hey man question how did you manage to
afford a 20 000 first class plane ticket
a year or two out of college when you
were only making like sixty thousand
dollars a year easy I just use these oh
so you just loaded up on credit card
debt definitely not I got these travel
credit cards I got a sign up bonus and I
use those points to travel for free whoa
so you got credit cards to travel for
free but Dave Ramsey said that if I ever
got a credit card I would
die yikes listen I have no idea what
Dave is teaching over there but
certainly that won't be the case here I
in my career have had over 50 credit
cards and accumulated over 4 million
miles and points and yes I am very much
still here now for those of you who are
new welcome my name is John of John's
Finance tips on Tick Tock as well as on
Instagram like I said I've had over 50
credit cards so that you don't have to
unless you want to and in my career now
is probably one of the hottest and best
times to jump in if you're in the
marketplace for a new travel credit card
in my card career never have I seen a
period with so many more benefits coming
out to the consumer in the way of
additional Transfer Partners more travel
perks as well as high sign up bonuses so
whether you're a veteran of the credit
card game or you're new to the channel
now is the perfect time to consider what
travel credit cards you want for 2023
and today is a segment of what card
Wednesday in which we talk about the top
travel credit cards for 2023 8. we're
going to talk about my top six cards and
my recommendations on how to really use
them for travel in addition to one
honorable mention and two cards that I
just have to comment on Now quickly I
would love to know though again whether
or not you're new to the space or you've
been in it for a while what are some
travel cards that you have what are some
redemptions you've taken or what are
some dream redemptions you would like to
take now before I dive into the tomatoes
and potatoes of this video two quick
housekeeping tips one if you are new to
the travel game listen a travel credit
card isn't just strictly limited to
travel what I mean by that is a lot of
these travel cards if you will are
offering really high sign of bonuses if
you're not a traveler and if you're not
looking to travel I don't know five ten
times a year you can still take those
sign up bonuses and store them for a day
in which you want to travel or to redeem
them as the same in Credit Now the one
caveat is don't do Amex you're gonna get
ding but what I'm here to say is even
though the term travel card is going to
get thrown around a bunch in this video
that's just because the industry refers
to these cards with generally better
travel perks as travel cards but how I
view it as anybody and everybody should
be looking at getting one of these cards
because they're coming with monster
signup bonuses 50 60 70 80 000 points
which is easily equivalent to five six
seven eight nine hundred dollars worth
of statement credits and for some people
maybe you just want to save holiday
shopping maybe you just want to save on
groceries whatever that is you can use
those points for those purposes now of
course that's not the most optimal way
to use it but I do understand that
everyone has different spending
preferences the second point is if you
are in this game if you want to get a
travel credit card if you want to do
what I do which is open one or two or
three or four or 40 cards you need to
make sure you understand how to manage
your credit what I mean by that is are
you paying on time and in full if yes
then you can continue onward but if you
come to this Channel and you're
wondering in this video which of my
cards has the lowest APR fortunately you
can have to pause and exit out if you're
asking about API interest rates it's
showing me that you're carrying a credit
card balance if you carry credit card
balance and you're paying interest rates
unfortunately you're paying for my free
vacation I don't need you to do that
thank you so much though but please do
do not hold a balance so with that being
said though I've got a ton of really
good material to go over today however
I'm going to keep it somewhat brief I
will Deep dive into particular cards or
certain redemptions just let me know
what you're interested in and if you
want to help support my Channel please
feel free to use any of my links for the
cards that we described below coming at
number six we have the Capital One
Quicksilver listen and if you're also a
beginner or you're new to this game this
is also a phenomenal one of my favorite
beginner cards so the Capital One
Quicksilver is going to give you a 200
signup bonus after you spend 500 bucks
in the first three months if you can
visit really easy 200 discount if you
are already going to spend 500 in the
next three months this card has an
earnings rate of 1.5 cashback for
everything as far as benefits and
features the biggest benefit feature is
the fact that you can use this card
abroad because there are no foreign
transaction fees as a Visa signature
card and all this gets wrapped with a
zero dollar annual fee so my verdict for
the Capital One Quicksilver is this is a
phenomenal first card or even even
second card if you want to start
traveling a little bit here and there
now of course there's not going to come
with a lot of bells and whistles but
again that's not what this card is
focused on coming in at number five we
