Video 3dzQU2-T8L4

[00:00] Now tell me if you like this too. When I travel overseas, I want to make sure that I have a credit card that's actually useful. Like giving me free airport lounge access where I can eat and chill, one that doesn't cost $800 in annual fees each year,

[00:12] and doesn't give me a headache by charging me foreign currency transaction fees, or even worse, not being accepted by the merchant. Here's what I personally look for in a travel credit card. Easy acceptance everywhere, annual fee under $200,

[00:24] solid rewards, no foreign transaction fees, and airport lounge access. Now, if you wanted to, I put together a list of my personal four favorite travel study cards that made the cut. Quick disclaimer, guys, this video is not sponsored, so it's based on my personal opinions only.

[00:39] I have affiliate links down below the sign-up pages where you can get rebates of $150 for signing up for a card paid to you via Interact. If you use my link, I may get a commission at no additional cost to you.

[00:51] The best study cards for me may not be the best one for you, so always make sure to do your own research. Now, with that out of the way, let's dive in. First, let's talk about the Rogers Red World Elite MasterCard.

[01:03] As a MasterCard, it's widely accepted internationally. What I love is that it has no annual fees. Zero. And that's pretty rare for a travel credit card. No annual fees is especially great for you if you're not sure how much you want to travel

[01:16] and if you're going to get your money's worth from the travel card. With this card, you pay no annual fees, so there's little to lose. This Rogers card has really nice rewards, especially if you travel to the U.S. a lot.

[01:28] It pays 3% cashback on eligible U.S. purchases, which is on the higher side. It also pays 2% on other eligible purchases if you have a qualifying service with Rogers, Fido, Shaw, or Comwave.

[01:40] Otherwise, it's 1.5%. And although this card doesn't directly earn you air miles, you can certainly use your rewards towards buying the ticket. I would get this card if I traveled to the U.S. frequently or had a qualifying Rogers

[01:52] service. So far, so good. Now here's why this card is not my number one. And that's because it charges foreign currency transactions, as is the case for most credit cards. So you have to be conscious of that since fees can add up quickly.

[02:05] But hey, on the other hand, there's no annual fee. Something to consider. Now two more reasons why I like this card. One, it gives holder airport lounge memberships. But hold on, here are the details. Here's just one example of an airport lounge in Sydney covered under this card's benefits under what's called the Dragon Pass.

[02:22] You can get snacks and relax while waiting for your next flight. I don't know how much entry would normally cost for this one specifically, but many airport lounges charge as much as $80 to over $100 per entry,

[02:34] and some won't even let you in without a membership. So with this Rogers card, you can access 1,300 airport lounges worldwide at a discounted rate of $32 per person per visit instead.

[02:47] Which again, is not bad considering there is no annual fee. And the other reason why I like this card is that it has comprehensive insurance coverage. And relevant for overseas travel is this point here. Out-of-country emergency medical between 3 to 10 days.

[03:02] Also, trip interruption and cancellation insurance ranging between $1,000 and $5,000. An added bonus, if you are already on an eligible Rogers mobile phone plan, you can get 5 days of Rome night home days.

[03:14] To sum up, considering that this card has zero annual fees, it offers really good value in my opinion. Of course, you have to see for yourself if this is suitable for you and your situation and read the fine print. Now, in case you decide this card is for you, you can use my affiliate link down below to apply and get a $50 rebate in cash via Interact,

[03:32] sent to you when you're approved. And again, this is an affiliate link, and I may earn a small commission if you sign up. On to the next card. For those of you who are okay paying an annual fee it getting even better The next card I like is the MBNA Rewards World Elite Mastercard You see it from the same World Elite Mastercard series like the previous logic cards As a Mastercard

[03:54] it also has high exceptions internationally, and I travel to places like Jakarta or Istanbul, and so far, I've always been able to use the Mastercard even at tiny eateries. I want to highlight though, the annual fee here is $120, but wait for the perks. Rewards are solid in my

[04:10] You get to earn 5 points for every $1 spent on eligible restaurants, groceries, digital media memberships, and household utility purchases, up to $50,000 annually in the applicable category.

[04:23] After that, you earn 1 point for every $1 spent on all other eligible purchases. At the moment, you can also earn a bunch of other bonus points depending on your spending, and you can even earn birthday points equal to 10% of the total points earned in the 12 months prior to your birthday month, up to a maximum of 15,000 points.

[04:40] And then you can go ahead and redeem your points for cashback, travel, or others. Talking about foreign exchange fees, I had to dig into the fine print to find the information. Turns out this card charges foreign conversion fees, although not stated how much.

