Seeking credit card recommendations
March 2, 2020 8:03 AM Subscribe
I'm looking for a credit card with a few particular specifications. Your recommendations would be most appreciated. Details inside.
I'm seeking a Visa or Mastercard with:
• No annual fee
• No international transaction fees
• Contactless capability
• Chip + PIN (not just chip + signature)
• Good rental car insurance coverage
I am a U.S. citizen & resident, with a U.S. bank account. I am not concerned about reward programs or the like—this card will only be for occasional overseas purchases. Thanks!
I'm seeking a Visa or Mastercard with:
• No annual fee
• No international transaction fees
• Contactless capability
• Chip + PIN (not just chip + signature)
• Good rental car insurance coverage
I am a U.S. citizen & resident, with a U.S. bank account. I am not concerned about reward programs or the like—this card will only be for occasional overseas purchases. Thanks!
WalletHub lets you filter by even more characteristics. If you're not a USAA member and you don't feel like dealing with a random credit union, it seems you have your choice of … four? Two of the cards they list (Marriott Bonvoy Bold and IHG Rewards Club Traveler) are issued by Chase, which otherwise doesn't issue chip & PIN cards, so I find myself a little surprised to see them on the list. The other two to consider are the Citizens Bank Cash Back Plus World Mastercard and the Bank of America Travel Rewards Visa. I can't vouch for any of them but personally I'd probably go with the last one because I already have cards with Chase (and don't need more) but I qualify for relationship banking with Bank of America and somehow don't actually have any credit cards through them.
Note: it's a little unclear which cards are available with contactless payments by default. Bank of America seems to be introducing contactless cards in some markets but not nationwide. The Bank of America page about contactless payments is mostly about adding your card to a digital wallet (e.g. Apple Pay), but you may either get a contactless card by default or … later, when they decide to send you one. The marketing images for the Marriott Bonvoy Bold card (from Chase) have the contactless icon on them, but the images for the IHG card (also from Chase) don't. Two of my three Chase cards are contactless, and I've seen a contactless version of the third card in the wild but don't have one myself.
posted by fedward at 9:52 AM on March 2, 2020
Note: it's a little unclear which cards are available with contactless payments by default. Bank of America seems to be introducing contactless cards in some markets but not nationwide. The Bank of America page about contactless payments is mostly about adding your card to a digital wallet (e.g. Apple Pay), but you may either get a contactless card by default or … later, when they decide to send you one. The marketing images for the Marriott Bonvoy Bold card (from Chase) have the contactless icon on them, but the images for the IHG card (also from Chase) don't. Two of my three Chase cards are contactless, and I've seen a contactless version of the third card in the wild but don't have one myself.
posted by fedward at 9:52 AM on March 2, 2020
I'm not sure about all of those, but the Bank of America AAA Visa has no annual fee and no international transaction fees. The rest of those features are not things I've looked into.
posted by DoubleLune at 9:53 AM on March 2, 2020
posted by DoubleLune at 9:53 AM on March 2, 2020
Transferwise will be the most economical, but lacks contactless at this point. Capital One 360 is my second card that I use internationally and I've been happy with it for years. Also not contactless at this point. The TW card I started using as my main card last year. PayPal has a contactless MC, but the least economical net exchange of the three.
Oh, and I suppose these are all Debit Cards, so I'm not sure it that matters in your search. I'm not sure what your use scenario is, but any of these can be used as funding sources for contactless payments via your phone.
posted by humboldt32 at 9:55 AM on March 2, 2020
Oh, and I suppose these are all Debit Cards, so I'm not sure it that matters in your search. I'm not sure what your use scenario is, but any of these can be used as funding sources for contactless payments via your phone.
posted by humboldt32 at 9:55 AM on March 2, 2020
Chip + pin is still pretty rare in the U.S. However, if they're rolling out contactless cards to their existing customers, they're probably sending new customers one to start with, so I would try the BoA card mentioned above.