have the built MasterCard just know that
this is the only card on the marketplace
that lets you earn points for your
largest monthly expense which is likely
paying rent I mean let me know in the
comment section down below how much do
you pay for rent per month I imagine
it's probably one two maybe even three
thousand for some people anyway back to
the card this card unfortunately doesn't
come with a sign up bonus which I think
is a huge Miss next up we have earnings
this card will earn three points per
dollar spent on dining two points per
dollar spent on travel and one point for
every dollar you spend on rent now this
is where it gets really exciting if you
live in one of these large high-rises in
like New York or San Fran or wherever
your apartment building likely already
has a relationship with built and you
can just use the card to pay and you're
not gonna get hit with the processing
fee keep in mind you can use use credit
cards to pay for rent but the thing is
you're probably going to have to pay I
mean two three four five percent for the
processing fee and that would
essentially negate the points you would
earn for rent with the build card they
actually cover that processing fee I
know the next question you probably have
is but John I am a small time landlord
and I only pay them with a check well
the build team has thought of that as
well this thing is pretty crazy so
basically you sign up for the card you
get on their platform and you can
actually put in your landlord's
information and they will cut your
landlord a check on your behalf every
single month so even if you're paying by
check or vemo or whatever the built
platform is able to send out a check to
your landlord so you are still earning
points for rent the only limitation with
rent is that you can earn a maximum of
50 000 points in a year so roughly
that's about four thousand dollars or so
a month in rent which if you're paying
four thousand dollars a month in rent
yikes and this card will also earn one
point for dollar spent everywhere else
next up we have benefits so the build
card earns points on rent that's great
but what does that actually mean it's
the fact that you earn built points for
folks who are new to the channel let me
explain something to you credit card
points are extremely valuable so that's
talking your Amex membership Reward
Points your Chase Ultimate Reward Points
city thank you these points are crazy
valuable because you can take those
points transfer them to say a travel
partner an airline or a hotel and get
crazy value by using that Award chart
and typically that's been reserved for
the big Banks well the build card comes
here and absolutely disrupts that model
because build points can also be
transferred to Partners
and not just any Partners some of the
partners at the build team has Inked
honestly surprised me so you can take
your build points and transfer them to
places like Hyatt you can transfer them
to United Airlines and you can also even
transfer to American Airlines that is
crazy folks like the only way to get
points to American Airlines is to sign
up for City American Airlines card
that's it no other currency can transfer
to American Airlines but the built
points can which is just oh my God like
you need to run to check this card out
so what can you actually do with the
points so one way you can use the points
is by redeeming with Hyatt Hyatt I
believe has incredible value in one of
the last hotel chains that offers that
so we're going to look at a booking for
the Hyatt zaler all-inclusive resort in
Cancun the cash value per night is a
little bit over 600 so if we think a
look at it two nights would be over 1200
however let's say you are in that case
of having to pay four thousand dollars a
month in rent you would come out with
about 48 000 points so after one year
with the build card you could easily
afford two nights at the highest zalera
all inclusive for just 42 000 build
points transferred to Hyatt and then
redeemed and as for the airline Partners
I know I mentioned them before but there
are a ton of flight Partners the one
that I am most excited about is going to
be American Airlines because American
still has some of the most valuable
award space sweet spots for getting to
the Maldives one of the ways you can do
Boston to the Maldives on Qatar Airways
Q Suites which is that double bed live
flat in the sky instead of paying six
seven eight nine thousand dollars per
person you can just use 70 000 American
Airlines miles and less than about 50
bucks per person in addition to Transfer
Partners the build has a laundry list of
features and benefits one of which is
your points are worth 1.25 x if you just
redeem them through the build travel
portal the build card also gives you
cell phone protection if you were to get
your phone stolen damaged or
involuntarily parted which to me seems
like lost this card will also give you
trip delay coverage and if you use the
card to pay for lifts after three Lyft
rides a month you'll automatically get a
five dollar credit the card also gives
you dash pass for three months and every
single month you will get five dollars
off of your first door Dash purchase
having gone through the earnings and the
benefits we gotta talk about the annual
fee to put into perspective 99 of cards
that allow you to transfer points to a
flight partner come with an annual fee
so you're probably thinking this comes
with an annual fee that's what I would
