Best credit card for international travel

SpaceCowb0y

Hello,

Just looking to see if someone can give me some advice on which credit cards are best for international travel?

I'm heading on a round the world trip and ideally want to get a card with zero or minimum fees for transactions. I know Irish credit cards don't come with all the nice bonuses of the American ones but if there's any particular cards that have any half decent perks with airlines etc that would be great to know too.

So much information online it's hard to make sense of it all, all i can see is that the Irish banks all offer fairly bog standard credit cards with similar transaction fees and little to no benefits over each other. Would that be correct? and if so should i just get a card from my current bank or is it still worth while shopping around?

Thanks in advance for any input!

jameshayes

SpaceCowb0y wrote: »

Hello,

all i can see is that the Irish banks all offer fairly bog standard credit cards with similar transaction fees and little to no benefits over each other. Would that be correct?

Unfortunately it is correct

BorneTobyWilde

Revolut it seems is good

SpaceCowb0y

jameshayes wrote: »

Unfortunately it is correct

Ah right, i was hoping I'd missed something! That's shite isn't it :rolleyes:

And there's no international credit cards we can apply for from inside of Ireland? I'd rather not got the N26 online banking route.

SpaceCowb0y

Would Avantcard be a better option than AIB/BOI etc? Very hard to see how any of these cards compare. I don't even understand APR

jameshayes

SpaceCowb0y wrote: »

Would Avantcard be a better option than AIB/BOI etc? Very hard to see how any of these cards compare. I don't even understand APR

https://www.bonkers.ie/compare-credit-cards/

They really are all the same except for the amount of interest (APR). APR is the amount of interest you pay on your purchases after a certain amount of days. So for example you buy something for 100 euro today, in some cases you wont be charged interest on that purchase until 50+ days, so as long as you settle your account within that timeframe you will not be charged anymore than the €100. Should you not clear your account you will be charged interest on that purchase (based on a pro-rata calculation of your APR)

That link about lets you compare them, you'll see many of them have good intro offers.

Delta2113

https://www.ccpc.ie/consumers/financial-comparisons/credit-card-comparisons/

Avatar MIA

AIB platinum is the best of a bad lot. 0.5% up to a max €225 return.

But, if you're not going to pay off on time the options are to limit the fairly significant damage of credit card interest.

SpaceCowb0y

Avatar MIA wrote: »

AIB platinum is the best of a bad lot. 0.5% up to a max €225 return.

But, if you're not going to pay off on time the options are to limit the fairly significant damage of credit card interest.

The main reason i want the card is to use abroad as i know in some countries they only except visa/mastercard not debit cards. i'll use it for booking flights and when there's no other alternative. I rarely carry large amounts of cash on me when travelling either for obvious reasons. The idea being i'll just transfer the balance from my current account as i go so no worry of not paying off in time.

I'm waiting to hear back from AIB about the platinum card at the moment

skippy2

+1 on Revolut........Flexible, no fees, easy to use, great rates...may be some issues others have found but generally have found it great for FX etc

368100

SpaceCowb0y wrote: »

The main reason i want the card is to use abroad as i know in some countries they only except visa/mastercard not debit cards. i'll use it for booking flights and when there's no other alternative. I rarely carry large amounts of cash on me when travelling either for obvious reasons. The idea being i'll just transfer the balance from my current account as i go so no worry of not paying off in time.

I'm waiting to hear back from AIB about the platinum card at the moment

Ask them about cross border atm and point of sale fees. You'll get charged these by the main banks regardless of paying the full balance before the monthly due date.