These articles are always weird if they don't make a differentiation between using your credit card vs actually keeping the debt on your credit card long enough to start paying interest. Who pays for a Disneyland trip with a debit card or cash unless they have no access to credit?
You should basically pay for everything with credit cards and pay it off completely every month if you're financially responsible.
This. It seems like the 40%+ statistic is there for shock value and to make fun of people / dump on Disney. Is Disney absurdly expensive? Yes, but we are all technically taking on debt when we make a credit card purchase. Like you said, I’d be curious to see who is actually paying interest on their Disney trips.
Probably some of the people who hold part of the $1.12t in credit card debt in the US. Or the 8.9% of credit card balances transferring to delinquency in Q1 of 2024.
A decent amount of people actually do carry a balance on their credit card bc they're financially irresponsible. I wouldn't be surprised that many of those folk will be at Disney. Disney is prohibitively expensive for everyone except the top idk what percentage of households. I don't think Disney even tries to hide that.
I mean, yeah, haha. You see it in the article. Some guy they interviewed literally said YOLO. A lot of people have this mentality, sadly. It's a bit scary bc in the end, we all eat up their debt when our government eventually bails out the too big to fail banks, or too big to fail businesses like the airlines, who rely heavily on credit card partnerships.
I see I pissed off the people with no restraint. Cry more.
I use my credit card for all major purchases because my credit card has better purchase protection than my debit card. It doesn’t mean I can’t afford it. I just pay it off every month.
That's what I do. I put $200-250 on a debit card for food and snacks at work (part time, early 20's live with parents), and everything else is on a credit card (used to be Discover but recently switched to the Disney Visa with no annual fee).
As you said, you just had to be financially responsible and make sure you can actually pay off your card, or at least whatever the minimum would be to avoid interest on the next statement
Nothing wrong with that but if you have a good points card you can earn cash \\ points back on everything and as long as you pay monthly then you aren't paying extra for the privilege.
One word of caution about using a debit card. If you encounter fraud you’re out of the money you spent during the investigation. With a credit card you still retain your money since the credit card company is the payer.
Yeah, I almost exclusively use my CC these days, as extra insulation against someone defrauding me, after it happened once 15 years or so ago. But I pay my bills once or twice a month, even the Disney bills!
Yeah I almost always use credit cards for Disney vacations. But I use credit cards for *everything* and pay them off at the end of the billing cycle. Which is, y’know, the way you’re supposed to use credit cards.
Well... not according to the banks since they make money off of fees and interest. Being a "Deadbeat" customer is fun though since you can claim all the rewards with no direct outlay to them.
They make just as much, if not more, money on the “swipe fees” they charge the business you use your CC at.
For the high value reward cards it is almost certainly most of the revenue since those cards are hard to get for people with bad credit that don’t pay their bills.
Yeah... but why have either or when you can have both?
I'm actually not sure if the fees 100% go to the banks though, those usually are to credit card processors, which is why some places will switch so they can lower their fees. Then there is the whole risk formula thing, chargebacks, etc. which become the processor's problem not the credit card company's.
I think a lot of it depends on if whether or not people are immediately paying off their credit card bill instead of accumulating interest. I’m sure it’s both, but I know people who go to Disney once every year or two and charge it to credit cards without paying off their first trip. It’s insane. Meanwhile, I took my kids for the first time this month and suspect it might be our only Disney trip. It’s too damn expensive.
I was going to say, I bet a lot of people "go into debt" for the month until they pay off the credit card. Or you can buy your admission and stuff 6 months early with a Disney card I think, and pay it back at 0% interest before you go, which I also wouldn't really consider as debt, more like layaway or something.
I am presuming they are still carrying it month to month, otherwise that would be near 100% since it's quite difficult if not impossible to book a vacation, airfare, and hotels without a card.
I used my credit cards exclusively at Disney. I promptly paid them off when we got home. That's not exactly going into debt, but could I have been wiser with the money? Probably so.
Between the time it took to finish reading the post and reaching this first comment I thought the exact same thing.
Was going to open the article to confirm my suspicion but you saved me from giving them a click so thank you.
I charge probably $3,000 to my credit card for a Disneyland trip for my wife & kids.
Then the day I get back, I pay it off in cash and take the CC reward points 👍🏽
So technically, I incur debt for a Disney trip, yes.
