New Delhi, Dec. 18 -- Planning a holiday no longer requires paying everything up front. If used wisely, a credit card can help travellers manage their cash flows, unlock rewards and even save on travel costs. To accomplish this, one needs to have a clean credit history and no past defaults on credit card bill payments.

Here are four simple yet effective ways to plan your vacation using a credit card, while keeping finances in check.

Several travel-focused credit cards in the country provide reward points, air miles or hotel points on spending. These can cumulatively help in significantly reducing your holiday spending. To accomplish this, you should:

This approach will work best if you first devise a credit card usage strategy well in ...