Paying in installments

We did, but it was with AAA. It had to all be paid off by the trip, but we did it in 3 or 4 chunks and it worked out well for us.

We usually pay in installments through Disney.com. If you make you reservation online you have to pay a deposit & then pay off the rest something like 55 days before your trip. Anytime I have extra money lying around I make a payment. You can even do them as small as 20 dollars.

Sounds like installments are pretty common?

I would say installments are common. I pay in installments through CAA (the Canadian AAA). Like Bella said, full payment is due about two months before your trip date. It's a great way to pay for an expensive trip. (Also a great way for Canadians to take advantage of good exchange rates)

Are there finance charges, or is it just "pay full price over the period of a few months?"

With CAA (and likely AAA too) there are no finance charges. The trip payment is due in full 60 days prior to your arrival date. It's up to you if you'd like to make payments before that time or just pay in full at that point.

With CAA (and likely AAA too) there are no finance charges. The trip payment is due in full 60 days prior to your arrival date. It's up to you if you'd like to make payments before that time or just pay in full at that point.

Since I only reserve a room and not park tickets and since I am a Florida resident it might be a little different. When I reserve a resort room I give a deposit and although I always pay the balance before the reservation time I have the option the pay the balance upon arrival. We deal directly with Disney reservations. Never a travel agency.
Joe

This is how we usually handle it as well.

You definitely don't want to over-extend you budget to go, it will put too much pressure on the trip. On the flip side you can use it as motivation to save. "We could go out to dinner tonight, but instead let's eat in and put the $20 in savings into the Disney jar." I find it's much easier to avoid spending on things if I think of it as a fraction of a Disney trip. Would I rather have the nicer car, or 2 extra Disney trips...

Not through Disney..

I like paying in installments because we use our debit card and we booked our package back in August and booked it with the deposit. Every time we have some extra money we pay off a little bit. Now we only owe $100 or so dollars..so it's just like a Disney savings account only the trip is booked.

We use a Travel Agent, and they take installments. For me, its the best way to do it.

Great info! We usually pay room-only like Joe, but I can see why paying in installments might be great -- especially for vacation packages that are a long ways out.

Our last year's vacation was really awesome because we planned it very well and used layaway too. In these tough times, many may find they do not have enough readily accessible cash to take a vacation this year. Do not be disheartened. You can now pay for them in installments.

Here in the UK its slighty different...We put down a deposit ( usually $80 per person ) Then 8 weeks prior to your arrival, the full amount has to be paid...What I done was went to our building society and opened up a savings account ( they let you pick a name, so I called it " Land of Dreams " ) And every month I just put a certain amount into that account..We also save in three different Disney saving banks which we have bought over the years..Example..A Mickey jamming jungle..A Jasmine..and a Cinderellas castle one...PS2 coins only ( $3.30 ) It's surprising how quickly it adds up..Our PS2.00 coins reached PS1.700 ($3000) in one years saving..

We paid all along the way. We booked about 9 months in advance ($200.00 deposit) and paid the rest monthly. I booked thru a travel agent so I would call her and tell her how much to put on which card. Then I also bought a $50.00 Gift card every month from Target for spending while there! I would spend it if I just tried to save it or put into savings lol.

I love that option. I am doing the same thing for my April trip with the besties!

We always do the payment plan. I have used a travel agent and gone through Disney. Both ways we had to have it paid off 45 days in advance. If I had realized you could do that when our kids were smaller we would have taken before they were teenagers!

We tend to book through Disney, pay a deposit upfront, and then every time we've saved a little more towards it, put it into a savings account, before transferring the whole balance by the due date (usually a few months before travel.) This works well for us as we like to book in plenty of time but we need time to save the full amount.