$1 Timeshare, $0 Cruise: How Timeshare Trading + Points Makes Travel Affordable

In this episode:
Ready to throw out the “traditional” travel playbook?

Heather from Homeschooling on Points joins Genni to share how she books magical trips—including a $5,200 Disney cruise for $0 and a one-bedroom DVC suite for $508—with creative strategies that most points and miles pros aren’t talking about.

And don't worry, this episode isn't only about saving on Disney.

You’ll learn:

•  What timeshare trading is (and how she scored one on eBay for $1)
•  How to book resort stays without paying full price
•  Why Heather ignores the “2 cents per point” rule
•  The strategy behind her nearly free Disney Cruise
•  When timeshare fees are totally worth it (and how to avoid getting burned)
•  How to blend cashback cards and points for max flexibility
•  Why “your trip, your rules” is the real secret to budget travel

Plus, Heather shares how she plans vacations around real life, not just aspirational.

Timestamps:

• 00:00 Introduction to Budget Travel and Timeshare Trading
• 01:12 Heather's Journey into Points and Miles
• 02:00 Discovering Timeshare Trading
• 03:59 How Timeshare Trading Works
• 09:28 Benefits and Savings of Timeshare Trading
• 16:31 Expanding Beyond Disney: Other Timeshare Adventures
• 18:54 Tips for Getting Started with Timeshare Trading
• 26:00 Debunking Travel Myths: Timeshares and Credit Card Points
• 26:49 Lazy Learning, Serious Saving: The Podcast's Mission
• 26:58 Mastering Credit Card Points and Timeshare Trading
• 27:45 Disney Cruise Strategy: $0 Out of Pocket
• 31:33 Beginner Tips for Travel Hacking Disney
• 34:23 Navigating Business Credit Cards for Travel Hacking
• 40:47 Rapid Fire Round: Timeshare Trades and Points Strategies
• 45:56 Favorite Redemptions and Portal Bookings
• 48:27 Disney Resorts and Final Thoughts
• 49:14 Wrapping Up: Follow and Connect

Links + Resources:

• Follow Heather on Instagram
• Get her Timeshare Trading Masterclass

Transcript

 Heather Unconventional Travel Tips with Points, Miles, and a $1 Timeshare (Yes, Really)

Heather Unconventional Travel Tips with Points, Miles, and a $1 Timeshare (Yes, Really)

[00:00:00]

Welcome back to the Lazy Budget Travel Tips podcast. I'm your host Genni Franklin, and today we're getting a little unconventional. I'm joined by Heather from homeschooling on points who's not just a master of budget travel, but also the queen of Creative redemptions. She booked a 5,200 Disney cruise for $0 out of pocket and scored a one bedroom DVC room with a Savannah view for just $508.

Thanks to a $1 timeshare. Yep. $1 timeshare. So in this episode we are talking about timeshare trading, flexible points, redemptions, why the rules don't always matter, and how you can start saving big without burning out. If you've ever felt like points a miles aren't for you because you don't travel first [00:01:00] class to the Maldives every year, this episode is gonna feel like a breath of fresh air.

So let's get into it. Hey Heather, thanks for being here. Hey, thanks for having me. So why don't you tell us a little bit about like how you got into points and miles and then especially like how you even discovered timeshare trading. So I got into points and miles. Back in 2019. I had transitioned from working full-time as a teacher, to staying home with my kids.

 And so when I stopped working full-time, I had to figure out other ways to travel. And I had stumbled upon in a Disney group people talking about how they were using credit card signup, bonuses and points. And at the time, all I had was a Disney visa because I just assumed if I liked Disney, I should be using a Disney visa and earning points.

So it opened a whole new world and I went down the rabbit hole of learning how to travel on points so we could keep going to Disney even though I wasn't working. So we did that for, three or four [00:02:00] years. And then I stumbled upon timeshare trading because we've always budget traveled.

And one of the ways we budget travel is by, renting timeshare, like weeks from people who own timeshares. They're not gonna use them. So they rent them out. So we had booked a DVC rental that was crazy cheap, so cheap that we thought this is a scam. Kind of cheap. Yeah. But we realized it was so cheap because it was a timeshare trade that somebody couldn't take the trip and so they were renting it out.

And so we paid $1,200 for a week at Saratoga Springs in a one bedroom, which if you know anything about Disney resorts, paying $170 a night for a one bedroom is insanely cheap. I learned then that it was a timeshare trade, and so I went down that rabbit hole of, okay, how do I do this myself because this is a crazy good deal.

So now we have the marriage of using credit card points and miles, but also saving a lot of money, doing timeshares, and trading our timeshares. So that's all how [00:03:00] that evolved. 

Wow. So timeshare trading, I've definitely never heard of that. I heard of the Disney Chase visa. I was talking to Chelsea from Pixie Points gals about the Disney chase visa man. A lot of people fall into that. I don't wanna say it's a trap because it can work. Like it has like per perks and stuff. She had mentioned to get the debit card over the credit card, which I had never even thought about.

