck!

When you have more than one or two cards, do you have a way of keeping track of what card is the best to use at certain times?

 

[Albort]

When you have more than one or two cards, do you have a way of keeping track of what card is the best to use at certain times?

i used an app called Wallaby. It basically tells u what card to use where. Pretty useful. once u get the hang of it, u wont be using the app too much haha.

 

[Vickilynn307]

i used an app called Wallaby. It basically tells u what card to use where. Pretty useful. once u get the hang of it, u wont be using the app too much haha.

Good to know, thanks

 

[fifthdimensiondweller]

When you have more than one or two cards, do you have a way of keeping track of what card is the best to use at certain times?

Others have said this as well, but I use Wallaby as well! Now that I've been doing it awhile it's mostly second nature, but this app is great when you're starting out and/ or to help keep track of rotating rewards with cards like Discover or Chase Freedom!