International Travel Credit Card Cost & Benefit Report
12:41 PMPosted by: Unknown
Traveling abroad can be taxing, especially on our wallets. We spend more than $245 billion on international travel each year, which works out to roughly $3,390 for each of the 72 million Americans in on the action.
Whether you travel by plane, train, bus, car or boat, having the right plastic in your pocket can make life a whole lot easier. The best travel rewards credit cards offer people with good or excellent credit hundreds of dollars in savings per year. And the best international credit cards provide a range of travel benefits, such as insurance for lost luggage, free overnight replacement cards and worldwide acceptance.
To help travelers make the right choice, WalletHub compared 69 of the most popular credit cards on the market in terms of their international-travel friendliness. We did so using 12 key metrics, which range from the cost of foreign-transaction fees to whether the issuer requires notification before a cardholder leaves the country. And this allowed us to rank the credit cards from best to worst for international travelers. You can find the results below, followed by the full methodology.
Best Credit Cards for International Travel| Rank | Card Name | WalletHub Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Barclaycard Arrival Plus World Elite MasterCard | 81%% |
| T-2 | Citi Prestige Card and Citi ThankYou Premier Card | 80% |
| T-4 | BankAmericard Travel Rewards Visa Signature Card and MERRILL+ Visa Signature Card | 77% |
| T-6 | Chase Sapphire Preferred and Chase Sapphire Reserve | 76% |
| Issuer | Expedited International Delivery Fee | Contact Info (international calls) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| American Express|Free|1 -336-393-1111Bank of America|$15|1-757-677-4701Barclaycard|$15|1-302-255-8888Capital One|Does not ship to international addresses|1-804-934–2001Chase|Free|1-302-594-8200Citi|$6|1-605-335-2222Discover|Does not ship to international addresses*|1-801-902-3100U.S. Bank|Does not ship to international addresses|1-503-401-9991USAA|Does not ship to international addresses|*Discover may provide this service in case of emergencies. Replacement cards are generally received within a week, depending on what country a customer is in.
Detailed Scores
WalletHub analyzed the foreign travel benefits offered by personal credit cards from the top 10 issuers, excluding student and co-branded cards. We collected information online from issuer websites for all 69 cards and scored each card’s benefits in three overall categories: Fees (20 %); Secondary Benefits (30 %); Convenience Services (50%). These categories are comprised of 12 individual metrics, described below. Where policies were incomplete or unclear, we contacted the issuers directly and requested clarification. All issuers responded to our questions and either confirmed the accuracy of our data or provided corrections, except for Chase and Barclaycard, which only partially confirm the data. The scoring framework used to evaluate each card can be found below. Card data is accurate as of April 17, 2017.The maximum score attainable for a card in this report is 100%. 1. Fees (weight: 20%)a. No foreign fee (weight: 15%)
b. No international-cash advance fee (weight: 5%)
2. Secondary Benefits (weight: 30%)a. Travel emergency assistance (weight: 10%)
b. Travel accident insurance (weight: 8%)
c. Lost luggage insurance (weight: 6%)
d. Delayed luggage insurance (weight: 4%)
e. Rental car insurance (weight: 2%) We identified if the card offers complimentary coverage for rental cars and assigned scores based on its destination coverage as described below:
5. Transparency Score – Worth 10%A. How Easily Can One Find The Info? – Worth 3%
B. How Easy Is It To Read The Info? – Worth 1%
C. How Complete Are The Provided Policies ? – Worth 4%
D. How Open And Transparent Are Card Issuers About The Policies? – Worth 2%
The card with the most accumulated points received the highest score. The maximum score is 100%. The scores for each category are based on our opinion of how each return extension program compares to an ideal policy. An ideal policy would be one based on common sense, where the average consumer would know what to expect without having to read the fine print. |
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