Leaving the Pig at home these holidays

Taking the family on holiday can be a very expensive exercise and sometimes is enough to make dad go berko over the cost, but with some careful planning and budgeting it all can be achievable.

Some tricks to keeping the piggy bank happy. For those that use credit cards frequently are sure you are using the card and its benefits to it full potential. Example the American Express Platinum card cost around $300 a year in fees now that’s a easily return flight within Australia, so I guess that’s why they give you a returned flight, and there seems to be no problem getting the availability for the flight. The card also comes with other great benefits and features, and great point earning opportunities. It’s the point earning which we use to contribute to purchasing other airfares to complement the “free flight” that is offered.

Security feature, I have personally experienced card theft when someone was using my card to try and purchase flights in another country, American Express called me to check notify me of the fraudulent activity. They cancelled that card and issued a new card straight away, this security feature they provided was great feature to have with the card.

The travel insurance feature that card has was also another added benefit, especially after I accidentally left my prized iPod Touch  and Sony K800i on the plane, which was then bound to Los Angeles. Because I booked and paid for the travel using this card Amex were able to process my travel insurance claim quickly and have me reimburse for my tired stupidity.

I don’t need to explain the traps about the credit cards, but used wisely they can be handy travel tool. If you are not keen on getting a credit card, there are some banks that provide Visa and MasterCard debit cards and bundle these up with access to special benefit programs.

If you are thrifty and are good at saving and you are working your way to overseas holiday or big family holiday. Smash the old piggy bank and look for some other options, now has never been a better time to look at putting your savings into a high interest savings account. There are some banks with in Australia now providing savers the opportunity to earn interest at around 8%, one example of this can be found at RabboPlus.