Bad Advice Archives - Personal Finance Digest

Am I the only one who thinks Disney World is overrated?

December 8, 2017 By pfdigest

As I mentioned earlier today, the family and I just wrapped up a trip to Legoland and we had a surprisingly good time there. I say “surprisingly” because five years ago my wife and I took the kids to Disney and our reaction upon leaving it was never again.

I thought that my negative feelings would moderate over time, but they have not. In that time I’ve read a lot of blog posts about why Disney is awesome, which awesome hotel you should stay at, which awesome ride you should go on, and even some awesome travel hacks. In fact, Saverocity’s own Dia just released a book about Disney hacks which you should definitely buy. But I cannot recall reading a post explicitly warning me away from Disney (though I have warned folks away from the Disney credit card).

My friends, I am here to write that post for you today. Why avoid Walt Disney World, you ask? Well…

The Cost

We did our Disney trip about as cheaply as anybody can do it. We drove to Orlando. We stayed in the Radisson at Celebration, back when it was only 9,000 points per night (I think it’s 28K now). Our tickets were free thanks to a sweet credit card deal and we even had an extra hundred dollars or so of Disney credit left after buying the tickets to use for Disney food. But the vast majority of people aren’t going to be able to pull that off. If a family of four wants to visit for just two days and maybe have a meal or two at the park you’re looking at close to a thousand dollars before you’ve accounted for travel costs, hotel costs, souvenirs, parking, and the other stuff that goes into a trip.

My ticket cost for seven people for two days at Legoland? $298. The Washington Post digs into the Disney cost issue in more depth if you’re curious.

The Crowds

My family and I went in late September, when it’s still pretty hot in central Florida but at least it’s not ridiculously hot. We were hoping it wouldn’t be too crowded at that time of year, and the resources I checked online said it wasn’t too crowded at that time of year but… it was too crowded at that time of year. A 90-minute wait to ride “It’s a Small World” outside of peak season? No thank you.

The Amount of Planning Needed

Wouldn’t it be nice if there were a place where–and humor me, I’m just thinking out loud here–you could pay money to a company, and in exchange they would let you onto their property where they have fun things to do and you can just relax and let go of your worries for a bit? That’s actually what happened with Legoland, and that’s why I liked it more. I didn’t need a strategy because I could just show up and do stuff and everything would work itself out.

With Disney, on the other hand, you have to think long and hard about which hotel you’re staying in, which park to go to, what day to go to which park, which rides to go on, when to go on them, which restaurant to eat in, and so forth. And you have to do all of this while your kids are acting the way kids always act. You even have to have a Fastpass strategy, and that’s just sad, folks. Why should the funnest place on earth be so much work?

The Corporate Whoredom

Disney keeps buying up every cool thing from my childhood, and I am not comfortable with my children’s childhood memories being focused on one soulless, monopolistic, global corporation. Imagine if you knew a family who was really into ExxonMobil. Every year they would drop thousands of dollars on a visit to ExxonMobil headquarters (“the most energetic place on earth!”) for a family vacation. They’d spend hours perusing ExxMobboards.com to plan every minute of their trip so they could pack in as much fun as possible. Occasionally they’d switch it up and go to some overseas ExxonMobil headquarters for a change of pace. While there they would eat ExxonMobil food, buy ExxonMobil clothes and souvenirs, and go to character breakfasts with Pegasus, the flying red horse, or with the Esso Tiger.

Wouldn’t that be kind of weird?

What Disney Does Right

I don’t want this to be a snarky, over-the-top diatribe against The Mouse. A good part of what I don’t like is due to the fact that Disney is extremely good at what it does, which stimulates demand, which makes everything crowded, expensive, and complicated. Their rides are certainly better than the ones at Legoland, and the upkeep is better, and so forth. I can’t blame Disney for attracting customers and raising its prices as high as possible and pricing out the middle class any more than I can blame gravity for making planes crash. Yet the fact is, given everything I’ve discussed, I would recommend Legoland to friends (during low to moderate season, anyway, I’d stay away during high season) but I would not recommend the Disney parks. They’re not worth it.

Edit: Dia provides a rebuttal here.

A review of the Chase Sapphire Preferred, written by a robot

October 26, 2017 By pfdigest

Editor’s note: there are a lot of Chase Sapphire Preferred reviews out there and they are extremely monotonous to read. None of them, however, have been written by robots. With the help of Botnik, I have taken the credit card marketing game to its logical next step. Enjoy!

The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Introduction

Chase Ultimate Rewards is the best but likely to be a better overall option. You can use the points for a particular purpose. The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is the worldwide welcome. Sometimes you can squeeze the wide definition of what bonus points are. Total reimbursement for meals and hotel stays if you can redeem your rewards for a statement credit. Using this trick international travelers with many cards offer 2x-5x the first year. You spend $625 toward dining at restaurants and typically just change products to use your card. Cardholders get the transaction fee and bonus points for maximum value.

