International Travel Credit Card Cost & Benefit Report

Traveling abroad can be taxing, especially on our wallets, as we spend billions of dollars on international travel most years. But having the right plastic in your pocket can make life a whole lot easier. The best travel rewards credit cards offer people with good or excellent credit hundreds of dollars in savings per year. The best international credit cards also provide a range of travel benefits, including insurance for lost luggage, free overnight replacement cards and worldwide acceptance, just to name a few.

To help travelers make the right choice, WalletHub compared 76 of the most popular credit cards on the market in terms of their international-travel friendliness. We used 14 metrics, ranging from the cost of foreign transaction fees to travel insurance coverage. That process led to our final rankings of the best and worst credit cards for international travelers.

Card information was collected on June 15, 2021.

Best Credit Cards for International Travel

Key Findings

USAA and Capital One are the best credit card companies for international travelers for the fourth year in a row.

3 of the 10 largest credit card companies do not charge foreign transaction fees on any of their cards.

Just 18% of consumer credit cards offer more than $250 in initial rewards bonus value, after subtracting annual fees.

Wells Fargo is the only issuer that doesn’t detect when you travel and requires a notification.

66% of credit card companies offer financial assistance for travel emergencies to all of their cardholders.

6 of the top 10 credit card issuers will send a free replacement for a lost or stolen card to customers who are traveling abroad.

Replacement Card International Delivery Fees

The most common travel benefits on credit cards are emergency assistance (75% of cards), rental car insurance (69%), travel accident insurance (37%), and lost luggage insurance (37%).

Chase, Capital One and Wells Fargo offer the best business credit cards for international travel.

Capital One, Discover and Wells Fargo do not charge foreign transaction fees on any of their business credit cards.

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Detailed Scores

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Methodology

WalletHub analyzed the foreign travel benefits offered by personal credit cards from the top 10 issuers, excluding student and co-branded cards. We collected information from issuer websites for all 55 cards and scored each card’s benefits in three overall categories: Fees (20 %); Initial Bonus (20 %); Secondary Benefits (30 %); Convenience Services (30%). These categories are comprised of 14 individual metrics, described below.

Where policies were incomplete or unclear, we contacted the issuers directly and requested clarification. All of them met our deadline for input and provided feedback.

The scoring framework used to evaluate each card can be found below. Card information was collected on June 15, 2021. The maximum score attainable for a card in this report is 100%.

1. No foreign fee (weight: 20%)

• If the card does not charge a foreign transaction fee = 20%
• If the card charges a foreign transaction fee of 0.5% - 1% = 10%
• If the card charges a foreign transaction fee of 1.1% - 2% = 5%
• If the card charges a foreign transaction fee of more than 2% = 0%

2. Credit Cards Initial Bonus (weight: 20%)

We calculated the initial bonus value of each credit card after subtracting the annual fee. For cards with an initial bonus in the form of points or miles, we used the average redemption rate for each card's rewards to obtain a dollar value.

3. Secondary Benefits (weight: 30%)

a. Travel emergency assistance (weight: 10%)

• If the card offers travel emergency assistance benefit = 10%
• If the card does not offer travel emergency assistance benefit = 0%

b. Travel accident insurance (weight: 8%)

• If the card offers travel accident insurance benefit = 8%
• If the card does not offer travel accident insurance benefit = 0%

c. Lost luggage insurance (weight: 6%)

• If the card offers lost luggage insurance benefit = 6%
• If the card does not offer lost luggage insurance benefit = 0%

d. Delayed luggage insurance (weight: 4%)

• If the card offers delayed luggage insurance benefit = 4%
• If the card does not offer delayed luggage insurance benefit = 0%

Information about what these types of coverage entail can be found in WalletHub’s report on the Credit Cards with the Best Travel Insurance.

e. Rental car insurance (weight: 2%)

We identified if the card offers complimentary coverage for rental cars and assigned scores based on its destination coverage as described below:

• If none of the 10 most popular international destinations are excluded from coverage = 2%
• If 2 of the top 10 international destinations are excluded = 1%
• If more than 2 of the top 10 international destinations are excluded = 0%

Information about what these types of coverage entail can be found in WalletHub’s report on the Rental Car Insurance.

4.Convenience Services (weight: 30%)

a. Travel PIN available? (weight: 5%)

• If the issuer automatically provides a PIN with the card = 5%
• If the issuer provides a PIN by request for travel transactions with the card = 4%
• If the issuer does not provide a PIN for travel transactions with the card = 0%

b. International merchant acceptance (card network) (weight: 5%)

We determined major card network for each card namely: American Express, Discover, MasterCard and Visa. We then assigned points to each network based on the number of countries and territories in which it is accepted. The network with most coverage was awarded maximum points and the rest were adjusted proportionally based on the top coverage network.

c. Expedited international delivery fee for replacement cards (weight: 8%)

We determined each issuer’s standard policy regarding the delivery of a replacement card to an international address and collected the fee associated with the service, if offered. In some cases, a replacement card might be available to a persistent customer, but if the service was not a standard option, an issuer received less credit.

Availability:

• If the service is standard policy = 4%
• If the service is not standard but possible = 2%
• If the service is not available = 0%

Cost:

• $0 to $10 = 4%
• $11 to $20 = 3%
• $21 to $30 = 2%
• $31 to $40 = 1%
• $41+ = 0%

d. Financial assistance in case of lost/stolen credit card (weight: 4%)

• If the card offers financial assistance in case of lost/stolen card = 4%
• If the card does not offer financial assistance in case of lost/stolen card = 0%

e. Financial assistance in case of travel emergencies (weight: 3%)

• If the card offers financial assistance in case of travel emergencies = 3%
• If the card does not offer financial assistance in case of travel emergencies = 0%

f. Are you required to notify when you travel? (weight: 3%)

We determined whether the issuer requires a notification from cardholders who are traveling abroad to prevent transactions from being flagged as fraud.

• If the issuer does not require cardholder notification before international travel = 3%
• If the issuer requires cardholder notification = 0%

g. Online travel notification? (weight: 2%)

• If notifications can be made online = 2%
• If notifications cannot be made online = 0%

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