What makes a credit card a good travel companion? There are many ways credit cards can improve your trip abroad, from saving a few pounds on fees to making you feel like a VIP with airport lounge access.
The best travel credit card option for you is going to depend on what you need the card to do. Let’s break it down.
Approval for any credit card depends on your status. The representative APRs shown represent the interest rate offered to most successful applicants. Depending on your personal circumstances, the APR you're offered may be higher, or you may not be offered credit at all. Fees and rates are subject to change without notice. It's always wise to check the terms of any deal before you borrow.
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Even if you go on holiday only once a year, it’s a good idea to have a separate credit card for when you travel. That’s because your needs will be different when you’re on the road or enjoying the sun on a tropical beach from when the longest distance you travel is that between your house and the office. But how do you go about picking a good travel credit card?
The main decision you have to make is which features you want to prioritise. Here’s a basic list of things you may want to consider when comparing travel credit cards:
Approval for any credit card depends on your status. The representative APRs shown represent the interest rate offered to most successful applicants. Depending on your personal circumstances, the APR you're offered may be higher, or you may not be offered credit at all. Fees and rates are subject to change without notice. It's always wise to check the terms of any deal before you borrow.
When travelling abroad, avoiding foreign exchange fees can be a tough task, but it’s not impossible. When using your credit card overseas, there are three main kinds of fees you should expect and learn how to dodge:
Compare 0% foreign fees credit cards
Planning a great holiday but not sure you can afford to pay for it in one go? With a 0% purchase credit card, you’ll be able to spread the cost over a few months without having to pay any interest on it.
0% purchase credit cards can be great for breaking down the cost of a trip into more affordable instalments, but you really need to have paid the sum back by the time the introductory deal expires. Otherwise, your balance will start accruing interest at the card’s standard rate (which is usually not very competitive). It’s essential to work out a repayment plan (divide your expenditure by the number of months in the 0% deal to work out what you should repay each month) and stick to it to make sure you pay the whole sum back on time.
Compare 0% purchase credit cards
Finder's pick
0% interest on balance transfers
Balance transfer fee
0% interest on purchases
Representative APR
| Minimum income | 10500 |
|---|---|
| Residency | UK Resident |
| Availability | Available to existing customers |
| Foreign usage charge (EU) | 0% |
| Cash advance fee | 29.9% |
A small number of credit cards offer special hotel benefits like room upgrades, priority check-in, later check-out times or the opportunity to earn points that can be redeemed for free stays.
These cards are often offered by the hotel companies themselves and are more suitable to people that travel quite often and stay at the same kind of hotel. If that sounds like you, you’ll be able to make the most of the perks while also earning points quite quickly.
Finder's pick
Representative APR
Yearly account fee
Max. intro bonus
per £1 spent
| Residency | UK resident and has a UK bank or building society account. |
|---|---|
| Availability | Available to new customers |
| Foreign usage charge (EU) | 2.99% |
| Cash advance fee | 38.3% |
Airports – not much fun are they? But if you can relax in an airport lounge, you’ll cut out much of the stress and feel pretty smug at the same time. You’ll need to be comfortable with the idea of paying an annual or monthly account fee in return for complimentary lounge access (if that’s a deal-breaker, consider a one-off membership to a scheme like Priority Pass). But on the plus side, lounge access won’t be the only benefit these cards offer.
Compare cards with airport lounge access
Finder's pick
Representative APR
Yearly account fee
Max. intro bonus
Interest-free each billing period
| Residency | Must hold a HSBC Premier Current Account, eligibility criteria apply. |
|---|---|
| Availability | Available to existing customers |
| Foreign usage charge (EU) | 2.99% |
| Cash advance fee | 18.9% |
Just like credit cards that offer hotel perks, frequent flyer credit cards are meant for people who fly, well, frequently. If you get on a plane once a year, you won’t be able to make the most of them; if it’s more like once a month, they can really be worth it.
They work just like rewards credit cards, but let you earn air miles on all your spending instead of points or cashback. Usually, you’ll earn even more miles when you use the card to purchase tickets with the card’s partner airlines. You can get both basic options without annual fees and premium options that do charge an annual fee in return for a higher earn rate.
Compare frequent flyer credit cards
Finder's pick
Representative APR
Account fee
Max. intro bonus
Interest-free each billing period
| Residency | UK resident and has a UK bank or building society account. |
|---|---|
| Availability | Available to new customers |
| Foreign usage charge (EU) | 2.99% |
| Cash advance fee | 38.3% |
There are a few premium cards out there that come with travel insurance included and save you the hassle of having to purchase it separately. Expect fairly pricey annual fees in return for a whole lot of benefits, such as airport lounge access.
It’s not easy to calculate when it’s better to get a card that offers it and when it’s more convenient to purchase it separately, but as we said, the travel insurance will usually be combined with other perks, so it’s a good idea to check whether those are appealing to you or not.
Finder's pick
Representative APR
Yearly account fee
Max. intro bonus
per £1 spent
| Residency | UK resident and has a UK bank or building society account. |
|---|---|
| Availability | Available to new customers |
| Foreign usage charge (EU) | 2.99% |
| Cash advance fee | 38.3% |
We know how it goes: you’re on holiday, buy a souvenir here and an extra ice cream there, and when you come back and check your card statement you realise you’ve spectacularly exceeded your budget for the trip.
A practical way of keeping an eye on the money you spend while travelling is downloading your credit card’s app on your smartphone. The best mobile banking apps will notify you whenever you use the card and allow you to check all your recent transactions in real time. For example, the American Express app does just that, while also allowing you to set up a spend tracking alert that will notify you when you overspend.
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