How to Save Money on Your Year End Holiday

“Do not save what is left after spending but spend what is left after saving” – Warren Buffett. 

How about saving while you spend? As the year ends, the excitement of the fast-approaching New Year is setting in. Celebrating the festive holiday at a beach party in Goa or in the sombre snowy peaks of Switzerland; innumerable plans might be popping into your head. After toiling away and working extremely hard the entire year, you owe yourself this vacation! It’s time you headed out to refresh your body, mind, and soul. Enter 2023 with unforgettable memories and a fresh outlook on life.  

Chosen a destination for your next travel, now what? From ticket bookings to hotel hunting, travel planning can be a tedious task! And then, after everything, comes the real downer: the expense of it all. But wait! What if you could save money on your trip using a credit card?  

Travel Credit Cards 

There are different types of credit cards that cater to specific needs and requirements. One of these cards is a travel credit card. These provide great offers and discounts on international and domestic travel along with hotel vouchers or dining offers.   

1. Rewards: You get to earn various forms of rewards like free tickets and or lounge access. With free lounge access you can relax and unwind while you wait to board. To learn more, read: The Best Credit Cards for Airport Lounge Access.
2. Insurance: These cards also provide comprehensive travel insurance to ensure that you are financially protected in case of a mishap like loss of baggage or medical emergencies.  
3. Flexibility: These cards offer flexible utility and can be used to purchase a flight, train, or bus tickets, and allow hotel bookings across multiple travel companies.  

Hence, you can choose whatever suits your holiday requirements the best while saving a considerable amount of money. Now let us look at some travel credit cards that can help you save money as you explore the world.  

SBI IRCTC RuPay Card 

The card is specially designed for people who prefer to travel using the railways and offers a wide range of benefits. It has a joining fee of ₹500 and an annual renewal charge of ₹300. You can save more on tickets by booking through IRCTC’s official portals. You can get up to 10% of the value back in reward points on such bookings. 1% transaction fees and fuel surcharge can also be waived with this card. The RuPay platform offers you additional exciting deals on dining, golf, travel and several other entertainment options with this card. You can also relax with 4 special railway lounge accesses every year.  

Bajaj Finserv RBL Bank Travel Easy SuperCard 

This card may prove beneficial to you if you are a frequent traveller. This card provides great cashback and discount offers on cab services from companies like Ola or Uber. It also enables you to make unlimited interest-free withdrawals up to your cash limit from all ATMs in the country. You can also get a ₹1,000 voucher when you join or after achieving a ₹1 Lakh aggregate expenditure in a year. Providers also waive the annual fee in case of the latter. To get this card, you must have a credit score above 750 and no defaults on your debt payments. You can also make use of the interest-free cash withdrawal feature for up to 50 days. This card also enables you to convert the cash limit available on the card into a 3-month personal loan at an interest of 1.16% and zero processing fee.   

SBI ELITE Credit Card

This is a premium card with a joining and renewal fee of ₹4,999. If you spend over ₹10 Lakhs a year on this card, the renewal fee is waived by SBI. You can get ₹5,000 worth of gift vouchers as a welcome bonus. With this card, you get up to 50,000 reward points worth ₹12,500 annually. It further provides complimentary Trident Privilege Red and Club Vistara Silver Tier Membership. The minimum income requirement to acquire this card is ₹60,000 per month. It also charges a lower forex markup fee. Forex markup is the additional amount payable on purchases made in different currencies or for products bought internationally.

Citi PremierMiles Credit Card

This card has a joining and annual fee of ₹3,000. It provides you with an Air Accident Insurance Cover with an insured amount of over ₹1 Crore in case of a mishap. You also get an additional ₹10 Lakh worth of lost card liability cover with this credit card. Even when out dining, you can save up to 20% on your expenses in partner restaurants. It also offers the air miles feature where you can collect 10 air mile points on every ₹100 spent on airline transactions. Every other type of purchase will get you 4 mile points. Air miles is a unique feature provided by some travel credit cards, which, as the name suggests, is specific to air travel. You can earn loyalty points from an airline with the air miles program during flight bookings and similar purchases. These points can be redeemed to catch a sweet deal on ticket bookings for future international and domestic trips. Air miles points of this card do not expire and can be used whenever you want. 

Airlines generally provide this feature to attract regular customers that tend to frequently choose them as their travel partners. Different airlines sometimes use different nomenclature for the air miles concept. For example, Vistara Airways refers to air miles reward points as CV Points, while Air India calls these FR Points. The rate of earning these points differs from transaction to transaction and card to card.    

No matter where you spend your year-end, break free from your worries and enjoy your much-deserved holiday. Treat yourself to the vacation of your dreams without worrying about overspending. With the help of the above tips and products we learned about, protect your finances and enjoy the festive season. Go check out Bajaj Markets and see what we have in store for you!