You can get like the same actual perks 'cause a lot of people get it for the perks. But you can then use your spend in a better way with other credit cards. But the timeshare trading thing, I am really anxious to get more information on because I had no idea that was a thing. I know about DVC and I know about timeshares, but I know that you got a timeshare for a dollar on eBay, just like.

Tell us what timeshare trading is how you found that one on eBay and how that worked out for you. [00:04:00] So if you own a timeshare, you very likely have the ability to trade your week or something else using a trade company. The two big ones are RCI or Interval International.

Basically whatever trade company your timeshare partners with, you just sign up for an account. You let them know, I have this week that I own, I'm not going to use it. And so you give it to this company or you deposit it, and then they give you the choice of all the other weeks that other owners across the world have deposited and you can pick from whatever inventory they have.

So that's the basics of timeshare. Trading a lot like timeshares were a really big thing back in the eighties and nineties. Like my parents have a timeshare. My in-laws have a timeshare. They don't really use them anymore. And so a lot of people, they were great when they had families with kids at home, but now they're empty nesters and they just want to find someone to take over the ownership of their timeshare so they don't have to pay the maintenance fees On something they're not using anymore. [00:05:00] So that's how I ended up getting a timeshare for a dollar because I had found a listing on eBay where someone was just ready to pass ownership on to someone else, and they were, they paid all of the fees to transfer the ownership over to my name and my husband's name.

The dollar was really just like a formality 'cause it was on eBay. you can't just have it listed for free. So it was really just a timeshare owner that was ready to move on from owning that timeshare, because when I go back in the history of that timeshare, they bought it in 1990.

Oh wow. So it's been, I'm sure it was great for them when their family was younger, but now they don't have a use for it. Or maybe they're getting to the point where they just don't travel anymore. So I took over that timeshare knowing that I didn't actually want to necessarily stay at that resort.

We bought at a resort in Williamsburg, Virginia. We live like six hours from there. So I knew worst case scenario, we'll just vacation in Williamsburg, Virginia. And it's still a great deal. But my intention was I [00:06:00] had researched a lot about trading and I knew that this resort had the ability to potentially trade into a DVC resort or book Marriott properties.

'cause Marriott Vacation Club also trades with interval. So I figured I needed to jump in and try it myself. Like I'd researched probably for nine months before I. Plunged into taking over at timeshare ownership. But I wanted to get in and figure it out myself because there's not really a place where I could find all the answers I wanted online.

So I did, and then as soon as I got the ownership in my name and I could sign up for my account on interval, I logged in, searched for Disney, and I could, there was a trade week available that I could book. So as soon as I did that, I went down the rabbit hole and I started finding other timeshare weeks because I was like, this is going to be awesome for us.

And it has been really awesome. And now we own two other weeks that actually are in the, they're called lock off weeks. Which is basically like the timeshare version of a connecting room. So [00:07:00] because they lock off, I can deposit them into interval to trade as two separate units. So I own two weeks, but I actually can trade for four different week long vacations with them when I deposit them separately.

That's really cool. So basically you find people who are just trying to give their timeshare away because they've already paid the, one time fee to buy it. And then it's just a matter of, paying the maintenance fees every year. So to them, giving it away and paying the fees to transfer and everything to you is worth it because then they don't have to worry about it.

and especially if they're not using it anymore. 

So you're saying on interval they have people who are. Because we talked about renting DVC points when I had Chelsea on. So these are people who want to do that. They wanna rent out their points, but they list it on interval. And then do [00:08:00] you, do they just list a week that they have available and then there's no changing it?

is there, once you book it, you can't change your mind? Like how does that work? So DVC does their deposits into interval a little bit differently than some resorts do. DVC members have the option to use their points to vacation and trade through interval. it looks a little bit different from their side because if they wanna go to Hawaii.

Interval will say, if you use 150 DVC points, you can book this resort in Hawaii, or we can trade for this resort. Okay. But if, someone that owns, say they own at the Disneyland resorts or Alani or somewhere like that, DVC decides, we're going to allow you to use those points to trade, but we're gonna, we're only gonna deposit these.

There's basically five resorts in Florida that DVC ever gives to interval for trades. And so DVC decides what weeks to deposit. So it's not necessarily the DVC members are, okay booking a [00:09:00] week and then trading it. the DVC members are just using their points to book a stay somewhere else. And then Dvcs like, all right, so this many points have been used in interval.

We're gonna deposit, old Key West and Saratoga Springs. Those are the two main resorts that get trade weeks. And so they'll deposit what they want based on how many points members have used, if that makes sense. Gotcha. Okay. Yeah, that makes sense. 

 what other ones have you guys done? So we have stayed at Animal Kingdom Lodge or Animal Kingdom Villas two times. And the nice thing is that because it's like the excess inventory for DVC They usually deposit their, rooms like three to six months before check-in. And that's past the period where DVC owners can really have full range of booking whatever they want.

So it's like the leftover rooms. And a lot of owners don't want to book one bedrooms because they sleep the same number of people that a studio sleeps, but they're more expensive, Point [00:10:00] wise. So usually it's one bedrooms and like a animal. Kingdom villas. It's usually Savannah views because owners just want to book the cheapest room possible.

