Best card for rewards in a year of continuous travel and holiday to America

Tietam

I'm moving jobs and working remotely for the year. It gives me the opportunity to travel lots and so I'm planning a year of travelling throughout Europe and Asia. 

This summer I'm also booking a three week holiday to America. Everything is sorted but it just needs booked. 

Given that I will spend a lot of my year on flights and in hotels, does anyone have any advice for the best credit card or bank account that will give me the most rewards and benefits? I've been looking into an Am Ex card - I like the one that offers free insurance - but am slightly put off by the cost. 

Thanks for any help!

hugheskevi

Doesn't the Am Ex card insurance only cover you for trips of up to 90 days? And what is the foreign exchange fee - 2.99%?

I have just spent 16 months travelling. The best benefit was a work discount scheme that gave me 8% off AirBnb gift vouchers, similar offers are available more generally and worth researching as well as checking what offers any work-based incentive scheme may provide.

A lot of the incentive offers are for short-periods, and when travelling receiving physical cards is likely to be difficult. I used the Chase debit card with fee-free foreign exchange and 1% cash-back for spending. It is capped at £15 per month now though. I also used Booking.com regularly, but discounts with that tended to come from the membership tiers based on frequency of booking.

The Barclaycard Reward card is great to go with Chase, as Chase is a Mastercard and Barclaycard is Visa and it is useful to have both sometimes. Chase ATM withdrawals are also limited, albeit quite generously, so Barclaycard is useful to have in case you are withdrawing a lot of cash.

It is probably easier and more important to minimise additional costs than it is to maximise rewards/benefits.

bagand96

As above, it depends what your priority is. A card that's good for spending abroad, or a card that offers good rewards for big spending?

The two aren't necessarily the same thing.... If you're booking and paying for your travel from the UK and paying in Sterling GBP then a rewards card is best. 

If you're paying abroad, focus on fee free. 

martindow

A bit off topic, but you need to check the rules for countries you will be in when working remotely.  Although most countries allow visitors in to take holidays for a period of time, working there (even remotely) may require a visa.  Possibly there could be similar limitations with medical insurance policies.

Tietam

bagand96 said:

As above, it depends what your priority is. A card that's good for spending abroad, or a card that offers good rewards for big spending?

The two aren't necessarily the same thing.... If you're booking and paying for your travel from the UK and paying in Sterling GBP then a rewards card is best. 

If you're paying abroad, focus on fee free. 

Thanks. 

Really what I'm thinking is of using a card that will offer me rewards for use for travelling - eg - discounts on hotels, insurance benefits, etc. 

I have a Clarity Card at present, which is great for using abroad, but it doesn't give me any benefits.

DullGreyGuy

Tietam said:

I'm moving jobs and working remotely for the year. It gives me the opportunity to travel lots and so I'm planning a year of travelling throughout Europe and Asia. 

This summer I'm also booking a three week holiday to America. Everything is sorted but it just needs booked. 

Given that I will spend a lot of my year on flights and in hotels, does anyone have any advice for the best credit card or bank account that will give me the most rewards and benefits? I've been looking into an Am Ex card - I like the one that offers free insurance - but am slightly put off by the cost. 

Thanks for any help!

Are you spending the full year abroad or going for X weeks at a time and then back to the UK and then back out again? 

Travel insurance will cover you for a maximum of Y days continuously being abroad with the clock only resetting on returning to the UK. If you are going to be gone continuously then you are going to be buying a backpackers policy as the only type that does that sort of duration. If you are coming back here every 8 weeks or so then an annual policy MAY be appropriate but they often have both a single trip maximum duration (90 days if your lucky) and a maximum number of days abroad in the year. 

AmEx is generous in that theirs is 90 days with no maximum aggregate however there is no way to declare pre-existing conditions so you have to be comfortable with a blanket exclusion on these. 

It's not clear if you are wanting a card to just make the bookings and therefore these may all be in GBP or a card for your spending whilst abroad and so will be in local currencies.