have thought but no there is no annual
fee guys this is a 100 free card it's a
free premium travel card which just it
doesn't exist when you think premium
travel you think annual fee oh sorry
completely forgot to mention there's
obviously no foreign transaction fee so
you can go ahead and use this card
abroad so this card if you're looking
for a no annual fee card if you pay rent
if you're looking for a premium no
annual fee card and you pay rent the
build MasterCard is going to be the one
for you in 2023. coming at number four
we have the Chase Sapphire preferred
this is a perennial Workhorse travel
card this card comes with a 60 000
points on a bonus after you spend four
thousand dollars in the first three
months as far as earnings you will earn
Five Points without spent on travel as
long as you book through the Chase
Ultimate reward portal three points per
dollar spent on dining three points per
hour spent on online shopping excluding
Target Walmart and wholesale clubs three
points spent on select streaming
services two points per dollar spent on
travel at one point per dollar
everywhere else as far as benefits for
this card you're gonna get a 25 bonus if
you redeem travel through the ultimate
reward portal so that 60 000 Point sign
of bonus could be worth up to 75 000
points AKA 750 if you use those to book
travel through the Chase Ultimate reward
portal in addition this card will give
you a 50 Hotel credit every single year
so if you book a hotels with a card
you'll get a 50 credit this card also
provides Transfer Partners as part of
the Chase Ultimate reward program there
are a slew of Transfer Partners one to
me that's pretty interesting as of right
now is a transfer to Air Canada's Aero
plan you can fly on Etihad Airways
business class on their brand new a350
1000 it's a new plane it's big it's
phenomenal from Abu to JFK this
typically costs 90 000 points or so but
with a current transfer bonus it would
only cost about 70 000 points so you
would take your Json ultimate Reward
Points transfer them to Air Canada's
Aero plan and then book an Etihad
Airways flight from Abu Dhabi to JFK I
think it's like 15 hours on an Ultra
Premium business class ticket that
normally would probably cost five to six
thousand dollars another Transfer
Partner that up until really this year
only Chase had is Hyatt now that the
build card launched it's two Transfer
Partners but remember the example
earlier of the high booking basically
instead of spending twelve hundred
dollars a night all you would need to do
is come up with 42 000 points and you
can stay for two nights at an
all-inclusive Hyatt zillera Cancun
Resort in Mexico this card also gives
you auto rental insurance so when you
rent a car you can go ahead and decline
the insurance they always try to push on
you you have baggage delay coverage
you'll also earn five points for every
single dollar that you spend on Lyft
until the end of March 2025 and you will
get dash pass for free for one year and
when it comes to annual fee this card
does come come with a 95 annual fee of
course it's not waived in the first year
but remember that offset we have a 50
Hotel credit so every year you would
effectively only be paying 45 dollars a
year my verdict for this card this is a
Workhorse card in the chase ecosystem
you've got a freedom maybe you have an
ink this is a great Workhorse card at
the entry tier and I know some of you
are going to be asking me well what
about the reserve which is its older
brother we'll talk about that in a
little bit hang on to that thought but
right now if you're looking at entry
mid-tier travel card this is definitely
going to be one you should consider
coming at number three we have the City
premiere it's good to see a city card on
the list for once this card comes with a
super high signup bonus of 80 000 points
after you spend four thousand dollars in
the first three months as far as
earnings this card is absolutely packed
you're gonna get three points for every
dollar that you spend at gas stations
restaurants supermarkets and air travel
and hotel in one point per dollar spent
everywhere else as far as benefits I'd
say this card is a little bit light so
the two two to call out are one you get
a credit you will get a 100 Hotel credit
if you make a hotel booking of 500 or
more in one stay with the card it's an
okay credit the other one is Transfer
Partners which are pretty par for the
course when it comes to travel cards now
I took a look at all of the Transfer
Partners that city has and honestly it's
pretty much what everyone else has the
only one that seems pretty unique is
Qatar Airways but the issue with Qatar
Airways that now I've recently found out
they've started leveraging more taxes
and fees and surcharges and all this
stuff that makes the award booking a lot
less attractive however Qatar Airways
does earn its currency as avios meaning
you could in theory and you actually
could in practicality link your Qatar
Airways account with your British
Airways account you can take avios that
you earn a Qatar Airways transfer them
to British Airways at which point you'd
be able to make a booking that would
cost you less in terms of taxes and fees
and a couple months ago there was a 30
bonus when you took your city points and
transfer them to Qatar Airways so that
would be my play here is getting the the
points and then if another bonus like
this comes up and which tends to happen
once or twice a year where you get a 20
