Travel Tip: Keep a Separate Credit Card for Travel Expenses

When traveling, I put all of my expenses on a seperate card (like my US Airways card) than I do for normal expenses when at home, and also travel with a dedicated travel wallet for extra security. Whether I book cheap holiday deals or extended stay business travel, keeping all of my travel expenses on the same card offers a number of advantages over using my “normal” credit card. Here’s why:

1. Fraud Protection – one study states up to 38% of all credit card hacking involves hotels, so keeping any hotel purchases on a seperate credit card will minimize the damages and make any fraud easier to spot right away.
2. Easier Expense Reporting – if I travel on business, all of my expenses are on one bill, so it’s easier to do expense reports when I get back
3. Extra Points & Rewards – use a credit card that focuses on travel points & rewards and you’ll usually earn double miles/points on most of your travel related expenses
4. Vacation Budgeting  – by having a card only for travel expenses, I can better keep track of how much I spend on trips and I can better budget for future travel, as I know how much I typically spend on similar trips.
5. Better Treatment – if I’m staying at a hotel, or flying on an airline, where I have that brand’s hotel rewards credit card, the staff will typically acknowledge that I must be a loyal & frequent guest of their company, and they’ll typically try harder to provide good service knowing that I’m an important customer.
6. Theft Risk Prevention – getting pick pocketed is always possible when traveling. I leave my other credit cards at home and only carry my “travel” credit card, which means if my wallet ever is stolen I only need to cancel one card, and the worst possible scenario is that they max out only one of my credit cards (and not all of them).