And that would be like a standard view for them. We've stayed at Animal Kingdom Villas twice in one bedroom. Savannah View Rooms, we stayed at the Boardwalk Villas. We had a one bedroom there. They also deposit Wilderness Lodge. The Boulder Ridge Villas. We have a trade into there later this summer.

So we're trying to check off all of the DVC resorts that we can, but Boulder Ridge Villas, boardwalk Villas and Animal Kingdom Villas, those are a little bit harder to find trades for, but you can pretty much always find Old Key West or Saratoga Springs. And the nice thing about those two resorts is that if you're a family over of over five people, those resorts get two bedroom trades, which those sleep up to nine people.

So for bigger families, that are looking at going to Disney and having to book two rooms, it can be a [00:11:00] crazy savings for those families to be able to trade a timeshare week into a two bedroom DVC room. Wow, that's awesome. 

So let's just back up to like recap for people how it actually works. So you found this timeshare on eBay, which they basically gave to you, you just paid a dollar as a formality, then you submitted it to interval and you're like, I have this week to trade.

And then you can just search for available weeks with other properties. And then do you have to pay a fee? How does that work? Just to make it clear for people who are like, I wanna look into this. So yeah,

when I took the timeshare that we got for a dollar and I set up my interval international account, I deposited that week. You can search for resorts. All the time. There's not always gonna be trade weeks available. So one of the tips that I always tell people is be consistent with [00:12:00] searching.

DVC rooms, if you're looking, you pretty much will always find a Saratoga or an old Key West available. DVC usually deposits rooms like once a month and they'll do a big deposit and then you'll see a bunch of inventory that will slowly dwindle over the coming days and weeks as people book trades.

It took me about, I think it was like two weeks later was the next time that DVC had a big deposit and I had been searching off and on trying to, find something. Once they did that big deposit, that was when I was able to book a trade. I actually originally had booked a two bedroom at Saratoga Springs, but you can add on, options that give you some flexibility to change.

So I had booked the two bedroom at Saratoga. I was really excited because my kids had never had a two bedroom, like they've never had their own bedroom at Disney. But then I found later by looking at options that I could retrade for Animal Kingdom and I was like, my kids probably will be fine on a sleeper [00:13:00] sofa if we have giraffes outside of our room.

So we did trade for that. So the fees that are involved, the, so the first year that we traded, the previous owner had actually paid our maintenance fees for the first year of use, which was a huge deal because our maintenance fees on that unit or about a thousand dollars. And so we only paid $508 that first trade because that was the fees that we needed to pay to trade our week through Interval International.

DVC has an extra like $200 fee. Usually it's closer to $300 when I trade into a non DVC property. But it's about $500 for DVC trades, so that's what you can expect to pay. We're actually in the process of selling that first time share that we got because I've learned, as I've been doing it that I can do better with my maintenance fees by owning a four bedroom.

so ha jumping in and doing it myself. I've learned things along the way, but yeah, there are fees involved with trading, but once you [00:14:00] pay your maintenance fees and you pay your trade fees, that's all that you're paying. You're not paying like additional money to the resort unless there's like a resort fee or something.

You're, that's all you're paying or your maintenance fees for the timeshare. You own the trade fees to interval, which could be three to $500 and that's it. Wow. So that can save you. Would you say you're saving like 50% less, more doing it that way for 50? For DVC specifically, we saved like 80% or more.

Wow. Like when we stayed at the boardwalk in December, the room that we stayed in, Disney was charging a thousand dollars a night for, we paid $150 once you factor in the maintenance fees and all of the trading fees. we were at $150 a night when Disney was charging a thousand. That is insane.

And you get a lot when you stay at A DVC resort at Disney, I don't think people really realize like how much more [00:15:00] magical your experience is when you stay on property, especially through DVC, because do you get all the perks like that normal DVC members would get? We get all the perks that you would get staying as a normal guest at a Disney resort so early.

That's awesome. Entry, the extended evening hours for deluxe guests, park on check-in day. We get all of the perks that you get, booking through Disney. So it's, it's one of those it seems like it's too good to be true, but we've done it now three times. We have our fourth DVC stay booked this way.

And it's just been a really amazing way for us to be able to have more space. 'cause we are used to like, just, we're gonna go to Disney, we're gonna book the most affordable room that we can, with the, benefits that we want and it gets

extra space to have laundry and a kitchen in our rooms. Yeah. And you'll pay like [00:16:00] $150 for a lot of people pay that to stay off property. And then they're in a room where it's just the bed and the bathroom and that's it. And you guys are sprawled out and like basically a, an apartment, like it could be a studio, but still like you guys are staying one bedroom, two bedroom.

that's insane for the amount of money that you're paying. To put it into perspective, it definitely is. that's the price that if you're staying on property, you'd be at a value resort. That's crazy. So what other properties besides Disney, or do you guys usually just do Disney with the, timeshare trading?

We started with Disney, but now that we've added on, we've branched out. We have with interval, there's different types of ways that you can book vacations. And so we've stayed a couple of times really inexpensively.

Using what interval calls like a free vacation certificate. and that was $229 for the entire week. So $30 a night. We had a three [00:17:00] bedroom timeshare at a resort in Williamsburg. It was with like miniature golf, it had an indoor pool. My kids still talk about how great that trip was, and it was just like a random last minute thing we did because we're like, why not?

