Yahoo Movies The best credit cards with no foreign transaction fees of 2021
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Global travel is becoming more and more accessible with great airfare sales, low-cost carriers, and the ability to earn and use frequent flyer miles for international tickets. It’s all but essential to have a credit card for international travel, but not all cards are created equal—not by a long shot. If you have the desire to travel internationally, or even already have a trip planned, you should stock your wallet with a credit card that serves you well overseas. A number of credit cards offer perks like travel insurance, airport lounge access, a Global Entry fee credit, and no foreign transaction fees to make your travel even more enjoyable.
Sometimes those perks can make the difference between a travel hassle and travel disaster. Defunct discount airline Wow Air stranded passengers when it closed up shop in March 2019, and its bankruptcy interrupted vacations around the world. Passengers who had bought their tickets with cash were out of luck. But passengers who had paid with a credit card had options like chargebacks or, in some cases, travel insurance to reimburse the canceled tickets and cover the cost of a new flight home.
If you have international travel in your future, these five choices could be the best credit cards for you.
The best credit cards with no foreign transaction fees
Best overall: Chase Sapphire Reserve
Chase Sapphire Preferred
The Platinum Card® from American Express
Bank of America® Travel Rewards Credit Card
How we evaluated
I’m a travel writer who has been writing about credit cards for the last six years and studying card benefits for many years longer. Many credit card options help elevate your international travel experience, and I’ll help you figure out which option is the best for you.
To examine cards, I looked at major credit cards with flexible points and great benefits while traveling abroad. Yes, no foreign transaction fees was an absolute requirement! The best cards were chosen based on the value of rewards (both points and perks), fees specifically connected to international travel.
Things to know about credit cards
Most of these cards come with an annual fee. But some cards offer perks each year that significantly defray (or even negate) the fee. The Chase Sapphire Reserve Card is a good example of this.
APR rates and credit limits vary based on your individual credit. Credit limits and interest rates for each card are determined based on each cardholder's personal situation, so we did not take that information into account when evaluating these cards. One thing to remember is that if you pay your card off in full every month, you will not be charged interest.
Banks have the final say on who they accept for a credit card. These recommendations were put together with the assumption that applicants would have average credit or above. That being said, banks decide who they will issue credit cards to using criteria including, but not always limited to, an individual's credit score when evaluating each applicant.
Best overall: Chase Sapphire Reserve
The Chase Sapphire Reserve is the premium travel credit card with the most—and most valuable—travel benefits, making it easily our top pick. Users earn flexible and valuable points and a slew of trip-related perks. This card has a $450 annual fee, but its excellent returns quickly make it worthwhile for jet-setters.
Points: Chase created a proprietary reward system called Ultimate Reward points. The Sapphire Reserve card offers 3 Ultimate Rewards points per dollar spent on all travel and dining purchases, and 1 Ultimate Reward point per dollar spent on everything else.
The points can then be used to book hotels, cruises, car rentals, vacation rentals, and tourist activities directly through Chase’s travel portal at a rate of 1.5 cents per point ($0.015). For additional flexibility, points can also be transferred to partners like Hyatt and United Airlines.
Perks: The Chase Sapphire Reserve doesn’t charge foreign transaction fees for any purchases you make abroad. It offers purchase protection (basically, insurance for your purchases) and extended warranty protection (to extend the manufacturer's warranty for items you purchase).
It also offers primary car rental insurance coverage up to $75,000 in physical damages or theft, meaning you don’t have to pay extra for the car rental company’s insurance and if something happens to your rental car, you won’t have to make a claim to your own insurance policy first. You’ll also benefit from trip delay coverage, trip cancellation coverage, and lost and damaged baggage coverage.
What’s more, the Sapphire Reserve also offers a $300 annual travel credit, where the first $300 in travel purchases (from taxi fares to hotels to flights) made on your card each year will be refunded via a statement credit, effectively reducing the annual fee to $150.
You’ll also receive a TSA PreCheck or Global Entry application fee credit (a $85 or $100 value) every four years, and a Priority Pass Select Membership, giving you access to over 1,000 airport lounges around the world.
Learn more about the Chase Sapphire Reserve
Citi Prestige
The Citi Prestige has a couple of unique benefits beyond lounge access and an annual travel credit, but, like the Chase Sapphire Reserve, it’s not a card that comes cheap. The Citi Prestige has a $495 annual fee.
Points: The Citi Prestige earns Citi ThankYou Points which, like Chase’s Ultimate Rewards, can be transferred to a number of different partners including British Airways and Singapore Airlines.
It earns 5 points per dollar spent on air travel and dining purchases, 3 points per dollar spent on cruises and hotels, and 1 point per dollar spent on all other purchases. In addition to transferring, you can redeem points at a rate of 1 cent each ($0.01) through Citi’s travel portal.
Perks: The Citi Prestige offers some similar perks to the Sapphire Reserve including a Priority Pass Select airport lounge membership, trip delay and cancellation coverage, lost and delayed baggage coverage, and a Global Entry/TSA PreCheck fee credit.
