Travelling Abroad – Is Cash Better Or Credit Card?

Many who go abroad find it difficult to decide whether they should carry out their transactions in cash or card. The confusion can be sorted once you realize the many benefits that good travel credit card offers.

The best travel cards in Singapore have been designed to reward you more when charging your card in foreign currency overseas. So, you can accrue rewards points or miles at a faster rate and redeem them to get discounted hotel rooms, flight tickets, dining options, and more.

That’s not all. If you want to travel in luxury, you should know that the top travel cards in Singapore will give you several privileges. These include free access to VIP lounge facilities at multiple airports around the world, limousine pick-up and drop services to and/or from your airport, and free travel insurance plan.

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Enjoy The Rewards Coming Your Way

Top travel cards in Singapore offer reward points, air miles, rebates, and more. Most top credit cards allow you to redeem your points for gifts, discounts, or air miles with which you can book flights for yourself or your family. For example, with your KrisFlyer miles, you can book Singapore Airlines flight tickets for up to five nominees.

A lot of cards offer you a substantial number of bonus rewards points or miles when you sign-up and charge a certain amount to your card. So, you may be on a free flight faster than you had ever hoped for. Take the Amex Singapore Airlines Krisflyer Card, for example. It gives you up to 14,500 miles as a bonus on meeting certain criteria. The Citi PremierMiles Visa Card will gift you 10,000 Citi Miles if you pay the annual fee for the year.

With your HSBC Visa Infinite Card, you’ll get 24-hour Travel & Lifestyle Concierge assistance wherever you’re in the world. You can count on your dedicated concierge to help you plan your vacations better, organize dinners, get the best deals, arrange for your airport conveyance, and more.

Look For A Card With Low Foreign Transaction Fee

Many of the best travel cards in Singapore usually charge between 2% and 3% foreign transaction charge on usage of card overseas in a currency other than Singapore dollar. However, you may find card issuers that either charge no additional fees/commission on foreign transactions or are willing to waive it for you. For example, the CIMB Visa Signature Card comes with a permanent administrative fee waiver on overseas transactions. This fee is usually 1% to 2.5%.

Credit cards could also give you better exchange rates in the sense that they are standard rates charged by card payment networks such as Visa, Mastercard or American Express. This means that you won’t be duped by higher exchange rates charged by local merchants.

When Should You Not Use A Credit Card?

While using cards for retail purchases is a smart move, using them to withdraw cash isn’t so. Cash advance rates are extremely high on most cards and you might attract other charges for using the card overseas.

Credit cards have the obvious advantage of being more secure in usage and easier to carry than wads of cash. However, your card may not be accepted at certain overseas outlets, or for small change, for which you would need some money in hand. So, try to have an optimum mix of both cash and card at your disposal when you go abroad. You could also carry a prepaid card loaded with a certain amount in the currency of the country you’re visiting.

Lastly

Whenever traveling is in your mind, you should always keep flexible options available for a better travel experience; mainly regarding the monetary issues. There can be an emergency kind of situation during your journey which needs to be met with adequate money, and if you are not ready with it, then it may bring more trouble in your tour.

If you are interested in even more lifestyle-related articles and information from us here at Bit Rebels then we have a lot to choose from.

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