Spring Direct Incentives 2/9-4/27

[Cfabar1]

For sure. Also, this is making the fix weeks more appealing. It seems to be a great hedge against potential shady behavior.

so is not buying Disney Vacation Club.... That's kind of where my mind goes ultimately on the issue... If you can't trust them, why try to outsmart them at their own game...

 

[VGCgroupie]

so is not buying Disney Vacation Club.... That's kind of where my mind goes ultimately on the issue... If you can't trust them, why try to outsmart them at their own game...

Eh we all love the mouse and his house. I’d probably still buy.

 

[gvel]

so is not buying Disney Vacation Club.... That's kind of where my mind goes ultimately on the issue... If you can't trust them, why try to outsmart them at their own game...

Not sure I would ever buy a trust property but IF I ever do then it would probably be a fix week.

 

[Genie+]

so is not buying Disney Vacation Club.... That's kind of where my mind goes ultimately on the issue... If you can't trust them, why try to outsmart them at their own game...

For sport? Lol

 

[airjay75]

The fine print says 6 months from the original transaction date, which is less than 6 billing cycles later. Even when you see the "interest saving balance" on the 5th credit card statement after your transaction, don't believe it. It's a trap! They want to catch you and charge you interest.

It seems wrong that they can effectively say "pay this much to avoid interest", then you pay that much and get charged interest.

Alright, well I rolled the dice on this a little bit after reading the fine print on Chase's "Interest Saving Balance" and concluding that they really do mean what they say - pay that amount by your statement due date every statement, and you won't incur interest on new purchases and you won't pay off special financing offers early. And . . . I was right.

The last payment of about $57k on my direct purchase was in June of 2025. The end of the promotional rate on my statements was the last day of my January statement (1/20/26 as I recall). But, the full amount of the remaining balance did not come due on my Interest Savings Balance until after that statement closed, at which point, I waited until my due date in February to pay the full Interest Savings Balance.

I just got my new statement and no interest charges whatsoever. So, what is nominally a 6 months 0% promo turned out to be 8 months of 0%. Combined with the full 60 days I got to complete my payments, I got about 10 months of 0% on my first direct purchase.

I would not advise the above strategy on other credit cards with 0% promos - I would make sure you pay everything in full by the date listed on your statement that the promo rate ends. But, Chase does appear to mean what they say with their Interest Savings Balance.

 

[muppets3d]

Alright, well I rolled the dice on this a little bit after reading the fine print on Chase's "Interest Saving Balance" and concluding that they really do mean what they say - pay that amount by your statement due date every statement, and you won't incur interest on new purchases and you won't pay off special financing offers early. And . . . I was right.

The last payment of about $57k on my direct purchase was in June of 2025. The end of the promotional rate on my statements was the last day of my January statement (1/20/26 as I recall). But, the full amount of the remaining balance did not come due on my Interest Savings Balance until after that statement closed, at which point, I waited until my due date in February to pay the full Interest Savings Balance.

I just got my new statement and no interest charges whatsoever. So, what is nominally a 6 months 0% promo turned out to be 8 months of 0%. Combined with the full 60 days I got to complete my payments, I got about 10 months of 0% on my first direct purchase.

I would not advise the above strategy on other credit cards with 0% promos - I would make sure you pay everything in full by the date listed on your statement that the promo rate ends. But, Chase does appear to mean what they say with their Interest Savings Balance.

I agree I think Chase does a good job of explaining the promo and it worked out great for me with my initial purchase and add-ons. Obviously everyone has to make their own decision regarding a big purchase. In my case I had enough liquid cash to pay off the balance immediately if I had to. It was just nice to not have to by taking advantage of the promo. If there's even a slight chance you may have to stretch the payment beyond what Chase gives you at 0%, it's probably better to finance with DVC because credit card interest is a buzzkill on a big purchase like this.

 

[tx911]

Alright, well I rolled the dice on this a little bit after reading the fine print on Chase's "Interest Saving Balance" and concluding that they really do mean what they say - pay that amount by your statement due date every statement, and you won't incur interest on new purchases and you won't pay off special financing offers early. And . . . I was right.

