How to Save Money Now for Future Travels
While we are all doing our due diligence of staying home during this time, there are a number of things you can be doing to keep your travel dreams alive. One of these things is learning how you can save money on your future trips.
There are all sorts of ways to save money on your travels, check out my previous articles on saving money, here, here and here, but it really comes down to how big are your goals and how much are you willing to sacrifice to get to those goals.
There is one thing you can start doing now to save money, that you don’t have to sacrifice to move you forward, and it will give you a huge advantage on reducing your costs on your travels. This is where the art of earning and burning travel reward points comes in.
This really is an art, and it can save you thousands of dollars off your trip. Getting free hotel stays, free car rentals and of course “free” flights (you’ll still need to pay for taxes and fees) to have more money to be used elsewhere or upgrade your trip is the goal in travelling longer and better. It doesn’t take a whole lot to get you in the game, you just need to know some key information.
First off, deals differ between Canada and America, so make sure you are looking at the correct information for your nationality. I still highly recommend that you look at sites that are not geared to your nationality though. Although there are differences in the credit cards you can get, the amount of sign up points, and your minimum spend, all the other advice given on these websites and articles are still very important regardless of where you live. With there being so many tips and tricks and “secret” ways to capitalize on maximizing the points you can collect and spend, these things are mostly universal and can help anyone save money on travel. It is great to learn from a variety of people on both sides of the border. I have pulled some great articles to help you along in this journey to help you, as I am not an expert like some other people I know, and I want you to get the best advice. Money.com recently published an article on the Top Travel Credit Cards for 2020. It is a great article to show you the ins and outs, very easily, of earning points. They also do a great job at telling you how you need to be strategic when getting travel credit cards, as they are definitely not all the same. My friend Kendrick from Travel and Live Free published an article on How to Check Your Credit Score for Free. This is also something you want to keep in mind when you start applying for your travel credit cards. You want to know if you can get the best credit card for you and to make sure you are also not ruining your credit score while doing it. Another friend of mine Stephanie author at CreditCards.com recently posted a perfectly timed article on How to Earn Frequent Flyer Miles Without Flying. This is great information as you need to keep your points accumulating in this time of no non-essential travel. Points generally expire if there is no activity on your account for 12 months (this may differ with different programs) so you want to make sure you are keeping things up to date. If you would rather learn by being shown how to through video, you have to check out Chris Guillebeau for his Creative Live course Become a Travel Hacker, and then his follow up on Creative Live that also features Stephanie Zito, Make Your Dream Trip a Reality. Fun side note, I was actually one of the audience members in this program, and I did make it to my dream destination I had on here! There are a number of excellent websites that will teach you how to get started and update you on bonuses and relevant information. These are a few of my favourites. Remember to visit all of them for information, regardless of your nationality. Canadian specific information: American specific information: Now, if all of this stuff overwhelms you and you just can’t be bothered to do the amount of research that some people do and have it consume your life, as it totally could, you can sign up for the newsletters and Facebook pages of these sites to just dip your toe in. I have probably dipped up to my ankle or knee, but I just don’t have the drive to go full in. Focus on the basics these websites provide and only go deeper when and if you want.
So get back to planning and dreaming about your next trip once the world is safe to do so. Be sure to sign up for the Launch Your Travels newsletter to receive my FREE Safety Guide, here. Articles to Save Money:
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