Anyone who writes in this space inevitably gets asked, “So, what credit card should I sign up for?” Experienced vets know that’s a very complicated question, dependent on your travel goals, budget, liquidation bandwidth (if applicable), family size, etc. etc. But that won’t stop people from asking the question, so I thought I’d put together a list of my best travel credit cards for beginners. Easier than typing the same e-mail over and over.

Note: I do not have credit card links, therefore every link to a credit card in this post earns me $0. They are literally the links I found from Google.

Before we start, one quick note. Freequent Flyer made an astute comment to me the other day (paraphrased): “Sometimes I recommend certain credit cards to people because if they can’t even handle one or two new credit cards, they can’t handle playing this game in full.” (He’s also written on similar themes here and here).

This is the stark reality. Playing the travel hacking game often requires juggling a lot of different things at once; it challenges even the most experienced. You need to keep track of your annual fees, avoid falling for the sunk costs fallacy, manage tens of different accounts – the mental space required can be exhausting.  I’m at a point in my life where I’m simplifying my game, not expanding it. 

So these credit card recommendations come with those things in mind. They provide you options to save money on your travel, but will also help you determine how equipped you are to handle the game. Baby steps, as it were. There ain’t no shame in not getting deep in the game – better to save a little money on travel than waste a lot of money due to disorganization. And yes, please do remember to pay your statement off in full every month – otherwise your rewards will cost you way more than you think.

I’ve organized these cards from least to most complicated – the further down the list you go, the more mental energy you will need to glean maximum value. Remember, the best card is the best card for your situation. Hopefully my descriptions will help you determine that.

Barclays Arrival Plus 

My mother in law texted me the other day alerting me to a 50,000 point sign up bonus for the Barclays Arrival Plus card. This card used to be hot hot hot, but nobody really talks about it much anymore as it presents less value than in the past. Still, the Arrival+ represents a great entryway into the game for beginners. You need to spend $3000 within the first three months to earn those 50,000 points – can you organize your spending in a way to accomplish that without purchasing more than you normally would?

The Arrival+ is a classic “cash equivalent” card. The points that you earned can be redeemed against your travel purchases for statement credits. Any travel purchase you make over $100 can be “zapped” through your online credit card account website with Barclays. Each point represents 1 cent of value, so 50,000 bonus points can subsidize $500 of your travel.

You also earn 2 points per dollar you spend along with a 5% rebate of points spent. So the Arrival+ functions effectively like a 2% cashback card, albeit one whose “cash” you need to spend on travel. But you can use that to travel anywhere you want to go, just plan your vacations as you normally would and make sure you use the Arrival+ to pay for it.

Some downsides include the need to make a > $100 purchase before redemptions. Also, unless you are a huge spender, the $89 annual fee (waived first year) isn’t really worth it, so this card will give you practice in canceling cards or asking for retention bonuses. 

Why card is good for beginners

• plan travel as you normally would, use Arrival+ to pay for it and earn a statement credit

Skills practiced

• organizing spending to earn a sign up bonus
• redeeming cash equivalents for flights
• canceling cards/getting retention bonuses

Downsides for beginners

• must redeem for at least $100 in travel purchases, can be tough for some
• may not be worth keeping for more than one year causing more work for a beginner

Discover it Miles

It’s a bit weird to me to put a no annual fee card down as “more complicated” than an annual fee card like the Arrival+ but bear with me. Discover it Miles presents a fairly simple reward scheme. You earn 1.5 points per dollar spent, those points can be redeemed for cash or a travel credit. The travel credit works very similarly to the Arrival+ credit. 

One thing that makes this card more “advanced” is the introduction of the option of cash or travel credit. Ostensibly, these credits can be used the same way. The question becomes how do you organize your finances mentally? Are you setting aside your rewards for travel or are you redeeming for cash back if your finances warrant it.

Note – I think if you need the cash, you probably should be redeeming for cash back not travel. Maybe you shouldn’t be traveling in the first place. Or maybe you should! I don’t know your situation. The point is, once the option of redeeming for straight cash back is introduced, you get to start making decisions based on your priorities and goals. That represents higher order thinking in travel hacking.

