Best Travel Rewards Credit Cards

Using credit card points is a great way to save on travel. However, if you struggle to make ends meet and you think you might not be able to pay off the balance in full, then this probably isn't the best idea for you. You don't want to go into debt just to get a cheaper flight or save some money on your vacation. If you know for sure that you're going to pay the balance in full every month, then the benefits from credit cards can be awesome. My husband was a little skeptical when I suggested this. He hates credit cards and hates debt! I told him to let me try this for a few months and if I didn't pay off the balance, he could cancel the credit card. It's been almost two years and I haven't paid a dime in interest and I've made over $2000 in travel credit!

Here are some of the best travel reward credit cards:
Barclaycard Arrival 40,000 bonus points, 2 points per dollar, receive 10% of your redeemed points back ($0 intro for the first year, $89 annual fee after first year)
Capitol One Ventures card 40,000 bonus points, 2 points per dollar ($0 intro for the first year, $59 annual fee after first year)
Chase Sapphire Preferred 40,000 bonus points, 2 points per dollar on dining, 1 point per dollar on all other purchase ($0 intro for the first year, $95 annual fee after first year)
Southwest Rapid Rewards card 25,000 bonus points, 1 point per dollar, 6,000 bonus points at your anniversary each year (sometimes they offer 50,000 bonus points) ($99 annual fee)
Alaska Airlines 25,000 bonus points, 1 point per dollar spent, coach companion fare every year for $121

The way the points convert is 40,000 points is equal to $400. With the airline specific credit cards, 50,000 points is equal to about $800.

If you don't want to fly with a certain airline, you might want to consider one of the first 4 cards. You can fly with any airline and you can also redeem your points for other travel such as hotels and car rentals. But if you know you're only going to fly with a certain airline, you might want to get that airline's credit card.

We had the Barclaycard and I really liked this card. I used my credit card for all of my purchases and paid the balance in full each month. After redeeming our credit card points, it only cost us $800 for our family of 6 to fly to Orlando! Not bad, right? We then received 10% of the points we redeemed and I used that towards our rental car. We got a mini van for 10 days and only paid about $200!