Taking Gap year. Best travel credit card

Ubaka

Hi all,
I'm going travelling for a year and I'm reviewing the best cards to take to maximise rewards and allow for flexibility in which rewards I can use them for. The Amex Avios cards seem rigid and geared towards only Back. The rewards points although a bit better with some hotels charge 3% fee per foreign exchange transaction. I'm not eligible for HSBC premium world elite so I'm trying to see how I get the best of everything. Thanks

chattychappy

You really want a card that doesn't load foreign transactions and gives you fee free cash.

Santander Zero and Halifax Clarity are the obvious choices. If you don't have an income now, it might be difficult to get them.

Many times I met backpackers in Saigon who had ran out of money and were trying to arrange money transfers from home. Bank of mum and dad never closes its doors, it seems.

My suggestion is that if you can't get cards in your own name, consider asking a parent to apply for Clarity/Zero in THEIR name and letting you have an additional card on the account. You can pay off their account in the same way you'd pay off your own (though ultimately they are on the hook if you go crazy). The handy thing is that as they are the main cardholders, they can deal with any problems that arise. You may also get a better limit which can be good for emergencies.

Pedants will note that S75 is generally considered not to cover additional cardholder transactions. But this is unlikely to be an issue for gap year type spending.

There maybe debit card/payg solutions too which others can advise on.

eDicky

chattychappy wrote: »

There maybe debit card/payg solutions too which others can advise on.

Yes, the usual suspects : Starling Bank, Monzo, Metro Bank (Europe only), Revolut or Loot.io

For the various 'travel' credit cards see :
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/credit-cards/travel-credit-cards/

There's no point looking for cards with 'rewards' that cost more to use overseas than any benefits gained. Aqua Reward and Tandem pay 0.5% cashback on all purchases.

For a year's travel you should carry at least three suitable cards, a credit card if possible then for example Starling Bank debit, Loot and/or Revolut prepaid.

18cc

You could apply for the smart phone app only tandem credit card and get 0.5% back on all your purchases

PRAISETHESUN

Can't really comment on travel credit cards, although I have heard on the forums that many people recommend the Clarity card.

I can definitely recommend Monzo/Starling/Revolut as travel debit cards however. Starling is my go-to mainly for the unlimited fee-free ATM withdrawals overseas, compared to Monzo which starts charging fees when you take out over £200 pound equivalent in foreign currency in any given month

18cc

Yes would agree with the above open a Starling account on your smartphone and get a debit card if you need money abroad then family, friends etc back home can pay money into it

Also get a tandem and/or a clarity Credit Card only thing to watch out for is all the above are MasterCard you might also want to get a Visa depending on your view of the MasterCard Network going down!

Ubaka

What card are you referring to 18CC? Thanks to everyone for your input. I think we are going to sign up for a Gold Reward and use a transfer referral as my GF already has a BA card. Then a few months in I will refer her to the Same gold card and we can hopefully gain the points as it will be a different currency to hers. Just before we travel ill sign up for the BA Amex card and book all our initial flights on that to get the sign-up bonus again. We both have revolut (never heard of starling card). I will look into the 0% travel cards closer to the date. We still have a year before we go so we can maximise the credit card bonuses etc.

MallyGirl

Amex foreign exchange rate is not great and it is certainly not accepoted everywhere so you need other options too. Yes buy the flights on it to get rewards but don't use for day to day once out there. Clarity rates were excellent on my recent holiday