[04:54] And that's the reason why this card is not my top favorite card. But what about the airport lounge access? I couldn't find any information about airport lounge access for this card. Too bad. So this card would be a no-go if that's important for you.

[05:07] But it does include solid travel insurance, including travel medical insurance with up to $2 million of coverage for the first 21 days of your trip. A quick comparison with popular travel insurance providers like Nomad Travel shows that a comparable insurance coverage could easily cost around $100 depending on destination.

[05:24] It also covers delayed and lost baggage insurance in case your luggage gets lost, flight or trip delay insurance, and others. So, no complaints here. By the way, if you want to make sure that you get the best credit card for your personal needs,

[05:37] Simly Wealth is one tool you can use that can help you compare options. And I'll leave the link down below. But if you think that this NDNA Reward World Elite Mastercard is right for you, I have a link down below that leads you to the sign-up page

[05:50] and I can earn you a $100 cash rebate plus up to 30,000 points. Now remember guys, points and rewards can change from time to time, so always double check before signing up if everything looks right to you. Now, some of you may be wondering why I didn't mention any Amex cards.

[06:05] Yes, Amex has many awesome travel cards, like, of course, the Amex Co-op card, which offers great travel points, and also the Aeroplan Express Reserve cards. But here's why I'm not the biggest fan for traveling.

[06:17] Amex, as you might know, has lower acceptance in general. This may not be a problem if you mostly eat at malls or Michelin-star restaurants or shop designer bags. But if you're like me and eat more casual at small shop houses, for example, small street vendors, and buy your souvenirs at tiny stores, then don't be surprised if your Amex could get rejected by the merchant.

[06:36] Personally, I don't want to deal with that limitation, and that's why I didn't include Amex card in this particular lineup. Although some of these otherwise awesome cards have too high of an annual fee, in my opinion, maybe it's just me, but I don't want to pay $600 in annual fees if I'm not sure that I can travel and spend enough to make that the money.

[06:54] Now before we move on to the next card, it's already May, June right now, and I'm dying to plan my next trip. Vacation is in the air. One thing I always do when I travel overseas is to buy an E-SIM plan that lets me connect to the internet in Japan, Portugal, or wherever, without paying crazy high roaming fees.

[07:12] And one provider I use a couple of times and personally really like using is Maya Mobile. It was really easy and super fast to get set up, and the connection was seamless, and the pricing made sense to me. So if you look into Maya and think it's right for you as well, you can use my affiliate link down below to get a 5% discount on your purchase.

[07:29] And just to let you know I may earn a small commission if you use my sign link at no extra cost to you Now let move on to the next card which is the 2D First Class Travel Visa Infinite Card And now, this one is the classic, guys.

[07:42] It is a Visa card and similar to MasterCard, have very high acceptance internationally. And the awesome thing is the usual annual fee is $139, but it's rebated for the first year.

[07:54] So $0 annual fee in the first year, which is awesome, especially if you want to try it out first. This card is great for rewards, especially if you already like to book your trips through Expedia anyway.

[08:06] Here's the deal. You get 8 TD reward points for every $1 spent when you book your travel via Expedia for TD. That can include your flight tickets, hotel, or cars. You also earn anywhere from 2 to 4 points for other spending categories.

[08:19] And there's also a special offer at the moment, like a 20,000 points welcome bonus, up to 145,000 TD reward points subject to certain spending, and a TD travel credit of $100 when you book at Expedia for TD, and even a birthday bonus.

[08:34] Note, rewards can always change, so make sure you double check in case you sign up, but at the moment of making this video, this card is a dream for points lovers. Now, here's why this card is still not my number one.

[08:46] After digging into the fine print, I found out that transaction fees do apply to foreign currency conversions. This means that when you make a purchase, a transaction in another currency, a fixed percentage will be charged to that transaction amount.

[08:59] Again, this is quite normal with credit cards, but as you'll see later, there is a card that does away with these fees as well. Talking about fees, guys, just a reminder to always pay off your balance. I always pay off my balance in full, otherwise it can carry high credit card interest rates that snowball quickly and you don't want that.

[09:17] Now let's get to the good news about airport lounge access now. This TD First Class Travel Visa Infinite Card offers up to 4 free airport lounge visits per membership year. This covers lounges hosted by Dragon Pass by enrolling in the Visa Airport Companion Program.

[09:33] I have used the Dragon Pass myself multiple times and it's awesome guys. I used it, for example, when we traveled to Jakarta, Indonesia, and had a 12-hour long layover in Istanbul, instead of wandering the airport for half a day, sleep-depart like zombies,

[09:47] we stayed at the IGA lounge in Istanbul, where we could get free food, drinks, and even nap, and shower. Without the Dragon Pass, it would normally cost $150 Canadian per person. So for two people, that's $300.