It's $229. Then we went this spring break, we went to Hilton Head Island and we had a two bedroom Marriott using another certificate that was like a hey, free vacation. You just have to pay fees for those. And it was $400 for a week for a two bedroom ocean front resort at a Marriott Vacation Club.

For those types of vacations, it's more last minute because they have inventory that they just wanna make sure that gets filled. So they're just filling it. We've done those already, but we have booked, we're going to Hawaii in December. We're going to St Kit's. in the fall I booked for my parents to go to Hawaii, this fall.

Next spring we're going to, actually, I'm really excited about this. It's the von Trapp family from like the Sound of Music. Yeah. They have a resort in Stove, [00:18:00] Vermont, and there's a timeshare section. We traded into that.

So there's a lot of places you can go. Like you're not limited to just DVC, like that's the biggest like wow factor of how much you're saving. But we've started to branch out and find a lot of other great places that we can go, that we had excluded because we're a family of five and a lot of hotel rooms are, for four people and I just hate paying for two hotel rooms.

So like we had never considered going to Hawaii because pretty much every resort that I looked at, it was like occupancy limit for. And, as a family of five, like that just gets tricky. but now that we can trade our timeshare, like we have a two bedroom in Hawaii and it's a lot more affordable and reasonable for us to go.

That's awesome. That von Trapp family vacation sounds really cool. You're gonna have to tell me about that. Sounds fun. Uh, so What are some tips you would give somebody? Or like what, who do you think [00:19:00] this like time share trading would work best for?

Like what type of family or like what type of vacationers? I really think the only people that it's like a hard, like you probably wouldn't find value in this, are people who can't take a week of vacation time like at once. Because you are trading a week for a week. You can still find value in like checking in late or checking out early, but you're really getting the best value by taking a whole entire week and trading it.

Or if for what, with your work schedule, maybe you can only do like a Wednesday to Wednesday week long vacation. You're gonna find it trickier to do timeshare trading. but really there's not a lot of people that I think would not benefit from timeshare trading. For like DVC, they, there's always deposits during kids' school breaks like spring break.

If as long as you're not expecting to get a boardwalk trade, like you can always trade into old Key West or Saratoga Springs during spring break or summer break or, there was like the week of [00:20:00] Christmas that available at Saratoga Springs, for a trade for a very long time when they deposited, the December weeks last year.

So there's not a lot of un unless you really are like, I have to plan my Disney trips a year in advance. That's really the biggest thing is like you have to wait three to six months before check-in before you can finalize that plan for the DVC trade. But there's pretty much always going to be something available for most weeks.

Other places. I find that it's, if you know in advance where you wanna go and you put in a request, I've had multiple times where I put in a request for a resort and after two or three weeks interval will email me or call me and say, Hey, we matched you to this resort that you requested. So there's a lot of flexibility with timeshare trading.

I know timeshares in general have a bad stigma to being like a bad investment. Those are more towards the people who sat through the timeshare presentation and got duped into spending thousands of dollars without the time to [00:21:00] like rationally think about it. But like when you're buying on the resale market, you have all the time in the world to sit and think about whether or not this is a good fit for you.

You don't have, someone that's like breathing down your neck wanting an answer. So in that sense, like timeshares are not a scam. They're actually something that you can own and you can use, like credit card points where if you know how to use them, you can get a lot of value out of them.

For sure. You're so right about that timeshare stigma. like nowadays people are like timeshares. No, like the second you mention timeshares. So just knowing that this exists and there's a huge timeshare resale market out there. so many people are like, I'm getting rid of this. And someone's junk is someone else's treasure.

And the fact that you found a way to make this work is really cool. So do you have any tips for people who are gonna get started with the timeshare trading? That's [00:22:00] always the question. People DM me and ask, like, how do I get started? I recorded a masterclass finally with all of the information that I felt like was relevant and necessary.

It was over two hours long. wow. The, there's a lot of information that I feel like is important to know and. Fully understand before you jump in because obviously it's not just like opening a credit card where if it doesn't fit you, you can call the bank and close it like it's a timeshare, it's a real estate transaction.

So you just really wanna make sure that you know what you're getting into before you take over someone's timeshare for free. so I have a masterclass that goes over all of the important information. I think the most important thing to know is just you can take over a timeshare for free, but there are fees, like maintenance fees that you're gonna be paying year after year.

And just like every, the cost of everything goes up, your maintenance fees are gonna slowly increase over time, and that's just something to be aware of and expected. That's a big hangup [00:23:00] that people have is there's maintenance fees and they get more expensive every year. And usually my response is what doesn't get more expensive?

If you look at the cost of travel from last year to this year that everything gets more expensive. But we're saving so much money our maintenance fees go up a little bit every year, it's still saving us a substantial amount of money. Like they would have to quadruple our maintenance fees before it started to be like we were breaking even on trading our timeshare.

