Americans Are Not Big Fans of Travel Credit Cards
Travel credit cards are probably the most talked about on our website and probably on all other travel sites. But travel cards are not really that popular with Americans in general. A new report by U.S. News and World shows that 61 percent of Americans don’t have a travel credit card.
The survey revealed that 70% of people would not open a credit card to help pay for a vacation. And 45% of respondents are not planning on paying for their upcoming trip with a credit card at all.
Some don’t even care about savings at all. 31% of travelers surveyed said they don’t shop around to save on travel costs
Those are some surprising stats, made even more so by just looking a the other results of the survey. Of those who use a travel credit card, 49% have redeemed $1,051 or more in rewards over the past year.
Not surprisingly, millennials seems to be the group most interested in travel and credit cards that make it more affordable. 36% of millennial travelers are looking for sign-up bonuses that transfer to $500 in cash or $1,200 in travel credit. Travelers who are age 39 or older tend to look more for credit cards with zero-percent offers. Sign-up bonuses may not appeal to that generation as much as they do to millennials, because millennials seem to travel more. Fifty-seven percent of millennials took at least one trip last year and many used their sign-up bonuses to assist with their vacation.
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Every time I am standing at a checkout stand, I look at what others are using to pay. Grocery, Home improvement store or any stores in general. I rarely see people using “correct” reward card let alone any reward card. I often see people using just straight cash or debit cards. Only few using credit cards, they are often non travel reward cards often from local credit union or small banks. I am like, people! at least get a 2% cashback card if you are not interested in traveling. you are throwing money away.
Wrong – they are paying for your rewards 😉
Very true!
Some variety of Delta AmEx is pretty ubiquitous at my local Publix so call it crd use varying by location. It may not be the perfect card (I usually do the AmEx Everyday for 2x on groceries there and wait for an Avios or Flying Blue bonus transfer offer) but it is a sign that the credit card hawkers in the ATL concourse are getting the message out for folks in my town as they connect there.
The Delta cards are their most popular cards…and people love them
To be fair it may also depend on how the specific questions were worded. I use travel rewards credit cards all the time and open them to accrue points or cash back that I can redeem for trips. But, if I were asked if I would “open a credit card to help pay for a vacation” I would 100% say ‘No’ as I would most likely interpret the question as meaning using the card for the purpose of putting the vacation on the card and not paying it off.
I looked for the survey details but couldn’t find them. I would think the questions were worded appropriately as the survey was about credit card rewards and travel cards. I agree that if not worded right, ‘No’ would be the most probable answer regarding a new card to charge your whole vacation.
Interesting. I’d say those of us that are tied to our computers working long hours for a horrible boss wish we could take more vacation.
Sure hope my post isn’t seen by my boss!
Good thing you didn’t sign your name 🙂
My boss sees this haha