or 30 bonus for transferring your points
from City to Qatar Airways I would do
the transfer then I would take those
avios points from Guitar Airways and
transfer them to British Airways and
make all my bookings there hopefully
that made sense and as far as an annual
fee this car comes with a 95 annual fee
but if you're spending 500 at one time
booking a hotel with the card you'll get
the 100 credit so you can kind of offset
it though I feel like that might be
pretty niche in terms of who would use
it so I would say effectively it's a 95
annual fee my verdict for this card is
jump on the sign up bonus the sign up
bonus is 80 000 points I will take that
any given day there's a slew of Transfer
Partners you can move them off to but
really that's about it and the other
thing to be cautious of though is the
fact that the cards like the city double
cash in the city custom cash by the way
which is one of my favorite gas grocery
cards also earn thank you points and in
cities ecosystem you can only get one
thank you points earning card bonus
every 24 months so if you get a City
Custom cache or a city double cash you
will have to close the card and wait 24
months before getting this one so my
recommendation because those sign of
bonuses are like 200 bucks for spending
like 2 000 or 200 or 2500 whatever it is
they're not as valuable as this one so I
would get this city card for the
purposes of meeting that thank you card
eligibility and then you can go get a
double cash or a custom cash even though
you won't get a signup bonus you'll be
able to pool those earnings into this
card and transfer them
oh it's not easy but it's worth it in
addition this card's just a good
catch-all especially having that 3x on
gas which none of the other travel cards
that I've talked about or will talk
about will have in their earnings
category coming in at number two we have
the American Express gold or rose gold
whichever they're the exact same now
this card comes with a sign of bonus
anywhere from 60 up to 75 000 points
after you spend four thousand dollars in
six months love that you have a huge
period of time in which you can qualify
for this sign of bonus as far as
earnings for the American Express goal
you will earn four points per dollar
spent on restaurants four points per
dollar spent on grocery stores and three
point four dollar spent booking airfare
directly with Amex travel and one point
per dollar spent everywhere else now
where this card absolutely crushes it is
in the benefits section you will get a
120 dining credit every single year for
this card that effectively comes out to
ten dollars a month which you can use
for GrubHub as well as the 120 dollar
Uber credit which comes out to ten
dollars a month which you can use
ubereats so effectively you have two
hundred and forty dollars worth of
dining credits you can use every single
year the card also gives you the classic
Transfer Partners that you would expect
from an Amax membership reward earning
card in an example of how you can use
membership reward points is taking them
and transferring them to British Airways
abuse remember earlier how I also said
that the city card can transfer points
to Qatar avos and those can transfer to
British avios while American Express can
transfer directly to British avios and
you can make an award booking from
Boston to the Maldives on Qatar Airways
shoe Suites full live flat business
class seats for 85 000 avos and about
206 dollars in taxes and fees instead of
paying I think the list price would be
like anywhere from five to six thousand
dollars per person now the other thing
you want to pay attention to throughout
the year is that there's going to be
bonuses for transferring your points
from American Express to bridge Airways
sometimes it's 20 25 I've seen I think
as high as 30 bonus before and so
basically right instead of having to
cost 85 000 it would be much less than
that but right now that's just what the
sticker price is if you're to take
American Express membership Four Points
transfer them to British Airways another
option of using the points is transfer
them to the Flying Blue program which is
comprised of KLM and Air France and
that's actually a really good way to fly
domestically in the US with Delta and
specifically from the U.S Mainland to
Hawaii you can do round trip for about
35 000 points this is according to
upgraded points really good blog feel
free to check them out here as well as
for an annual fee this card costs 250
dollars
yeah it's steep but remember we have 240
of total dining credits what does that
mean 250 minus 240 10 you're paying
effectively ten dollars a year for the
card and if you spend 250 in either a
restaurant or a grocery category you
will pretty much have made back the
annual fee and you will break even my
verdict for this card is if you eat out
you buy groceries this is a card you
absolutely should consider having in
your wallet for me this is the only card
I use when I go out and when I'm buying
groceries on that 4X urn and also of
course I really value The Transfer
Partners that American Express has and I
know some of you're probably wondering
about the AmEx Platinum we'll save that
and we'll get to that in just a second
coming in at number one my top travel
card in 2023 is going to be the Capital
One Venture X this card comes with a 75
000 Point sign a bonus after spending
four thousand dollars in the first three
months as far as earnings this card will
