Some credit cards that have an annual fee try to make their product more palatable by offering reimbursement if you use their card for certain purchases. These can truly run the gamut – you could get a $50 credit at SAKS from one card, while you may be eligible to get reimbursed for the expenses you pay for checking a bag on Airline XYZ on another.
Meanwhile, several banks say they’re willing to pay for Global Entry, TSA PreCheck and/or CLEAR as a perk of using their card. 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). If you know how to work the system, you can even use this reimbursement feature as a way to give a Trusted Traveler application fee to someone else, perhaps as a gift.
However we’ve researched plenty, and, to date, there have been no credit cards that offer to reimburse you for the price of a passport. None at all. We explained why we think that is (as well as some very specific ways to get a “no fee” or “lower fee” passport) in this post.
The State Department’s most recent update is for U.S. citizens to be able to renew passports online. It even went from beta to official in about 2 months’ time. What’s more, it seems to be going well for people. And (you know where I’m going with this, right?) if you renew online, you can pay for it with your credit card! Just as we suggested they would do, you can pay via credit card (or debit card) on pay.gov. From travel.state.gov:
and
So maybe…?
Before you could renew online, there were very few opportunities to use a credit card to pay for a passport, either new or renewal. You HAD to pay by check or money order. So it didn’t make sense for banks to offer reimbursement as an incentive, because you usually couldn’t use a credit card.
But now you can.
So now that renewing your passport online is a “thing,” MAYBE banks will start offering reimbursement as a perk of having their respective credit cards? Time will tell.
Want to comment on this post? Great! Read this first to help ensure it gets approved.
Want to sponsor a post, write something for Your Mileage May Vary or put ads on our site? Click here for more info.
Like this post? Please share it! We have plenty more just like it and would love it if you decided to hang around and sign up to get emailed notifications of when we post.
Whether you’ve read our articles before or this is the first time you’re stopping by, we’re really glad you’re here and hope you come back to visit again!
This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
