How do you afford it?

[Cyrano]

I'm not sure what some of the comments on this thread say about me; we have stayed at offsite hotels for $19 per room per night and also at hotels costing $300+ per room per night.

I was the same person in the $19 room as I was in the $300 room.

As to how I afford it?

I pay all my bills and then if I have enough left over to go on holiday, I do. And I consider myself extremely fortunate to have been able to do so

Well said

 

[wayneg]

If in your buisness, someone takes liberty with their account you don't just accept it, to do so is the way to bankruptcy.

Sorry but I do accept it, I own Florist shops if I price things incorrectly or undercharge someone on their account. It is my mistake and I will stand the loss. To accept the loss is very good business practice because you keep the customer hopefully for a lot of years and recoup the loss. To insist they pay extra probably means you loose the customer.
It is upto me to get things right same as its upto the banks to not allow loopholes in their system.
Good example is my previous post, they charged me £125 fees for me overdrawing £9. If they had not charged me they would still be getting approx £400/year out of me for bank charges and still have my savings account with £90k in it. Now they have nothing.

 

[Laurafoster]

For me personally, i lost my sister and my best friend a few years ago, she was only 11! For me i fell i only get 1 life so im going to make sure i do the things i want to do.

I just prioritise what is important to me, and thats a holiday. I work really hard all year and so does gary. Im fortunate enough to be in an IT Support job that pays reasonably well for my age but also requires someone to be on call over the weekends.

 

[JohnnySharp2]

Hi JohnnySharp 2,

I now where your coming from, having a child with a disability (Joe 8 - Autism) changes your priorities. Our trip last year was supposed to be a one off - but you've guessed it - we've booked again for April 07 - nothing can beat Joe's the cheer joy on Joe's face everyday of our holiday - like you we don't know what the future holds. When the children are grwon up they won't remember if we have the lastest car or the smartest house but hopefully they'll remember the holidays they had and do the same with their children.

That sounds spot on Chris - exactly the same for us too.

 

[jns]

We work hard all year round 7 days a week
when you have your own business you have too

never go out , pictures once in a blue moon

 

[ariel75]

you only live once so you have to make the best of it! who cares what you spend as long as you have a good time but for myself were staying in pop century as theres so much to do and see all i want is a place to rest my head which means you have more money to spend.Not to say if i did have the spare money i would stay somewhere nicer just remember you can't take it with you

 

[Lizzy Lemon]

If you are at all interested in earning a little extra money on your savings, I've been offerered a savings account paying 8% for non tax payers, something like 6.4% for tax payers with Lloyds, £500 max to open it and anywhere between £25 - £250 per month for 2 years. Its paying a lot more than my ISA. What I put in now is funding our 2nd trip in a few years time, whilst at the same time saving up for next years 1st trip!!!! Better that than paying the holiday off as you go along. The TA's should give you a discount for that for having your money for so long.

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

There has been a note by moderators saying everything should be kept respectful on all the threads, so I choose not to post back on this, until now, but taking advantage of any situation is not correct in my personal view and we all have to be honest.

Many times I have seen mistakes, a shop undercharges me, maybe I am wrong but I point it out to them, if they overcharge I expect it to be put back to where it should be and will not take charge of the situation.

Exploiting a loophole when you know it wasn't meant to be used like that in my option is not honest.

There is a lot in the press about taking advantage of Banks, holiday companies shops etc., if you feel something is incorrect complain in a professional way.

If someone drops money in the road, its it yours or do you hand it in to the police, if a local shop or restaurant undercharges you, do you tell them or do you go without saying anything.

I am honest and I wouldn't consider making money out of any Loophole, or jumping on the bandwagon when the papers think they can run this country and tell you to exploit something to make money.

The papers wouldn't like it if someone said take them out of the shops for free, as the next day you can have them free with your chips???

Not a flame but this is a moral issue.

 

[wayneg]

Not a flame but this is a moral issue.

Definitely not taken as a flame, I admire you for being so honest, not many like you left in the world.
I am a business man and try to make as much money as possible in whatever legal way there is to provide for my family.
We are all different thankfully and all have to live with our own actions.

 

[wayneg]

If you are at all interested in earning a little extra money on your savings, I've been offerered a savings account paying 8% for non tax payers, something like 6.4% for tax payers with Lloyds, £500 max to open it and anywhere between £25 - £250 per month for 2 years. Its paying a lot more than my ISA. What I put in now is funding our 2nd trip in a few years time, whilst at the same time saving up for next years 1st trip!!!! Better that than paying the holiday off as you go along. The TA's should give you a discount for that for having your money for so long.

