Post Credit Crisis Travel Cards

In the aftermath of the credit crisis 2 new travel rewards cards with great features have popped up. It was very surprising to find that instead of stripping away benefits due to new credit card laws, they actually added some! One is Escape by Discover® Card the other is the Chase Sapphire^SM card.

New Travel Protections

Both cards offer some great travel protections like trip cancellation insurance, travel accident insurance, and “primary” collision damage waivers on rental cars. These are great features that will save you hundreds of dollars if you are a frequent traveler. Getting free trip cancellation insurance is a huge benefit and both of these cards even come with huge sign-up bonuses.

The new Chase Sapphire^SM card has no annual fee and offers a 10,000 point ($100) sign-up bonus. It offers 2 points per dollar on travel booked through the Chase website and 1 point per dollar on everything else. The Chase card has all of the new travel protections mentioned before making this is one of the best travel rewards cards with no annual fee.

Double Your Points!

I like the Chase card, but I am a little partial to the new Escape by Discover® Card because you can rack up 2 points per dollar and use the reward points for flights, hotels, cruises, or rental cars. It does charge an annual fee, but this is easily made up for with a 25,000 point ($500) sign-up bonus. Every $5000 you spend will get you a $100 travel credit and it still offers better benefits than older travel reward cards.

I think the Escape card easily beats airline cards as well it doesn not have travel restrictions or require dropping 25,000 points for a flight that might only cost $200-$300. You also can’t go wrong with the the new travel protections built into the card so you can cancel your trip if you get sick or injured. This could potentially save you thousands of dollars on a non-refundable vacation package.

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