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Credit Card Strategies For A Stress Free Vacation

How can you enjoy your vacation when you have no money to spend? It’s kind of hard to do since most trips involve spending money on food, lodging, travel, gifts, etc. On most vacations, no money means no fun!

Credit Instead of Cash

On the second day of our recent trip I had a panic attack when I couldn’t find my wallet. Luckily, I wasn’t carrying much cash because I had brought along credit cards to cover our expenses. If you lose cash its money down the drain but if you lose your credit card you’re not out any money. Even if someone else finds your card goes on a spending spree the credit card company won’t hold you responsible for the charges if you report the card lost or stolen.

One thing to keep in mind for an international trip is that some credit card companies charge extra fees if you use your credit card in a country outside of the US. For example American Express charges a 2% fee of the purchase price of anything you buy internationally.

Carry a Backup Card

If you do lose your credit card you’ll feel much better if you have a backup. Don’t keep both cards in the same place, I gave our Chase Visa to my wife and kept the American Express Blue Cash in my wallet so if one of us lost our bag we’d still have the other card as backup.

Another reason to carry a backup is in case one of your cards reaches its limit. On our honeymoon, the hotel put a hold for almost $1000 on our primary card as a deposit, even though we’d already paid for the room. I didn’t know about the charge until one night at dinner when my card was declined because the dinner bill would put us over our credit limit. Luckily we had a backup card otherwise we’d have been washing dishes to pay for dinner, not very romantic.

Use a Rewards Card

Why not earn cash back, airline miles, or hotel points for your next vacation while you’re enjoying this one? There are specific hotel cards for Hilton & Marriott and airline cards for United, Delta, American Airlines, and US Airways. Or there are more generic cards such as American Express Blue Sky, Chase Travel Plus Platinum, and Citi Premier Pass whose rewards points you can use on a variety of hotels, airlines, and car rentals. Using a rewards card can help you prepare financially for your next trip while you’re relaxing on the current one.

Be Card Smart

Of course credit cards do bring the temptation to spend more on your trip because it’s easy to charge it now and worry about the payments later. If you can avoid this mental trap then using these credit card strategies can help you spend less time worrying about paying for your fun and more time enjoying it!