Also in addition to the rewards, much easier secure against fraudulent financial issues with a CC service than using a card tied directly to a debit account.
I’m still shocked that in this day and age anyone still uses a debit card for purchases.
Can’t blame people too much, the systems aren’t exactly laid out for people and financial literacy is unfortunately not where it should be. I was lucky enough to have people in my life who explained everything to me at a young age.
I have friends who have (self admitted) low/no impulse control. They had a cc before, ran up debt because they would just spend spend spend and couldn’t stop themselves. CCs can be dangerous for some people.
Very true. I definitely agree with that. I’m talking your average responsible every day purchaser. Use a CC instead for the fraud protection and rewards.
I am currently doing exactly that. Used my cc for Airbnb and tickets. Have already paid the ticket statement and half of the Airbnb statement. Next statement has the other half.
I was just there and they have the Disney credit card promotion for a $200 gift card and $200 statement credit after $1000 spent in three months, so yes I put my Disney vacation on “credit” but paid it off and got $200 free in statement credit. the survey isn’t as accurate as you may think
Not sure why everyone assumes paying off credit card at end of month is incurring debt. if that was used in the analysis I would assume the average would be higher because people regularly spend over $10k on the trips and even an infrequent traveler knows how to earn the CC rewards.
This pops up all the time. Especially with the Chase card that offers months of 0% interest, this data is inherently flawed.
We always book our Disney trips and pay it off over time. We can absolutely pay it off at once if we wanted to. It’s usually around that $2k range. Many people are doing this. That’s not a debt problem.
Haha exactly, if I am going to get 0% financing, why not spread it over a few months. Can end up getting a slightly nicer room for a lot less pain in one lump sum.
The government does not tell you your credit score, your credit card company does. Our national debt works very differently than debt for your average person. If the government was a person, it would have a net worth of at least $130 trillion (including debt) because of how many assets it has.
Median is the number in what your talking about meaning the super weather can influence that number u less they are talking only people making 100k or less
Actually median can't be influenced by super wealthy people. That's the average. Median is the exact middle of a list. So if you ordered all Americans by the amount in their checking accounts, the median is the American exactly in the middle of the data, who has around ~8k in their account.
Median is used precisely because it can't be affected too much by outliers.
I use a credit card for any major expense, like booking a Disney trip. That isn't because I don't have the money. I get cash back and there are protections my credit card has that my debit card doesn't.
We went to Disneyland beginning of April. Paid for tickets and hotel with our debit cards, bought our food and souvenirs with a credit card so we could eat and buy what we wanted. Paid off that balance at the end of May. So maybe we paid a bit of interest but not much. And of course we were not going absolutely crazy buying things.
I just went to Disney. $1k bucks just in tickets, before doing anything and traveling. I think that number low. We spent a shit load of money and IMO the trip was mid at best. I’m also a Disney fan.
I used a credit card for my entire trip. Just like I use a credit card for every single other purchase I make. So yeah we had Disney debt for about a month. Then it was paid off.
I’m going to put a credit card on file when I stay on property this October and will likely meet that number before Aimee leave.
I’ll pay it off immediately when we get back. That is not going into debt.
I know people like to hate on childfree Dinsey adults but we are the ones spending the most money and stay of out of debt to pay for Disney trips it seems.
If people have kids, cool. Do it. But if the choice is a Disney trip or a roof over a child's head, people shouldn't go.
It comes down to personal situations.
I have a reliable government job. If I put a trip on credit I’d know it would be no problem to pay off over a few months.
Not that I encourage using debt to finance a vacation.
It has been getting gradually worse and worse for many years. There are many reasons for this, the biggest effect being able to put annual passes on payment plans, among other obvious changes such as increased prices with no gain in benefits.
As someone who has done both. it's much more pleasant to save up for airfare and tickets than to have that pending when you get home. Putting purchases on the ccard when you are away from home can make sense but save up for the trip itself. Nothing stings more than paying for a vacation after the fact.
Going into debt for a vacation is so stupid… People are so worried about keeping up appearances that they’ll take on debt+interest for a non-necessity.
I use my Amex to pay for vacations because I want the points/miles, but turn around and immediately pay it off so I never accrue interest.
