Save money before, during and after your journey…
New apps, old tricks and emerging platforms make saving on travel easier than ever. Whether your next trip is far and luxurious – or short, cheap and cheerful, there’s a whole lot you can do to save money and add enjoyment – without too much hassle. And frankly, too many people forget to take advantage. Here are five things you’d be crazy not to use, which will keep money in your pocket. Who doesn’t love that?
You don’t even need a credit card to earn up to 10% back from your travel purchases. Sites like QuidCo, TopCashBack and eBates give you actual money back for clicking to your favorite airline, hotel or booking site through them. It’s simple: they get money for sending you, so they split it with you, and you get the same price when you go and spend. For example, Hilton occasionally offers 10% back via these cash back sites, bringing an instant rebate to your travel. If you spent £1000, you’d have £100 coming back, and still earn points. That’s a lot better than none back!
Curve Card is a genius new payment solution, which allows you to load any Visa or Mastercard debit and credit cards onto one single cool looking card. And if you use code C5CFD, they give you £5 free, in addition to your free card. With the flick of a finger in the app, you can switch which card you’ll pay with. When abroad, the card charges just a 1% fee, even if your bank would usually charge you 3% for foreign transactions. It does this by routing the charge into GBP. That’s a 2% savings on every purchase, for people who want to earn points abroad. You can even change which card you want something billed to weeks after purchase. So if you hit a spending bonus on one card, get a new one and want to put spend there, you can re bill. Full details here.
Overpaying to use your phone abroad feels like getting robbed on a daily basis. And of course, the longer you travel the worse it gets. Airport SIM cards rarely represent good value and with rising data usage, even a prepaid sim often runs out. For UK travelers, one perennial favorite option is Three’s “Feel At Home” package. Without any effort or pulling things out of your phone you’re covered in 71 destinations worldwide, including the USA, Singapore, Australia, France, Spain and many more. If you travel frequently, this is a no brainer. Check out Three here.
Can you imagine missing the last episode of Line Of Duty? Or did you know that changing from a travel site at .co.uk to .com can instantly save serious money on flights, hotels or car rentals. In addition to travel booking tricks, a VPN brings security to every network you join, allows you to watch British TV while abroad and allows you to use social networks which may be blocked in certain countries. We’re not naming names! Basically: it’s worth it for the travel booking savings, is awesome for the tele and you really can’t put a price on making yourself secure, even on sketchy unsecured coffee shop networks. A full comparison of all the best (with 30 day free trials) can be found here.
Revolut is a new “digital banking alternative” with zero foreign exchange fees, allowing you send and take out money with real time actual rates of exchange, versus commercial rates of exchange. You can send money to anyone worldwide, and withdraw money from a variety of accounts while abroad. You can also instantly send people easy to pay invoices to split bills, without them even needing to download the app. This app is like everything banking should be, but isn’t. We heard about it from pilots, and have never looked back.
Featured image courtesy of Sofitel Palm, Dubai.
… And 6 avoid “premium” airlines who deliver a low cost service and hit you with additional charges for almost everything then excessive “taxes” and “fuel surcharges” if you use their frequent flyer scheme to mitigate the overpriced fares. Changing isn’t the end of the world on longhaul and there are alternatives to BeyondAbysmal on 90%+ of their routes