Save on Summer Travel

You can score free lodging by using a credit card issued by a hotel chain.

Road warriors, take note: If you always book your room in a hotel that belongs to a favorite hotel chain, you could benefit from using a hotel credit card. That's because with a hotel card you'll earn points both for staying at the hotel and for paying for your room with the card (you accrue points for all general spending, too).

So even though hotel-card issuers are upping the ante for their pricier properties, you'll pile up the points faster toward a stay at a luxury hotel. For example, Starwood recently raised the requirement for a free room at the St. Regis in New York City to 35,000 points from 25,000, and Hilton and Hyatt have added new luxury categories for which you need larger numbers of points.

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Senior Reporter, Kiplinger's Personal Finance