Timeshare Traveler Episode 106... My all time favorite Travel Credit Card

[Clifbell]

After traveling for a year (almost) and using credit cards for almost 100% of my payments, I thought I would do a video on why the American Express Aspire Card is my favorite. My travel is greater than most people so I do have a lot of experience using different cards. It is possible that you can adjust what I have learned to your travel needs. I think I would have the same choice even if I were not traveling as much.

In this video I provide an overview of the airline cards and hotel cards I have. The most surprising was how much better the American Express Aspire card was than the cash back card... but only if you know the key benefits and you use them. I have some amazing experiences with Aspire card and would love for you to have a similar experience. Enjoy!!!

Timeshare Traveler Episode 106... My all time favorite Travel Credit Card

Map of all my timeshare reviews

 

[Carolinian]

One of the countries I worked in while in eastern Europe had only one business in the entire country that took AmEx, a luxury hotel in the capital, and a year after I started working over there, they got in a dispute with AmEx and quit taking it, so nobody did in the entire country. Another country I worked in, there were a handful of places in the capital that took it but I never saw anywhere outside the capital that did. My corporate card was AmEx, so it was almost useless. That was a problem in enough countries that the head office in the US changed all of the corporate cards to a Diners Club branded Mastercard, and that one could be used many places in the countries I worked in. It was also a great card for travel because it included free airport lounge priveleges in many airports, which was particularly useful in Europe, and in some airports I flew thru in the US.

One thing that is important for a credit card for international travel is to have one that does not charge a foreign use surcharge, and not many banks issue those. Does this AmEx card have a foreign usage surcharge?

 

[Clifbell]

One of the countries I worked in while in eastern Europe had only one business in the entire country that took AmEx, a luxury hotel in the capital, and a year after I started working over there, they got in a dispute with AmEx and quit taking it, so nobody did in the entire country. Another country I worked in, there were a handful of places in the capital that took it but I never saw anywhere outside the capital that did. My corporate card was AmEx, so it was almost useless. That was a problem in enough countries that the head office in the US changed all of the corporate cards to a Diners Club branded Mastercard, and that one could be used many places in the countries I worked in. It was also a great card for travel because it included free airport lounge priveleges in many airports, which was particularly useful in Europe, and in some airports I flew thru in the US.

One thing that is important for a credit card for international travel is to have one that does not charge a foreign use surcharge, and not many banks issue those. Does this AmEx card have a foreign usage surcharge?

Here is the link to the cards with no foreign fees... Most of the travel cards follow into that category including the Aspire card.

No Foreign Transaction Fee Credit Cards | American Express

See which credit cards from American Express have No Foreign Transaction Fee. Compare cards & find the best one for you. Apply now. Terms apply.

www.americanexpress.com

I traveled a lot overseas with corporate Amex cards and sometimes had to use my Visa... That seems to be less now as 20 years before.

 

[Carolinian]

Here is the link to the cards with no foreign fees... Most of the travel cards follow into that category including the Aspire card.

No Foreign Transaction Fee Credit Cards | American Express

See which credit cards from American Express have No Foreign Transaction Fee. Compare cards & find the best one for you. Apply now. Terms apply.

www.americanexpress.com

I traveled a lot overseas with corporate Amex cards and sometimes had to use my Visa... That seems to be less now as 20 years before.

I used to have both a personal Amex and a corporate Amex for my law practice. I earned Delta Skymiles on both which had been the reason to get both cards. When Delta radically changed their SkyMiles program, I comped my airline elite status over to Northwest, which I also found to be a better airline in many respects, not just a better ff program. I dropped one of my Amex cards the very next time renewal fees were due again after switching airlines, and the other one the year after that. I got the cards that earned Northwest air miles as replacements. I did find their rental car insurance very good. I used my personal Amex on a car rental in Athens on a t/s exchange, and got rear ended on Corfu. They swapped out cars on Corfu, and on the car return at the Athens airport, the rental car company said that since I had rented the car on Amex, they did not need a deposit from me while they negotiated with the insurance. Most of my travel in those days was in western Europe, and Amex was accepted more there than I later discovered in eastern Europe when I was working there. i learned the truth of that punch line in TV ads for Visa - "and they don't take American Express."