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[midwestdee]

Eh that comment would have been more judgy back in the day when you didn't have a plethora of rewards cards. These days what is more important is how you are paying back your balance. Most people who are using the cards for primarily the rewards are paying off the balance every month (and we pay off the balance every month). I wouldn't personally feel comfortable churning CCs so that's not what I'm talking about.

The Chase CC my husband got last summer substationally subsidized the very pricey Europe airfare for this July's trip. AirFrance point redemption was okay but I believe British Airways had better (although the cost to select your seat was astronomical compared to AirFrance). The CC points also paid completely for the 2 nights in Venice ahead of our cruise. The Venice hotel was one that was $400-$500 per night. We paid $15K World of Hyatt points per night (Chase points transferred to World of Hyatt points) and it didn't take much to get those points (Hyatt has one of the best point redemptions presently on hotels too). We opted to not use points for our Athens hotel for 2 nights (where hotels are for the most part a lot more economical in cost) and booked using the CC and we'll earn points on that.

Also the Chase CC has all the travel insurance we actually need for the trips we have presently booked with exception medical health coverage (as the trips are outside the U.S. as well). It has lounge access (at applicable places) which is actually really nice to have, it saves you on money at the airports for simple things like food and beverage. It paid for my Global Entry fee (my husband got his paid for through his work).

I could go on and on but yeah. In the world of "charging it" there's a lot more savviness going on behind the scenes than people give credit for.

I’m going to go out on a limb and guess your family’s annual income is beyond the 100,000, the OP was talking about. Sadly, many hard working Americans are “under banked”, let alone have any savviness about credit cards.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

There's a whole community of churners. I'm not sure what percentage of people out there really take advantage of this. I personally don't know anyone other than myself.

There's an entire thread (very active too or at least really long) on the DIS you're def. right there's a whole community for that. Personally churning is not something my husband and I are interested in doing. I just wanted to call it out as I would consider churning to be the extreme side of people using CC's for rewards, it takes even more savviness lol than just your average person using or getting a CC to get rewards which are quite use

However because rewards CC's are incredibly common now (as opposed to when I got a CC at 18 back in 2006 where that was just not at all the norm) the conversation about using a CC for purchasing of things like vacations needs to change too. Even my bank CC added rewards some years back.

 

[BeautyBeastAndNemo]

G

is that 100K net or gross income (big difference depending on where you live)

if mortgage free what about if your property taxes/upkeep equal what many pay for rent or (prior to psycho recent couple of year prices) mortgages? mortgage free does not mean you have zero housing costs.

Generally, income is always discussed as gross pretty much everywhere. I am referring to 100k gross not net. Being real here, but if you don't have a mortgage but only pay taxes and upkeep , I really don't think you are truly middle class these days (Unless your home was like dirt cheap). Not being rude- but most have mortgages on top of taxes and upkeep on their home.

 

[BeautyBeastAndNemo]

I’m going to go out on a limb and guess your family’s annual income is beyond the 100,000, the OP was talking about. Sadly, many hard working Americans are “under banked”, let alone have any savviness about credit cards.

Agreed. I personally hate credit cards. It's too easy for many to say they are going to "just use for the points" and then get in over their heads.

 

[rangerxenos]

Not much worth vacationing to is within driving distance to me, and I am sure it is the same for others.

We have tons of places we can drive to, anywhere from 2 - 15 hours, I live in CT. Almost always much cheaper than flying unless you're talking about only 2 people.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I’m going to go out on a limb and guess your family’s annual income is beyond the 100,000, the OP was talking about. Sadly, many hard working Americans are “under banked”, let alone have any savviness about credit cards.

Up until last year no it wasn't It took a job switch to push that above that however we've been vacationing all along. We paid for our own wedding, our own honeymoon, took vacations to Disney, Hawaii, etc.

However the topic with the quotes I was commenting about were discussing CCs. I talked about people utilize CCs with rewards (of which so many of them have them now including $0 annual fee ones). Those rewards can then be used for many things including vacations. Why would you look down upon that?

Agreed. I personally hate credit cards. It's too easy for many to say they are going to "just use for the points" and then get in over their heads.

Well that is not the problem of the rewards. Trust me with a mother who filed bankruptcy I understand it far more than many do. She would not be a person that would do well with it. In fact she used to tell me to just charge it when I was the one tell her "um no I'll use my debit card" this was back when you didn't have rewards cc's. But that doesn't mean everyone is like that. That's the part of the stigma that has to change. You need to be financially smart irrespective of rewards. If you can't balance your bank account that's the crux of your problem.

