Is it more cost-effective to use a credit card abroad or a UnionPay debit card?

From my experience, it is best to use a credit card. First, choose the card type from different card issuing organizations according to the region you are in. Second, choose which bank has stronger overseas discounts. This bank’s credit card.

UnionPay debit cards are generally used to withdraw cash locally. Because withdrawing cash with a credit card will incur high interest rates, you should not use a credit card to withdraw cash unless absolutely necessary. At present, UnionPay has bilateral cooperation with more than 150 countries around the world. Using UnionPay debit or credit cards, you can directly withdraw cash with UnionPay cards at the ATMs of local partner banks. The exchange rate is calculated based on the real-time exchange rate of the day, but many times a certain handling fee is required for cash withdrawals, which are divided into two parts. Half is charged by local cooperative banks, which is generally unavoidable, and the other half is charged by UnionPay. However, some domestic commercial banks, especially regional commercial banks, can waive the handling fee for a limited number of cash withdrawals. In this way, using debit Card withdrawal is the most cost-effective. If you exchange a lot of local currency before traveling in the province, if you don’t use up all the money and then return to your country to exchange it for RMB, you will incur exchange rate and handling fee losses.

Choose to use a credit card because not only does it have an interest-free repayment period, but it also has points. Although the usual points may seem like they can only be exchanged for small gifts, the points from high-end credit cards are real money. Take the Bank of Communications Platinum Credit Card as an example, commonly known as Bai Qilin, as shown in the figure below:

The benefits are as follows:

Double points in the birthday month, and five times points in dining and entertainment on the birthday

Points 18:1 for mileage redemption of five major airlines

6 Ward Airport VIP services and 6 Longteng Airport VIP services per year

Each main card can apply for 3 An additional card with no annual fee and exclusive access to airport VIP privileges.

You can enjoy free drinking and driving service 6 times a year. You must make a reservation 3 hours in advance, and the driver will wait for half an hour for free.

1) Card loss protection of up to 100,000 yuan 72 hours before reporting loss; 2) Aviation accident insurance of up to 10 million yuan; 3) 2-hour flight delay insurance with a compensation of 500 yuan; 4) Family travel insurance, including accidents Medical treatment, lost documents, delayed luggage, etc.

However, there are so many rights and interests. These rights and interests are all supported by annual fees. In the first year: within 45 days of card approval, if you make 3 purchases of 168 yuan each, the first-year annual fee will be waived. . The next year: The annual fee for the next year will be waived if the ranking reaches the standard; for Ward financial management customers, the annual fee for the next year will be reduced by half, which is 500 yuan/year; or 250,000 points can be used to offset it. This means that you need to spend at least 250,000 points in RMB transactions, which is difficult for ordinary consumers to achieve. If you use overseas double points, you have to spend the equivalent of 125,000 yuan in foreign currency, which is quite a lot. However, if Bank of Communications cardholders make 5 overseas offline card purchases in a single month, and the amount of each transaction is not less than 500 yuan equivalent in RMB (hereinafter referred to as "standard consumption"), the day with the highest overseas offline consumption in the month will become On the exclusive "Overseas Super Red Day" for cardholders, overseas offline card consumption on that day can be rewarded with 20 times the points, and other overseas offline purchases can be rewarded with 10 times the points. In this way, as long as you calculate the amount of consumption abroad, you can easily get 250,000 points, which can offset the annual fee of 1,000 yuan. So think about it, do you still want to use a point-free loan card to swipe your card? Even if there are activities with overseas UnionPay cards, you only need to use UnionPay credit cards to swipe the cards, and try not to use debit cards for consumption.