LAYAWAY PLAN for Disney?????

[ljane1]

Does anyone know of any company that provides a layaway plan to save for a trip to Disney............You know how if you don't have enough to pay for something immediately then you pay a little each week etc.
Thanks a million...............looking forward to my next trip to Disney

 

[JC Butterfly]

Welcome to the boards, I warn you they are very addicting with their wide range of information on all things Disney related!

I'm not sure if I actually have an answer to your question. I have never heard of a "layaway" company. How far away is your next trip to Disney?

Could you open a savings account where you put aside money for your trip and earn some interest on it? Then you could deposit some each week, month, or however often you liked.

If you're staying on property, you have to pay one night's deposit to hold your reservation but then you can continue to make payments as often as you like. Let's say your total bill was $1000 and your down payment was $100 and you're going in ten months. So you could pay $100 per month ($25 per week) and your accomodations would be paid for. If you could afford $200 per month ($50 per week) then that money would be "banked" on your reservation and when you arrived you would have $1000 of credit to spend on food, shopping, etc.

Hope that offers some help,
Brenda

 

[CrazedDisFan]

Check with your local credit union. I know one of the CU's in our town has a 'Vacation Club'. It is similar to a 'Christmas Club' account, only difference is that you choose when to take the money out for your vacation opposed to checks being cut on X date for a Christmas Club.

Other than that I have seen a suggestion to print out your own payment book. Similar to one you would recieve for a mortgage or car payment.

 

[maggiew]

Maybe not quite the same, but you could start to buy meal vouchers from Hotwire Savings Club a little at a time to help get your meals paid for. I also like the idea of paying a little of your hotel off each month. You could also buy one park hopper pass at a time as you saved the money.

Maggie

 

[ariden]

Some employers offer vacation clubs as well. My bf employer does and it is taken directly out of his paycheck every week. He saves several thousand every year that way!

 

[rngclick]

You'll love this board! Its saved me over $300 already!

I think Disney itself has the best "layaway" plan. I made our resies almost two years in advance with a one nights deposit then paid them $25 twice a month until I had it paid.

We have a room only resie but you could do the same thing with a pkg. The only thing about a pkg is you can only reserve the room until the rates for the packages come out. But that's okay, just get an estimate of whay you pkg will cost based on past rates and if you've overpaid the room by the time the pkg rates come out then that credit will cover the new charges. Make sense?

Have a great time. This is our favorite vacation for so many reasons but one of the biggest for me is that we can have COMPLETELY paid for before we go!!!!!

 

[InstImpres]

Careful with a package, sometimes you are paying for the convienence.

Another you do is if you have a local Disney store, you can buy Disney dollars (they can be used to pay room bills or 99% of the places in the park and DTD) or buy your park hoppers 1 at time. This is a forced savings so you don't get hit with big expenses but it isn't sitting at your house in the form of real spendable cash.

Just some thoughts
Sandy

 

[ljane1]

WOW, I just want to say thanks to everyone for their great ideas for saving for my next Disney Trip, our last trip was Christmas 2002 with our then 1 & 2 year old daughters, it was also my 1st time (32 years old) and now it is what we continually talk about and can't wait to go back to. So I shall start saving with various methods you have all suggested. Thanks a million from a fellow Disney lover................I am sooo happy I came across this website and look forward to meeting more people and getting more ideas, everyone loves a savings tip.
Thanks again
Lesley in the Cold Cold North

 

[westjones]

So how do you go about paying on your resort reservation once you make it? I know about paying the first night when you make your reservation, but I didn't know you could make 'payments' towards it. That's a good idea.

Actually, we are DVC members, and it is sort of like a 'vacation account', but this is something to look into only if you plan to go at least every other year and you like staying in the more expensive resorts. We only bought 150 points, but we have enjoy them very much.

I made up envelopes with 'amounts' written on them for what I needed for different things. Then I put money in them each month.

Buying hopper tickets in advance gets that expense out of the way. We are planning on going to Disneyland in April. This month we bought our airline tickets. Next month I am buying the hopper tickets and making our hotel reservations. Then in April we will be just spending on the 'extras'. Once your tickets, transportation, and hotels are paid for, then it isn't quite so bad.

Good Luck! Enjoy the board, I really like this one, but I also visit several of them. The resort board is great for tips on discounts on the different resorts.

DJ

 

[mad4themouse]

My own personal "layaway plan" involves the following:

• Automatic deductions from my checking account into a special vacation savings account on a regular basis. I add $50 every other week and never miss the money.
• Purchasing passes in advance when the cash is available. I currently have 4 5-day PHPs with 4 pluses, 8 DQ passes, and 4 USF/IOA AP vouchers. All were purchased when attractive offers were made, like extra pluses on the PHPs, $21 DQ passes and the USF/IOA buy-one-get-one-½-off deal.
• I buy $10 worth of Disney Dollars when I go to the mall. Sometimes, I don't get to the mall for a few weeks. Sometimes, I need to go twice in one week. Thank goodness that I don't work at the mall! My paycheck would go to Disney Dollars!
• I make a room-only ressie and pay on it when extra money comes in (rebates, 3-paycheck months, eBay $$$). You can do this just by calling CRO with your ressie # and requesting that an additional deposit be made with your credit card or by sending them a check.
• The meal vouchers are a good idea, if they are not due to expire soon. Current meal vouchers sold thru Hotwire and Connections are only good until the end of May, 2004. They also may or may not be the best "bang for your buck". Other options would include buying restaurant GCs for Rainforest Café, Planet Hollywood or any of the offsite restaurants you might be able to visit.

