Before going on a trip, I have a ritual involving our wallets. I need to go through them, remove cards we won’t need when traveling and replace them with the cards we will or might need when we’re out of town. Unlike packing, where I have a list I’ve perfected over the last 20 years when it comes to our wallets, I have to make choices for each trip because every time is different.
Here are some of the questions I ask:
- Did I use a card to book something during the trip and might need it for confirmation?
- Are we flying on an airline where using the card for onboard purchases will give me a discount?
- Do I need a specific card to get into an airline lounge?
- Will we be buying groceries during the trip, or will we be eating out all the time?
- Will we be renting a car? If so, I’ll need to bring a card that has primary LDW coverage as well as one that earns a good return on gas purchases.
- Do I need a card to pay for mass transit (trains, subway, or buses)?
While I’ve read about making a dedicated travel wallet so you don’t forget to bring any of the cards you only need when traveling, I’m more afraid I’d forget to put something in the travel wallet like my driver’s license or my insurance card. I don’t think Sharon would ever let me hear the end of it if that happened (Note from Sharon: No. No, you wouldn’t BWAHAHAHA! Bad enough you forgot to take your passport once).
As usual, I take two approaches to making our wallets because while I’ll bring a different card for each category, Sharon will only allow me to give her one to two cards at most. So she’ll have one card in the front of the wallet that she’ll use for everything, and the card behind it if the first one doesn’t work somewhere.
Most importantly, for any international trip, none of the cards we bring charge a foreign transaction fee.
Joe’s Wallet
My travel wallet is pretty straightforward. Here are the cards I’ll bring with me and what charges I’ll use them for:
- Capital One Venture X – earns 2x points everywhere + access to Priority Pass and Plaza Premium lounges.
- Sapphire Reserve – earns 3x on travel and dining worldwide. I use this card to pay for most flights, so I want to have it in case there are any problems during the trip.
- World of Hyatt – earns 4x points for Hyatt expenses. I’ll swap this card out for whichever hotel chain we’re staying with on a trip.
- American Express Platinum—I use this card for lounge access. It only earns 1x point per dollar, so I don’t use it for any expenses unless necessary.
- Bank ATM Card – My Fidelity account charges no ATM Fees and refunds me any additional ATM charges.
I also added these cards to my wallet:
- Fast Park & Relax membership card
- Priority Pass membership card (I used to bring the one from the Citi Prestige, but now I’m bringing the one from the Sapphire Reserve for access to the Sapphire Lounges.)
There’s one more thing I added to my wallet: plenty of singles
No, I’m not headed to go make it rain. I need money to tip the airport shuttle driver. It’s one of the things I always forget to bring with me.
I used to bring my airline co-brand card to pay for any in-flight expenses, such as drinks, meals, or Wi-Fi, because I would usually receive a rebate with those accounts. However, I have now added my airline cards to Apple Wallet because all of the airlines accept Apple Pay.
Sharon’s Wallet
I loaded Sharon’s wallet with the cards we’ll be using for most of this trip:
- Barclays Arrival+ – I put this in front because earning 2x cashback is acceptable. It’s also one of the only true Chip+PIN cards we have. In addition, I like to have cards from different banks if one shuts an account for a fraud alert.
- Sapphire Preferred – this card earns 3x on dining and 2x on travel expenses.
- American Express Green Card– I let Sharon use this card for dining expenses as it earns 3x Membership Rewards points for those expenses. Might as well keep AMEX and Sharon happy at the same time. (Note from Sharon: remember the old saying, my love: “Happy wife, happy life.” The green Amex STAYS) (Note from Joe: Yes, dear). It’s also the card I have set up on her Apple Watch for the “Express Transit” to pay for subways when we visit NYC.
I sometimes leave the Hilton Surpass AMEX in the front of her wallet because we’re trying for a free night after spending $15,000. The only thing I ask is that she not use it when checking into a hotel unless it’s a Hilton property.
What do you do before you travel? Do you need to rearrange your wallet, or do you carry all of your cards with you all the time?
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3 comments
Most, if not all, Priority Pass lounges accept digital cards, so you probably don’t need to carry a physical card -just add all of them to Apple/Google Wallet. As for the hotel-specific ones, it depends on the itinerary. If you’re visiting more than one location, chances are that you’ll also be staying at different chains. That, unfortunately, adds to the cards in the wallet… On one trip, I had to bring Hilton, Marriott, Radisson, and IHG, since hotels usually require physical cards. :-\
Quick question, why do you use the Sapphire Reserve (3x for flights) instead of the AMEX Platinum (5x for airline bookings)?
Good question. Reason 1 is that I currently have plenty of AMEX MR but I’m trying to add to my Chase UR balance to transfer to Hyatt. Reason 2 is for the additional travel coverages for AMEX only are guaranteed if you pay the entire ticket cost. As we’re usually redeeming points for award flights and only paying the taxes, I’m sure that Chase will provide coverage.