[10:00] But fortunately, we have the Dragon Pass, so we could get in for free, redeeming those two passes. I also used it in Tokyo once and actually showered there during our layover which was so refreshing. Instead of paying hundreds of dollars for an airport hotel, we just used the Dragon Pass.

[10:15] Considering this, for me this card makes sense even when the annual fee of $139 kicks in after the first year. Now the insurance benefits offered by this card are also stellar. I'm not going to go through the details but it covers everything from travel medical insurance,

[10:30] flight trip delay insurance, delay and lost stolen baggage insurance, even hotel bird burry insurance. So it's very expensive for the price, I think. In my opinion, this is a solid travel card. The four free airport lounge passes alone makes it worth it. But that's just me. I'm

[10:46] just a regular person on the internet and not an expert. But if you think that this TD first class travel visa internet card is suitable for you, then you can go ahead and click on my affiliate link down below. That will take you to the sign up page. But think about this, guys. If you really

[10:59] want to find the best credit card suitable for you personally, then see if you find Finley Wells' credit card comparison tool useful. They use powerful algorithms to calculate possible credit card fits for you. You can input your spending habits or needs to find

[11:13] your best credit card or just connect your bank to the tool so it can do the calculations for you It can show you the best credit card based on different purposes like best travel cashback card best for students and so on and even help you to do side comparisons Now guys on to my favorite travel credit card and this is one

[11:30] that I actually use myself which is the Scotiabank Passport Visa Infinite Plus card. It's a visa card so check for high acceptance internationally. At the moment, SIMU wealth can rarely increase the debate, you can earn from $100 to $150. So if you use my affiliate link to sign up for this card

[11:47] and you get approved, you can get that amount as a cash rebate sent to you via interact. And just so you know, I may earn a small commission if you sign up for this card at no additional cost to you. With that, you are directly supporting my channel and enable me to continue making these kinds of

[12:00] videos. Now let's talk more about the card. There is an annual fee of $150, but at the moment that is waived if you have an eligible bank account, including the ultimate package checking account. If you have the preferred package checking account, the annual fee is waived but just for the first year.

[12:16] But guys, this may be worth it depending on how you use the card. If you're a frequent traveler, you can quickly make your money back and more. But if not, then this card may not be for you. So very quickly, here's the points overview.

[12:29] Earn 4 points for every $1 you spend on hotels, car rentals, when you book through Scene Plus Travel powered by Expedia over here. You know, Expedia is this platform where you can book flights, tickets, hotels, and cars, and so on.

[12:41] So, they collaborated with Scotiabank's Pseudon Plus so you can earn points on your card. Then, you'll also earn anywhere from 1 to 3 points depending on spending category. And yes, you can redeem your points for travel. For example, redeem 20,000 points for $200 off travel with Pseudon Plus Travel, which I mentioned before and is powered by Expedia.

[13:00] So, check for rewards. Now, here's the big thing, guys, and this is especially important to me when I travel overseas. There are no foreign transaction fees. You know, that 2.5% that credit cards charge when you make a transaction overseas or in a foreign currency?

[13:14] No, this size. The exchange rate still applies, but there's no additional 2.5% charge on top of that with this card. What this means for me is that if I travel to Tokyo, Japan for 10 days, and spend, I don't know, $6,000 or whatever as a family on hotels, food, entertainment, and so on,

[13:31] I save $150 on foreign transaction fees. If you spend $10,000 for a bigger family let's say, that's already $250. This is quite significant. So, win for the Scotia Bank credit card here.

[13:43] It keeps getting better though guys. This card is the winner when it comes to airport launches in particular. This card currently includes not 4, but 6 complimentary airport launch passes per membership year, as can be seen in this video. Again,

[13:56] included are participating launches within the Visa Airport Companion Program hosted and managed by Dragon Pass. We easily use six passes each year, so at a standard average rate of, let's say, $100 per visit or so, that's already a $600 value.

[14:10] Since I actually use these airport launch passes, I am happy to pay the annual fee that comes along with it, something that may or may not apply to you, of course. For all of these cards, you have to really consider if you use them

[14:22] and if it's worth applying for them and paying the annual fees or any other fees associated, as it works for me, doesn't necessarily work for you. To top this off, the insurance benefits offered by this card are also comprehensive. Travel emergency, up to $2 million, and a range of other insurances that come handy during travel.

[14:38] Guys, have I left out any card that's your personal favorite? Let me know in the comments below. Also, let me know where you are planning to travel this year and which card you are considering at the moment. I'd really like to hear your thoughts on this.

[14:50] Thank you for watching, guys. Happy traveling and see you next time. Bye.