Credit Card Travel Benefits: Credit Cards vs Travel Cards

Credit Card Travel Benefits: Credit Cards vs Travel Cards

GENERAL, INFORMATION, TRAVEL
This blog post is the fourth, and final, instalment of my Credit Card Travel Benefits Series and continues on from Credit Card Travel Benefits: Cash vs Credit Cards. In my last blog post, I compared the use of cash and credit cards during an overseas holiday. The results concluded that, with all things considered, using credit cards for overseas travel was the better option. In recent years, reloadable travel cards have become more popular and banks have encouraged their customers to use them while travelling overseas. Once you obtain a travel card you can load money onto it, from your bank account, in your local currency and have it converted to any of the currencies supported by the card. When you load the travel card directly from your bank account,…
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Credit Card Travel Benefits: Cash vs Credit Cards

Credit Card Travel Benefits: Cash vs Credit Cards

GENERAL, INFORMATION, TRAVEL
This blog post is the third of my Credit Card Travel Benefits Series and continues on from Credit Card Travel Benefits: Frequent Flyer Points. I never leave home without at least one credit card in my wallet, especially when travelling. In this blog post I will describe how I use cash and credit cards when travelling overseas. I will also look at the pros and cons of each. After almost a decade of travelling the world with credit cards at my disposal, I have developed a system that works quite well for me. Canada is pretty good for the percentage of merchants that accept credit cards but, since living in New Zealand, I have realised that the percentage is even higher here. Credit cards are so widely accepted in New…
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Credit Card Travel Benefits: Frequent Flyer Points

Credit Card Travel Benefits: Frequent Flyer Points

GENERAL, INFORMATION, TRAVEL
This blog post is the second of my Credit Card Travel Benefits Series and continues on from Credit Card Travel Benefits: The Basics. Frequent flyer points are a great reward for anyone who loves travelling and they build up quickly when using your credit card for every purchase. However, when I received my first credit card, I did the math and realised that it would take me about 2-3 years of spending to earn enough frequent flyer points for a short haul flight across Canada. This wasn’t good enough for so I began to play “The Credit Card Game”. The Credit Card Game is something I invented to help me maximise my frequent flyer point’s earnings. The game is played by me, against the major credit card companies (although they…
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Credit Card Travel Benefits: The Basics

Credit Card Travel Benefits: The Basics

GENERAL, INFORMATION, TRAVEL
The age of majority in Nova Scotia is 19, which is the age you can obtain a credit card without a co-sign from your parents. I received my first credit card when I was 16 years old. My parents had opened an additional card on their account in my name and I was instructed to use it for emergencies only. For three years, I only used the card a few times for emergency car repairs or when my parents wanted me to purchase something on their behalf. During that time, I never saw the credit card bills and was unaware of exactly how credit cards worked. Leading up to my 19th birthday I was excited to be able to get my own credit card and begin building my credit. However,…
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