Yeah. And then where can people find that masterclass? So if you go to my Instagram page at homeschooling on points, it's linked in my profile. I also have a guide on there that's a free guide that just goes over the basics to the DVC side of trading a timeshare. So if you have a timeshare already and you trade it through Interval International, I give all the tips for how you can find the DVC resorts and.

Searching for those resorts so you can find success. There's a lot of [00:24:00] timeshares in Orlando, so if you just generally search Orlando, narrowing in on the DVC resorts could be a challenge. I go over all the tips for how do you find the DVC resorts? Because whenever I share about trading into DVC, I always get comments from people that are like, I've never seen DVC on interval and I've been a timeshare owner for, however many years.

So knowing how to do that is very helpful. And so I have a free guide link to my profile as well for just the DVC side of things. Sweet. Okay, cool. So also going back to like people getting hung up on things. It's so funny how people get hung up on the small things and they don't look at like the bigger picture.

It's like with like credit card annual fees too. And I'm like, not, I'm that person who doesn't pay the really high annual fees, but even $95 annual fee, people are like, I would never pay money to spend money. And I'm like, what? Think about the bigger picture and how much money you're saving.

Like you go to Costco and you pay a [00:25:00] Costco membership and you go there and spend money. Why do you do that? Think about that. It's the same with like credit cards or it's the same concept with this timeshare trading. So you just gotta look at the bigger picture. And like you said, if the bigger picture starts to not make sense anymore, then you can think about, making a decision and making a change.

But people get tunnel vision with that stuff. And it's definitely with this whole like points of miles and timeshare trading, definitely a big mindset shift for a lot of people. For everybody. I feel like there isn't one person that I have met that has gotten into any of this that wasn't like, oh yeah, I really had to change my mindset like everybody does because of the way we like grow up and like the, how what we're told about credit cards and times shares.

So I just think that's. Silly. Yeah. Whenever I mention how we travel, because we travel a lot and so people always probably assume that we, that my husband makes like a huge salary [00:26:00] to be able to afford it. But then I'm like, oh, we have timeshares and we have credit card points. Like people, I wanna know what people assume because those are two things that have horrible stigmas about them.

Like people just assume that credit cards equal credit card debt and if you own timeshares, you're just making a horrible investment. But that's how we travel multiple times a year, to fabulous places. So it's definitely a mindset shift and a lot of people don't take the time to learn more.

They just hear those words and they immediately tune it out. Yeah. And people are like, oh, that's gonna take me forever to figure out blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, but think about it. Isn't anything worth doing gonna take you some time to figure out? Yeah. think about the things that you have sat there trying to figure out, this is definitely worth it.

And what this podcast is about is that, we wanna be lazy about learning, but like serious about saving. there are ways that you can do that. So segueing [00:27:00] into the credit card points of miles, because you've got it down pat with supplementing, you've got the credit card points, then you've got the timeshare trading, like you guys are set.

Hey guys. It's Jenny here. Sorry to interrupt. If you love the podcast, I've got a free budget travel 1 0 1 course to help you start saving on flights, hotels, and more. Grab it@travelingfranklins.com slash budget Travel 1 0 1 or check the show notes. Wanna connect with other like-minded travelers? Join the Lazy Budget Travel Tips Facebook group.

I share more tips, host Live Q and keep you up to date on the latest. And if you're looking to show your support, check out my affiliate links or buy me a coffee back to the episode.

So let's talk a little bit about what your strategy is and maybe let us know a breakdown of this Disney cruise that you booked that was like 5,200 bucks, but you guys spent $0 out of pocket. Like I need to know. [00:28:00] So I am a big fan of use your points the way that your family wants to travel.

We are backwards in the sense like, we plan our travel, we are backwards because we pick where we wanna go and then we figure out how to make the points work for that trip. A lot of people will go on the Hyatt website and they'll like search for the resort they wanna go to and they plan their trips that way.

And that's not how we usually do things. So my kids actually last year they had watched a documentary about the Disney Wish and We surprised them with a Disney cruise. After a Disney trip. We really just wanted to take a cruise and they had, Disney has really short itineraries, which is nice if you're just wanting to break into taking a cruise.

And that's what we wanted to do. So I travel, hacked that trip by using a bunch of venture miles. I opened, US Bank cashback cards. I'm a big fan of US Bank business cards. They're cashback cards. Mm-hmm. But then it takes a little bit of the [00:29:00] FOMO out of like, oh, I'm not getting the most value from my points, because you're literally only have the option to get cash back.

so I just used a bunch of different credit card bonuses to cover that trip. And then of course we had to do it again this year because we enjoyed it so much. So when you're onboard a Disney cruise, you can book your next Disney cruise or not really book your next Disney cruise, but you can do what they call a placeholder, which will save you 10%.

So we had booked a placeholder. So that helped get our costs down a little bit more. And then we just slowly chipped away at making payments towards our cruise. I am a big fan of finding discounted Disney gift cards. Saving 10% on Disney gift cards can save you 10% on your Disney cruise. So as I would earn a signup bonus, I would look for Disney gift card deals and use my points to buy those Disney gift cards.

