Credit Card Newbie
Before planning for this great life adventure, I did not have a credit card. I got a debit card in 2012 when I started college because it seemed like a necessity but I also thought that was all I needed, not thinking about the lack of credit I was setting up for myself. I had been paying rent for 4 years (very diligently!) and got a nice little student loan hanging over me, so I had SOME but I really should have been taking advantage of building credit this whole time.
When I started my research, I knew that I wanted a travel card because of the nature of what I was going to be spending my time doing now. My partner, Anthony already had a credit card that offered Cash Back Rewards so I thought we could have the best of both worlds if we had that card and this new one that could build us some travel points. I’ll never say no to a free night in a hotel!
Credit Cards I considered
The Features: This credit card is one that I have seen a lot on the market as a good travel card option. It’s been known to have easy-redeemable travel points with the user earning 60,000 bonus points after $4,000 is spent on purchases in the first 3 months of opening the account. They also offer 2x points on travel and dining worldwide and 1 point every dollar spent on all other purchases. There are no foreign transaction fees. The user can get 25% more value when you redeem for airfare, hotels, car rentals and cruises through Chase Ultimate Rewards. For example, 60,000 points are worth $750 toward travel.
Why I didn’t pick it: This card has a $95 annual fee. That’s really not that much when you really look at everything you need to spend money on in a year to get all the benefits, but I don’t like annual fees. I also don’t spend that much money really so I thought that this credit card would be better for someone that is supporting a family. For just me, I think I didn’t need something this serious.
The Features: This credit card is best known for 2x miles on all purchases every day with a one-time bonus of 50,000 miles when you spend $3,000 on purchases within the first 3 months which is equal to $500 in travel. The card is giving a 10x mile point bonus when a hotel is booked at hotels.com/venture through January 2020. This also has no transaction fees with flexible rewards redemption.
Why I didn’t pick it: Although there is no annual fee for the first year, every year after that, a $95 fee kicks. Like the Chase Sapphire, I don’t have that many expenses so I would have to spend a lot more money than I usually do in order to really see the benefits of this card. I also wanted to make sure that I could get the most benefit I could for the smaller effort (if I’m honest). This card also only offers half the value for cash redemption as opposed to using the card for travel. Also, if you do not have a wonderful credit score already, you may not get approved for this card.
The Features: This travel rewards card is the one of the first cards that did not have an annual fee for the user to claim their rewards. Unlike the Capital One Venture, this card does not restrict its users to any certain websites when booking hotels to get rewards, but they only offer 1.5 points per $1 spent on every purchase. When the user spends $1,000 in the first 90 days of opening the account, 25,000 points are earned. There are no foreign transaction fees and the points do not expire. Preferred members earn 25-75% more on every day purchases. The points can be redeemed for credit to pay for hotels, flights, luggage fees, rental cars, and cruises.
Why I didn’t pick this card: I was very overwhelmed when I was reading everything about this card. There is so much to keep track of! After reading all the fine print, I also figured out that this card would be more beneficial if you are already a Bank of America customer, which I am not. It is also more restrictive on straight cash back if you are looking for that option. Other cards I’ve researched offered better things. If you’re a big spender with excellent credit and willing to pay an annual fee, there are cards with higher rewards you can find.
The Features: There is no annual or currency conversion fee and a sign-on bonus for this card, like many others that I looked that. The user can earn 30,000 bonus points when you spend $3,000 in purchases in the first 3 months – that’s a $300 cash redemption value. It offers 3x on streaming sites, all things travel (flights, baggage, home-stays, hotels, car rentals), gas stations, ride-shares, and transit purchases, and for dining and delivery food orders. For all other purchases, earn 1x the points.
Why I didn’t pick this card: This is another card that requires an excellent credit score to even qualify, so if you are like me and don’t really have anything, you may be denied. The biggest problem is that American Express cards are not accepted as easily internationally like Visa or Mastercard. Also reading further, you’ll see that while it doesn’t have an annual fee, it does not allow for flexible and key travel perks that other cards do offer. I also am a little nervous with the amount of lawsuits and controversies associated with Wells Fargo so for now, I’ll pass.
The Features: There are no annual fees and once again, no foreign transaction fees. Most cards I researched did indeed have this feature. This one has a bonus of 20,000 miles when you spend $1,000 within the first 3 months when opening the account, equal to $200 in travel. The user can earn 1.25x miles on every purchase, every day, 10x on thousands of hotels also on hotels.com/venture through January 2020, and the ability to transfer those miles to more than 12 leading traveling loyalty programs. The user can travel whenever, with no restrictions to blackout dates and flight anytime, stay at any hotel, anytime. The points earned won’t expire for the entirety of the account being open and there is no limit to how many points you can earn.
Why this IS my new credit card: I really liked the Capital One Venture card, but I knew I couldn’t spend that much money to see the benefits. Then, I found this card. Being able to spend $1,000 in the first three months of opening the account to get those rewards seemed like a “no-brainer”. I’m moving to a new country. Money will be spent. The 10x rewards on hotels and the 1.25x on every purchase were also very appealing to me. We already had to use that for when we fly into Taipei for that first night so it was already proving to be a great pick! We also want to make traveling a priority while living in an Asian country so I’m hoping to make the most of this partnership they have with hotels.com. There is less money if you opt for the cash back option but it is an option and I wanted a travel card. This one really fit what I was looking for and it was easy to apply. I got the card about a week after everything was filled out.
Charles Schwab Checking Account
Anthony and I also both opened a Charles Schwab Checking account because of the recommendation of a friend that has already lived and traveled all over the world. This account is best used if you want a good interest checking account but you don’t want to deposit much money into it (which with our other banking accounts that we linked to it and our Taiwanese bank account*, we really don’t need to too often).
The main reason why we opened these accounts is because they have unlimited fee rebates on ATMs worldwide, there are no monthly fees or minimum balance requirements, and they do not charge for overdrafts when it is linked for another account. It was extremely easy to open with most people able to do it from home online, but we went in and talked to a representative at our downtown Charles Schwab in Milwaukee. They were so incredibly helpful and were able to get us all approved with a credit check as we sat in their office. They also recommended where we should grab lunch after we left. Customer service: A+!
*Most companies will have you open a local bank account for ease of payment once you start working abroad. You may have 4 bank accounts including your existing ones you already have, but however your company wants to pay you is up to them. Just roll with it!
Thanks for reading! I do a lot of research when doing pretty much anything and I think that this shows that. If you could have seen when I was actually in the thick of it, you would have thought I was trying to solve an old conspiracy theory rather than looking into my first credit card. I hope that my hard work will help others though that are looking for a good travel card.
Let me know your thoughts: Do you use a travel card? Which one? What is your favorite feature from your current credit card?
Until next time, this has been,
Emma Eiden, An ESL Teacher Abroad
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An ESL Teacher Abroad 