Which bank’s credit card should I choose when going abroad? There is no absolute answer. Let me tell you some of my experiences in carrying cards in various countries over the years~

First of all, each bank has its own preferential activities at different times. Before traveling, you can pay attention to which activities are most powerful. You can give priority to swiping that card, and the cashback activities are often online. If you really want to buy, buy, buy, and if the activities of one bank are online, you can continue to swipe the card of another bank. Haha, maximize the use. Activities of various banks~

Knock on the blackboard! The key point is that the above premise is that you must have credit cards from multiple banks in advance, because the application period for a credit card takes about a month, and it is impossible to apply for it if you suddenly think of it before traveling. Regarding credit cards, except for those with platinum card level and above, you need to pay The annual fee is actually waived for other card payments as long as you swipe a few times a year. Nowadays, there are opportunities to swipe cards everywhere, which is easy to achieve, so it is very convenient and has many benefits to have cards from different banks on hand at the same time~

Let me talk about some of the bank cards I have:

1. #CITICBank#

I have been using it for the longest time (7 or 8 years). The rate is the highest~ In recent years, it has almost reached more than 200,000 a year. More than 80 is spent on traveling abroad, so the limit of this card has also reached a fixed limit of 120,000. When there are really large expenses, this card Basically everything can be satisfied (bags and watches, of course not watches worth hundreds of thousands, ha), so it is very convenient to develop a credit card with a higher limit (my credit card limit from other banks is only 10,000-20,000) (around)~

I like to use his credit card, mainly because a few years ago, CITIC’s activities were really high-quality, not to mention the cashback, the points are also very valuable. I remember that at that time, there were 9 points every month. Points can be exchanged for Starbucks large cups. If you swipe your card, you will have the opportunity to redeem a total of 9 points. If you go out for fun once and come back to drink Starbucks a few times a month, you will only spend dozens of points. There is still a 9-point event, but these Starbucks benefits are available all day long. There is a limited amount, so you need to grab it every morning, but there are still quite a lot of CITIC activities in general. The CITIC app and WeChat app are still very convenient to use. You can pay attention to the activities on the official website, and remember to sign up for the activities before traveling.

In addition, you can see that although it is a bank, the activities are based on different card swiping organizations, such as UnionPay, VISA, MasterCard... So even if one card can only be UnionPay, Visa or Master at most, channels, but often at different times, visa and Master will have better activities, so it is recommended to apply for two different cards at the same bank. They only use one limit, that is, if it is 120,000, it is two The cards are shared. If one card is maxed out, the other card will have no limit.

Finally, I would like to mention one more thing about my experience of using dual-currency and full-currency cards. One of my dual-currency cards is UnionPay and Master. As shown in the picture, the card swiping experience in Japan As a result, if you use the UnionPay channel, you can see that it is directly converted into RMB settlement, and there is no handling fee. However, if you settle through the Master channel, you can see that there is a handling fee. Therefore, if Master does not have good cashback activities, try not to use it. UnionPay will be more cost-effective.

My other CITIC card is a Visa all-currency card. You can see that when you use the card, it is directly converted into RMB. There is no need to convert the U.S. dollar process. It is also a good choice for swiping the card.

2. #中国Bank#

When I mentioned the first credit card from Bank of China, it was because of JCB’s card payment channel. JCB is the name of a card organization similar to UnionPay and belongs to Japan, so At that time, I applied for a JCB card before going to Japan, but it is not very useful now. There are many activities such as swiping UnionPay in Japan (because after all, Chinese people are encouraged to spend, haha), but it is worth mentioning. ! If you hold a JCB card, like Tokyo Tower! Nagoya Tower! You can get free tickets to climb the tower! ! ! Haha, you may also be able to use the sign towers in other cities. The two mentioned above are the ones I have personally experienced, and they are worth getting. Hahaha

In addition, there is a "chip card" in all currencies "The benefits of all currencies have been mentioned before. Let's mainly talk about the issue of chip cards. Chip cards are actually popular in many banks now, but there were relatively few banks that could apply for them a few years ago, so I applied for them when Bank of China launched them. , because when I went to Europe at that time, some places and machines in Europe only accepted chip cards! ! ! The magnetic stripe card cannot be used, which caused a lot of inconvenience when going to Europe, so when Bank of China introduced the chip card, I immediately decided to apply for it. The point! Knock on the blackboard! ! ! If you go to Europe, especially when traveling independently, you must prepare a chip card (many banks have them, not necessarily Bank of China)! ! !

3. # CommunicationsBank#

The reason why I applied for his credit card is because I have a full-currency international card. I heard that there are many discounts such as free handling fees. The most important thing is to open a credit card. The card has a credit of 100 US dollars, but you have to use the credit card percentage, which is almost 10 cash back. Because of this activity, I impulsively opened his credit card ~ The experience so far is good or bad, so I won’t say more~

The above is my card use experience. To summarize

# Prepare cards from different banks and different credit card payment channels. Pay attention to activities before traveling, sign up to bring cards, and decide the priority of credit card use

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#Pay attention to cultivating a bank’s credit card limit, which can be supported when there are large expenses

#JCB Japan Tower has free tickets ~ you need to prepare a chip card when traveling freely in Europe ~

#For all-currency and dual-currency cards, pay attention to the card swiping channels, especially for large expenses, pay attention to the handling fees