Travel Points and Credit Cards

[fozzy40]

It seems like a good time to rack up credit card travel points with all the money that is going to spent with hotel, airfare, ERAS applications, etc for the interview season. That being said, can anyone suggest a good credit card that offers a good travel point system with a relatively good interest rate? Thank you.

Fozzy40

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[monkey7247]

starwood preferred AMEX. Can be used on hotels or transferred to airlines.

 

[Bobblehead]

Starwood Amex is a very nice deal for the frequent flyer. I'm not sure it's going to apply for someone applying for residency since I'm assuming most people will not be spending a great deal more than $5000.

It's a good card because you can get a 5000 point bonus if you transfer 20,000 point to airline miles (free miles). However you have to spend $20,000 to get those 20,000 points. On average (bonuses aside) that's a lot of cash for a resident. Remember, you're not being reimbursed for your travels unlike a business travel. You can't even write off your residency interview costs as a job search expense if you're coming straight out of med school.

It has a $30 annual fee after the first year, something else to keep in mind.

For a straight cashback percentage you could consider using the Penfed rewards card for 1.25% or getting a Citi Dividend card to get 5% on groceries/pharmacies/gas and 1% on everything else. There's also Citibank's various Thank You cards which give 1 point back per dollar and enough of a sign-on bonus currently to get a $100 gift card somewhere.

 

[allylz]

It seems like a good time to rack up credit card travel points with all the money that is going to spent with hotel, airfare, ERAS applications, etc for the interview season. That being said, can anyone suggest a good credit card that offers a good travel point system with a relatively good interest rate? Thank you.

Fozzy40

I have a very specific situation, but I just did this. I know that after Match Day my plan is to go to the south Pacific for a couple of months, and I will not probably have much money at that point...

I had an invite offer in the mail from the Citibank A/Advantage card that they do with American Airlines. I applied for that and got accepted for it, it gives you 25,000 miles when you sign up, then some number of miles depending on what you spend, plus you can buy miles from American. The annual fee is high-ish, $85. The APR is ridiculous so you can't carry a balance (I have another card for that). I need 40,000 miles to get to the south Pacific. I made sure American partners with Qantas. They charge a fee when you cash in for award travel of up to $150. So overall, I figure I ought to ultimately get a plane ticket worth about $1000 for, at the most, $150+$85 plus anything I have to spend to buy miles, another $100 at the most I think. That is by far going to be the cheapest/best deal ever!!!

I was a little worried because me and my boyfriend have had a few rejections from credit cards because of having zero 'income'. So what I did was list myself as 'self-employed' and put the amount I get back from loans as 'income'. That allowed me to get a phone number from them to talk to a real live person and explain that I am a fourth year medical student, and they approved me on the spot.

 

[undecided3yr]

Get the United airlines platinum card, not the regular card.

They give you a free companion ticket each year, 1 mile per dollar plus bonus miles for things like gas groceries and eating out. I earn a ton of miles per month on this card ~5,000 miles monthly for spending $1,000-2,000.

http://www.firstusa.com/cgi-bin/web..._20k_choices&page=cont&mkid=6TZ9&MSC=Z0049294