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Over the years, readers have asked us, “Some credit cards have covered all or part of the cost of Global Entry, TSA PreCheck & CLEAR. What’s the story with credit cards covering the cost of getting a passport?”

Y’all, that’s a good question.

Different banks will offer travel-related perks for Global Entry, TSA PreCheck and CLEAR. Some reimburse you for the entire cost, while others offer partial reimbursement (assuming, of course, that you paid for these programs with their particular flavor of credit card).

However we’ve searched and searched, and not even one credit card will reimburse for the price of a passport. There’s not even a loophole to get it done.

We don’t know why that is, but we suspect a good part of it is because if you apply for or renew your passport by mail, the State Department generally requires you to submit a check (personal, certified, cashier’s, traveler’s) (yep, traveler’s checks are still considered valid currency) or money order. In fact, they even specify that “Credit and debit cards are not accepted.” The only time a credit card is valid for a passport is if you’re in person at an acceptance facility or one of the 26 passport agencies scattered across the country. Some embassies and consulates outside the U.S. also accept credit card payment for passport fees.

Granted, if you pay a company to “help” you get a passport (SO unnecessary), you can pay by credit card. But then it’s a third party, who knows what category they get listed under, and yadda yadda yadda…too many variables there, for sure. Plus, again, it’s easy to apply/renew yourself, so why put extra money on the table for an unneeded service?

So anyway, if you’re paying for a passport and are generally not allowed to use a credit card to pay for it by official means, it wouldn’t make sense for a credit card company to give you credit for it, etc., since you’re not using them for the payment to begin with.

So, is there any way to get a passport for free or cheaper?

Yes, there are some “no fee” or “lower fee” passports out there. But they’re only issued under very, very specific circumstances.

Your work with the U.S. Military

Depending on your work for or with the U.S. Military, you may be eligible for a “new fee” passport:

• Military personnel in special assignment situations.
• Family members traveling overseas on orders with spouse.
• Government Civilian Employees who are on TDY (Temporary Duty Assignments) or accepting a position to a country which requires a passport.

Even when you have these special passports, you can only use them for official business (read: not vacation; you have to use your civilian passport for that)

Replacement due to disaster

Under the Disaster Recovery Reform Act, U.S. citizens can replace their passports for free, via a fee waiver, if they lost their passport during specified major disasters. In other circumstances, a file search fee (if you also need to show proof of citizenship) may be waived.

From the U.S. State Dep’t:

…the President, working with the governor of a state, may waive U.S. passport application fees and file search fees for those who lost their U.S. passport in a major disaster. The law states the application fee can be waived for customers who lost their passport within the preceding three calendar years. The file search fee can be waived for customers who lost their passport within the preceding 18 months.

The law states that fees will only be waived for customers who lost their U.S. passport books or passport cards as a direct result of the disasters listed on this webpage. The law also states that fees for a replacement passport cannot reimbursed by other sources, such as a homeowner’s insurance policy.

The list of qualified disasters currently includes:

It’s important to note that if you lived in the area of any of these disasters and didn’t have a passport at the time of the disaster, this act will not pay for you to get a passport. It’s specifically for those whose passports were lost due to said disasters.

Looking toward the future

The State Dep’t is currently playing with citizens being able to renew their passports online. It’s been an “on again, off again” pilot project for the past year or two (as of this writing it’s “off again”). When it’s up and running, they DO accept credit card payments via a secure portal called pay.gov.

So perhaps credit cards will start offering reimbursements for passports, once paying for them via card becomes a normalized, permanent thing.

Until then, we’re all outta luck.

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