So there's a lot of different ways that you can use your points for Disney. But a lot of people shut down when [00:30:00] we talk about them because it's oh, you're not transferring your points that like you're doing it wrong, because that's what a lot of the like talk in the Points of Miles World 

if you cash out your points, you're doing it wrong. Or if you book the travel portal, you're doing it wrong. I love the pay yourself back option on my Sapphire Reserve because it lets me cash at my points for a little bit more value. And I use it all the time. 

I use the US Bank, business cards to just get big cash back bonuses. So that's how we kind of chipped away at this cruise to make it happen for $0 out pocket. Yeah, I freaking love that because that's what we're about here. Like one of the taglines for the podcast is there's no right or wrong way to save money on travel, just the best way that fits your life.

And I think just makes things super relatable because yes, I love transfer my points, don't get me [00:31:00] wrong, I've gotten so many great redemptions that way, but I did it because it worked best for the vacation that I was planning or the trip that I was planning. But it doesn't always work best for everything.

Like if you wanna go to Disney, there's nothing wrong with using your points to do that versus going to the Maldives or going to Europe. I love those vacations but if you don't wanna do that. Then don't do it. Do what you wanna do and then do whatever you need to do to be able to afford that.

 So what would you say to people who are just getting into points and miles and they're like, where do I even start from? your perspective and your strategy that say that they're trying to do Disney, or maybe they're just also just trying to find a way to break in that's not so overwhelming and like super complicated.

I start with the trip [00:32:00] that I wanna take and then I figure out how do I chip away at the cost of that trip using cards. like for Disney, the Capital One like venture cards are always an easy way in because you're just going to make the payments on the card and then erase, 750 or 800 ish dollars after you factor in your spend of your Disney trip, once you charge it to that card.

So those are really easy. Beginner strategies for Disney using travel hacking. I'm a huge fan of the chase ink cards. Business cards are like obviously the key to longevity with travel hacking. So those cards where there's no annual fee, but you're getting a huge bonus, those feel a little bit less intimidating than jumping in with, I love my Sapphire Reserve, but it's hard for people to feel like they can jump in with a $550 annual fee card.

So like those no annual fee cards can really be a good way to jump in and just see how earning [00:33:00] signup bonuses works before you start to plug in like a card with an annual fee that you're going to have to be strategic about using the benefits on. Yeah, I always say that I think for people who wanna take like a more laid back approach to everything, chase Ultimate rewards to me is like the lowest barrier of entry.

There's so many opportunities to earn, as in they have a lot of different cards where you can earn, even those ones that are the Chase freedoms, that are the cashback cards. You can transfer those to like, the Sapphire Reserve or if you have the Chase Sapphire Preferred and then you can transfer those points if you want, or you can cash 'em out through the portal and you're gonna get more than if you would've done it with just a regular freedom.

And then getting into those business credit cards is huge. that has definitely. Opened up a lot of doors for us personally, like we are [00:34:00] sitting on over 400,000 Chase points right now because I'm trying to book a trip to Japan and there is no way that we could have done that if one, we weren't doing P two mode.

And then two, being able to get those bonuses on the business credit cards because the fact that you're getting such a huge bonus for no annual fee is just great. And, but I think a lot of people, actually, I don't think I know that there's a lot of people who are like, oh, I can't get a business credit card.

Even some of the people who have businesses, they're like, oh, I don't have enough business expenses to put on a business credit card. So I can't do that. is that something that you felt too? If so, like how did you get over it? I definitely, the first time I got a business card in the mail and I was like reading through the pamphlet and it was like talking about charges and things you could put on your credit card.

I messaged, the people that what [00:35:00] kind of got me started into credit card points and miles and I was like, wait a second. I don't have this much in business expenses because at the time I signed up with my eBay side hustle and like I had some expenses like shipping costs and buying materials for shipping, but it wasn't enough to meet a minimum spend.

But like the reality is they don't care what you put on your business cards. I've never in the last six years had to turn in any like proof of this is my income first of all, or second of all, I've never had to turn in any proof of oh, I bought this at Marshall's, here's exactly what it was.

There's obviously costs on my business cards that you would have a hard time justifying as business expenses. From my understanding, it's all just like down to the different types of protections you have as a consumer with a personal card versus a business card. And so they have to warn you that if you're putting charges on a business card, that you're basically, you're not gonna be protected the same way.

But yeah, that's definitely a big hangup that initially people, have to get past and be [00:36:00] like, okay, it is fine for me. no one from the bank is calling me when they see this charge at Walmart pop up and wanna know oh, wait a second, you said your business was X, Y, Z. Why are you shopping at Walmart?

Kind of thing. You don't have to have a big business, like you mentioned. I started initially I had a eBay side hustle and so I applied doing like a retail thing and now I have an online store with like digital things for teaching, just like homeschooling things. I have listed on a website where I can sell the digital products.

And so it's not, I don't make hundreds of dollars a month or spend hundreds of dollars a month, but it's a side hustle business so I can apply for the business cards. And I tell people that when it comes to the business credit cards, like you said, they don't know whether or not it's a business expense, nor do they care.

And also a lot of people don't realize. yeah, if you have an accountant or something, or like your bookkeeper, they're probably gonna be upset that [00:37:00] you're using your business credit card for whatever, because it's really hard to bookkeep because regardless of whether or not you're using your business card for that expense, if it's not for your business, don't expense it when it's tax time.

