Travel
How to choose a travel card
Updated September 2026. Offers, rates and fees change without notice. Confirm every figure on the issuer’s own page before you apply.
Travel cards are sold on aspiration and priced on assumption. The issuer assumes you will pay the fee and under-use the benefits. The card is worth it when you break that assumption, and only then.
Points only matter if you redeem them
A balance of travel points is not savings. It is a claim on a service, priced by the company that issues it, redeemable only when that company has space it wants to sell you. People accumulate for years and then discover the seats they wanted are not available at the price they assumed.
Before you pick a card, decide roughly what you are saving for and check what it costs in points today. If you cannot name the trip, a cash back card is the more honest instrument. Cash does not devalue and never runs out of availability.
Transferable points versus co-brand
Transferable bank points can move to several airline and hotel partners. That flexibility is the main defence against any single programme devaluing overnight. It also means you are managing a portfolio, and transfers are one-way.
Co-brand cards tie you to one airline or hotel. They make sense when you genuinely fly one carrier, from a city it serves properly, often enough for the perks to bite. Free checked bags and priority boarding on a carrier you use six times a year can cover an annual fee on their own. The same card is dead weight the year your route changes.
The credits you must actually use
Premium travel cards offset their fee with statement credits: airline incidentals, hotel bookings through a portal, ride-hailing, food delivery. Some are annual and easy to capture. Many are monthly, capped, and quietly expire unused.
Count only the credits that match money you already spend, on a schedule you will actually hit. A monthly credit you use eight months out of twelve is worth two thirds of its headline value. A credit that requires booking through the issuer’s portal is worth less than face value if that portal prices higher than booking direct, so compare before you assume.
Fees that are easy to miss
- Foreign transaction fees. Around three percent on many non-travel cards, charged on anything processed abroad including online orders from foreign merchants. A card that waives this can be worth carrying for that alone.
- Dynamic currency conversion. When a terminal abroad offers to charge you in your home currency, decline. That rate is set by the merchant’s processor and is worse than your card network’s.
- Award surcharges. Some partners add cash charges to award tickets. A free flight can carry several hundred in surcharges and taxes.
- Cash advances. Withdrawing cash on a credit card starts interest immediately, with no grace period, usually at a higher rate.
Protections worth the paperwork
Trip delay and cancellation cover, lost baggage, and primary rental car insurance are the benefits people forget they hold. Primary rental cover in particular can save the daily charge at the counter on every trip. These are contractual: read the benefits guide, note the claim window, and pay for the trip with that card, because the cover usually applies only if you did.
The break-even
Add the credits you will realistically use, the checked bags you will realistically avoid paying for, and the foreign transaction fees you will realistically dodge. Compare the total to the annual fee. Put rewards earn last, not first, because it is the smallest and least certain component.
If the answer comes out close, the card is not worth it. Close means you are relying on behaviour you have not yet demonstrated.
Before you apply
Check the current fee, credits, transfer partners and benefit terms on the issuer’s page. Benefits are changed and withdrawn regularly, and one that existed when this was written may not exist when you apply.