Van Life and Reward Points

Van Life is a unique way to travel, to discover the world around us.

In the milesopedia community, there are many vanlifers who have combined the art of Van travel with the savings that credit card rewards and benefits can bring:

for the grocery store
for gas
for activities
for stopover hotels
for cash back
for travel insurance
to pay no conversion fees on foreign currency expenses

Check out our series of articles about the Van Life below, and the different credit cards that vanlifers like.

Credit cards recommended for vanlifers

Here are the different credit cards that milesopedia recommends to vanlifers.

Click on the type of card that best suits your needs. If you would like to search for a card by yourself among all our criteria, click here to check out our credit card search tool.

Best credit cards by category

Grocery
Gas

Restaurants and Bars
Cash back

Insurance
Hotels and Airbnb

No conversion fee
Activities

Credit cards for groceries

Here are the different credit cards milesopedia recommends to vanlifers for grocery shopping:

5 points per dollar with the American Express Cobalt™ Card
5 points per dollar with the Scotiabank Gold American Express Card
3% cash back with the BMO Cash Back Mastercard, with no annual fee

Credit cards for gas

Here are the different credit cards milesopedia recommends to vanlifers for gas:

3 points per dollar with the Scotiabank Gold American Express Card
2 points per dollar with the American Express^® Gold Rewards Card
2% cash back with the Tangerine Money-Back Mastercard, with no annual fee

Credit cards for restaurants and bars

Here are the different credit cards milesopedia recommends to vanlifers for restaurants and bars:

5 points per dollar with the American Express Cobalt™ Card
5 points per dollar with the Scotiabank Gold American Express Card
3 points per dollar with the BMO^® World Elite^®* Mastercard^®*

Credit cards for cash back

Here are the different credit cards milesopedia recommends to vanlifers for cash back:

Up to 4% with the Scotia Momentum^® VISA Infinite* card
2% everywhere with the SimplyCash™ Preferred from American Express
1.5% everywhere including Costco with the BMO^® CashBack^® World Elite^®* Mastercard^®*

Credit cards for travel insurance

Here are the different credit cards that milesopedia recommends to vanlifers for insurance:

Up to 60 days of out-of-province medical coverage with the National Bank World Elite Mastercard
Up to 60 days of out-of-province medical coverage with the National Bank World Mastercard
Up to 31 days of out-of-province medical insurance with the HSBC World Elite Mastercard

Credit cards for stopover hotels

Here are the different credit cards milesopedia recommends to vanlifers for hotels:

5 points per dollar with the Marriott Bonvoy™ American Express^® Card for bookings at Marriott’s hotels, with a nice welcome bonus
5 points per dollar with the Marriott Bonvoy Business American Express^MD Card for bookings at Marriott’s hotels, with a nice welcome bonus
5 points per dollar with the Best Western Rewards^® Mastercard for bookings at Best Western hotels, with a nice welcome bonus

Airbnb

Some vanlifers rent out homes on Airbnb, or even just lots so they can park! You can save money on Airbnb with several credit cards outlined in this strategy.

Credit cards with no conversion fee

Here are the different credit cards that milesopedia recommends to vanlifers to avoid paying any conversion fees for purchases made in foreign currencies (a saving of 2.5% on each transaction)!

Credit cards for activities

Here are the different credit cards milesopedia recommends for vanlifers to save on activities like theme parks:

The BMO^® AIR MILES^® World Elite^®* Mastercard^®* allows you to earn AIR MILES miles to earn Disney Gift Cards.
The Scotiabank Gold American Express Card is the only card that earns 5 points per dollar for activities
The Scotiabank Passport™ Visa Infinite* Card allows you to redeem points to pay for park entrances and other entertainment activities.