Chickery's Travels

Chickery's Travels logo. A blue-green Earth globe with continents surrounded by dots with an arrow denoting movement or travel and "Chickery's Travels" as part of the dotted circle. Next to this is a photo of their blue and white Arctic Fox 5th Wheel with the awning out.
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        • Chickery’s Travels Podcast Episode 5: Fort Wilderness Campground Review
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        • Get Back to Nature in Tampa Bay
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        • Why We Love Tampa
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      • Visiting Atlanta? Don’t Miss These Civil Rights Museums
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      • Two Days in Acadia National Park
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      • Las Vegas RV Campgrounds: Nellis Air Force Base and Lake Mead RV Village
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      • WWII History in Tennessee
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      • Best Eats in Fredericksburg
      • Enjoy a Bird’s Eye View of Texas Hill Country
  • RV Resources
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  • Travel Finance
    • 5 Tips to Save on RV Travel
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    • Full-Time RV Expenses
      • Annual Full-Time RV Expenses – The Big Three
    • Five Credit Card Strategies To Improve Travel
    • How Much Do Campgrounds Cost?
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    • How to Camp for Free
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    • How to Save Money on RV Fuel Costs
    • How We Earn A Living While Traveling Full-Time (And How You Can Too)
    • How We Paid $139,000 of Debt in 2 Years While Full-Time RVing
    • Learn How to Finance Your Dreams
    • The Top 7 Ways to Save Money While Traveling Full-Time
    • Roadmap to Financial Freedom
      • Roadmap to Financial Freedom: Accountability Report April 2018
      • Roadmap to Financial Freedom: Accountability Report May 2018
      • Roadmap to Financial Freedom: Accountability Report June 2018
      • Roadmap to Financial Freedom: Accountability Report July 2018
      • Roadmap to Financial Freedom: Accountability Report August 2018
      • Roadmap to Financial Freedom: Accountability Report September/October 2018
    • RV Purchasing
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      • The True Cost of Financing an RV
      • Why You Should Attend An RV Show
      • Florida RV SuperShow 2018
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June 18, 2018 by Julie Leave a Comment

Five Credit Card Strategies To Improve Travel

We are the path to becoming debt free, so we don’t take the use of credit cards lightly. However, there are times using credit cards is a good option. If you are not careful, credit cards can be dangerous to your financial health. Keeping an eye on your budget and not charging more than you can pay each month is key to using credit cards successfully.

Follow these five strategies to make the most of your travel experience. These tips will help you accrue rewards, not interest.

When It Makes Sense To Use Credit Cards

We like to use a credit card instead of our debit cards because of security. We have had our debit cards compromised. If you have a significant amount of money in your bank account linked to the debit card, it could leave you with a gut-wrenching feeling.

Using a credit card instead of cash or a debit card requires discipline when making purchases so you can be sure that you have the resources to pay the full balance due each month. If you are able to do this, the benefits can be wonderful. You can accumulate rewards and have some special benefits. For example, many cards offer travel insurance up to a certain dollar limit along with other little-used benefits. You can select a card that offers rewards for something that will provide a benefit to you. You can get rewards for everything from cash to airline miles depending on the card.

  1. Use it like a debit card

If you are going to use a credit card for purchases on the road, use it like a debit card. In other words, keep a budget of what you are charging on the card and do not exceed the amounts in your budget. If the credit card is used in this manner, you will never exceed your budgeted cash and can avoid paying any interest by paying the bill in full every month. If you do not have good credit card discipline, cut-up the cards and do not use them. Using a credit card at that point would be like telling an alcoholic they could have one drink and be okay. It’s not going to happen. It will end up costing too much money through interest payments.

  1. Get a rewards card

If you can live with the first rule above, my recommendation is to get a card that has some type of rewards associated with it. We have two different rewards cards that make sense for us. One earns us Hilton Honors points when we make purchases with it. We have amassed almost 1 million points with the help of this card. We feel like these are good for us to have because if our house on wheels is ever in the shop for an extended period, we have the ability to stay in a hotel for very little to no money for quite a few nights. It is insurance for unfortunate situations. We also use it when we want to take a vacation away from the RV.

The other card gives us reward dollars in our investment account. This card provides a cash deposit in to our investment accounts after we charge a certain amount of money. Since we have stopped adding as much to our investment accounts until we pay off the RV, this helps keep a little cash going in those accounts. If you can, find rewards cards that suit your needs and do not charge an annual fee.

 

  1. Find a card with no annual fee

We think annual fees are ridiculous. The banks are already making a ton of money on interest payments from people who carry a balance. Annual fees are just away to get those of us who don’t, to pay for the rewards. It is possible to find rewards cards without an annual fee, but it can be difficult. There are a couple of ways to avoid paying the annual fee if the card you choose has one. The first, and easiest option, is to ask for the fee to be waived. Believe it or not, this works.  Another option is to ask for the non-premium version of the card. The rewards may be slightly less and you will have to do the math to see if the difference is worth paying the annual fee or not. The last way is to see if the fee can be paid out of the rewards. This avoids spending money on the fees, but causes a loss in rewards points earned. If the fee will not be waived, cancel the card and find another one.

  1. Pay off the balance as soon as possible

Although we get a monthly statement for our credit cards, we usually send a payment twice a month. For us, this is a good practice because it forces us to look at the transactions online frequently, which detects any fraud faster, and we reconcile with our budget more often to avoid accidental overspending. Sticking to a budget was the main thing that helped us pay off $91,000 in debt last year.

Click here to see our full monthly travel budget. 

  1. Check the benefits

While searching for the best card for you, make sure to check the additional benefits available with the card. For example, the two cards we use have roadside assistance benefits. One is good for an emergency when we need assistance and cannot find another method. The other is better and will cover some towing, tire changes, 5 gallons of fuel, and many others. Many credit cards offer a wealth of additional benefits for travelers that are never used because the credit card holders fail to read the fine print that comes with the card. Those little booklets, that require a magnifying glass to read, contain information on all of the miscellaneous benefits that can be handy for those of us that like to travel. It is important to include these benefits in your selection of the best card for your lifestyle.

The Bottom Line

We hope these five tips will help you be on your way to using credit cards responsibly, while also earning rewards and other benefits. Using credit cards should not be taken lightly. Paying the bill to avoid interest charges and checking the statements regularly for fraud are important. We use credit cards almost exclusively and have not paid any interest in several years.

Full-Time RV Finance: Learn tips for budgeting for full-time travel, earning an income on the road, and implementing techniques for saving on campgrounds and more!

Try these credit card strategies and tips to help manage your money. Earning rewards for vacationsby using credit cards can be great, but you have to be careful to pay off your balance every month.

 

 

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Filed Under: Full-Time Finance Tagged With: credit card benefits, credit card rewards, credit card strategies, credit card tips and tricks, credit cards, Five Credit Card Strategies To Improve RV Travel, how to use credit cards to your advantage, how to use credit cards wisely, reward cards, travel, travel tips

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