Travel credit cards for low earners?

NomadicBrit

I'm an aspiring digital nomad looking into travel card options so I can start saving money and credit towards free flights, hotels and more so i can travel the world and work remotely on a budget.

According to the credit card soft credit checker on here, i'm not eligible for any of the best travel credit cards (aka where the money comes in) because I'm not in full-time work. I'm self-employed so my income is quite low (i'm currently on benefits while i set everything up and save money to leave the country).

Am I right in assuming its impossible to access travel credit cards for people in my position? If so, how can i access other opportunities to yield the same benefits?

Thank you!

DullGreyGuy

Travel cards are typically about those that are cheap to use whilst overseas but you sound to be wanting reward cards that you can redeem on travel? There are travel debit cards too (eg Chase and Starling) which are just as cheap to use overseas and won't be salary dependent 

Most reward cards, if not just cashback, require notable spends to get a meaningful amount of airmiles etc and those are best used on higher classes of travel rather than economy (with the slight exception of European flights with BA). 

NomadicBrit

but you sound to be wanting reward cards that you can redeem on travel

yes that's the type i'm referring to. could i use travel debit cards or similar to help meet the eligibility criteria for travel credit cards? assuming no alternatives exist?

 and those are best used on higher classes of travel rather than economy (with the slight exception of European flights with BA). 

I'm more than happy to mostly spend airmiles on economy tickets. or even intercontinental trains if that's possible. i'm not a luxury traveller for the most part.

DullGreyGuy

NomadicBrit said:
I'm more than happy to mostly spend airmiles on economy tickets. or even intercontinental trains if that's possible. i'm not a luxury traveller for the most part.

And thats the problem, other than BA short haul flights the majority of an economy ticket is the taxes and levies that you still have to pay when buying a ticket with points. Certainly when I've been looking in the past 40,000 airmiles saved £5 on a transatlantic flight from the UK -v- cash HOWEVER the one advantage is the airmiles flight is flexible whereas a cash fair isn't. 

If you are looking outside the UK then in some low tax regimes it can make more sense... a first class flight from HK to LHR only cost $5pp (the same flight in the opposite direction was £600 or so)

Voyager2002

Anyway, the answer to your original question is that this is not going to be possible for you. 

Even if you managed to get your hands on a relatively generous reward card (unlikely), you would need to spend many thousands on it before your rewards would be worthwhile for travel.

You should concentrate on getting hold of debit cards that enable you to use your money without excessive fees wherever you are in the world.

Nebulous2

Do you have a credit card at all?

Generally the starting point would be a credit-builder card and you would work up to one of the better offers. 

heatherw_01

As someone who hasn't had a credit card before and has a low income, you won't find one.

I struggled to get anyone to give me a credit card as I hadn't had one before. I got one to accept me for a "credit building card". I use that to build credit so I can get a travel credit card in future.

You might want to do the same, as you need to build credit to get the cards with good offers.

Flylikeaneagle

I'm in the same position as NomadicBrit i.e. can't get a credit card as selfemployed low earner living with / caring for aged parent having lived abroad most of working life etc. However I have been invited on a cruise (lucky me) and have been informed that I need to have a credit card to leave with cruise company even though I do not intend to use it at all (already purchased a package to cover the "extras"). How can I go about getting a credit card even for just a month? Any thoughts welcome!

DullGreyGuy

Flylikeaneagle said:

I'm in the same position as NomadicBrit i.e. can't get a credit card as selfemployed low earner living with / caring for aged parent having lived abroad most of working life etc. However I have been invited on a cruise (lucky me) and have been informed that I need to have a credit card to leave with cruise company even though I do not intend to use it at all (already purchased a package to cover the "extras"). How can I go about getting a credit card even for just a month? Any thoughts welcome!

If you won't be spending on it then there is no need for it to be a "travel" credit card. 

Do you know how much holding deposit they will take? You can either look at the normal sub-prime lenders, the high APR is irrelevant if you won't spend, or get a pre-paid card as long as you have the cash to enable them to do the hold against it.