earn 10 points per hour spent as long as
you're booking hotel and car rental
through the Capital One travel portal
five points for every dollar spent
booking airfare through the Capital One
travel portal and two points per dollar
spent everywhere else moving on to
benefits this is where this card
absolutely crushes it you're gonna get a
300 credit for making bookings through
the Capital One travel portal every
single year in addition you're gonna get
a 100 anniversary credit just for having
the card every single year so now good
that's 400 of total travel credits the
card also gives you a 100 credit to
Global Entry slash TSA pre-check pretty
par for the course you're also going to
be able to get priority pass access
basically party PASS gives you access to
all the fancy lounges in the US though I
would argue they're way better abroad in
addition this card gives you free
authorized users to put into perspective
it competes with the AmEx platinum in
the Chase Sapphire Reserve Amex Platinum
charges you I think it's like 175 for
three authorized users Chase with
sapphire Reserve charges about 75 to add
an authorized user Capital One Venture X
pre-authorized User authorized user gets
priority pass priority pass gets to
bring in two guests oh it's a big family
maybe you have a kid they're over 18. I
don't know if you want to give them a
card night but you can add them as an
authorized user they get priority passed
they can bring in two more people this
is absolutely insane no other card
offers this besides the chase Ritz
Carlton card which you can no longer
apply for anyway sorry for another day
in aggregate this card comes with an
annual fee of
395 but remember it's giving you 400
worth of total travel credits meaning
you're getting paid five dollars to have
this premium travel card this card
competes like I said the 695 AMX
platinum in the 550 Chase Sapphire
reserve the Capital One Venture X comes
in at 3.95 but effectively will actually
pay you five dollars all three of those
cards give you the lounge access but
again this one puts money back in your
pocket so if you're new to the travel
space or you're looking for your second
card or third card the ventrex is one
that I would 100 jump on quickly let's
run over an honorable mention the
American Express business Platinum Card
this card's gonna come with the sign of
bonus of anywhere from 100 to 150 000
points after you spend fifteen thousand
dollars in the first three months now
I'm gonna skip over the earnings and a
lot of the benefits but really is to
tell you that this card is going to give
you all of the amazing bells and
whistles of travel from a personal Amex
Platinum but unlike the personal
Platinum where you end up having to pay
for it this card actually gives you
enough benefits in which you come out
positive
335 basically the card has an annual fee
of 6.95 and it gives you about one
thousand and twenty dollars worth of
overall business credits meaning you
come out net positive 335 dollars by
holding this card the AmEx business
Platinum is a phenomenal a business card
as well as travel card and lastly to
wrap it all up two cards I did not
mention the Chase Sapphire reserve and
the American Express Platinum these
cards just don't rank high for me me on
my travel list because I think there are
so many better options to consider for
one the business Platinum is way better
than the personal platinum and when you
think about the American Express
Platinum it is so Niche and specific to
a particular type of spender and
traveler basically people who are
traveling through Centurion Lounge
airports that's one and people who are
booking a ton of flights directly and
can earn that 5x multiple but for
everything else it's just a poor earning
card in the annual fee I believe is just
so high and you have to spend so much
time dedicating to really extracting
value I just don't think for a lot of
people it's that worth it when you ask a
question between gold or platinum I
would say gold all day for mid-tier and
if you're looking at top tier it's the
Venture X the other one the sapphire
Reserve now the sapphire Reserve is a
perennial favorite of folks it's been
around for forever but the issue is it's
a stale card 550 annual fee 300 travel
credit and I will say though if you have
a stash of Chase Ultimate Reward Points
the sapphire Reserve is attractive
because it gives you a 50 bonus I have
about 1.4 million Chase Ultimate reward
points that 1.4 million is worth about
up 2.1 million or so or 21 000 if I
redeemed through the Chase Ultimate
reward portal because I have a sapphire
Reserve that's not going to be the case
for everybody and so when the question
comes up well should I be getting a
sapphire Reserve or a venture X well my
question is if you want the premium
lounges if you want all the travel
benefits do you want to pay out of
pocket 200 bucks or so or would you
rather get paid five dollars again
that's why the sapphire reserve and the
MX Platinum aren't up there for travel
cards if you happen to be able to
extract value from it absolutely go at
it all day they're just still great
cards but for the vast majority of folks
they're not it alright folks well this
has been a phenomenal video thank you
all for tuning in and please share with
me down below what are some of your
favorite redemptions you've done what
are your dream redemptions some cards
have you gotten recently and I will
catch you all in the next video peace