Frugalists, what are your optimal payment strategies?

[OATS09]

I love Disney cruises more than any other cruise line by far, but there's no denying that you pay a premium for that and with my kids coming of school age shortly, I can no longer go off-peak whenever suits me best. What are some of your creative ways to keep costs down? (airfare/driving, hotels, the cruise itself, etc)


My thoughts right now are:

• Sign up while on the boat for 10% off (on-board credit is no longer offered from what I've heard, correct?) - side note, will they accept Disney gift cards for the deposit?
• Transfer to travel agent of your choice within 30 days: I'll say Costco which I believe is another 10% off from what I've read (we're getting a membership in June after our cruise in May)
• Order Disney gift cards from Best Buy online for 2.5% rewards through Best Buy's rewards program and 5.25% using my Bank of America Cash Rewards card with Online Shopping selected as my 3% bonus category and having Platinum Honors status (unfortunately you can't triple dip through a shopping portal as gift cards aren't eligible purchases)

So that's: 10% on board booking + 10% Costco travel agency + 5.25% credit card cash back + 0.9 (full fare less the deposit) x 2.5% Best Buy rewards (assuming deposits are 10% of the booking so Best Buy purchases can only be for the remaining 90% UNLESS Disney will allow gift cards to pay the deposit and you pre-purchase enough gift cards)

10 + 10 + 5.25 + [2.25 OR 2.5] = 27.5% to 27.75% off/back. Yes, some of that is percentage off, some is cash back, some is locked into a specific place (Costco and Best Buy), and you need several credit cards and banking rewards status, but I'm good with all of that.

 

[lklgoodman]

If you have a Meijer's store they offer a mperks deal when buying gift cards. You can buy up to $500 gift card and get $50 in mperks. I always do this when they offer the deal. They usually do it about 5 times a year. I do almost all my grocery shopping at Meijer's so I then use the $50 mperks when I buy my groceries. Plus by using the Meijer cc to pay for the gift cards I get additional mperk deals/savings.

 

[BruinEd03]

I love Disney cruises more than any other cruise line by far, but there's no denying that you pay a premium for that and with my kids coming of school age shortly, I can no longer go off-peak whenever suits me best. What are some of your creative ways to keep costs down? (airfare/driving, hotels, the cruise itself, etc)


My thoughts right now are:

• Sign up while on the boat for 10% off (on-board credit is no longer offered from what I've heard, correct?) - side note, will they accept Disney gift cards for the deposit?
• Transfer to travel agent of your choice within 30 days: I'll say Costco which I believe is another 10% off from what I've read (we're getting a membership in June after our cruise in May)
• Order Disney gift cards from Best Buy online for 2.5% rewards through Best Buy's rewards program and 5.25% using my Bank of America Cash Rewards card with Online Shopping selected as my 3% bonus category and having Platinum Honors status (unfortunately you can't triple dip through a shopping portal as gift cards aren't eligible purchases)

So that's: 10% on board booking + 10% Costco travel agency + 5.25% credit card cash back + 0.9 (full fare less the deposit) x 2.5% Best Buy rewards (assuming deposits are 10% of the booking so Best Buy purchases can only be for the remaining 90% UNLESS Disney will allow gift cards to pay the deposit and you pre-purchase enough gift cards)

10 + 10 + 5.25 + [2.25 OR 2.5] = 27.5% to 27.75% off/back. Yes, some of that is percentage off, some is cash back, some is locked into a specific place (Costco and Best Buy), and you need several credit cards and banking rewards status, but I'm good with all of that.

For gift cards, check out the gift card thread on the budget board. https://www.disboards.com/forums/budget-board.22/ For example, BJ's or Sam's Club will offer discounts greater than 2.5%.

 

[SamFaniam]

will they accept Disney gift cards for the deposit?

Yes, at least they have in the past.

 

[deliela999]

If you have a Meijer's store they offer a mperks deal when buying gift cards. You can buy up to $500 gift card and get $50 in mperks. I always do this when they offer the deal. They usually do it about 5 times a year. I do almost all my grocery shopping at Meijer's so I then use the $50 mperks when I buy my groceries. Plus by using the Meijer cc to pay for the gift cards I get additional mperk deals/savings.

I'll add to this January-March grocery stores are in Discover's 5% category. Since your Mperks account is tied to your phone number each person can have their own. I hope to buy enough gift cards to pay off my cruise during 5%. Once or twice a year Meijer will do 10% off gift cards with a limit of $1000 gift card per person. That's been one day or maybe a couple days and not heavily advertised, last time the employee ringing me up didn't know.

 

[cvjw]

If you get the executive Costco membership, you get another 2% back from Costco.

 

[Canadian Harmony]

I booked through Costco but they won’t accept Disney gift cards for payment from what I understand. However, I can use my Costco MasterCard to pay and receive cash back in those payments.
I can still use Disney gift cards on the ship, correct?

 

[lklgoodman]

You can go to guest services and have your gift cards put on your onboard acct. You can take the gift cards to the stores and use them also. You can't use them at the spa, bars, or anywhere else on the ship, but if you have them on your onboard acct, payment for those purchases will be taken from them.(hope that makes sense).

 

[monarchsfan16]

For travel to the cruise, I have a Southwest credit card and a JetBlue credit card. There are only 2 of us that I'm responsible for getting to the ship, so I'm usually able to pay most of our roundtrip airfare with points (for our cruise this past spring, all of our flights were on points. This coming spring, about $225 for the two of us out of pocket, for roundtrip airfare from the northeast, during our state's vacation week, the rest is on points). I also have a Hilton Amex, so I'm usually able to get the hotel room the night before the cruise at least partially paid for, depending on how many points we have blown on other trips leading up to booking. I check rental car prices DAILY for months. I can usually find discounts with my BJs membership and also through the Amex travel portal, and sometimes the AAA discount with Hertz is the best.

