Finances during World Travel: Our Favorite Travel Card - Traveling Graces (2024)

We are strong believers in proper financial management. Budgeting for all aspects of life, including travel, has been part of our marriage since day 1. We have planned, allocated, and tracked every dollar for many years. This has allowed us to pay off our house (see our interview with Dave Ramsey here), save for the future, and enjoy traveling the world. There is no need for a credit card to do any of those things, but we do use a Capital One Venture card for international travel. It is our favorite travel card, here’s why:

• Fraud protection: we had fraudulent charges post to our account while in Rome. Capital One caught it, stopped further charges, and credited our account the next day with the full amount. From that point they handled everything on their end and kept me updated. Many companies claim to follow policies like this, but from our experience, they followed through exactly. We didn’t have to worry about further fraud or about those charges being connected directly to our bank account. International fraud is harder to deal with if using a debit card. Capital One also sent us a new card immediately. The only problem? We were on the move across Europe and didn’t have a good place to receive the card, so had it sent to our house. Ashley’s parents brought it to us later.

However, even though we lost the use of our physical card due to the fraud issue, we were able to continue using Capital One and their protections for all our online purchases! How? Just one more reason this is our favorite travel card, keep reading:

• Virtual cards: this is one of Jon’s favorite new tools in the financial world. We never utilized this until after the fraud issue, but now we use them all the time. Here’s how it works: in your Capital One app, you can create a virtual card. It has a full credit card number, expiration, and CCV code. It will be good for only one merchant, only allowing charges from the first merchant you use. This can be utilized for recurring payments (Netflix), sporadic payments (Amazon or Airbnb), or one-time payments (foreign airlines or services). For example, we now have an “Airbnb” virtual card. We book everything just the same, but if there is a fraud issue, we don’t have to cancel our physical card and get a new one. Feeling a little antsy about paying for your Uganda visas online with your real card numbers? A virtual card can be created in seconds, used for a single transaction, and then simply deleted if need be. At this point, we do not use our real card numbers for anything online. We only do contactless point-of-sale payments or use virtual cards online.
• Rewards: we opened the card during a great bonus offer (you can get one yourself below), and continue to accumulate points as we spend. It is a terrible idea to “earn rewards” by spending more money, unbudgeted money, or if have ever been in credit card debt of any kind or amount. Responsible travelers should always keep a written budget. We plan before each month for how and where we are going to spend. We then track every single dollar that we put onto this card. However, because we do this, we can take advantage of the rewards.
• Cash advance ability: the card will work in just about any ATM in the world. It does come with a 3% transaction fee ($10 minimum). However, if hypothetically you lost your international ATM card (whoops), getting 300 euros for approximately $10 ends up sounding like a good deal. We planned hard to minimize financial fees and use our Charles Schwab ATM card that reimburses worldwide ATM fees. However, after losing that card, Jon had to pay the “stupid tax” of $10 to make sure we had the necessary cash. WARNING: cash advances should be your last resort for short-term, local currency travel cash needs. Jump online and pay off the entire account balance THAT DAY. You will accumulate daily interest on the transaction if it is not paid immediately.

These are the main reasons we continue to use Capital One Venture as our preferred international travel card. There are a host of other benefits you can investigate (the rental car coverage is nice), and the app is extremely easy to use. You can check it out here, and with that link you can get up to $600+ for opening a card. Please, only look at this deal if it fits with your responsible financial planning.

We struggled with the decision to post about this, but want to be transparent about how we are doing our personal finances during this trip. We decided that we feel comfortable discussing our favorite travel card because it has been helpful during our trip around the world. When we needed customer service, it was there. Our experiences have given us trust in the protections and innovations that make the Venture card great for international travel. Check out other posts we have regarding finances during travel as well: Top 5 Money Tips for International Travel, 10 Ways to Spend Less and Travel More, 10 Best Websites for Finding Incredible Travel Deals, and 7 Ways our Family Saves on Travel.

To see all our travel adventures during a year-long trip around the world, head over to ourInstagram page.

If you have questions or money tips for international travel, let us know! Happy Travels!