Bank of America® Travel Rewards

Most no-fee cards charge around 3% on foreign purchases, which quietly makes them the wrong card the moment you leave the country: 3% on a $2,000 trip is $60, more than half the annual fee of the premium travel cards in this catalog. Travel Rewards charges none, on a card that also charges no annual fee.

That's an unusual combination. The premium travel cards here drop foreign transaction fees too, but they charge $95 to $795 for the privilege. If you travel abroad once or twice a year, this card delivers the part of a travel card that actually saves money without the part that costs it.

Earning is a flat 1.5 points per dollar on everything, which is below the four flat 2% cash-back cards in this catalog. So on domestic spending this card is not the best earner available — it's the one that doesn't penalize you overseas.

It also opens with 0% intro APR for 15 billing cycles, matching U.S. Bank Cash+ and TD Cash and sitting six cycles behind Chase Slate's 21 months. The go-to APR of 17.49% to 27.49% has one of the lower floors in this catalog, which makes it a more forgiving card than most to carry an occasional balance on — though that is never the plan.

1.5 points per dollar is an ordinary rate - the same as Capital One Quicksilver's cash back and below the four 2% cards here. What is not ordinary on a no-fee card is the absence of a foreign transaction fee, which the issuer publishes as part of the rewards terms.

That is worth more than the rate difference to anyone who spends abroad. A foreign transaction fee typically takes around 3% of each purchase made in another currency, which on a two-week trip costing $2,000 abroad is enough to wipe out a full year of the half-point gap between 1.5% and 2% on ordinary domestic spending.

There is no annual fee, which puts this in a different bracket from the travel cards in this catalog that charge $95 and up - Chase Sapphire Preferred, Capital One Venture, Citi Strata Premier, Bank of America's own Premium Rewards. Those buy lounge access, credits and higher multiples; this buys the absence of a currency surcharge and nothing else.

For an occasional traveller who does not want to justify a fee every year, that is the right trade. For someone flying often enough to use a travel credit, the fee cards will return more than $95 and this one will not.

1.5 points per dollar is an ordinary rate - the same as Capital One Quicksilver's cash back and below the four 2% cards here. What is not ordinary on a no-fee card is the absence of a foreign transaction fee, which the issuer publishes as part of the rewards terms.

That is worth more than the rate difference to anyone who spends abroad. A foreign transaction fee typically takes around 3% of each purchase made in another currency, which on a two-week trip costing $2,000 abroad is enough to wipe out a full year of the half-point gap between 1.5% and 2% on ordinary domestic spending.

There is no annual fee, which puts this in a different bracket from the travel cards in this catalog that charge $95 and up - Chase Sapphire Preferred, Capital One Venture, Citi Strata Premier, Bank of America's own Premium Rewards. Those buy lounge access, credits and higher multiples; this buys the absence of a currency surcharge and nothing else.

For an occasional traveller who does not want to justify a fee every year, that is the right trade. For someone flying often enough to use a travel credit, the fee cards will return more than $95 and this one will not.