In fact, I ignored a great 2% cash back card, the Fidelity Visa, when I introduced the Barclays Arrival+. But you could just earn money on a cash back card and set it aside for your travel expenses, if you can organize yourself that way.

One final note on Discover it Miles – your rewards are doubled after your first calendar year. So you effectively earn 3% back that first year, introducing you to another hallmark of travel hacking: hitting certain deals hard for the limited amount of time available.

Why card is good for beginners

• no annual fee
• easy to redeem rewards for cash back or travel credits 
• plan travel as you normally would

Skills practiced

• deciding between redeeming for travel or cash back
• hitting a good deal hard (double bonus the first year)

Downsides for beginners

• little to no sign up bonus (can get $50 from a referral)
• may be tempted to just take the cash back instead of use for travel (only a downside if your goal is to travel more)

 

Chase Sapphire Preferred

The Chase Sapphire Preferred (CSP), like the Arrival+, fell out of favor to some degree. But it’s still a great card for beginners! Currently, you need to spend $4000 in the first three months to earn the 50,000 Ultimate Rewards point bonus. For the extra $1000 you need to spend (over the Arrival+), you gain quite a bit in value.

First, you can use your Ultimate Rewards to book travel through Chase’s travel portal. If you do that, you will get 1.25 cents of value per point. So as a cash equivalent currency, your Ultimate Rewards points get you more than your Arrival+ points. You can use 50,000 point bonus for $625 worth of travel ($125 more than Arrival+).

Secondly, the CSP also gives you the ability to transfer your points to travel partners. You can transfer miles to a lot of go-to programs for travel hackers, including but not limited to British Airways, United, and Hyatt. Thus you have more options for how you want to redeem your points.

This brings you to the next level of travel hacking – you can learn to start making decisions about how to get the most value out of your points. More options means more potential value but also more mental energy devoted to value proposition determinations. 

Do note that you only earn one point per dollar spent (2 points on travel and dining), so your regular earning rate isn’t as good. However, after the first year (and it’s waived $95 annual fee) you can easily downgrade the card to a Chase Freedom Unlimited (1.5 points per dollar), though you will lose a lot of the travel benefits.

Why card is good for beginners

• easy redemption for $625, but the option to branch out into using loyalty programs
• card can be downgraded to Chase Freedom Unlimited after first year

Skills practiced

• organizing spending to earn a sign up bonus
• redeeming cash equivalents for flights
• transferring points to travel partners
• canceling cards/getting retention bonuses OR downgrading to no annual fee card

Downsides for beginners

• regular earning rate of only one point per dollar
• learning how to use different loyalty programs can be confusing (too many options)
• $4000 in 3 months may be a lot for a beginner

Chase Sapphire Reserve

I hesitated putting the Chase Sapphire Reserve on this list but ultimately decided that as a potential training tool it fits the bill. Up front you should know this card carries a hefty $450 annual fee, not waived the first year. In terms of benefits, it pretty much mirrors the Chase Sapphire Preferred. 50,000 point sign up bonus after spending $4000 in three months, the ability to transfer to travel partners, and the ability to use the points to book travel through Chase.

The Reserve does offer you 1.5 cents per point used towards travel through Chase, better than the Preferred’s 1.25 cents. The real reason I put this card on here is the $300 annual travel credit you get with the Reserve. Lots of premium cards come with this credit, the Reserve makes it the easiest to redeem. Basically any purchase you make that codes as travel will get reimbursed up to $300 per calendar year. (Note: Make sure you use up all $300 before your December statement closes).

You can get this travel credit twice in your first year of card membership, something travel hackers like to take advantage of. Then you get to practice determining whether a card is worth keeping, downgrading, or canceling. Personally I’ve decided to keep this one. Either way, you’re juggling all the skills you can hone with the Chase Sapphire Preferred with the added challenges of managing the travel credit. Thus I believe this to be the most complicated card I’m recommending for beginners, but it can really jumpstart your skills in this game.

