Anyone else save for your trip this way?

[sbkline]

We use the Disney Rewards Visa, which accumulates roughly $500 a year in points. So we currently have $500 points to use right now, and should have a total of around $1,000 a year from now when we go on our next trip, which I plan to use for our restaraunts.

Another thing I thought of was to pre-pay certain parts of the trip throughout the year so as to lessen the expense while we are on vacation. To do this, I buy gift cards to certain restaraunts each billing cycle, so I can try to budget it into the monthly credit card bill. Last month, I bought a $60 set of Longhorn Steakhouse gift cards and a $50 Disney Gift card for my son as a birthday present, to use on next year's trip. This month, I bought a $25 IHOP gift card, and I plan to buy two or three more in coming months. And our baby sitter prefers to be paid in cash, so when I go on my lunch hour (I work at Walmart), I will use my check card to buy something cheap and get cash back to pay the baby sitter. Sometimes, I will buy a $10 Burger King gift card to do this, and so far I have $30 in Burger King Gift cards. My Daughter's birthday is in June, so I thought we may get her a $50 Disney gift card as well, and do the same for the kids for Christmas. And my son will have another birthday next May, before the trip. So if we do it that way, he will have $150 in Disney gift cards and our daughter will have $100, to use on their souveniers so we don't have to spend that money as we go. We will have several of our road trip meals pre-paid with those gift cards as well.

Anyone else do this? The one thing in the back of my mind that concerns me is if there are any expirations on these gift cards that I don't know about. I have checked and have seen nothing about any expiration dates, and the IHOP one specifically said that no expiration dates apply, but it still makes my wife very nervous, which in turn puts doubts into my own mind. We are planning to leave basically a year from yesterday so I hope none of these gift cards start to devalue after a certain period of time...or if they do, hopefully it's a longer period than a year. Is there anyone who has done this and can vouch that the gift cards will be fine?

 

[flynnibus]

Disney gift cards don't expire or run up fees. It's why people often convert their Disney Visa points to gift cards, because the reward cards have expirations so once you move your points to your card they are at risk of expiring. So people move points to rewards card, then immediately buy a gift card. So then your rewards are stable.

Personally I don't do the rewards card thing.. I find it unnecessary overhead and risk. I just move money into another bank account away from my monthly spending account. But I know many people do the 'buy a disney gift card..' model to force themselves to save.

 

[sbkline]

But what about the other gift cards, like the Longhorn and Burger King gift cards? Anyone experience any problems with those expiring or devaluing? I work at Walmart and I remember several years ago, hearing that if you don't use a Walmart gift card in a certain amount of time, it starts to lose value. It wouldn't immediately expire, but it would lose a dollar or so of value incrementally. I didn't think that there was any expiration for the Disney gift cards, but I would hate to spend $50 for a meal at Longhorn and then find out that the cards won't work and I have to put it on the credit card.

We have a Longhorn Steakhouse in Cartersville, GA that I like to stop at on the way home each trip, and we always stop through McDonald's or Burger King at several points in the trip, and we always make at least one IHOP visit, sometimes two or three. So I thought this would be a good way to have some of the trip prepaid. And when I only buy one per billing cycle, it doesn't make as much of a dent in the credit card bill each month.

 

[flynnibus]

Cards with "maintenance fees" are common... should be in the fine print on the card or packaging or if you call the number/website on the card.

Personally I wouldn't buy the 3rd party cards because again it's just unnecessary restrictions. You get no value from doing so except partitioning off your money.. and only stand to potentially lose by having to manage those cards, lose them, forget them, keep track of them, etc.

setup a free checking account at your bank.. and transfer money to that account via the web when you can. Or if you get a gift, etc... deposit that directly into the other account, not your regular account. Just moving the money out of your monthly account will do wonders and you'll save. Then just use that money to pay for your credit card bills when you get home.

I had a discover card for over 18 years earning cashback at 1%. I don't need Disney dollars at 1%. Now I've shifted to a BoA visa as my primary, and get 2-3% on my main spending categories up to a limit per month, and then 1% otherwise. I don't pay for that card perk. I put money in a free checking account. All of this earns more and none of it is restricted to where I spend or where I earn.