In short, anything that can be purchased or paid for prior to your trip is like a layaway plan.

 

[gardendame]

I am paying as rngclick suggested. Ressies were made about 7 months ago for our upcoming trip in October,2004. I send them a check every pay day (I calculated how many pay periods between time ressies made and day of arrival). For example, I am sending them $35 every payday. Now, this is 'my' schedule, but disney doesn't care - as long as the trip is paid for upon check out. To hold the room, all they need is the deposit, but it is wonderful that it will be paid in full before we arrive. I will also be buying PHP one at a time at our local Disney store when the money is available. If I saved the money to buy all 5 PHP at one time, that money would more than likely be used for something else. Buy purchasing one ticket, it is a done deal, where as if I had the money sitting here for one ticket, and I needed to pay a bill, the ticket would never get purchased. Understand?
Anyhow, I have now decided to try to OVER PAY on my ressies. Since we are staying onsite, we can charge all meals, etc., back to our room. I will have a 'credit' so to speak on our room bill, and this can be applied toward the meals, trinkets, etc., that we charge back to the room.
Hope this helps! Doing the 'layaway' plan is the only way our family could ever afford to go!

 

[always quiet]

I never thought of 'overpaying' a ressie!! I have never used the resort id for charging priviledges (didn't want to make it too easy to spend money!! ) Now if I overpay, I can use the card that way and not notice it coming out of my checkbook!!

 

[ljane1]

I am sooo inspired by all the responses and ideas, I am going to start saving every week into a seperate account and also start buying Disney Dollars when I go to the mall..........maybe I could ask for some as gifts for the girls (ages 3 & 4) I'm also going to find out how far advance we can book into an onsite hotel and plan from there and start paying every pay towards the room and extras...............Thanks again everyone.
Oh how I envy the countdown of days to all of your trips, especially as I look out the window at a very DEEP WHITE BLANKET OF COLD SNOW.
Lesley
DisneyWorld All-Star Music Christmas 2002

 

[jvas]

We have always booked our trips ahead around 18 months with our TA......we put down $150.00 for each person that is going at the time we book it, then, as long as the trip is payed off 21 days before departure (I believe it's 21 days) the you are all set.

We the take the total cost of our trip...divide it by 17 or 16 months..and make monthly payments...this way it is payed off 2 months before we go!

We were lucky on this trip we are taking in June...we were able to payed it off last November!

 

[sln88]

Keep the money in your own checking or savings until the $ is due! I would never pay in advance for something like that if I did not have to!

There is an online bank(***) that is giving 2% interest(don't worry, I don't have any referral links to post here! )


Just figure out how much $ you need for you trip and divide that by the number of months you have before you leave, and deposit that in a special vacation account.

Find a CC that has cash rewards, use that to pay your hotel bill(when you get there), and then use your savings to pay off your CC bill.

 

[disneyjunkie]

Originally posted by sln88
Keep the money in your own checking or savings until the $ is due! I would never pay in advance for something like that if I did not have to!

There is an online bank(***) that is giving 2% interest(don't worry, I don't have any referral links to post here! )


Just figure out how much $ you need for you trip and divide that by the number of months you have before you leave, and deposit that in a special vacation account.

Find a CC that has cash rewards, use that to pay your hotel bill(when you get there), and then use your savings to pay off your CC bill.

This doesn't work for everyone.

If you pay for the trip in advance, you don't have to worry about using the money for something else.

For me the small amount of interest won't really make a difference in the cost of the trip. I'd rather pay on the trip every two weeks, that way I don't have to worry about it later.

I have an *** account. That money is going to cover the cost of extras during our Christmas trip. Once I book the resort I'll send in payments to cover the cost. By August the room will be paid for.

This may not be the best way, but it works for me.

 

[rngclick]

as far into the future as you would like. I booked our Feb trip in June 2002 and will book our anniversary trip when we return from this one.

Planning and preparing is half the fun of the trip (well not quite half) buying DD and sending payments all these months has helped the time go by so much faster. Earning 1 or 2% in a checking or standard savings is not very lucrative and not nearly as fun!

 

[jeankeri]

I'm also in the group of 'If I don't put the $ on my room now, I'll never save it in an account'! Not the best way to be, but if I spend the money on the trip, I can't buy something else .
My question- if I reserve a room now and start making payments, what happens if rates go up? I wouldn't be going until Dec 2005- do they have rates that far in advance, or do you agree to whatever rate they set (if rates haven't been set that far in the future)?

 

[BARBARAAPPLE]

HI ...I JUST GOT OFF THE PHONE WITH DISNEY TRAVEL AND WAS TOLD THAT I COULD NOT PAY EXTRA ON MY ROOM, IF I DO IT WILL BE SENT BACK TO ME THRU US MAIL FOR THE OVERAGE. HAS ANYONE SENT EXTRA AND HAD THIS HAPPEN? ARE TRIP IS IN JULY 24-31 COULD IT BE BECAUSE IT IS SO FAR OFF?: rolleyes:

 

[hockey mom]

The only previously mentioned savings tactic you won't be able to do is Disney dollars. CDN disney stores do not sell Disney dollars. One thing I do is convert spare money into American when the rates are good. Other than that I do everything else mentioned by the previous posters to get ready for our trips. A little at a time sure takes the sting out of the grand total.