Bummed about the discontinuation of Disney Vacation Account

[ctcdisneymama]

I just received an email about the Disney Vacation Account program being discontinued. Is anyone else as bummed about this as I am?

I loved being able to direct deposit money into the account and use it for vacations. That's the only way we afforded the last trip we went on in March, and how we were saving up for a trip in a few years.

Was I the only one using this program?

 

[Pipersmom09]

I was using it to and got the email this morning as well. Never got to use the money I was saving up as was planning a trip next summer. Now will have to figure out another way to save without wanting to touch the money for other things.

 

[yaksplat]

Set up a Capital One 360 account. It used to be ingdirect. You can do scheduled withdrawals from your back account to it and you can pull the money out of it in a couple days. It'll serve the same purpose.

 

[Legendary]

We absolutely loved it. Saved a ton buying gift cards at Sam's, getting the credit card rewards and then again when applying it to our vacation. They had $500 gift cards so it really didn't take that long to enter. So worth the effort. Throughout the program we saved enough to pay for an extra trip. Sad to see it go. Means we will probably vacation a little less.

 

[Mander]

Really disappointed to see it go! I had only used it for the first time a few months ago but it made saving so much easier for us.

 

[TARDIS]

Very sad to see it go myself I work at a bank so it was nice my savings for trips was out of sight and hard to touch for something small slowly draining it lol.

 

[ctcdisneymama]

Glad to hear I'm not the only one who's upset about this. No clue why they would have ended such a useful app

 

[ninjaprincesst]

I just book the package online as far ahead of time as I can and make payments , it works just as well, for example we still have 16 months to get our 2018 trip paid for and I use the Disney Visa to make the payments since they don't charge interest for Disney Vacations ( I do pay it off ever moth , but the no interest is nice just in case, but then my daughter has a nice amount of reward points to spend as well.

 

[Surfin' Tuna]

I just book the package online as far ahead of time as I can and make payments , it works just as well, for example we still have 16 months to get our 2018 trip paid for and I use the Disney Visa to make the payments since they don't charge interest for Disney Vacations ( I do pay it off ever moth , but the no interest is nice just in case, but then my daughter has a nice amount of reward points to spend as well.

I think this is a pretty good idea. I use separate bank accounts for these purposes. I have them at different banks from my normal accounts. I add the money and get electronic statements. I quite honestly do not even know the password to the accounts. I check the balance every month when the statement arrives, but I do not touch it until the time comes when I usually reset the password (or look it up in my old man password book). It is not as convenient, but it does allow me to maintain control of the account outside of my normal finances and is available if there is a real emergency. Disney does not really need to make interest on my money along with everything they get.

The key to me is keeping it at a separate bank, so I don't have easy access when paying bills and such.

 

[DfromATX]

I just book the package online as far ahead of time as I can and make payments , it works just as well, for example we still have 16 months to get our 2018 trip paid for and I use the Disney Visa to make the payments since they don't charge interest for Disney Vacations ( I do pay it off ever moth , but the no interest is nice just in case, but then my daughter has a nice amount of reward points to spend as well.

You've already booked your 2018 trip? What month are you going in? We're going in June, but we probably won't book until November or December. I can hardly wait!

 

[LadyBug22]

A part of the magic just died inside of me I just recently redeemed my account towards a vacation and was looking forward to continue to save for another trip. This account has helped me gain an extra $100 for our trip. I am so bummed out right now. I just found out about this in February and signed up right away to meet the 120 day mark. I purchased enough discounted gift cards to deposit into the account so I didnt have to pay for the trip with a million gift cards. Why Disney? It was so easy and convenient.

 

[John park hopper]

Looked into setting up an account this year and saw the bonus was being discontinued in Dec made me think something was up. Set up a vacation account at my local bank and will use savings to buy discounted Disney gift cards using cash back credit cards. Had read many stories of people having a hard time getting their money out. Hope no one has that problem

 

[DuckTalesWooHoo1987]

Glad to hear I'm not the only one who's upset about this. No clue why they would have ended such a useful app

Honestly you may want to look in to buying resell DVC points. Some of them are relatively cheap and you can be on a payment plan for them and maybe you could set it up to where you could make sorta the same payments on them as you were on the program you were in? A home equity line of credit gives you a really low interest rate too but don't even think about using Disney's interest rate. Even our DVC agent told us not to do that when we joined. Maybe this would be something that's a possibility for you and you could still go as frequently or as infrequently as you wanted and just sell the points for the years you didn't want to go. You would probably even be able to make a little money.

 

[ctcdisneymama]

Honestly you may want to look in to buying resell DVC points. Some of them are relatively cheap and you can be on a payment plan for them and maybe you could set it up to where you could make sorta the same payments on them as you were on the program you were in? A home equity line of credit gives you a really low interest rate too but don't even think about using Disney's interest rate. Even our DVC agent told us not to do that when we joined. Maybe this would be something that's a possibility for you and you could still go as frequently or as infrequently as you wanted and just sell the points for the years you didn't want to go. You would probably even be able to make a little money.

That is a good idea, thank you. Definitely something to look into. We were saving to take our daughter in 2020, so it was nice to put a little away each month straight from our paychecks. I'll definitely look into opening at least another account to do the same, but the DVA was so convenient. We used it for our trip this past March and it was wonderful.

 

[Cabodave9]

You've already booked your 2018 trip? What month are you going in? We're going in June, but we probably won't book until November or December. I can hardly wait!

Can you actually do a deposit and then make payments? How?

 

[larryz]

Can you actually do a deposit and then make payments? How?

When you make a reservation, WDW requires a deposit either over the phone, on-line, or by check in the mail within 10 days. From that point on, if it's a package, you have until 30 days prior to arrival to pay it off. If it's room-only, you can pay the balance when you check in. Payments can be made online (when it's working), by phone, or by check in the mail.

Here's the official WDW instructions.

 

[Chef Mickey]

What exactly was this account?

 

[Cabodave9]

When you make a reservation, WDW requires a deposit either over the phone, on-line, or by check in the mail within 10 days. From that point on, if it's a package, you have until 30 days prior to arrival to pay it off. If it's room-only, you can pay the balance when you check in. Payments can be made online (when it's working), by phone, or by check in the mail.

Here's the official WDW instructions.

Now that you mention it I do recall hearing that. I wonder if because I buy my park tickets on a military base but buy everything else thru Disney if I’m able to do that.

 

[Mainahman]

i didnt know this even existed... and we would of totally used it. Now what we do, is every time we get paid and do groceries, we buy a 25 or 50 dollar gift card to disney. This round its just spending money, but we could fund a trip that way. Its win win for us, as Kroger usually runs from 2x to 4x times the fuel points on gift cards, and if i do that, im less likely to spend it ha!

 

[DfromATX]

Can you actually do a deposit and then make payments? How?

Yes, I only pay the deposit when I book. I'll pay the full balance by the deadline. I don't make payments - keep it in the bank until I need to pay it in full. Another thing I will do is buy Disney gift cards at Sam's. They sell $500 gift cards for about $480 and those work like credit cards saving $20 for every $500 spent. When you book online you can choose to pay it in full or make a payment.