That's when you get in trouble, but they don't look at your credit card statements or anything like that. So what I do is I keep just like a separate spreadsheet of my actual business expenses and then that's what I give my tax advisor CPA at the end of the year, but he's not asking me for my credit card statements and like making sure that it's actually a business expense.

So I think people get hung up on that and they think, oh, but I put it on my business credit card, so that means it's automatically gonna count as a business expense for my taxes and I don't wanna get audited. I'm like, no, they don't look at that. Yeah, you're, Your credit card statements are never anything that the IRS is dabbling in.

And a lot of people would get concerned about what their reported income is or what their [00:38:00] spending is or earnings are to when they apply for a credit card, thinking like that's getting communicated to the IRS. And so they're gonna expect to get paid taxes based on those numbers. And that's not true at all.

Like your, you can project your income based on, maybe you're just starting a business and you have sales of X amount, this month, and you expect to grow that you can project your income and if it doesn't meet what you projected. Chase doesn't come back and say, all right, we need proof that you made this much money.

Or the IRS isn't expecting you to again, pay taxes on that amount. It's all just information that Chase uses to approve your card and to give you a credit limit based on what they would expect is like a safe amount for your income and your business spend. 

If you are hesitant about business credit cards for those reasons,give it a shot.

Also, if you get denied for a credit [00:39:00] card, call the reconsideration line. But even if then you don't, you get denied, you are gonna be okay. I promise the world isn't gonna end. Just give it a try. like people get so scared. Like I still, when I apply for a credit card, I'm like, oh, is it gonna get approved?

Is it gonna get approved? Are they gonna, are they on me? So I get it, but even if you get denied, there are options. And also no one's gonna come in and arrest you or something. Yeah. you bring up a good point about the household income because as a stay at home mom, where I personally am not making that much money, that's a huge hurdle that people like similar to me, where they're like the stay at home parent and they don't have any income.

But I put our household income on my applications so it makes, like if I put just the income that I was making from my side hustles, I would never get approved for credit cards 'cause they would be like, how? How are you affording to live? But when I put our household income, as a stay-at-home mom with a husband, I can [00:40:00] put our income combined and so that makes it so I get approved for cards.

So that's an important thing to just remember. If you are someone that's not working full-time and you have a spouse, that is their income is what you list in addition to whatever you are making from your side, hustles. True. Yes. and it's totally legal to put your household income.

In fact, it says that you can, like if you click on the little I circle thing, it tells you that you can do it. So trust me guys, you'll be fine. But I do have to say disclaimer, if you have any questions about what you should be expensing for your business, you should ask a CPA.

Not us, but we're just saying you can still use a credit card for it. okay. I think it is time for the rapid fire round. Are you ready? I'm ready. Okay. Is there a craziest timeshare trade you've ever pulled off that we haven't [00:41:00] discussed? Ooh, so I'll do a Disney and a non Disney.

So like when we stayed at the boardwalk and I mentioned it was a thousand dollars a night and we paid like 150 timeshare trading. That was a pretty insane trade. 'cause it was like Christmas ish time, very popular time. I traded for my parents to go to a Marriott in Hawaii and I did this like 10 months in advance.

So this wasn't last minute. when they, when I looked at the cash rate for that trade, it was like $5,000. And again, they were paying like a thousand dollars for a Marriott in Hawaii. So that was a really crazy redemption for them. Happy for them. It was like a studio. So It's too small for our family, but it was perfect for them.

And I was like wanting to show them 'cause they have a timeshare that trades through RCI and I'm like, you should do this. Like here's the potential that you have. But that was a pretty crazy when I looked at the cash rate and like $5,000 for a week and people's awesome people pay that. But yeah, I'm like, [00:42:00] you guys can go for a thousand dollars and I'll just book it and you can add guest certificates.

So if somebody that you're booking a trade for that's not in your family goes, then you just pay $79 and then they can check in and you don't have to be there. Oh nice. So you did it through your timeshare, not theirs. 'cause you said that they have one. Yes, they have one and they've just always been like, ah, I don't wanna pay fees to trade the week that they have.

But they also don't use the week that they have. So just as like you should like, and now they have signed up for RCI and they're gonna trade their week. But I was like, you guys need to do this. Here's the great example. Go to Hawaii. Very cheap. So that was a really good trade for them. Love it. what's one rule in points of miles you just totally ignore?

Definitely calculating the cent per point value and using that to decide whether or not you should use your points. Like I, and I think a lot of people just need to understand that everyone's situation is different. So [00:43:00] a lot of, the big account influencers, they make a lot of money from affiliate links, and so they can pay cash out of pocket for vacation costs.

Like they go to Disney, they don't have to cash out their points for tickets because they make a lot of money from affiliate links. But like for me, I have to use points for everything or I can't go on va. Most of the vacations I take. So don't be afraid to cash out your points or don't be so stuck on the cent per point value unless you have a big healthy vacation budget.

