Travel credit cards for students have gotten complicated with all the fine print flying around. As someone who started building credit in college specifically to fund backpacking trips, I learned everything there is to know about which cards actually work for students without draining your bank account on annual fees. Today, I will share it all with you.
Why Students Should Care About Travel Credit Cards
I’ll be straightforward with you — most college students aren’t thinking about credit cards as a travel tool. They’re thinking about textbooks, ramen, and maybe a spring break trip if the budget allows. But here’s the thing: the spending you’re already doing (gas, groceries, streaming subscriptions, the occasional late-night pizza order) can earn you free flights and hotel stays if you’re using the right card.
That’s what makes no-annual-fee travel cards endearing to us budget travelers — you’re literally getting something for nothing as long as you pay off the balance each month. And I can’t stress that last part enough. Carrying a balance will wipe out any rewards benefit faster than you can say “interest rate.”
What I Looked For in These Cards
Probably should have led with this section, honestly. Not every card marketed to students is actually good for travel. I evaluated these based on:
- No annual fee — non-negotiable for this list
- Rewards that translate to actual travel value (not just store gift cards)
- Reasonable approval odds for people with limited credit history
- No foreign transaction fees (crucial if you’re studying abroad or traveling internationally)
- Flexible redemption options so you’re not locked into one airline or hotel chain
1. Discover it Student Cash Back
This is the card I actually started with in college, so I might be a little biased. Discover’s student card gives you 5% cash back in rotating categories each quarter (things like restaurants, gas stations, grocery stores, Amazon) and 1% on everything else. The categories change every three months, so you do need to activate them online — takes about thirty seconds.
The real kicker is their first-year match: Discover matches ALL the cash back you earn in your first twelve months. So that 5% category effectively becomes 10%. I earned around $350 in cash back my first year just from normal spending, then Discover doubled it to $700. That paid for a round-trip flight to Costa Rica.
No foreign transaction fees either, which not every student card can claim. The only downside is that Discover isn’t accepted as widely internationally as Visa or Mastercard, so you’ll want a backup card when traveling abroad.
2. Bank of America Travel Rewards Credit Card for Students
This one flies under the radar but it’s genuinely solid. You get 1.5 points per dollar on every purchase, no categories to track, no quarterly activations. Simple and consistent. Points redeem at 1 cent each toward any travel purchase, including flights, hotels, rental cars, and even ride-shares.
What I really like here is the flexibility. You’re not tied to a specific airline or hotel loyalty program. Book wherever you find the best deal, then use your points to erase the charge from your statement. I used this method to cover three nights at a hostel in Barcelona during a study abroad trip — just booked on Hostelworld and then applied points to the charge afterward.
No foreign transaction fees, and if you’re a Bank of America customer already, the application process is incredibly smooth. Approval odds are decent even with a thin credit file.
3. Capital One SavorOne Student Cash Rewards
This card is built around dining and entertainment spending, which, let’s be real, is where a huge chunk of most students’ budgets goes. You get 3% back on dining, entertainment, popular streaming services, and grocery stores. Everything else earns 1%.
The dining category is broad — it covers restaurants, fast food, coffee shops, food delivery apps, all of it. During my junior year, my roommate had this card and was earning $15-20 a month just from normal food spending. Over a year, that added up to enough for a budget domestic flight.
Capital One also has a solid travel portal if you want to book directly through them, though I usually prefer booking independently and just using the cash back toward my next trip. No foreign transaction fees on this one either.
4. Chase Freedom Rise
Chase designed this card specifically for people building credit, and it shows. You earn 1.5% cash back on everything with no categories to worry about. The big advantage here is getting your foot in the Chase ecosystem.
Why does that matter? Because once you build credit with the Freedom Rise, you can eventually upgrade to cards like the Chase Sapphire Preferred, which is arguably the best travel card in existence. And when you do, all those points you earned on the Freedom Rise can be combined with your Sapphire points and transferred to airline and hotel partners at much higher value.
I think of this card as a stepping stone. It’s not flashy, the rewards rate is fine but not spectacular, and it won’t blow your mind. But it positions you perfectly for better travel cards down the road. No foreign transaction fees, which continues to be a theme on this list.
5. Deserve EDU Mastercard
This is the wild card on the list, and it’s specifically designed for students — including international students, which is huge. Most card issuers won’t touch applicants without a US credit history, but Deserve uses alternative data (like your school enrollment and academic standing) to evaluate applications.
You earn 1% cash back on all purchases, which is the lowest rate on this list. But for international students or anyone who’s been denied everywhere else, it’s a viable starting point. It also comes with a free Amazon Prime Student membership for the first year, which is a nice perk if you’re doing a lot of online shopping anyway.
No foreign transaction fees (sense a pattern?), and since it’s a Mastercard, acceptance is solid both domestically and internationally.
Mistakes I Made So You Don’t Have To
Let me save you some headaches I earned the hard way:
Carrying a balance “just once.” I told myself I’d pay it off next month. Then next month had its own expenses. The interest charges wiped out three months of rewards earnings. Pay in full. Every month. No exceptions.
Ignoring the rotating categories. Discover’s 5% categories are amazing, but you have to manually opt in each quarter. I forgot for two quarters my first year and left probably $80-100 on the table.
Opening too many cards at once. Each application dings your credit score temporarily. I applied for three cards in one week because I couldn’t decide which one I wanted. My credit score dropped 30 points and I got denied for the third card anyway. Space your applications out by at least three to six months.
Using the card abroad without telling the bank. My card got frozen in Portugal because I didn’t set a travel notice. Standing at a Lisbon metro station with a declined card and no cash was not my finest moment. Most banks let you set travel notices through their app now — takes two minutes before your trip.
How to Actually Use These Rewards for Travel
The points and cash back only matter if you use them strategically. Here’s what I’ve found works best for students:
Accumulate rewards for at least six months before redeeming. Small redemptions feel satisfying but you’ll get more value waiting for a bigger payout. I save mine up and apply them toward one big trip per year instead of trickling them out on small stuff.
Pair your rewards card with budget travel tools. I use Google Flights for airfare alerts, Hostelworld for accommodation, and Rome2Rio for ground transportation planning. The rewards cover the flight, and I keep the rest of the trip lean.
Consider studying abroad if you haven’t already. It’s the cheapest way to live in another country for an extended period, your financial aid often applies, and your travel card racks up points on all that international spending.
The Bottom Line
You don’t need a premium card with a $500 annual fee to travel well as a student. These five cards all charge zero annual fees, skip the foreign transaction fees, and give you meaningful rewards on the spending you’re doing anyway. Start with one, use it responsibly, pay it off each month, and watch those rewards stack up.
My first “free” flight happened eight months after getting my first student travel card. It was a short domestic hop from my college town to visit a friend in Denver. Nothing glamorous. But it was free, and I was hooked. That’s how the travel bug works — it doesn’t take much to get started.
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