 

[hrhdhd]

I booked through Costco but they won’t accept Disney gift cards for payment from what I understand.

Because you are paying Disney, not Costco, you can use Disney GCs for payment. You will have to call.

 

[AZMermaid]

Although it doesn’t save us anything. My kids’ swim team has a fundraising requirement, so I buy gift cards from Scrip and use those. That easily meets the requirement and I wont have to worry about it later.

 

[Barbydoll8]

I booked through Costco but they won’t accept Disney gift cards for payment

I do this ALL the time. like PP stated, you need to call Costco tell them you are using a Disney GC. They call Disney and apply the payment to your cruise. I then get a Costco gift card after the cruise and 2% back as part of my membership.

 

[BartmanLA]

One thing to remember about Costco the "rebate" that they give you is NO LONGER Cash back, it's a Costco Shop Card, which means the money you get back on the cruise purchase has to be used to purchase items at Costco, there's no longer a cash back option for travel bookings.

 

[OATS09]

For gift cards, check out the gift card thread on the budget board. https://www.disboards.com/forums/budget-board.22/ For example, BJ's or Sam's Club will offer discounts greater than 2.5%.

Thanks for the link to the budget board. I'll certainly peruse that.

And I've never heard of Meijer's before but I definitely don't have one near me.

 

[Missus_Aitch]

I don’t use credit cards, but I have a Target Red Card debit card. It gets you a 5% discount on all purchases at Target, including Disney gift cards (which our travel agent does accept as cruise payment). It’s only 5%, but it’s simpler than some programs in that it is straight, off-the-top discount rather than points or whatever. An option for anyone who also doesn’t use credit cards.

 

[su_A_ve]

One thing to remember about Costco the "rebate" that they give you is NO LONGER Cash back, it's a Costco Shop Card, which means the money you get back on the cruise purchase has to be used to purchase items at Costco, there's no longer a cash back option for travel bookings.

In the past, you could cash out a Costco Cash Card. This is no longer the case but what I was told, only for RED Costco Cards. It is not clear if Costco Travel is issuing Red ones or still are issuing Blue Cards which can be cashed out.

The 2% Executive Member rebate can still be cashed out.

 

[su_A_ve]

To answer OP's question...

I use a Disney Premier Visa card. I tend to purchase Disney Gift Cards slowly over time either at Sam's club at the about 4% discount (and getting a 1% back on Disney Rewards), or when local grocery store (ShopRite) runs specials like purchase $50 in GCs get $10 off future order. That's equivalent to a 20% discount on that 50GC. In the end, I may pay about half the cruise with Disney GCs plus whatever Disney Rewards I accumulate, and will charge the rest to the Disney Visa, which gives me 6 months interest free.

In the past, I would purchase Walmart GCs at Walmart which will be considered food purchases and gave me 2% back in Disney Rewards. But WM GCs are now restricted to use in Sams for Disney GCs (apparently online still works but who knows for how long).

I also prepay gratuities and on board excursions (by adding funds to your onboard account). These charges also get a promotional 6 months zero interest. By time of sailing, I usually accumulate more Disney Rewards which I will use for gifts and other incidentals on board.

 

[SamFaniam]

One thing to remember about Costco the "rebate" that they give you is NO LONGER Cash back, it's a Costco Shop Card, which means the money you get back on the cruise purchase has to be used to purchase items at Costco, there's no longer a cash back option for travel bookings.

Our Costco would never cash out the cards anyway, unless they had reached a balance of less than $5 or so. But, we always manage to spend our rebate cards from the cruises on Costco items without any trouble at all.

 

[OATS09]

Thanks for all the replies. Like I mentioned, some of the rewards I stated are locked in to specific programs: Disney is straight up 10% off so for all intents and purposes that's 10% cashback; the 10% at Costco from what I've read is 8% back for transferring from Disney, and then 2% for an executive membership which equates to 10% of the fare for use a future Costco shops.

From there, it's all about creative ways to buy gift cards. I know some love the Disney Visa cards but they're only 1% back. I can get 5.25% actual cashback with my credit card and 2.5% back as Best Buy credit for a total of 7.75% back. That's far better than 1%.

I just looked and Discover's Warehouse category is next quarter and not this quarter. My PIF date is in 7 days. Any good options for emailed Disney gift cards? It's too late for me to buy physical ones (I live in Australia at the moment so I can't just pop over to a grocery store, warehouse club, etc - I was hoping to get an online only membership to one of them but that doesn't make sense this quarter).

EDIT: So I have some Amex offers for Sam's club and it may be worth it for me to buy a $45 membership ($25 off a membership, and my wife and I each have a $15 off $30; so that's $55 off for buying a $45 membership). Can anyone let me know how much the $50 and $500 email delivery Disney gift cards are?

 

[xQuizx]

Paying for the Disney cruise I buy gift cards via BJ's wholesale. Since I have bought a lot in the past I've been targeted by the sales department for sales. I can get Disney gift cards anywhere from 6.7% to 10% off via these directed sales. I use my credit card so I can get anywhere from 1.67% to 5% (depending on bonuses) back as well.

For flights I use my Southwest card for signup bonuses or general spend to get companion pass. My wife and I have had companion pass each for the past few years, so 2 of the kids fly free with us. We use our Southwest points to book our flights as well.

For hotels if we are going out of Orlando I will stay at Disneyworld and use gift cards to pay. If elsewhere we stay either at Country Inn & Suites (Radisson) or a Hilton property. We have hotel credit cards for both to get us discounted or free rooms.