We had an interesting discussion with one of my Disney friends a few months back. She's about 4 years younger than me but grew up in a household where CCs were just not discussed. She wished so many times her parents had actually taught her about responsible CC usage rather than frowning upon CC's in general. It set her back several ways.

If you want to lament about how you can't afford vacations with your income level you can't at the same time tsk tsk people who can afford vacations but use CCs with high yielding rewards to do it or help out with it or allow them to take more vacations that way. Don't hate the player

 

[Darcy03231]

We live very frugally (no drinking, smoking, share 1 car that’s 10 years old, eat out only once per month). Any “extra” money we get goes into the vacation account (bonus, tax returns, etc). I also use points programs to our advantage and use them for flights, hotels, etc. too. We don’t have extravagant birthdays and Christmas, we prioritize experiences instead. It can be done, just takes careful planning…

I'm outside the parameters on the question now, but when we did have a mortgage and children at home, this is how we lived, although we did have two cars, and that's how we were able to afford a vacation every year. I also supplemented my income by selling collectibles on eBay.

Now that it's just DH and I we still live frugally, I still sell on eBay, and I churn credit cards for points. We're going to Hawaii in the fall and I have enough in points for airfare and two nights in a hotel before our cruise.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Geez... you are a rude one. Did you even READ my response to someone else's comment? Clearly you didn't. Another person said most people aren't so credit card savvy, and I agreed with her. Please don't comment on my posts anymore. I don't have time for rude people like yourself.

Not attempting to be rude. If you're going to comment to someone saying "I personally hate credit cards. It's too easy for many to say they are going to "just use for the points" and then get in over their heads." when I'm specifically talking about the people who pay them off every month then you should probably expect some pushback. Some people can be terrible at finances and no one would actually advocate for them to get a CC to use for rewards, but why would you judge us for instance who used 55,000 Delta points from our Amex Delta CC for 1 plane ticket to go to Hawaii? We stayed quite frugally when there too. That was in 2016 when our income was tens of thousands below your threshold. So because we could have paid the $750 in cash for that one plane ticket but used rewards instead that means we shouldn't be able to comment?

If you want fair good discussion you're going to have to take all different viewpoints not just looking for posters who strictly agree with you. This is also the Disney Board of which many posters do use CCs and do use CCs with rewards. Their opinion (even if I wasn't one of them) is just as valid as anyone else's.

 

[BeautyBeastAndNemo]

Not attempting to be rude. If you're going to comment to someone saying "I personally hate credit cards. It's too easy for many to say they are going to "just use for the points" and then get in over their heads." when I'm specifically talking about the people who pay them off every month then you should probably expect some pushback. Some people can be terrible at finances and no one would actually advocate for them to get a CC to use for rewards, but why would you judge us for instance who used 55,000 Delta points from our Amex Delta CC for 1 plane ticket to go to Hawaii? We stayed quite frugally when there too. That was in 2016 when our income was tens of thousands below your threshold. So because we could have paid the $750 in cash for that one plane ticket but used rewards instead that means we shouldn't be able to comment?

If you want fair good discussion you're going to have to take all different viewpoints not just looking for posters who strictly agree with you. This is also the Disney Board of which many posters do use CCs and do use CCs with rewards. Their opinion (even if I wasn't one of them) is just as valid as anyone else's.

No you were extremely rude in your response in what I bolded.

You said you make more than 100k TODAY. So, why are you even responding? Your viewpoint is not what I asked about as you said you make over the threshold in 2023. You can't compare vacations or points from even 3 years ago to today. Most Americans don't pay for vacations in points---they is pretty much an anomaly. Check out the amount of credit card debt Amercians hold in 2023. Clearly, many are not able to pay them off. I would venture to say that most with zero credit card debt (not all) have higher income brackets. 2023 inflation is no joke.

 

[BeautyBeastAndNemo]

THREAD Closed. Thanks to those that had kind discussions!

 

[barkley]

G

Generally, income is always discussed as gross pretty much everywhere. I am referring to 100k gross not net. Being real here, but if you don't have a mortgage but only pay taxes and upkeep , I really don't think you are truly middle class these days (Unless your home was like dirt cheap). Not being rude- but most have mortgages on top of taxes and upkeep on their home.

just asking b/c 100k gross nets a good chunk more in a state like mine w/no income taxes vs. one like california that's at over 13%. btw-there are good number of people who i guess would be considered by virtue of the 100k dollar figure 'lower middle class' (cuz they don't gross let alone net near that in a year) with paid off mortgages whose homes were not 'dirt cheap' when they purchased them.

