Why Travel Reward Credit Cards Are Awesome!

Imagine buying a plane ticket and then erasing the charge from your credit card bill. What? Yep, for you newbies, this is the deal from several travel reward credit cards. The 3 most popular cards out there are the Capital One Venture, Bank of America Travel Rewards and the Barclays Arrival Plus. 

With all 3, you get a sign up bonus, earn points for charges and then "erase" travel charges with your points. No blackout dates and travel charges are low budget airlines, train tickets, airbnb, car rentals and more. 

Let's go over the differences between these cards : 

Capital One Venture offers 2x points on everyday purchases, 10x on hotels booked through hotels.com and a 50,000 sign up bonus for a $3,000 minimum spend. Fee waived the first year, $95 fee after that. 

Bank of America Travel Rewards offers 1.5x on everyday purchases, 20,000 sign up bonus for a $1,000 minimum spend. No annual fee. 

Barclays Arrival Plus offers 2x points on everyday purchases,  60,000 sign up bonus for a $5,000 minimum spend.  $89 annual fee, not waived the first year. 

Depending on your spending habits or if you have a big purchase coming up, you can decide which card makes the most sense for you. When we traveled to Costa Rica, I charged our plane tickets to the Barclays card and then erased two of them. Yep, BOGO. That's how we do it at almost FREE family travel.