Yeah, so? Hello credit cards and the have-it-now mentality of humans. Got mortgage? Got car loan? Bet you didn't wait til you had the entire cost of that house saved up before buying it.
On our way to the mouse as we speak. So grateful that we are finally in a financial place where we have not taken on any debt for this trip. We have a cash budget to spend for the whole week but will put it on the cc for the cash back. I think people continue to come even if taking on debt bc they don’t see any other way. There is another way but it takes some sacrifices to get there. We waited almost 3 years to save and get to this position.
We put into a travel/fun fund every paycheck and still put all our trips/trip spending on credit cards and just pay it off when we get home from that fund. You get points back that go towards another trip or cash back. Our last trip we made almost $400 in cash back. It would be dumb to pass that up just to pay it in cash.
The article does not qualify what is meant by taking on debt. It is just spending more than you budgeted for the trip? Or spending more than you were able to cover so have to pay if off over time?
It includes transportation, which yes can be high depending on when you fly.
It talks about food costs. Yes, if you're not a Disney Regular, and you don't work with an Authorized Disney Vacation Planner, or other Disney Travel Agent, you're not going to have an idea of the cost of an average snack, quick service or table service meals. So it's easy to understand budget that.
I go to WDW often and I never budget right for souvenirs. I often buy more than I expected on a trip, but even when I use my credit card, I never spend more than I can afford to pay when the bill comes due.
Genie+ and Individual LL were added costs that you couldn't properly budget for as they had date and demand pricing. So unless we assumed $35-40 per person per day for Genie+ and $20-40 per day for ILL, we'd definitely would come up short.
We pay for the trip in weekly payments so it’s all pay now. Save some cash to spend everyday plus gas and food. If you plan ahead you don’t need to go into debt
I use the Disney Visa 0% 12 month finance options for trips because I figure making monthly payments while the money earns interest in my savings account is a better move than just paying outright. I'm sure I fit into the article, but the situation seems different.
Headlines are crafted to get people to read the articles. Also, a lot of personal finance media is crafted to make people feel better about their financial situation by providing examples of other people to judge, whether it's Disney for wantonly raising their prices or the park attendees who are adjudged to be making bad financial decisions.
More than 16 million people visit Disneyland annually. Many of those visitors use credit cards to get themselves through the gate and buy things during their stay. I don't find it unreasonable that among attendees paying with credit cards, some are taking longer than the next billing cycle to pay for their trip.
FWIW, my sister in law recently used to work at the ticket booths in the esplanade and she had tons of stories where a family would split the cost of tickets among several nearly maxed out credit cards.
Some she couldn’t sell too because the credit card they tried to use didn’t have enough room on it and they had no other means to pay.
I know it’s anecdotal but I think there’s a good amount that do carry the debt.
I used home equity. Was definitely worth it. The memories I made are priceless and my home continues to grow in value to cover it a thousand times over.
It seems like the article is conflating “going into debt” with “using a credit card” a little bit
These articles are always weird if they don't make a differentiation between using your credit card vs actually keeping the debt on your credit card long enough to start paying interest. Who pays for a Disneyland trip with a debit card or cash unless they have no access to credit? You should basically pay for everything with credit cards and pay it off completely every month if you're financially responsible.
This. It seems like the 40%+ statistic is there for shock value and to make fun of people / dump on Disney. Is Disney absurdly expensive? Yes, but we are all technically taking on debt when we make a credit card purchase. Like you said, I’d be curious to see who is actually paying interest on their Disney trips.
Probably some of the people who hold part of the $1.12t in credit card debt in the US. Or the 8.9% of credit card balances transferring to delinquency in Q1 of 2024. A decent amount of people actually do carry a balance on their credit card bc they're financially irresponsible. I wouldn't be surprised that many of those folk will be at Disney. Disney is prohibitively expensive for everyone except the top idk what percentage of households. I don't think Disney even tries to hide that.
So this is more of an indictment on the financially irresponsible than anything else lol.
I mean, yeah, haha. You see it in the article. Some guy they interviewed literally said YOLO. A lot of people have this mentality, sadly. It's a bit scary bc in the end, we all eat up their debt when our government eventually bails out the too big to fail banks, or too big to fail businesses like the airlines, who rely heavily on credit card partnerships. I see I pissed off the people with no restraint. Cry more.