Note that, at least in my experience, NFC does not require that your device actually be communicating with the network at any given moment--the transaction on your end is local (generating the code), on their end the reader is obviously networked. So if you find a card you like that isn't contactless, add it to your phone/watch/whatever and you should be able to use it even if you're in Europe and don't have the right SIM. In that case, I would suggest the Capital One SavorOne, which hits the rest of your points except the insurance, which I don't know anything about, and which has a pretty straightforward and reasonably generous cash-back-rewards program. (If you're feeling fancy, you can even get the annual-fee-version Savor, which has a signup bonus between $300-$500 (statement credit), and then downgrade at the end of the year to the SavorOne.)
posted by praemunire at 10:17 AM on March 2, 2020
Note that, at least in my experience, NFC does not require that your device actually be communicating with the network at any given moment--the transaction on your end is local (generating the code), on their end the reader is obviously networked. So if you find a card you like that isn't contactless, add it to your phone/watch/whatever and you should be able to use it even if you're in Europe and don't have the right SIM. In that case, I would suggest the Capital One SavorOne, which hits the rest of your points except the insurance, which I don't know anything about, and which has a pretty straightforward and reasonably generous cash-back-rewards program. (If you're feeling fancy, you can even get the annual-fee-version Savor, which has a signup bonus between $300-$500 (statement credit), and then downgrade at the end of the year to the SavorOne.)
posted by praemunire at 10:17 AM on March 2, 2020
Response by poster: So if you find a card you like that isn't contactless, add it to your phone/watch/whatever and you should be able to use it even if you're in Europe and don't have the right SIM.
Oh! I hadn't even considered this (I've never really used my phone to pay for stuff). So basically, you can turn a non-contactless card into a contactless one via your phone, in essence?
posted by Conrad Cornelius o'Donald o'Dell at 11:50 AM on March 2, 2020
Oh! I hadn't even considered this (I've never really used my phone to pay for stuff). So basically, you can turn a non-contactless card into a contactless one via your phone, in essence?
posted by Conrad Cornelius o'Donald o'Dell at 11:50 AM on March 2, 2020
Yes. The process creates what's called a device account number, which is a new credit card number unique to that device that shadows your real account number. If you set up multiple payment devices (like if you have an iPhone and an Apple Watch) each one will have its own unique device account number(s). To pay you authenticate against your device (with your fingerprint, or face scan, or PIN) and then your device acts like a tappable card. It actually adds some security benefits, because the processor never sees your real number, and it doesn't work without your authentication. If you lose an iPhone and use the Find My feature, you can mark it as lost, which will disable Apple Pay.
If you remove an account from a device the associated device account number just goes away. If you add that account back to the same device it will get a new device account number. It can be a little annoying if you upgrade your phone or have to reinstall its software, because you'll have to sit there and add every card all over again. Sometimes you look at a receipt (say, if you have to file an expense report) and go "card ending 1234? I don't have any cards ending 1234!" Then you first have to remember that you could have used Apple Pay (or the Samsung or Google equivalents), and then remember how to look and see what the device account numbers are for all your cards and devices. Then it all makes sense.
posted by fedward at 12:09 PM on March 2, 2020
If you remove an account from a device the associated device account number just goes away. If you add that account back to the same device it will get a new device account number. It can be a little annoying if you upgrade your phone or have to reinstall its software, because you'll have to sit there and add every card all over again. Sometimes you look at a receipt (say, if you have to file an expense report) and go "card ending 1234? I don't have any cards ending 1234!" Then you first have to remember that you could have used Apple Pay (or the Samsung or Google equivalents), and then remember how to look and see what the device account numbers are for all your cards and devices. Then it all makes sense.
posted by fedward at 12:09 PM on March 2, 2020
Yes. I was surprised to learn recently that the Apple Watch could do this even if its tethered iPhone was out of range. Test it before you go, of course.
posted by praemunire at 1:25 PM on March 2, 2020
posted by praemunire at 1:25 PM on March 2, 2020
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by bright flowers at 8:10 AM on March 2, 2020