One final note on Chase. They won’t approve anyone who has gotten more than 5 new credit cards in the last two years. That’s why conventional wisdom states go with Chase first. I mostly agree with that conventional wisdom but it’s highly dependent on how deep you plan on going in the game. Of course, nobody ever plans to go neck deep from the outset, so…

Why card is good for beginners

• easy redemption for $750, but the option to branch out into using loyalty programs
• card can be downgraded to Chase Freedom Unlimited after first year
• practice earning travel credits

Skills practiced

• organizing spending to earn a sign up bonus
• redeeming cash equivalents for flights
• transferring points to travel partners
• earning travel credits twice in first card year
• canceling cards/getting retention bonuses OR downgrading to no annual fee card

Downsides for beginners

• regular earning rate of only one point per dollar (though 3X on travel/dining)
• learning how to use different loyalty programs can be confusing (too many options)
• $4000 in 3 months may be a lot for a beginner
• can be confusing juggling travel credits
• $450 annual fee very expensive if you don’t get the value back

Final Thoughts

I’ve changed quite a bit since I started this blog years ago. Now that I have a family, I recognize how great cash back cards can be in their simplicity. Earning 2% cash back on every purchase is great for travel, if you set that money aside to travel! Cash back cards notwithstanding, the cards I recommended above are some of the easiest entry level cards I can think of for beginners. Each card will help you practice a different skill that you can build on to save further on your travel budget. Feel free to e-mail me anytime with questions, but note I’m not financial professional, just giving my opinion from experience.

For you old timers out there, what card would you recommend to a pure beginner?

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Early this week, I started taking stock of my annual fee cards. Although all my annual fees hit at different times throughout the year, I found myself asking “How many annual fees do I actually have and are these credit card annual fees worth paying?”

What sparked this? The annual fees on both my Citi Prestige and American Express Platinum are due this month and I realized that I have a lot of high annual fee cards. I somehow ended up with three Platinums in the past calendar year, something I need to rectify soon. 

Anyway, in my mind there are two ways to evaluate annual fees. You can evaluate the benefits and whether they are worth the fee, or you can evaluate the fee in light of how much benefit you can glean from the card via MS.

For our family, I’ve basically decided that the MS stuff is a wash – I’m never going to MS enough to make any credit card annual fee worth paying. That’s just not my game. If that’s a factor it’s just gravy. It all comes down to whether the annual fees benefit my family. Here are the annual fee cards I have and how I personally decided whether they were worth paying or not in light of our family’s situation.

IHG Card ($49)

Everyone says these IHG credit cards have credit card annual fees worth paying. I’ve only heard one contrarian view (Freequent Flyer) that I can remember, but I’m starting to come around to that view. My wife and I each have this card, so we have two free nights between the two of us. 

You’d think this be ideal but between the fact that we travel less than we used to, our unflinching loyalty to Hyatt Diamond (sarcasm, but we did migrate many stays in that direction), and our favoring apartment rentals more, these free nights have become much more difficult to use. I ended up using our 2016 credits for my in laws, which I’m happy to do of course but which is also indicative of how often I have a chance to book these nights. 

This card often gets praised for the ability to redeem a room at an Intercontinental for $49, but that’s not really realistic for my situation. Still, I’m enamored with the free night (or the idea of it?) so I’m keeping this card.

Bank of America Alaska Air ($75)

There’s a companion pass, but I’m actually not sure why I haven’t cancelled this card yet.

Barclays AAviator ($89)

I keep telling myself 10,000 anniversary miles a year make the $89 annual fee worth it. I’m not sure why, though. The fee also gets mitigated by free check bags, which we use quite a bit as a family.

Chase Ink Plus ($95)

I earn enough Ultimate Rewards points at office supply stores to justify this annual fee. People often compare cards like the Ink Plus to 2% cashback cards, which is a good rule of thumb. However, I’d never MS that much on a 2% cashback card so I personally don’t use that criteria. Remember, just because it makes logical sense doesn’t mean you need to apply that criteria, especially if it doesn’t apply to your situation. 

American Express Delta Gold ($95)

I strongly considered canceling this card last year, but decided that the odds of the family taking two domestic roundtrips on Delta were high enough to keep the card. Checked bags for four segments cost more than $95 so the fee pays for itself. Now I couldn’t guarantee that we’d take that many trips on Delta, so I inherited some risk keeping the card. It worked out this year but I’ll have to reevaluate again for the coming year.

