What makes a travel credit card a travel credit card? Really, this is the wrong question.

There are plenty of credit cards that offer travel rewards of various kinds - from air miles or frequent flyer miles of various kinds to money off holidays from various travel providers to special deals on currency from specialist providers - but none of these offers, taken alone, are enough to make a card a travel credit card.


When one goes to do a credit card comparison the real question should be: what makes these cards unsuitable for travel?


Travel credit cards


There are several answers to this because, generally speaking, credit cards offer poor value when used abroad.


The main point to bear in mind is that most banks and other lenders will add a foreign transaction fee which is a percentage of every transaction that's made out of the UK and can add up and become expensive very quickly.


There are also often additional charges for making cash withdrawals and normal rewards that might be applied to the card, such as cash back or points schemes, will typically not be applied to the user when paying using the card.


It's worth pointing out that the extra fees tend to be applied even to debit cards so use abroad credit cards are actually even better value as travel products when compared to other products.


For example, the post office credit card doesn't have any foreign transaction fees at all.


Dynamic currency conversion


Another problem with card use abroad can be dynamic currency conversion.


This means that the merchant from whom the card holder makes a purchase asks them to make the purchase in their home currency rather than the currency of the country that they're in at that time.


This seems good for the consumer but, in fact, the system gives a much poorer exchange rate than the bank would under normal circumstances so this way of paying while travelling should be avoided at all costs.


So, with all of these things in mind: how can consumers find a travel credit card.


One of the best ways is to use a comparison site to check out the deals before signing up. As has already been mentioned it's also important not to confuse card which come with travel rewards with cards which are actually good for taking abroad.


When using reward cards that have some sort of travel aspect caution is usually advised in any case as, to be rewarding, they should be paid off in full at the end of every month.