Choosing your travel rewards credit card

Travel credit cards come in a great assortment, but they all generally work in the same way: with every dollar spent you earn bonus points that can be exchanged for free flights, car rentals, hotel nights and other things during your travel. Sometimes you may redeem the collected points in the form of cash back, gift cards or merchandise. If you are looking for the best travel credit card but don't have time to review hundreds of different offers, here is Mike Credit's editorial pick of the most exciting travel rewards cards:

• The Barclaycard Arrival Plus™ World Elite MasterCard®;
• BankAmericard Travel Rewards® Credit Card;
• VentureOne® From Capital One®.

All three of them have 0% foreign transactions fee, which makes them perfect for traveling worldwide without being charged extra money for purchases you make abroad. Besides, they are not bound to a particular air carrier, which gives you freedom to redeem your bonus miles with any airline company you desire. Let's look at some other remarkable features that distinguish each of these credit cards.

VentureOne® From Capital One®

Simple rules, flexible miles redemption

Features:

• Unlimited 1.25x miles on every purchase, every day 100 miles equals to $1 in travel rewards;
• Redemption of bonus points on any air carrier, hotel, car rental and other travel services;
• Bonus points don't expire;
• 0% annual fee;
• No international transactions fee;
• One-time bonus of 20,000 miles;
• 0% intro APR for 1 year.

This travel credit card boasts both easy rules and various redemption options – you can redeem your bonus points by making travel purchases on any website or app without any restrictions. With VentureOne® From Capital One® card you will earn 1.25 miles per dollar on any purchases at any time. No need to think about what categories of goods you should buy to earn bonus points, just use your credit card and collect miles that don't expire. VentureOne® From Capital One® card offers initial bonus of 20,000 miles that is equal to $200 in travel rewards, provided that you spend $1,000 on purchases in the first 3 months since the account opening.

Cardmembers enjoy extended warranty on different goods they buy with their credit card, and have an option of emergency card replacement in case the credit card is stolen. Finally, this credit card has no annual fee and offers 0% intro APR for the first 12 months, which together with rewards and the sign-up bonus makes it a really good deal.

BankAmericard Travel Rewards® Credit Card

No redemption restrictions and extended bonuses

Features:

• Unlimited 1.5x rewards on all purchases at any time;
• No typical restrictions on airline companies, hotels and other services. No blackout dates;
• Bonus points don't expire;
• 0% annual fee;
• No foreign transaction fees;
• One-time bonus of 20,000 miles;
• 0% intro APR for 12 months.

10% customer points bonus on every purchase if you have a checking or savings account in Bank of America®. The best thing about this credit card is flexibility, both in terms of earning and spending your points. BankAmericard® enables you to earn 1.5 points for every $1 spent on all purchases anywhere and at any time. If you spend $2,000 a month you earn $360 on a yearly basis that can be spent on flights, hotels, vacation packages, cruises, rental cars or baggage fees. Unlike many travel rewards cards, you will not have any restrictions on what websites to use for redeeming your points, or what ticket dates to choose for your flights.

BankAmericard® allows you to book a trip whenever and wherever you want. Other valuable features of this credit card include 0% introductory APR for the first year and 20,000 sign-up bonus points if you make $1,000 in purchases in the first 90 days since your account opening. Additionally, if you are a Bank of America® customer, you can get a 10% customer points bonus on every purchase when you have an active Bank of America checking or savings account. Different online services are also provided, such as digital wallet, text banking and online shopping security when you get an automatically generated temporary credit card number for any online purchase without information disclosure about your real credit card. To sum up, BankAmericard Travel Rewards® Credit Card is perfect for those who want flexibility on earning and spending rewards, and value low cost of using a credit card.

The Barclaycard Arrival Plus™ World Elite MasterCard®

Largest sign-up bonus

Features:

• Unlimited 2x miles on all purchases;
• No restrictions of typical travel rewards cards on airlines or hotels. No blackout dates;
• Bonus points don't expire;
• $ 89 annual fee, waived for the first year;
• No foreign transaction fees;
• Sign-up bonus of 50,000 miles equal to $ 500 in travel rewards;
• 0% APR on balance transfers for 12 months;
• 5% of miles back towards future redemptions every time you redeem.

The Barclaycard Arrival Plus™ is amazing because of many reasons, but the main incentive to obtain this credit card is the initial $ 500 bonus offered to the new cardholders if they spend $3,000 within 90 days after the account opening. This is one of the most impressive introductory bonuses available these days. Speaking about earning points, The Barclaycard Arrival Plus™ offers 2 miles for every $1 spent, which is also very good compared to the average rewards cards.

The accumulated miles do not expire as long as you keep your account active, and they can be redeemed for travel tickets, cash back statement credits, merchandise or gift cards, however you get the best redemption rate when you exchange points for travel. Another attractive feature of this credit card is 0% APR on balance transfers for one year, which is very handy if you plan to consolidate your debt on one credit card. The annual fee is $89, which seems very reasonable considered that you get $500 just as the initial bonus. And in case you have an excellent credit score, you will enjoy a year free of annual fee (see the credit card terms and conditions).

Travel rewards credit cards can bring you a lot of benefits and save a lot of money on traveling expenses, if you use them wisely. We hope our overview was useful, and in case you want to discover more travel credit card options, use our interactive search tool to compare the leading travel rewards cards available today.