If you cant pay for it in cash you cant aford it ! Thats how i was brought up
I use my credit card for all major purchases because my credit card has better purchase protection than my debit card. It doesn’t mean I can’t afford it. I just pay it off every month.
That's what I do. I put $200-250 on a debit card for food and snacks at work (part time, early 20's live with parents), and everything else is on a credit card (used to be Discover but recently switched to the Disney Visa with no annual fee). As you said, you just had to be financially responsible and make sure you can actually pay off your card, or at least whatever the minimum would be to avoid interest on the next statement
[удалено]
Nothing wrong with that but if you have a good points card you can earn cash \\ points back on everything and as long as you pay monthly then you aren't paying extra for the privilege.
One word of caution about using a debit card. If you encounter fraud you’re out of the money you spent during the investigation. With a credit card you still retain your money since the credit card company is the payer.
Yeah, I almost exclusively use my CC these days, as extra insulation against someone defrauding me, after it happened once 15 years or so ago. But I pay my bills once or twice a month, even the Disney bills!
People who are extremely rich pay cash to not get in a debt situation down the line
Yeah I almost always use credit cards for Disney vacations. But I use credit cards for *everything* and pay them off at the end of the billing cycle. Which is, y’know, the way you’re supposed to use credit cards.
Well... not according to the banks since they make money off of fees and interest. Being a "Deadbeat" customer is fun though since you can claim all the rewards with no direct outlay to them.
They make just as much, if not more, money on the “swipe fees” they charge the business you use your CC at. For the high value reward cards it is almost certainly most of the revenue since those cards are hard to get for people with bad credit that don’t pay their bills.
Yeah... but why have either or when you can have both? I'm actually not sure if the fees 100% go to the banks though, those usually are to credit card processors, which is why some places will switch so they can lower their fees. Then there is the whole risk formula thing, chargebacks, etc. which become the processor's problem not the credit card company's.
I took on a few hundred dollars of debt going grocery shopping yesterday apparently.
Similarly, I just took on debt to order a pizza. Article is misleading in extreme.
I think a lot of it depends on if whether or not people are immediately paying off their credit card bill instead of accumulating interest. I’m sure it’s both, but I know people who go to Disney once every year or two and charge it to credit cards without paying off their first trip. It’s insane. Meanwhile, I took my kids for the first time this month and suspect it might be our only Disney trip. It’s too damn expensive.
I was going to say, I bet a lot of people "go into debt" for the month until they pay off the credit card. Or you can buy your admission and stuff 6 months early with a Disney card I think, and pay it back at 0% interest before you go, which I also wouldn't really consider as debt, more like layaway or something.
I am presuming they are still carrying it month to month, otherwise that would be near 100% since it's quite difficult if not impossible to book a vacation, airfare, and hotels without a card.
In today's economy, there is SIGNIFICANT overlap of people having XXX dollars in debt, and having that exact XXX dollars on their cc.
That seems low for Disney, we spent 5k 10 years ago and stayed at military hotel. You have to get there, 4 people.
I used my credit cards exclusively at Disney. I promptly paid them off when we got home. That's not exactly going into debt, but could I have been wiser with the money? Probably so.
Between the time it took to finish reading the post and reaching this first comment I thought the exact same thing. Was going to open the article to confirm my suspicion but you saved me from giving them a click so thank you.
I get discounts and stuff using my Chase Disney card of course I’m gonna “incur debt” for the trip lol
I charge probably $3,000 to my credit card for a Disneyland trip for my wife & kids. Then the day I get back, I pay it off in cash and take the CC reward points 👍🏽 So technically, I incur debt for a Disney trip, yes.
This is the move. I was able to accrue enough airmiles for my trip to Japan a couple years back.
Also in addition to the rewards, much easier secure against fraudulent financial issues with a CC service than using a card tied directly to a debit account. I’m still shocked that in this day and age anyone still uses a debit card for purchases.
Can’t blame people too much, the systems aren’t exactly laid out for people and financial literacy is unfortunately not where it should be. I was lucky enough to have people in my life who explained everything to me at a young age.
I have friends who have (self admitted) low/no impulse control. They had a cc before, ran up debt because they would just spend spend spend and couldn’t stop themselves. CCs can be dangerous for some people.