Chase Uber rides the worldwide acceptance from the first year; then check out our alternative recommendations. Rewards® back in 2015 were getting the Chase Freedom Unlimited. $4,000 might sound like a lot to spend in three months but every purchase can earn 50,000 bonus points. That’s a good account opening! Restaurants will earn dinner for the kids.

Free Travel

You can transfer points to these partners: Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards® is a fantastic card. American Express and Discover Rewards® are worth $95 while those Ultimate Rewards® fees are worth 1.25 cents. For travel, three Virgin Atlantic Flying Club credits can redeem your Ultimate Rewards Points. Sometimes British Airways Executive Club and United MileagePlus® will earn 55,000 points.

Zurich tourism is a fantastic benefit! 5 days from your favorite possibilities, you can always make sure to get the most out of your Chase Sapphire Preferred® Ultimate Rewards® card. As a preferred account you can redeem through the Chase Sapphire Preferred emergency assistance program. Want more? That’s enough to justify the annual fee.

Benefits Offered by Maximizing Categories

In the consumer’s first year of membership you get three months of foreign equipment insurance. Primary collision and roadside assistance services are worth keeping. Fees are common for Chase for other purchases. Spending slightly less each month requires categories but if you learn to offer 2x-5x purchases you’ll redeem your points online.

Luggage reimbursement and dining expenses earn 2x with signature technology. Restaurants bump foreign transaction fees at a full 1:1 ratio. Rewards usage gives you nearly unmatched flexibility in booking travel and dining at restaurants worldwide.

Conclusion

Chase Sapphire Preferred® is the best card. While American Express recently removed travelers with many airlines, Ultimate Rewards travel can be automatically billed. Through discounts including participating airlines, Chase has also found that you spend $95 on the Sapphire. Credit cards have extra savings, flexible points, and dining establishments. You’ll travel to world elite status!

How far can you exceed your credit limit on a single card? In my case, by almost $2K

July 31, 2017 By pfdigest

DISCLAIMER: Please don’t do stupid things with your credit. I have a high credit score, I pay off my credit cards every month, and have no pressing credit needs. Do not attempt this at home.

The house we live in is pretty old, about 90 years or so. That’s relatively young by the standards of Europe and even some cities in the United States, but in the city of Charlotte it is positively ancient. So, it’s not too surprising that the 90-year-old main plumbing line out of our house broke down.

I’ve lived in old houses for over a decade now (our previous home was over 100 years old) so I’m used to shelling out money for improvements. I’ve replaced a roof and a couple of HVAC systems. But this main line replacement was brutal, financially speaking. It did give me an opportunity to conduct an experiment, however: how far over my credit line could I go before Chase shut me down?

Shortly before our plumbing woes I had signed up for another British Airways card, the one where you get 75,000 miles for a $10K spend. BA miles have been our bread and butter over the years, and though they’re becoming harder for us to use thanks to American Airlines’ jackassery, we should be able to find some use for them. (Some people in this hobby tell you not to hoard, but… I do. BA miles, anyway. Though the jury is still out on whether I should transfer over my MR points with the current bonus as well.)

Since I, like every single other points & miles blogger, already had ample Chase credit extended to me, the new card had a credit limit of only $5,000. Which is still more than I spend in a normal month, but last month was not normal. My experiment was simple: keep spending on my card until it gets declined. Thanks to plumbing expenses, I had no trouble whatsoever breaking the $5,000 limit within a month! The final total before Chase cut me off: $6,776.73, or $1,776.73 over the credit limit. (1776? There’s got to be a Chase Freedom joke in there somewhere.)

There were no calls from Chase, they just started declining my credit card. There were no overlimit fees either; apparently a lot of issuers did away with those after the Credit Card Act of 2009. I was shocked that they let me go over my limit by 35%; I would have guessed I could go over by $500, give or take. Then again, Chase may take into account my other credit limits with and adjust their overlimit flexibility accordingly. My credit score may take a hit, but it’s usually 800+ so I can live with that. It’s a small price to pay for the advancement of knowledge. Besides, the VantageScore model caps utilization at 110%, so… woohoo, I guess.

Any other overlimit data points out there?

Manufactured spending is now more dangerous in Oklahoma

June 9, 2016 By pfdigest

Check out the latest news from Oklahoma:

You may have heard of civil asset forfeiture.
That’s where police can seize your property and cash without first proving you committed a crime; without a warrant and without arresting you, as long as they suspect that your property is somehow tied to a crime.
Now, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol has a device that also allows them to seize money in your bank account or on prepaid cards.

[Read more…]