As any seasoned traveler knows, a trip rarely goes precisely to plan. Make that never goes precisely to plan. And when bumps in the road evolve into major obstacles, a credit card can be a smart tool to help smooth the way. After all, credit cards combine purchasing power, insurance protection and security for your purchases. As a bonus, if your card offers them, you can also accrue points to take your travels farther. Fiji, anyone?
Whether you’re renting a car, booking a last-minute flight or need someone to advocate for you when things go wrong, a credit card can be a vital travel companion. Here’s a look at how credit cards helped save the day for three experienced travelers.
The Missed Flight
Caroline Lupini is a bona fide globe-trotter. The former engineer caught the travel bug in 2011 on a trip across Europe and never looked back. She’s taken more than 500 flights and visited more than 85 countries, and she now focuses full-time on her travel blog and speaking engagements, where she teaches people how to be savvier travelers.
During her voyages, Lupini says she has learned the power of credit cards. “A good credit card or two is an absolute requirement in a savvy traveler’s tool kit,” she says.
As an example, Lupini points to a recent trip from Ireland to Algeria, where she planned to meet up with friends. Her original flight routed her from Ireland to London, on to Madrid, and then finally to the coastal city of Oran in Algeria. But an air traffic control delay in England threw a wrench in that plan, causing her to miss the connection.
She turned to the online claims service of the credit card with which she’d booked the flights. “I didn’t really have a panic moment, because I knew I would be covered,” she says. And she was right: Lupini’s credit card included trip-delay insurance that got her out of the bind. Her online claim covered the cost of rebooking her flight out of London the next day. Additionally, her card company picked up $500 worth of expenses, including a hotel at the airport, dinner, breakfast and even a new shirt, since her clothes were in her checked baggage. Delayed by a day, Lupini nevertheless made it to Algeria and spent the next three weeks traveling around the country with her friends.
Looking back, Lupini says that trip-delay insurance isn’t the only travel-card benefit she recommends. She also tells people to look for a card with no foreign transaction fees and baggage-delay insurance, car rental insurance and points earned on travel.
The Stolen Information
James Feess, also a travel blogger, visited Europe five times in the past year, chronicling his trips on The Savvy Backpacker. A former copywriter, Feess turned travel into his full-time pursuit in 2018. He has also found credit cards to be invaluable tools. “A credit card is essential because of the security and protection it offers,” he says.
He remembers, for example, a time when his card information was skimmed while he was at a restaurant in France. Charges to his card began registering from Greece, a country Feess had never visited. On another trip, he’d already made it home to the United States when charges from Australia started appearing on his account; Feess had spent his trip in Italy.
“The credit card companies flag these fraudulent charges right away and reverse the charges almost instantly,” Feess says.
Other payment methods, such as debit cards, may not offer such quick results—something Feess learned through a painful previous experience. “I always warn travelers to only use their debit card as a way to get cash. You should never use that card to make purchases,” he says. “When people have made fraudulent charges on my debit card, my bank took a few weeks to get everything sorted out.”
In that event, you could end up short on cash—not a desirable situation while traveling.
The Business Traveler
Josh Patoka had just begun a new job, and his new employer asked him to go on a three-week business trip—before Patoka and several of his co-workers had been issued company credit cards. “We had to charge the hotel and meal expenses to our personal cards and request reimbursement,” Patoka says.
While Patoka had a personal credit card he could use, his co-workers did not, relying instead on their debit cards. In addition to hotels and meals, the group was paying for other daily expenses, like parking fees and security deposits, which began to add up.
“I had the peace of mind knowing that my personal bank account balance was intact and the charges would be reimbursed before my credit card payment was due,” says Patoka, who now works as a writer for travel website JohnnyJet. And because they were on the road for so long, Patoka’s co-workers were out hundreds of dollars until they received their reimbursements.
What’s more, since Patoka’s credit card was a rewards card, he was earning points on all of the expenses he charged to it. During the trip, Patoka was able to redeem some benefits to upgrade his and his co-workers’ hotel rooms. Thanks to a “free anniversary night” perk, Patoka was even able to get some free rooms at a hotel so that his co-workers wouldn’t have to lean on their savings.
So whether it’s a matter of flexibility, security or simply having a little extra purchasing power in a pinch, credit cards are one thing to be sure to pack on your next trip.
Austin Kilham is a writer and editor based in Los Angeles.