How do we afford traveling all over the world?

One of our secrets is using our travel credit cards to pay for EVERYTHING. Our gas bill, electric bill, groceries, and more all are purchased with our travel cards. And… we pay them off every month on time so no pesky fees add up which would negate the value of the “free” travel perks that we earn. We also look for new cards when we know we have a large purchase to make like a new mattress or tires for the car. We have even put down payments on new cars on our credit cards to earn points towards our vacations. This helps us earn bonus points on a new card, or sometimes extra points on an existing card.

With most of these cards, you do need to make the choice to be brand loyal. This is the way that you make the most out of the cards that you choose.

Here are our favorite cards.

1. American Airlines Mastercard. We are lucky enough to live close to a major airport in the United States that is also an American Airlines hub. Because of this, we have decided to use American for most of our flights, which in most cases fly direct to our travel destinations. What we like about this card: We get a free first checked bag and preferred boarding and there are no foreign transaction fees if we travel internationally. We also receive a $99 companion pass each year on the anniversary of signing up for the card. We also receive priority boarding when traveling. When you apply for a card, there are many different options, some of which have an annual fee. With the higher fee, also comes more perks so take a look to see which card is right for you. Pay attention to the number of points you can receive when you sign up. Sometimes they offer 60,000 points if you spend a certain amount in 90 days. This amount of points could get you 1-2 round trip flights in the US, so it is a great perk. If you know you want to fly American, we recommend signing up before you book travel so that you can get your points to use for traveling.
2. Hilton Honors American Express. This one we use all the time for free hotel rooms. Normally 30,000-40,000 points earns you a room for one night. They also offer bonus points for joining. As of today, they were offering 100,000 points for spending $2,000 in 6 months. There are also several different levels of cards that you can get, which come with varying perks.
3. Capital One Venture Mastercard. This card also comes in many different varieties from no annual fee to a few hundred dollars in annual fees. The nice thing about this card is that there is not a need to be loyal. You can use it anywhere. I have this card attached to Paypal, so when I book an airbnb or a room at Hotels.com, I use this to pay for it. Paypal will automatically tell me that I have a certain number of dollars that I can apply to the purchase. I can also do the same at Amazon and use the rewards dollars there as well. I have found that the number of points I earn with this card are not as significant as the number of points from other cards. Dollar for dollar, this card does not earn as much.
4. Disney Visa. I admit. I’m a Disney girl and I hope to be able to go to Disney parks at least once every 2 years if not more. We knew we were going to Disney about 18 months ago so I signed up for their card. I earned $300 towards my statement in their new card member promotion. In addition, by using my card over those 18 months, I also earned a few hundred dollars in Disney reward dollars. I had to redeem them before we went to Disney, but I was able to use them in restaurants and shops on Disney property. This really helped us as most of our food was paid for. There are a limited number of food options in each park where you do receive 10% off when using the Disney card, so I always asked this before paying. If they accepted the credit card, I paid with that. If not, I used the rewards card. Another thing to note is that at Disney you receive 2x the points when using the credit card to pay for things. At certain times of the year, you can earn 3x the points.
5. Norwegian Cruise Line Mastercard. We used this card when we decided to book a cruise. The perks of this card are room upgrades and onboard credit. We decided to choose the onboard credit and were able to pay for a few excursions this way.

We have had a host of other cards, but we have either closed them or no longer use them. Here is why.

• They don’t offer the same dollar value as we have gotten from other cards
• We have purchased specific brands that we have tried and don’t particularly care for
• The annual fee increased and we didn’t feel the need to keep the card

Again, our secrets are: Find the brands that you enjoy and get those cards. Purchase everything with the cards. Pay the cards off on time every month to avoid service fees.

Let us know what travel credit cards you use and why.