 

[barkley]

THREAD Closed. Thanks to those that had kind discussions!

it is? i must have garnered super dis powers cuz i can still post to it

 

[BeautyBeastAndNemo]

just asking b/c 100k gross nets a good chunk more in a state like mine w/no income taxes vs. one like california that's at over 13%. btw-there are good number of people who i guess would be considered by virtue of the 100k dollar figure 'lower middle class' (cuz they don't gross let alone net near that in a year) with paid off mortgages whose homes were not 'dirt cheap' when they purchased them.

I don't know anyone from my large circle of friends that have paid off houses here-regardless of their income level. An average home here is 720k.

 

[QueenIsabella]

I don't think you can just declare a thread closed--feel free to contact a mod and request that they close it.

BTW, the "ignore" feature can be handy if there are specific posters who you'd rather not read replies from.

 

[BeautyBeastAndNemo]

I don't think you can just declare a thread closed--feel free to contact a mod and request that they close it.

BTW, the "ignore" feature can be handy if there are specific posters who you'd rather not read replies from.

I reported the rude comments already. Thanks for letting me know!

 

[BeautyBeastAndNemo]

it is? i must have garnered super dis powers cuz i can still post to it

reported you

 

[BeautyBeastAndNemo]

Admin has been contacted about a few posters and this thread!

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

No you were extremely rude in your response in what I bolded.

You said you make more than 100k TODAY. So, why are you even responding? Your viewpoint is not what I asked about as you said you make over the threshold in 2023. You can't compare vacations or points from even 3 years ago to today. Most Americans don't pay for vacations in points---they is pretty much an anomaly. Check out the amount of credit card debt Amercians hold in 2023. Clearly, many are not able to pay them off. I would venture to say that most with zero credit card debt (not all) have higher income brackets. 2023 inflation is no joke.

Other posters responded as well who are above, they may not have been as blunt as me but that was in response to your comment about hating CCs and people getting in over their head. Your comment was judgy even if you didn't attempt to be that way either. Your question was about affordability, well if you want to know how posters on this board are able to afford these trips the answer is going to be that some if not a decent amount ARE using CCs. And if you'd like to be able to have that opportunity as well consider getting a CC with rewards too There was recently a thread about an issue with a debit card used that was flagged for whatever reason as not working for their Disney hotel reservation and majority of posters were like "we never use a Debit Card for hotels, you need to get a CC". In today's age CC's are the ones that have the best protections as well.

I could talk about the vacations we took using points before our income was your arbitrary number but realistically you'd miss out on other poster's viewpoints. People's lives change over time. Incomes change. I'm sorry you didn't ask this question January 2022 when I was below your income level but that didn't mean we weren't taking trips when it was below that income and our expenditures were more back then because of student loans. There was a poster discussing when they bought DVC with APs later on that's going to affect how their trips cost with the discussion. For us we got the Delta Amex CC to use for our honeymoon flights because it gave us $300 off. Never carried a balance on that one. Shouldn't be a problem to say that or to include that in the discussion about travel costs.

But you're asking on this Disney Board, you're not asking most Americans. So expect the comments to reflect that. I remember being gobbsmacked about seeing $10K Disney trips but my assumption is people have higher incomes here (which has been the case since I joined in 2015), people are likely using CCs and people are also likely using rewards. Even such a small thing as Disney Visa Rewards gets discussed. But I don't necessarily get into assuming are these people paying off every month or not. Most often though if you're the person who is getting the rewards CCs for travel you're also more likely to pay them off every month.

You're right about inflation although that is ebbing. It's been nutty (like I said you should have seen the egg discussion a few months back on a different thread) but there's light sorta at the end of the tunnel. A lot of the discussion really depends on timing with respects to present travel. And as a consequence to the pandemic it really seems like the bulk of people are starting to book things well in advance (as in a year to even sometimes two years).

 

[barkley]

I don't know anyone from my large circle of friends that have paid off houses here-regardless of their income level. An average home here is 720k.

then wouldn't they be making more than the 100K you established as the baseline for your question? a quick google search shows someone who puts down 5% (much more than most people i know can for a down unless they are rolling over monies earned from a prior home sale) the minimum salary required would be around $167K.

reported you

on what basis?

 

[BeautyBeastAndNemo]

then wouldn't they be making more than the 100K you established as the baseline for your question? a quick google search shows someone who puts down 5% (much more than most people i know can for a down unless they are rolling over monies earned from a prior home sale) the minimum salary required would be around $167K.



on what basis?

One of the rules that you broke " NO FIGHTING/SARCASM" You posted a very sarcastic comment. So, I reported it! I have reported this to admin as some are wanting to argue/become sarcastic when I asked them not to comment.. some KEEP going over and over. Just move on if you aren't answering the question asked all around. Shrug