 

[HRHPrincessAriel]

I set a grocery budget each trip. If I'm under that budget I grab a WDW GC to meet that budget...I make it into a game to see how much I can "load"

 

[smk]

I am afraid of the gift cards too, what if they expire? I would continue to check them periodically and if they do say the will expire just use them. No harm, no foul. At least you can enjoy a meal that you paid for already. Otherwise it is a good idea to save for a trip, I try to work some OT if it is offered just we can be sure to stay ahead of our bills. We generally wait to see how we are doing with finances, wait for the fall discounts and see if we can work it into our budget without using our credit card. IF it all works out, we go, if not we stay at home and I cry. So far, we have managed a trip each of the last five years, this year? not sure yet!

 

[PrincessNelly_NJ]

I invested in a Target red card earlier this year, and so now, every time I go to target I buy 1-2 disney gift cards. We ended up saving $185 off our trip and having enough GC to cover our tickets, water park tickets, room, and most of our food.
We used to just use our tax refunds, Christmas bonuses, and my end of the year work bonus to pay off our trips. Since those were just extra sources of income we didn't need.

 

[pixiesteno]

I allot a certain amount of money each week for groceries, whatever is left goes into a bank bag in a safe for a WDW trip. I did this and had all the money together for a wonderful trip for last Sept. Alas, we decided to take the opportunity to relocate to another state so the "Disney stash" is now bamboo flooring in the new home. We will get back there and I will save the cash the same way. This time, however, we will not have to save as much because our travel costs will be greatly reduced. Our next trip will find us driving 6.5 hours to WDW rather than 22 plus hours. Lots of savings on gas for towing the RV.

 

[G8rchamps]

We try to stick to a cash budget each week so we don't go over on expenses. Just cashed in a years worth and had $350 in coins for our trip! We also have a Disney reward card we use for larger purchases and that has added us nice too.

 

[Mr Toad]

Cards with "maintenance fees" are common... should be in the fine print on the card or packaging or if you call the number/website on the card.

Personally I wouldn't buy the 3rd party cards because again it's just unnecessary restrictions. You get no value from doing so except partitioning off your money.. and only stand to potentially lose by having to manage those cards, lose them, forget them, keep track of them, etc.

setup a free checking account at your bank.. and transfer money to that account via the web when you can. Or if you get a gift, etc... deposit that directly into the other account, not your regular account. Just moving the money out of your monthly account will do wonders and you'll save. Then just use that money to pay for your credit card bills when you get home.

I had a discover card for over 18 years earning cashback at 1%. I don't need Disney dollars at 1%. Now I've shifted to a BoA visa as my primary, and get 2-3% on my main spending categories up to a limit per month, and then 1% otherwise. I don't pay for that card perk. I put money in a free checking account. All of this earns more and none of it is restricted to where I spend or where I earn.

Agreed, setting up a separate account is best. Also, check to see how many accounts your employer will direct deposit your check into. Mine will deposit into a maximum of 4. I have a small proportion reposted into a Vacation $ fund.

 

[Chef Mickey]

Honestly, I think what you described just makes it hard and probably doesn't save much.

Gift cards are a huge waste of money for consumers and a money maker for the merchant. The problem with gift cards is that it's very difficult to spend exactly $50 or $100. Let's be honest, you'll end up spending a little more to use the gift card and possibly buy stuff you don't need or do something you wouldn't have done just to use up the card. You also get hit with maintenance fees and expiration at times.

Your best bet is to get 1 credit card. I recommend Chase Freedom. Put every single thing you buy on it every month that can be put on a credit card. I put everything on my credit card. Everything.

I know this sounds scary to some, but it helps manage your expenses in a central location and gives you essentially one bill to pay per month. You also get to hold onto your money a little longer and have protection against shady merchants by denying the charge if needed. Not to mention many cards give extended warranty on purchases, travel protection, etc. With Freedom, you get 1% CASH back on everything and every quarter, there is a promotional category to get 5% cash back when using your card. They aren't junk categories either...things like restaurants (any kind), gas (any station), Lowe's, and Amazon.com are just a few. Pay your bill every month and never carry a balance.

When you earn cash back, you can do anything you want with it and not be married to a gift card. Put the cash back you get in an account and use it toward your trip.

The Disney card is not a great card because the rewards are low and the uses are limited. Other than that, I'd recommend a good airlines credit card because you can use it for airfare.