Not seen this one, Halifax do some accounts similar, I opened 4 accounts a year ago. 2 regular savers at £250/month Pays 7% and 2 Childrens regular savers at £100/month earns 10% tax free (parents and grandparents can open them). Thought it was just for 1 year but its a continuous account so £700/ month is invested well at no risk.

 

[Tron[ADS]]

Pardon the flame but what is the difference in doing this and walking into a branch and taking £1300 which is not yours, everyone else has to pay for this, in charges and fees.

The difference ... one would be illegal, the other, which was completely legal, is taking advantage of the stupidity of a major corporation that makes millions in profits. If it annoys you more, 3 or 4 of my mates did it as well. The lad who spotted it first earnt himself over 2 grand.

 

[Gillsfan]

There has been a note by moderators saying everything should be kept respectful on all the threads, so I choose not to post back on this, until now, but taking advantage of any situation is not correct in my personal view and we all have to be honest.

Many times I have seen mistakes, a shop undercharges me, maybe I am wrong but I point it out to them, if they overcharge I expect it to be put back to where it should be and will not take charge of the situation.

Exploiting a loophole when you know it wasn't meant to be used like that in my option is not honest.

There is a lot in the press about taking advantage of Banks, holiday companies shops etc., if you feel something is incorrect complain in a professional way.

If someone drops money in the road, its it yours or do you hand it in to the police, if a local shop or restaurant undercharges you, do you tell them or do you go without saying anything.

I am honest and I wouldn't consider making money out of any Loophole, or jumping on the bandwagon when the papers think they can run this country and tell you to exploit something to make money.

The papers wouldn't like it if someone said take them out of the shops for free, as the next day you can have them free with your chips???

Not a flame but this is a moral issue.

I certainly see where your coming from Andrew, if thats your moral stand point, then so be it. I do slightly disagree with what your saying though.

I am attempting to save for Florida next year, and also am currently re-claiming bank charges from an old account.

I agree, if im undercharged in a shop, i will tell the assistant. If someone dropped money in the road, of course i would tell them or hand it to the police. As far as these charges goes though, from my position I see them as fair game.

I managed to acrue £260 in charges when I was in a financial pickle some years ago, I was advised by the CAB to just pay priority debts for the time being and I explained to my credit card company the situation, but they still charges late payment fees and eventually over limit fees. When I got myself back on track I spoke to the card company who refused to help at all. I paid it, and got on with my life, a little annoyed, but thought it was fair game.

Now, comes to the present day.. I find a website who helps reclaim these charges and I thought i would have a go. Now what shocked me the most, was the amount of financial institutions that settled so quickly, unsure why, I looked into it and found that these charges are way over anywhere near what it costs the bank. Some financial experts even worked out the cost to be between £2-£3 per transactions, the OFT believe that a charge of £12 or less is fair. So, why do they need to charge so much?? Where are thier morals?

The reason why the banks do settle, is that they dont want to break down in court the £35 charge everytime an automated transaction gets bounced or refused. Its even made some credit card companies start charging £12 to sort of stay fair according to the OFT.

So.. my point, reclaiming bank charges in my opinion is not immoral. Exploiting loopholes in credit card deals is a little naughtier, but in my opinion fair game as long as its legal.

I hope I dont offend you with this post, I just feel that people read these and just judge rather than finding the facts out.

Ohh.. and i do agree with you that its diabolical the way the papers do try to run this country. I show my dissaproval by not buying any papers (especially tabloids) apart from the local ones.

Peace out

 

[Miffy2003]

All,

I know that the question asked was "How do you afford it?" and there is an element of this in the ongoing discussions, but please remember this is a thread about Florida Trip Planning not on how to use banks for best effect

Thanks

Karen

 

[kevin harrison]

Sorry about this Miffy, but it adds something to this thread..

I have a few bank accounts and saving accounts. All we keep in our current account is everything to cover direct debits, which go out on certain days....Everything else is saved for rainy days, or sunny days..

Now, when my daughter was first born 5 years ago, my wife had to work half a week instead of a full week and we had to pay nursery fees also for the other half. Add also that we had to buy a bigger house.

The Halifax gave me a decent overdraft which we kept inside, except when direct debits came out on different days to the one agreed, but lo and behold our wages didn't always appear on the day agreed because of weekends etc

By the time I had transferred money to cover Halifax had charged me £30 each time. In one such weekend when 9 debits came out 2 days early and my wages went in after the weekend I was charged £270. They claimed they only charged me the fee once per day, but instead charged me £30 for 9 seperate days. Halifax have 40 days under the data protection act to send me 6 years of statements and I estimate they have taken over £1000 in fees.

What happens then is the charges put you further down and stop you clearing your overdraft.

I am always responsible with money yet I can never forget how my bank treated me when I needed them, never mind the fact we had thousands saved with them and for that reason I am going to regain every penny they unfairly took from me.

