As many of you come to know, I love my travel points that I earn from credit cards. This is one way I can keep my reward points alive as well as add to them though out the year. Some of these card have some perks that come in handy just for having the credit card. I have what people in this hobby call a mixed setup. This a mix of travel credit cards and cash back cards. My travel cards help earn different kinds of points I can used for traveling and my cash back from my cash back credit cards currently are going towards my savings for expenses for my home. Seven out of my fifteen credit cards are travel cards. Of these seven travel credit cards, three of them have no annual fee. I want to share with you what these cards are, why I have them, and how they fit into my credit card strategy.
The FNBO Amtrak Guest Rewards Mastercard is the oldest of my no annual fee credit cards. I first got this card when Bank of America started issuing the Amtrak credit cards shortly after Chase ended its contract with Amtrak. Last year Bank of America sold the portfolio Amtrak credit cards to FNBO. When this card was launched by Bank of America it earned 2x on all Amtrak purchases and 1x on everything else. There was a 10% rebate for all food and beverage purchases on the train (in the form of statement credit). There were no foreign transaction fees, 5%-point rebate when redeeming Amtrak points, and the points never expired. All this carried over to the current FNBO card as well as 2x back on all dinning purchases. For a long time I under valued the points I could earn with this card and did not use it much. It was mainly used to keep my Amtrak points alive. When I got word of the move from Bank of America to FNBO, I did a little looking online and realized how valuable Amtrak Guest Reward points are. According to The Points Guy (1), Amtrak Guest Rewards points are with 2.5 cents per point. This means I am earning 5% back for Amtrak and dining purchases and 2.5% back for everything else. This has become my Amtrak and catch all card in my credit card set up.
In the spring and summer of 2018 is when I really started to close my cash back only credit cards and expand into the world of travel credit cards. This is when I got my first of two American Express Hilton credit cards. I first started with the Hilton Ascend card from American Express. This the same as the current Hilton Surpass card from American Express. But when I got my Hilton Aspire card in 2019, I did not see a need to have two Hilton cards with annual fees so this card got downgraded to the no annual fee Hilton card. I have kept this card opened to help my credit file and do what is known as gardening. That is were one keeps a card open and active to help add to the average age of accounts and to help my utilization ratio. To do this, I have one streaming service charged each month and then I pay it off. I may use it occasionally to make it look like the card is getting used. I mainly use my other Hilton card to help earn Hilton points. This is because the multipliers for this card are low and according to The Points Guy, Hilton points are worth 0.6 cents per point.
The last travel card I have with no annual fee is the Wells Fargo Choice Hotels Mastercard. I first got this card in November of 2020 when it was being issued by Barclay’s. I had just discovered the family of Choice hotels and thought they would be good to use when I would go on road trips. This was card great under Barclay’s because I earned 15x on stays with a Choice Hotel and 2x on any other purchase. This was a card I used mainly for going to the bar or using a vending machine. This past spring, Barclay’s ended its partnership with Choice Hotels and sold the card portfolio to Wells Fargo. With that change Wells Fargo changed the earning structure as they started offering a version of the card with an annual fee with higher multipliers. Currently the no annual fee version that I have offers 5x on stays at Choice Hotels, 3x at grocery stores, gas stations, and home improvement stores, and on phone plan services, and 1x on everything else. Since I fallow the point valuations of The Points Guy, this means I am earning 3%, 1.8%, 0.6% back on the respected categories since each Choice Hotel point is worth 0.6 cents per point. I have put my second cell phone pan on this card for the Cell phone protection that comes with the card. I have also been putting some spend in some of the 3x categories to show activity on the card and help show I am going to be a good customer of theirs so I can get the other version of this card down the road.
So, while I do have a good amount of credit cards, not all my travel credit cards have an annual fee. While all these cards have changed in some form since I opened them, I found a place for them in my credit card set up. They are helpful in keeping my points in their respected loyalty program alive and help with my credit file. As you can see, these kinds of cards can be helpful to have and hope this will encourage you to see what no annual fee travel cards fit into your credit card set up. I will put my referral link for the American Express Hilton credit cards as well as to the landing pages for both the FNBO Amtrak Guest Rewards Mastercard and the Wells Fargo Choice Hotel Mastercard. I would love to hear what no annual fee travel cards you have. Until next time, safe travels!
Reference:
1. Kelly, Brian. “What are points and miles worth? TPG’s May 2023 monthly valuations.” The Points Guy. The Points Guy. 19 May. 2023. Web. 8 Jun. 2023.
Links
American Express
FNBO Amtrak Mastercard
Apply - Earn up to 20,000 Bonus Points (amtrak.com)
Wells Fargo Choice Hotels Mastercard
Choice Privileges Travel Rewards Credit Card | Choice Hotels
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