Very true. I definitely agree with that. I’m talking your average responsible every day purchaser. Use a CC instead for the fraud protection and rewards.
I pay for EVERYTHING on my Citi 2% card, and use that money for WDW.
I am currently doing exactly that. Used my cc for Airbnb and tickets. Have already paid the ticket statement and half of the Airbnb statement. Next statement has the other half.
Same here
I did 22k my last trip. Paid off next statement period.
I was just there and they have the Disney credit card promotion for a $200 gift card and $200 statement credit after $1000 spent in three months, so yes I put my Disney vacation on “credit” but paid it off and got $200 free in statement credit. the survey isn’t as accurate as you may think
Is it really debt or are they using a card to get rewards and then paying it off before interest accrues?
Not sure why everyone assumes paying off credit card at end of month is incurring debt. if that was used in the analysis I would assume the average would be higher because people regularly spend over $10k on the trips and even an infrequent traveler knows how to earn the CC rewards.
This.
We paid for our Disney vacation using a mix of savings and credit card, so count us among them.
This pops up all the time. Especially with the Chase card that offers months of 0% interest, this data is inherently flawed. We always book our Disney trips and pay it off over time. We can absolutely pay it off at once if we wanted to. It’s usually around that $2k range. Many people are doing this. That’s not a debt problem.
Haha exactly, if I am going to get 0% financing, why not spread it over a few months. Can end up getting a slightly nicer room for a lot less pain in one lump sum.
American Government is 38 Trillion in Debt and they telling me my credit score is bad
That's a weird tangent. Can you print your own money too?
Legally or by other means?
Fair. At least we have options.
The government does not tell you your credit score, your credit card company does. Our national debt works very differently than debt for your average person. If the government was a person, it would have a net worth of at least $130 trillion (including debt) because of how many assets it has.
Two things can be bad lol
Most people can’t afford a 1,000 dollars emergency For sure people are going into debt for Disney vacations and to me that’s nuts
Whoa wait a sec. Most people aren't going to Disney. This is just a subreddit, and we're a small slice of the populace.
> Most people can’t afford a 1,000 dollars emergency the median American has ~$8000 in checking accounts so yes, most people can
Median is the number in what your talking about meaning the super weather can influence that number u less they are talking only people making 100k or less
Actually median can't be influenced by super wealthy people. That's the average. Median is the exact middle of a list. So if you ordered all Americans by the amount in their checking accounts, the median is the American exactly in the middle of the data, who has around ~8k in their account. Median is used precisely because it can't be affected too much by outliers.
I use a credit card for any major expense, like booking a Disney trip. That isn't because I don't have the money. I get cash back and there are protections my credit card has that my debit card doesn't.
We went to Disneyland beginning of April. Paid for tickets and hotel with our debit cards, bought our food and souvenirs with a credit card so we could eat and buy what we wanted. Paid off that balance at the end of May. So maybe we paid a bit of interest but not much. And of course we were not going absolutely crazy buying things.
1900? That’s it? lol
I just went to Disney. $1k bucks just in tickets, before doing anything and traveling. I think that number low. We spent a shit load of money and IMO the trip was mid at best. I’m also a Disney fan.
We charged a majority of the trip we just took, and will pay it off with the tax refund I overpay monthly to get lol
I used a credit card for my entire trip. Just like I use a credit card for every single other purchase I make. So yeah we had Disney debt for about a month. Then it was paid off.
I’m going to put a credit card on file when I stay on property this October and will likely meet that number before Aimee leave. I’ll pay it off immediately when we get back. That is not going into debt.
I know people like to hate on childfree Dinsey adults but we are the ones spending the most money and stay of out of debt to pay for Disney trips it seems. If people have kids, cool. Do it. But if the choice is a Disney trip or a roof over a child's head, people shouldn't go.
Too long didn’t read. Does the article say that people are actually going into debt at the cost of other bills and expenses?
Some are and aren't putting themselves in debt according to the article.
It comes down to personal situations. I have a reliable government job. If I put a trip on credit I’d know it would be no problem to pay off over a few months. Not that I encourage using debt to finance a vacation.
I use one or two credit cards to finance the full experience--chiefly to earn rewards. Pay them off when the bill arrives.
