Any downside to paying off cruise 5 months early?

[hAm53]

with only 5 months to go before our wedding, we're trying to get as many things paid off as possible. we were lucky enough to score a secret porthole room through DU, so that helped our budget out a TON!!! . We owe a couple hundred more bucks, but we really wanna zero out the balance on whatever we can (especially since we get 0% apr for 6 months with the mickey visa).
is there any downside to paying off anything this far in advance?

 

[makaylee]

I don't know of any downside. We paid our first cruise off the day we booked it, almost a year prior. I believe you would still get your full refund 60 or 90 days out, whatever the regular time frame is. I say if you can pay it off early go for it!

 

[mommasita]

Can't think of any downside either... Only good things, save more money for other things, no worries about final payment, etc..etc...

Enjoy, and Good Luck on your upcoming wedding!!!!!

 

[Babs417]

My trip money is in Banking Direct in Del. making intrest. I can get it out from my Banks checking account.

 

[tvguy]

Yep you're going to get rich with that 1% interest rate!!!!
Let's see, you say you owe several hundred dollars, which you have to pay off by 3 months before anyway. Say $500 at 1% interest in the bank.....by paying off the trip 2 months early.......I figure you lose 83 1/3 cents interest.
Oh, let's not forget, interest is taxable......so let's say you're in a 27 % tax bracket (I figure you're young and both in low paying jobs).....less 27%....that's 22.5 cents........so you lose 60 cents in interest by paying off the trip early.
Now if you make good money, you could be in a 39% tax bracket.....that would 32.5 cents tax.......so under that circumstance you'd lose 50.8 cents interest by paying off the trip early.

So is it worth in the worse case picture losing 60 cents to pay off the trip early, you decide. I say, pay it off now.

 

[HappyLawyer]

you will miss ou on all that great stress and worry about how to get the crusie paid off, now is that something you want to miss---
have fun pay it off and relax it will be done.

 

[hAm53]

thanks! i'll call DU on friday to get it all paid.
I'll also keep an eye out for change in the street to make up for the 60 cents of interest

 

[mog]

Yep you're going to get rich with that 1% interest rate!!!!
Let's see, you say you owe several hundred dollars, which you have to pay off by 3 months before anyway. Say $500 at 1% interest in the bank.....by paying off the trip 2 months early.......I figure you lose 83 1/3 cents interest.
Oh, let's not forget, interest is taxable......so let's say you're in a 27 % tax bracket (I figure you're young and both in low paying jobs).....less 27%....that's 22.5 cents........so you lose 60 cents in interest by paying off the trip early.
Now if you make good money, you could be in a 39% tax bracket.....that would 32.5 cents tax.......so under that circumstance you'd lose 50.8 cents interest by paying off the trip early.

So is it worth in the worse case picture losing 60 cents to pay off the trip early, you decide. I say, pay it off now.

Thanks for that! I need to show this to my husband. Anytime I want to pay off something early like that he says "we should just keep it until it's due - at least it's earning interest in our bank instead of theirs".

 

[Babs417]

Mog Still say keep it in the bank until its due. Im not going until May 06. Banking Derect gives you $25 just to open the account.

 

[jcemom]

Yep you're going to get rich with that 1% interest rate!!!!

Hey! My savings is with ING...I'm getting 2.8% interest!

 

[Babs417]

jcemom You go girl every dollar counts!

 

[daisy112878]

jcemom - that's where our crusie money and other savings are too. At least it's getting 2.8%!!!

 

[ll_california]

We save our cruise money in ING Direct, too. I personally don't feel stressful about keeping money in the bank and waiting until the last minute to pay for the balance. In the meantime, the interest is a plus (in our case, 2.8% interest for $4.5K in one year is $126 before tax).

 

[tvguy]

We save our cruise money in ING Direct, too. I personally don't feel stressful about keeping money in the bank and waiting until the last minute to pay for the balance. In the meantime, the interest is a plus (in our case, 2.8% interest for $4.5K in one year is $126 before tax).

Don't they require final payment 90 days in advance now?

We've been in a "pay everything down" mode this year since we have a child heading to college in the fall. Federal and state and college scholarship review committees really frown on cash in the bank.
They also consider retirement savings to be a luxury expense.......they want to to discontinue retirement savings if you have a kid in college and spend the money on tuition instead.

 

[Babs417]

ing talked me into putting my cruise money into 1 yr CD making 3.40. My cruise is not until May06

 

[ll_california]

Don't they require final payment 90 days in advance now?

We've been in a "pay everything down" mode this year since we have a child heading to college in the fall. Federal and state and college scholarship review committees really frown on cash in the bank.
They also consider retirement savings to be a luxury expense.......they want to to discontinue retirement savings if you have a kid in college and spend the money on tuition instead.

Final payment is required 75 days before sailing for our reservation, which is a little more than a year from now (our cruise date is Aug'06).

Financial aid is not an issue here, so we keep the all extra money in the bank.

Good luck with the your child's scholarship application.