American Express' new Plan It service- anybody use it?

[WawaCoffee]

After scheduling a few ADRs on my American Express card (I plan on using this card for my resort reservation payment), American Express invited me to try their new "Plan It" service for my upcoming Disney vacation in January (the temporary/pending ADR charges must have triggered this in their system).

According to their website, instead of paying APR interest on your purchase, you pay a small monthly fee, and make a required monthly payment. Since I was going to make monthly payments anyway, this seems like a no-brainer to save on interest charges. After doing the math, the monthly fee of $17 over six months equals far-less than what the interest would have been.

I was curious if anybody has used this service yet (specifically for their Disney purchase) and what their experience was. I've never had a problem with AMEX, but would prefer some feedback from users before transferring the charge into the payment plan.

 

[gottalovepluto]

Purchases become eligible for Plan It after they post to your account if they are over a certain dollar amount. Since you can't pay it off now I agree with doing everything you can to keep the fees down and if Plan It is cheaper than normal monthly payments do it.

For future reference if you are going to charge something that you cannot afford to pay for right now do it on a card offering 0% APR on purchases for X number of months. Chase Slate for instance & I know there are others out there that run similar promos.

 

[Anthony1971]

Your best answers will come from AMEX. I would call and ask the exact details of what they are offering and ask a lo of questions like what if a payment is late.... (bottom line is if you mail a payment and it take 2 weeks to get there it is on you)
Traditionally Amex had no financing BUT would do it if you called and asked or were late on a payment. I know they have newer cards that offer financing but my experience with AMEX -- which we use for business and have had some issues-- is they never give you a good deal when you finance with them as there is always some back end other fees to all their special offers. The best way I can say it is their terms usually stink unless you pay the entire balance upfront before the due date you miss that due date and you are in for a boat load of fees and very high interest. I would consider using a Chase Disney card instead for anything Disney related.

 

[barkley]

Your best answers will come from AMEX. I would call and ask the exact details of what they are offering and ask a lo of questions like what if a payment is late.... (bottom line is if you mail a payment and it take 2 weeks to get there it is on you)
Traditionally Amex had no financing BUT would do it if you called and asked or were late on a payment. I know they have newer cards that offer financing but my experience with AMEX -- which we use for business and have had some issues-- is they never give you a good deal when you finance with them as there is always some back end other fees to all their special offers. The best way I can say it is their terms usually stink unless you pay the entire balance upfront before the due date you miss that due date and you are in for a boat load of fees and very high interest. I would consider using a Chase Disney card instead for anything Disney related.

or look to other resources for credit cards you might have an existing affiliation with to see if they are offering an even better promo. 2 that come to mind that we've taken advantage of in recent times were one through our credit union-zero interest for the first 6 months and if $1500 spent within first 90 days you get 10,000 points ($100)-all travel related is 3x points so we did a vacation ressie we originally planned to pay cash for-ended up with $100 statement credit plus another $60 (turned around and paid it in full the next month but could have taken 6 months at no cost). some insurance companies offer good deals as well-ours offers zero interest for 12 months, 15000 for $1500 spent in first few months and while the points are lower level than our credit unions they offer 3x points for all insurance products paid with it (add up auto, homeowners, life, atv, umbrella....and that yields a decent amount of points per year).

 

[gottalovepluto]

Your best answers will come from AMEX. I would call and ask the exact details of what they are offering and ask a lo of questions like what if a payment is late.... (bottom line is if you mail a payment and it take 2 weeks to get there it is on you)
Traditionally Amex had no financing BUT would do it if you called and asked or were late on a payment. I know they have newer cards that offer financing but my experience with AMEX -- which we use for business and have had some issues-- is they never give you a good deal when you finance with them as there is always some back end other fees to all their special offers. The best way I can say it is their terms usually stink unless you pay the entire balance upfront before the due date you miss that due date and you are in for a boat load of fees and very high interest. I would consider using a Chase Disney card instead for anything Disney related.

There is NO reason to use a chase disney card when you know you are financing the purchase unless you are taking advantage of the 0% apr on disney package financing and then it is the ONLY thing you should charge to the card. Heck, even on Disney purchases the no fee card only gives you 1% back! If you're committed to buying it, will be financing it, and haven't bought it yet, for love of all things financial put in on a card with a 0% apr offer.

"Traditionally Amex had no finacing"- Amex has charge cards and credit cards. Credit cards function like all other companies credit cards. Charge cards are probably what you're thinking about, you can get killed when you don't pay becuase charge cards are expected to be paid in full, on time, always. But even on their Charge Cards Amex is now offering things like Pay Over Time.

Do not rely on answers you receive from an Amex rep on the phone. If they give you bad info it doesn't matter, you are obligated to the terms in the contract you sign. But- but that's messed up! You could fight it if they gave you bad info and it screwed you over financially!... Yeah... you could try to fight it but in reality you can't afford to fight Amex in time or money. What matters is what is written in the terms and conditions when you agree to the offer.

 

[GPC0321]

I've not used "Plan It" before, but I've certainly utilized 0% APR promos from various cards to make monthly payments on some Disney expenses instead of paying all at once. The best thing to do is get a new card that offers the 0% on purchases for a set time (Chase's Freedom and Freedom Unlimited cards offer 15 months, I believe). I'm not getting any new cards currently as I'm trying to get under 5/24 to become eligible for another Chase card, but my good ol' Discover It card offers some nice balance transfer options even after having the card for over a year. I used it not long ago to be able to go ahead and purchase our 5-Day Hoppers from UT before the ticketing changes. Discover let's you choose to have the funds deposited directly into your bank account to use as you'd like (like a cash advance, but without the ridiculous APR). So, I purchased the tickets with my Sapphire Preferred to get the double points, then used the funds from the Discover balance transfer to pay the Sapphire's bill. Even with the 3% balance transfer fee, it was cheaper than buying directly from Disney, plus I got about 2,500 Ultimate Rewards points (to put towards our Southwest flights), and I have a year to pay Discover off at 0%.

 

[SharonZ]

Capital One's Savor One. They are offering 15 months interest free on balance transfers and charges.