The last payment of about $57k on my direct purchase was in June of 2025. The end of the promotional rate on my statements was the last day of my January statement (1/20/26 as I recall). But, the full amount of the remaining balance did not come due on my Interest Savings Balance until after that statement closed, at which point, I waited until my due date in February to pay the full Interest Savings Balance.

I just got my new statement and no interest charges whatsoever. So, what is nominally a 6 months 0% promo turned out to be 8 months of 0%. Combined with the full 60 days I got to complete my payments, I got about 10 months of 0% on my first direct purchase.

I would not advise the above strategy on other credit cards with 0% promos - I would make sure you pay everything in full by the date listed on your statement that the promo rate ends. But, Chase does appear to mean what they say with their Interest Savings Balance.

Thanks for taking this risk! This is certainly how it should work. If you pay the full interest saving balance every month, you should not ever incur an interest charge.

 

[airjay75]

Thanks for taking this risk! This is certainly how it should work. If you pay the full interest saving balance every month, you should not ever incur an interest charge.

I was honestly pretty confident after reading the Interest Savings Balance fine print, but then I saw your guys' posts yesterday and I was like, oh shoot, did I just royally screw this up?

As best as I can tell, Chase is unique in offering this feature. I opened a few other credit cards with longer 0% promos for my second direct purchase, and none of them have anything like that. Just your minimum payment due along with the fine print telling you when your promo ends.

 

[tx911]

I was honestly pretty confident after reading the Interest Savings Balance fine print, but then I saw your guys' posts yesterday and I was like, oh shoot, did I just royally screw this up?

As best as I can tell, Chase is unique in offering this feature. I opened a few other credit cards with longer 0% promos for my second direct purchase, and none of them have anything like that. Just your minimum payment due along with the fine print telling you when your promo ends.

The interest saving balance is really helpful. I assume at the 6th month it will be your entire remaining balance owed.

 

[airjay75]

The interest saving balance is really helpful. I assume at the 6th month it will be your entire remaining balance owed.

Yes, on my statement that closed in mid-January, the Interest Savings Balance due in mid-February was everything that remained on the DVC purchase plus any purchases that I had made during that month (which were pretty small).

 

[Flash_Sloth]

I was honestly pretty confident after reading the Interest Savings Balance fine print, but then I saw your guys' posts yesterday and I was like, oh shoot, did I just royally screw this up?

As best as I can tell, Chase is unique in offering this feature. I opened a few other credit cards with longer 0% promos for my second direct purchase, and none of them have anything like that. Just your minimum payment due along with the fine print telling you when your promo ends.

Interesting. Sorry if I caused anybody alarm unnecessarily. I was trying to err on the side of caution, and from your experience, it sounds like they're giving a little more grace than I expected.

 

[airjay75]

Interesting. Sorry if I caused anybody alarm unnecessarily. I was trying to err on the side of caution, and from your experience, it sounds like they're giving a little more grace than I expected.

No worries. I think your advice applies basically to every other credit card where you get a promotional rate of some sort.

 

[tx911]

No worries. I think your advice applies basically to every other credit card where you get a promotional rate of some sort.

I'm still going 5 months probably

 

[VGCgroupie]

I'm still going 5 months probably

Yeah that’s a scary game. I’d probably chicken out and pay early too.

 

[AstroBlasters]

Me, who travels from Nebraska and stays for a week.

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That's basically what I've already done with all 3 resorts I've purchased. No real SAPs for me.

Yup. 3-5 days or it’s not worth the hassle for us.

 

[airjay75]

Yeah that’s a scary game. I’d probably chicken out and pay early too.

TBH, what I was more worried about was the EFT of over $50k coming out of my checking account. At the last minute, I started thinking to myself, there's no way the bank would flag that or stop that just because of the size of the EFT, right? There are EFT limits if you're personally doing a transfer to another account, but I don't think those kick in for autopay credit card payments.

What made me feel better about relying on the Interest Savings Balance is that I couldn't really find any stories online of people who got burned by just paying that every month. If Chase really were pulling a bait and switch with that, I think it would be real easy to find people online who got burned.