It has been getting gradually worse and worse for many years. There are many reasons for this, the biggest effect being able to put annual passes on payment plans, among other obvious changes such as increased prices with no gain in benefits.
Whoever would choose to go into debt over a Disney trip needs some serious therapy.
Our next homeless person. lmao ,thier are to manny idiots who use credet to live on then they get laid off and loose everything they dont own
As someone who has done both. it's much more pleasant to save up for airfare and tickets than to have that pending when you get home. Putting purchases on the ccard when you are away from home can make sense but save up for the trip itself. Nothing stings more than paying for a vacation after the fact.
Going into debt for a vacation is so stupid… People are so worried about keeping up appearances that they’ll take on debt+interest for a non-necessity. I use my Amex to pay for vacations because I want the points/miles, but turn around and immediately pay it off so I never accrue interest.
That’s crazy. However, it trends with our country. America has a huge debt problem.
America has a huge cost of living problem
America has huge problems.
America has Huge Jackman
Yeah, so? Hello credit cards and the have-it-now mentality of humans. Got mortgage? Got car loan? Bet you didn't wait til you had the entire cost of that house saved up before buying it.
My mom used a credit card when she took me for the first time in '96 so I guess this has always been the case.
On our way to the mouse as we speak. So grateful that we are finally in a financial place where we have not taken on any debt for this trip. We have a cash budget to spend for the whole week but will put it on the cc for the cash back. I think people continue to come even if taking on debt bc they don’t see any other way. There is another way but it takes some sacrifices to get there. We waited almost 3 years to save and get to this position.
We put into a travel/fun fund every paycheck and still put all our trips/trip spending on credit cards and just pay it off when we get home from that fund. You get points back that go towards another trip or cash back. Our last trip we made almost $400 in cash back. It would be dumb to pass that up just to pay it in cash.
The article does not qualify what is meant by taking on debt. It is just spending more than you budgeted for the trip? Or spending more than you were able to cover so have to pay if off over time? It includes transportation, which yes can be high depending on when you fly. It talks about food costs. Yes, if you're not a Disney Regular, and you don't work with an Authorized Disney Vacation Planner, or other Disney Travel Agent, you're not going to have an idea of the cost of an average snack, quick service or table service meals. So it's easy to understand budget that. I go to WDW often and I never budget right for souvenirs. I often buy more than I expected on a trip, but even when I use my credit card, I never spend more than I can afford to pay when the bill comes due. Genie+ and Individual LL were added costs that you couldn't properly budget for as they had date and demand pricing. So unless we assumed $35-40 per person per day for Genie+ and $20-40 per day for ILL, we'd definitely would come up short.
Is it really that surprising? Feels like a lot of people "incur debt" when they go on trips
I’m sure this can be said about most vacations!
Going into debt = using the pay monthly option for your Magic Key
I use my Disney Chase card for everything I can for a year before I go to Disney last time we earned $600 in credits to spend on dinner and merch
We pay for the trip in weekly payments so it’s all pay now. Save some cash to spend everyday plus gas and food. If you plan ahead you don’t need to go into debt
I use the Disney Visa 0% 12 month finance options for trips because I figure making monthly payments while the money earns interest in my savings account is a better move than just paying outright. I'm sure I fit into the article, but the situation seems different.
Headlines are crafted to get people to read the articles. Also, a lot of personal finance media is crafted to make people feel better about their financial situation by providing examples of other people to judge, whether it's Disney for wantonly raising their prices or the park attendees who are adjudged to be making bad financial decisions. More than 16 million people visit Disneyland annually. Many of those visitors use credit cards to get themselves through the gate and buy things during their stay. I don't find it unreasonable that among attendees paying with credit cards, some are taking longer than the next billing cycle to pay for their trip.
Give me those sweet sweet credit card points. I carry a $0 balance anyway.
FWIW, my sister in law recently used to work at the ticket booths in the esplanade and she had tons of stories where a family would split the cost of tickets among several nearly maxed out credit cards. Some she couldn’t sell too because the credit card they tried to use didn’t have enough room on it and they had no other means to pay. I know it’s anecdotal but I think there’s a good amount that do carry the debt.
I used home equity. Was definitely worth it. The memories I made are priceless and my home continues to grow in value to cover it a thousand times over.
So the other 55% (w/ kids) just pay cash for everything??