I'm planning an international trip. Instead of getting travel insurance, I opened a new credit card.

Travel insurance for my upcoming international trip could cost upwards of $500 — instead, I'm using the benefits of my travel rewards credit card.

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• The last time I traveled abroad, I went solo and didn't mind the possibility of sleeping in an airport.
• Now that I have a family, travel insurance is important — but I'm getting it through my credit card.
• My travel credit card also comes with added benefits like rental car insurance.

For the first time in a decade, I'm planning an international trip to Greece in the fall. The last time I went abroad, I was single and traveled only with a backpack. This time, I'll be traveling with my husband, our toddler, and a lot of baggage. As I'm planning this vacation, I've found myself debating whether I need travel insurance.

According to SquareMouth travel insurance, the average cost of travel insurance is around 5% to 10% of your total trip price. While we don't have our trip finalized quite yet, our travel insurance bill could reach $500 based on what we are budgeting for.

In an effort to save that cash while still getting the protection we need, I decided to open a travel rewards credit card with travel insurance benefits. Here are those benefits and how much money I'll save this way.

I picked a credit card with low fees and substantial travel benefits

Since this trip to Greece will cost a few thousand dollars, I decided to open a credit card with travel insurance to take advantage of travel rewards and travel insurance benefits that are offered. I wanted a credit card with low annual fees that still offered good perks.

I decided to go with the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card credit card since it had the most robust travel insurance benefits. While it has an annual fee, the card offers benefits from vendors I use, like DoorDash and Lyft, which offset that cost.

If I use the credit card to pay for the whole trip, I'll spend enough to earn bonus travel points, and I can get a statement credit for booking travel through Chase's platform.

It offers up to $500 per ticket in travel delay reimbursement

One of the biggest reasons I wanted travel insurance was to make sure that if a flight was canceled and our trip was delayed a day or two, our expenses would be covered. When I traveled solo, I'd sleep in the airport, but now that I'm traveling with my family, I want to make sure we don't have to pay extra costs for a hotel or food because we have to stay an extra night or two somewhere.

The Sapphire Preferred card offers travel delay reimbursement of up to $500 per ticket if our flight is delayed more than 12 hours and we need to stay somewhere overnight.

I get trip cancellation and interruption insurance

Now that I'm traveling with my husband and toddler, if one of us were to get sick, we might have to cancel the trip or push it back a few days. Without travel insurance, that would be extremely costly and we'd lose out on potentially thousands of dollars.

But the Sapphire Preferred card covers a reimbursement of up to $10,000 per person if the trip is canceled or cut short by sickness, weather, or other covered situations.

Additionally, my credit card will give me coverage while renting a car during my travels. Travel insurance companies don't usually include this coverage in their policies.