Barclays Jetblue Plus ($99)

Checked bag fees factor in again here, but the big reason why I’m keeping this card is the ability to earn Mosaic status with $50,000 in spend. I fell in love with Mosaic status last year when I status matched, mainly due to the ability to cancel tickets without fees. This comes in super handy for family travel, because when you book 4 tickets being able to change to a lower price without a fee is incredibly clutch. This will be the first time I’m earning status via spend – should be fun!

Citi Prestige ($350 due to Citigold)

I consider my Citi Prestige a $100 fee due to the $250 airline credit I end up getting every year (it’s so easy to redeem). So the question I ask myself is whether I can get $100 back from the fourth night free benefit. This proves harder than you would expect, because we don’t often stay four nights in one hotel (plus the factors I mentioned for the IHG card). Like the Delta Gold, I’m gambling that I’ll use the benefit which will cancel out the annual fee. If saving money was my only priority, this would be easier, but I can’t use the fourth night free benefit as much as others might because hotels don’t always make sense for my family.

Chase Sapphire Reserve ($450)

Like the Citi Prestige, the $300 travel credit on the Chase Sapphire Reserve isn’t difficult to use. So the question I ask myself for this card is whether the card justifies paying $150. Since I’m keeping the Ink, I don’t need the Reserve in order to transfer points to travel partners. So most of the extra value I can get from this lies in the ability to get 1.5 cents per Ultimate Reward point on travel. However, since I already get 1.25 cents per UR through my Ink card, the marginal benefit is only 0.25 cents.

So to make up the $150 I’d need to spend at least 60,000 Ultimate Rewards points towards booking travel. That’d be worth $900 with a Reserve and $750 with just an Ink. I’ll be booking four tickets per trip starting in July so that’s not unrealistic, though put a pin in this for later. 

American Express Personal Platinum ($450X2)

Nevermind why I grabbed these cards, the $200 airline credit just doesn’t cut it anymore. I never use Ubers, which AMEX uses to justify it’s upcoming increase of the annual fee to $550. We totally panned these “enhancements” on Episode 50 of the Saverocity Observation Deck podcast so you can hear my full thoughts there, but basically, so long AMEX Personal Platinum cards. Oh, and how could I forget their middle finger towards families!? 

American Express Business Platinum ($450)

I’m totally on the fence about this card though I don’t have to decide for awhile. I’m fairly certain I can glean $250 of value out of the 50% points rebate, but I’ll need to do some more thinking about this. That leads me to my final point though.

It’s impossible to evaluate these cards in a vacuum – time to be realistic

You’ve probably noticed a fairly large flaw in my evaluations here. Well, if you’re a parent you probably have. Now for a family with two kids under 5, our family travels quite a bit, despite how messy it can get. 

But let’s add up what I need to do to justify all these annual fees (of the cards I’m leaning towards keeping):

• 2 nights in IHG properties
• 2 domestic roundtrips on Delta
• Some Jetblue flights to justify earning Mosaic
• A four night stay with Citi Prestige that saves me at least $100
• At least $900 in flights booked through Chase Travel with the Reserve
• At least $500 worth of travel booked through AMEX Travel with Business Platinum

If I can do all those things, I’ll at least break even on the FIFTEEN HUNDRED DOLLARS of annual fees across those cards. But almost all these benefits are mutually exclusive. I can’t fly Jetblue and Delta at the same time. If I’m booking through Chase Travel, I can’t use my Mosaic status. 

To use all these benefits I’m looking at a minimum of three domestic trips realistically. Combine that with our travel goal of one or two international trips (which probably don’t factor into these valuations at all since we try to book those in business class or above), and my travel demand schedule for the year is maxed out at best or exceeded at worst.

Put simply, we probably won’t fly enough to justify all these cards. Especially considering we’ve already completed two of our domestic vacations and booked the international one! So I’m going to be making some cuts in the upcoming months, despite what I said above. My comments above evaluated each card in a vacuum, but I can’t really do that, can I?

Final Thoughts

My one thing I hope people take away from this post? It’s easy to justify paying the annual fee on almost every single card you can get. But make sure your justifications don’t operate in a vacuum. They need to reflect your actual travel goals and capacity.

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