I implore anyone who was treated the same to do the same..

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/

These bank charges are not being defended in court, banks are caving in without a fight, ask yourself why?

Here's something else to ponder, when I needed to see them about taking my mortgage payment for a certain month twice they messed me about for days, when I paid inheritance money into my bank, they cleared my cheque that day, instead of 5 working days as normal, took me into their private room, gave me a cup of tea and the banks direct branch telephone number.

When I get my money back - it'll be a trip to Florida for us.

 

[AlanUK]

This thread really is starting to break down into a discussion on Bank charges and issues of morality, big business etc. I recognise that this may contribute to how some people are paying for their trips but after re-reading the last few pages of this thread it looks like the discussion has been taken over somewhat by this one point.

Karen posted a polite reminder not long ago and I would also like to request that we try and get back to clearly discussing the original subject.

Any furrther posts that aren't directly related to the original discussion topic will have to be considered for deletion or moved into a separate thread on bank charges over on the CB. Of course if someone does want to start such a thread over on the CB and continue the discussion there you are more than welcome.

Thanks for your help

 

[daveyoghurt]

We pay for our holidays to Florida by working six days a week through the summer, saving £800 per month for three months, (made up of overtime and bonus payments). This year I'm hoping that I can extend this though to December which will mean that I won't have to spend my annual profit share on getting me over the finish line. Each time we go, we try to do the holiday even better than the last year, my first two visits we stayed in cheap and cheerful motels, last year we stayed at the Sheraton World which was a lot nicer (hence more expensive) than the places we'd stayed previously, and next year we will be mixing up our holiday by staying onsite for the last week.

Like a lot of others on here, saving up and working overtime for such a long period isn't easy, and there are sacrifices throughout the year that have to be taken into consideration - but we enjoy ourselves so much on holiday that we feel it is definitely worth it. I look on it that the very least we deserve after all those sacrifices and months of saving is total enjoyment and that's what we strive for when we are there, and I think it's a shame that other posters are getting criticism for their own particular choices.

The reason I like to visit these boards is you get experiences from across the board, I like to hear of cost cutting ideas as much as I like to read of top edge cuisine or five star service.

 

[angel659]

Hi Alan

Sorry my husband started the whole bank topic. He used my login instead of his am sorry if I caused any conflicts on here. I am so embarrassed.

 

[Tron[ADS]]

Hi Alan

Sorry my husband started the whole bank topic. He used my login instead of his am sorry if I caused any conflicts on here. I am so embarrassed.

I skipped some of this topic, but I think it was actualy my fault the topic moved towards banks....although I did nothing but answer the original question posed, one or two unfortuntely took objection to my rather dubious (but not anything close to being illegal) methods...presumably bank share holders ;-)

 

[CHRIS F]

This is a question my freinds ask me all the time "how do you keep affording to go to WDW?" The answer is simple during the year my wife and I have no money, scrape by paying the bills but in the jobs we have I get lump sums ie profit related pay, performance bonus and shares, while my wife does a share as you earn shares scheme, in a good year if we pool these payments it pays for disney and spending money. Yes I could use the money more sensibly but you only live once and as I lose loads of my normal time with my family as I have to travel and work away from home [25% of my weekends, anniversary's,birthdays, family events] spending two or three weeks in Orlando with my family having a laugh is worth oh so much, in my mind I still see the look on the face my oldest boy had on his first trip when he was 6 just of utter joy and happiness.
We all make our choices on how we spend our money we just choose to spend it on a family holiday but the memories are priceless.

My parents worked every hour they could to make ends meet etc and were very sensible but my dad died when I was seven ,my only memory was of our one family holiday in Devon the point I am trying to make is life is so short enjoy it when you can and if you can afford it and want to spend every single penny you have going to WDW then go for it.


I am just praying my bank manager is not a member of DIS and reading this lol

 

[mnoble_uk]

The original question implied that a Disney holiday is more expensive than a 'normal' one.

I would agree - but only to a point. I'm going with my wife in September 1 wk on site (POR), 1 wk off (Homewood suites), and with flights and car it comes to about £2k.

That sounds expensive - but for the first week everything is paid - entertainment (park tickets), food (dining plan), and the 2nd week we plan on going to a waterpark, disney quest for a few days.

Also, I *hate* *hate* *hate* sitting on a beach for too long, so when we go on holiday we are pretty active so we burn a lot of money. Our average spend on holiday on food and entertainment (incl shopping) is 1k per week.

I also consider Disney to be really high quality - so a budget in Disney is more appealing to me than a budget outside etc etc.

So adding all that together I think actually we get really good value from our holidays.

As for paying - well we are DINKYs and are spending the unborn kids inheritance