A travel credit card can be a great way to save money on your traveling purchases. It’s very common for people to use travel credit cards when they travel regularly, as it can help you earn rewards for all your purchases, even purchases that you make outside the company offering the points. However, do you know all the ways you can save with travel credit cards? Here are some lesser-known options.
1. Use Different Cards for Different Purchase Categories
Most commonly, you’ll see that travel credit cards will give you benefits for shopping outside of the travel company, with different tiers of benefits depending on the category of purchase. For example, one company may give you 3% back on gas purchases and 2% back on grocery purchases. If you can remember to swap out different cards that have different cashback options for different purchase categories, you can save more.
2. Bring Other People Along With You
It’s common for travel credit cards to give benefits not just to you, but also to people you bring with you. For example, you may be able to get discounted seats for friends or even upgrades at free or discounted rates. If you really want to save more, consider buying for your friends, then having them pay you back, so you can get the credit card points and they can get a great deal. Remember that group travel may also come with certain discounts.
3. Check to See Whether You Can Transfer Your Points to a Partner Company
Many travel credit cards allow you to transfer points to a partner company if you’re not going to use all of your points at the company that has the credit card. For example, if you’re racking up points for a flight company, but you’re not planning to take a flight anytime soon, you may be able to transfer those points to a hotel company and use them for a hotel stay. These are surprisingly common options, so consider looking into them.
4. Look at the Current Value of Points and Miles
Points and miles regularly fluctuate in value, typically because companies allow you to purchase full bookings with a specified number of points rather than assigning a dollar value to each individual point. This is one of the reasons that it’s a good idea to check out the monthly value of rewards points and miles with a third-party source that researches this type of information. That way, you’ll be spending your points and miles at the best possible time.
Conclusion
While there are certain obvious ways of saving with travel credit cards, there are also some less-obvious ways that you can save money when you make your purchases. If you really want to get the most out of your travel credit card usage, make sure you use some of these tips and tricks. Even though each one might only save you a small amount, you can use them together to save big.
To read more on topics like this, check out the Travel category
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