Citi also offers a $250 annual travel credit ($50 less than the Chase Sapphire Reserve’s) that will give you a statement credit for the first $250 in travel purchases you put on your card each year, effectively defraying the annual fee to $245.
Last, but certainly not least, is the Citi Prestige’s most unique benefit: “4th Night Free” hotel reservations. You’ll get the average nightly price of your four-night (or longer) hotel stay rebated to your credit card, exclusive of taxes and fees. But be aware: You can only use this perk twice a year.
Learn more about the Citi Prestige
Chase Sapphire Preferred
The Chase Sapphire Preferred is the lower-annual-fee sibling of the Chase Sapphire Reserve, costing $95 per year. It has been a favorite credit card for travelers since it was introduced in 2009, and we named it our overall best travel credit card.
It comes with fewer benefits than the Sapphire Reserve, but may be a better choice for people who don’t travel frequently enough to get value out of the Reserve, or anyone who spends less than $5,500 per year on travel and dining combined.
Points: The Sapphire Preferred earns the same Ultimate Rewards points as the Sapphire Reserve, though at a slightly lower rate. You’ll get 2 points per dollar spent on travel and dining purchases and 1 point per dollar spent on everything else.
Ultimate Rewards points can be used to book hotels, cruises, car rentals, vacation rentals and tourist activities directly through Chase’s travel portal at 1.25 cents per point ($0.0125). These points can also transfer to Chase’s airline and hotel partners like Hyatt and United.
Perks: Just like the Reserve, the Sapphire Preferred doesn’t charge foreign transaction fees for any purchases made abroad. It also offers purchase protection and extended warranty protection on purchases made with your card where the manufacturer’s warranty is three years or less.
You’ll also get primary car rental insurance coverage, trip delay coverage, trip cancellation coverage, and lost and damaged baggage coverage.
Learn more about the Chase Sapphire Preferred
American Express Platinum
While American Express cards aren’t widely accepted outside of the U.S. (typically only at international locations of U.S.-based hotel and restaurant chains and sometimes high-end stores), the Platinum Card from American Express might be useful as a second card when traveling abroad.
Specifically, the Platinum Card plugs you into Amex’s excellent travel concierge service, which is like having a personal travel agent a phone call away, no matter where you are in the world. Likewise, this card is a good option for frequent flyers who'd like to make use of American Express’ best-in-class Centurion Lounges, with more than a dozen locations across the globe.
This card has a $550 annual fee, though, so you’ll definitely want to use it often in the U.S. to make its points and perks worthwhile overall. See rates and fees as terms apply.
Points: The Platinum Card from American Express offers 5 Membership Rewards points per dollar spent on airfare purchased directly from airlines or through American Express Travel, and the spending cap for this category is $500,000 per year. Cardholders earn 5 points per dollar when booking prepaid hotel stays through amextravel.com, and 1 point per dollar spent on all other purchases.
Additionally, during the first six months of a new account, the Platinum Card offers 10 points per dollar on up to $15,000 spent at U.S. supermarkets and U.S. gas stations.
These points can be redeemed through Amex Travel with a value of 1 cent each ($0.01) or they can be transferred to American Express partners like British Airways and Virgin Atlantic.
Perks: Even though you may not be able to spend money on your Platinum Card everywhere, it still has many benefits that are worthwhile for international travel. First off, American Express travel concierges are accessible for assistance with restaurant reservations, concert tickets and more anywhere in the world when you’re a Platinum cardholder.
As you'd expect, cardholders have their Global Entry or TSA PreCheck application fee covered when it's paid for with the card, and you can enroll in a Priority Pass Select membership with access to more than 1,300 airport lounges worldwide. You'll also have access to American Express’ Centurion Lounges (currently 12 within the U.S., plus several international lounges, with more opening every year) and Delta’s lounges when you fly with the airline.
With the Fine Hotels + Resorts programs, Platinum cardholders receive an average of $550 worth of complimentary perks such as late check-out and room upgrades. The Amex Platinum also offers $200 annually in Uber credits ($15 per month, $20 in December) but only for use in the U.S.
Learn more about the Platinum Card from American Express
Bank of America Travel Rewards
The Bank of America Travel Rewards Card’s main selling point is that it doesn’t charge an annual fee and, like all other cards on this list, doesn’t charge foreign transaction fees either. Since it is a card without a fee, it lacks other benefits that some cards on this list have and also earns a lower rate of rewards.
Points: The Bank of America Travel Rewards Card offers 1.5 points per dollar spent on all purchases. When you want to use your points, you can pay for your flight, hotel, car rental, vacation package, cruise, or baggage fees with your card and redeem your points as a statement credit to offset the cost of the purchase.
Perks: This card doesn’t charge foreign transaction fees. It also offers an introductory 0% APR period on purchases for the first 12 billing cycles, after which a variable APR based on creditworthiness will apply.
Learn more about the Bank of America Travel Rewards Card
Please note: The offers mentioned above are subject to change at any time and some may no longer be available.
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See rates and fees for the Platinum Card from American Express.
Other top credit card options
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This article originally appeared on Reviewed: The best no foreign transaction fee credit cards of 2021: Reviewed
