Travel Rewards are more than just airline miles.  It is important to understand this when we talk about credit card travel rewards to help you decipher which cards are going to be the best for you.  Credit card travel rewards will be for hotels, airlines, car rental, and road trips.  These travel rewards can be used in a variety of different ways and how to earn the rewards will differ between the companies.

Discover has a credit card travel rewards program.  They not only offer you cash back for your purchases at 1 mile or point per dollar, but the rewards that you can choose will be different.  If you are flying then you can use the points toward the air miles, but if you need a rental car you can ask for a voucher for money off the reservation.  It will depend on the current promotions at the time and what companies they are working with.  This can change during the year.  There are also going to be occasions where the card company sends you coupons in the mail just for having the card so the travel rewards can be for almost anything.  You can even get travel rewards for restaurants.

The idea is really very simple once you learn how to work it.  You are going to want to use the card for your purchases.  This means you need to ensure that you have the income to pay it off before the statement comes.  This saves you the interest rate.  In the event that you can’t pay it off before the statement you will pay interest on the remaining balance, but you are going to earn rewards so this may be worth it depending on your own calculations. 

There are some credit cards with travel rewards where you have to pay an annual fee on top of earning the cash back as well as paying the interest rate.  For these cards you want to get the best interest rate possible.  It is in some cases best to avoid the ones with the annual percentage rate.  On the other hand you sometimes get better rewards with these cards.  Take the Capital One card for example.  This credit card company offers you 1.25 miles for travel rewards when you spend a dollar.  That is definitely better than Discover right, but to get this you usually have to pay that annual fee.  Other things to consider are whether you are earning points or if you are earning cash back.  With some of the credit card companies you are actually earning points these points are then redeemed for vouchers when you have earned enough for the travel rewards.  With cash back you tend to earn that a little faster.  One reason for this is the way you earn cash back rewards for travel.  You can earn double rewards for flights or restaurants.  You can also earn 1% cash back for other purchases that are not related to travel in anyway.  These travel rewards are for any purchase.