 

[PigletIsMyCat]

i've been buying disney gift cards at target using a red debit card. i'll be using them to pay for our trip and as many expenses as possible. when you link the magic band to a credit card, they only charge your credit card when you hit a certain threshold (i think it's $300, someone correct me if i'm wrong please). every night i plan on stopping at the front desk before i head to the room and paying my balance with gift cards instead of letting it charge my credit card. that 5% adds up - i'm budgeting a total of $2300, so that's $115 in savings.

 

[sbkline]

Honestly, I think what you described just makes it hard and probably doesn't save much.

Gift cards are a huge waste of money for consumers and a money maker for the merchant. The problem with gift cards is that it's very difficult to spend exactly $50 or $100. Let's be honest, you'll end up spending a little more to use the gift card and possibly buy stuff you don't need or do something you wouldn't have done just to use up the card. You also get hit with maintenance fees and expiration at times.

Your best bet is to get 1 credit card. I recommend Chase Freedom. Put every single thing you buy on it every month that can be put on a credit card. I put everything on my credit card. Everything.

I know this sounds scary to some, but it helps manage your expenses in a central location and gives you essentially one bill to pay per month. You also get to hold onto your money a little longer and have protection against shady merchants by denying the charge if needed. Not to mention many cards give extended warranty on purchases, travel protection, etc. With Freedom, you get 1% CASH back on everything and every quarter, there is a promotional category to get 5% cash back when using your card. They aren't junk categories either...things like restaurants (any kind), gas (any station), Lowe's, and Amazon.com are just a few. Pay your bill every month and never carry a balance.

When you earn cash back, you can do anything you want with it and not be married to a gift card. Put the cash back you get in an account and use it toward your trip.

The Disney card is not a great card because the rewards are low and the uses are limited. Other than that, I'd recommend a good airlines credit card because you can use it for airfare.

Regarding the gift cards, I agree that it is nigh impossible to spend exactly $50 or $100, but rather than buy things I don't need just to use the card, I expect that our balance will EXCEED that of the gift card and we will just pay the difference. For example, on the way home from our trip last year, we stopped at an IHOP in Paducah, Kentucky. For a family of four, to eat what we wanted to eat without worrying about the gift card, our total came up to around $31 (tip included). I had a $25 gift card, which meant that I had to pay a balance of 6 or 7 dollars. On each trip, we might make anywhere fro 2 to 4 IHOP stops (one on the way home, and one or more during the course of the trip). If I go down there with, say ,3 IHOP cards, most likely what I will do is use one card per visit and pay the remaining balance on the credit card. Do that on each visit, thereby using $75 of pre-paid gift cards, and only putting 20 or 30 bucks on the credit card between the 3 restaraunt visits. My goal is simply to prepay as much of the trip as I can over the course of the year so as not to have such a huge credit card bill after the trip.

Same thing with the $60 Longhorn gift card. If it comes up to less than $60, I just keep the remaining balance on the card to use on the next stop. If it comes to more than $60, then I just pay the remaining balance on the credit card, so I have a $5 or $10 charge on my credit card rather than a $65 or $70 charge.

And I agree about the convenience of a credit card. For one, it is nice to have one bill to mess with at the end of the month. Secondly, when I used to use my debit card for everything, it was easy to lose receipts, forget them in my pocket and the go through the wash, or otherwise forget to write them in the checkbook, plus the hassle of having dozens of entries in the checkbook. It is nice to have just one entry in the checkbook and only one check to write.

And I don't mind being limited in how to use the points. I plan to go to WDW no matter what, so I just feel like that is one way of saving up for the trip. It can either be used for the park tickets or our dining, both expenses that I would be paying anyway, so it doesn't bother me at all that I can only use the points for Disney.

 

[disney4life2008]

I have a vacation account. I take 10% out each check and it goes there. ING Direct is wonderful

 

[KCheatle]

Although I try to be very diligent, I rarely am when it comes to paying for Disney! With every trip, I budget out how much needs to be set aside each month to pay for the trip. Does it get side aside? No. Well, I guess it does get set aside, but then we always find other things we "need" and it gets un-set aside. Then at about 2-3 weeks before our 45-day pay off date, I'm working my butt off to make enough to pay the trip off. I used to get really anxious about it, but now I know that it'll get taken care of - - it always does! In fact, that's where I'm at right now. We have to pay off the remainder of the trip on June 11th. Am I ready right now - no. Will I be by June 11th - yep.