And you can selectively say, I'll pay cash for this and I'll save my points for times when I can maximize the value. If you have that ability, sure, save your points for the first class ticket to Europe, or the ocean front resort in Hawaii. But if you're someone that needs the points in order to take a vacation, don't get hung up on cent per a point because that's just an arbitrary number that doesn't really mean anything.

Yeah, a hundred percent. I love that I calculate cents per point, but that's [00:44:00] usually just 'cause I'm educating myself, But if it's less than 2 cents, like that's what you hear, the number you hear all the time is if it's less than 2 cents per point, it's not even worth it. I'm sorry, but sometimes it's just not even possible with the points that you have.

Like some points just will never get you 2 cent per point regardless of what you do. So if you go by that, then you may just be waiting forever and that's no fun. So I just look where I'm gonna save the most money. Yeah. and I will add, there are times where transferring points versus cashing out can actually be, like, transferring points can be, less than 1 cent per a point.

And in that case, you'd need to calculate to know I shouldn't transfer my points. Marriott is a really good example of you probably will be better off just booking and paying the cash rate at Marriott versus transferring your points. So it's good to know how to transfer your points, but don't let that be the be all and end all of I'm gonna take this vacation or I'm gonna stay home and keep looking for something else.

Yeah, a hundred [00:45:00] percent. And I, we've done it all. I've transferred points, I've cashed out my points, I've used my points in the portal. Yeah, I use my points in the portal a lot and in fact we're going to Ireland next week and I've been looking at excursions, but I've been looking at booking them with my points through the portal.

'cause I don't have any more money in our vacation budget to pay cash for them. But if I can find something in the portal, like sure, I'm gonna use my points time and time again to book things like that in the portal. We're going to the UK in October and there's two, at least two hotels. 'cause the places that we're going to, it doesn't really work out for me to transfer my points anywhere.

And I also don't wanna pay cash, so I just use the portal and we're staying in some really cool places. Like sometimes you can find really cool places within the portal to be able to use your points. just saying.okay, next question. Favorite redemption. That wasn't the highest point value, so [00:46:00] just pick whatever your favorite redemption was.

Okay, this is a great segue talking about the portal. So my kids and I, we, so we live in east Tennessee, so we go to the Gatlinburg area. We're like an hour and a half. So we booked the, do you know what Dollywood is? Yes. It's 15. I haven't been, but I want to. Okay, if you go and the portal book, the Dollywood, one of the Dollywood resorts.

So we stayed at the Dollywood Dream More resort. And we booked it through the portal because, like you said, I didn't wanna pay cash, but we live far enough away that it's just convenient if we can stay overnight, if we wanna do things in that area two nights or two days in a row. So I booked it in the portal, I think it was like 23,000 points with my Sapphire Reserve.

But staying at that resort, we got their version of like lightning lanes. So they have, they're called time savers. We got those for both our check-in day and our checkout day. Those are usually $60 a person, so we got almost $500 in like their. Time saver [00:47:00] passes. Wow. From staying at that resort for the night, we got like the premium parking where you park your car and two minutes later you're in the park.

You don't have to like mess with the tram and walking from the parking lot. That's $50 a day. We got that. Again, check in and check out. Plus obviously we got our hotel stay and we got to stay at this really beautiful resort. There's two resorts for Dollywood, so I know that we're gonna go back and stay at the other one eventually because we loved this one.

It was a portal booking and we got so much value because it was a Dollywood like resort versus just booking with, hotel points somewhere in Pigeon Forge. So that was probably, that's a recent stay that's I really loved that. I love that because, I'm a hotel person.

I, my first career was in hotels, so I really like unique brands. And I'm also like, I've always worked for chains, like the big chains. So I get the big chain appeal. I really do guys, [00:48:00] but I like trying out different places. And then I also think that the portal just gives you more options that if you were trying to pigeonhole yourself into just transferring your points to a big chain, then you would never be able to experience and people are gonna go, she never really does a rapid fire round.

They just go on and on and on. And to you, I say I'm sorry, but I'm not sorry. okay. Next question. 

 Favorite Disney Resort if money were No object. I really love the Epcot resort area because we love Epcot and Hollywood Studios and I really love the boardwalk and we stay there quite a bit. I would say like a club level room at the beach club or the Boardwalk. We've stayed club level one time renting DVC points, at Animal Kingdom Lodge.

And it was a really great experience, but those rooms are like really pricey. So I would say club level, beach club level boardwalk. With a great view from the balcony. That would probably be [00:49:00] the bougie trip that I wouldn't, I probably won't ever book that because there's not really an easy way to book that.

and never save, but that would be very aspirational. Yeah, I agree. That would be definitely a good one. Okay. is there anything else you wanna tell people, like where to find you, like what other resources you have, how to reach out to you?

So Instagram, that's my way of sharing my knowledge with the world. So at homeschooling on points, I did team up with Summers Joy and Pixie Point gals, and we created a course specifically for travel hacking Disney. It's a lot of Disney World, but we also talk about Disney Cruise and Disneyland.

So for anyone that's like wanting to learn about Disney and how to use points and miles for that and tuning out the outside noise of You need to transfer to this off property, hotel chain. Because there's a lot of free guides that are like, when I've looked at them, the advice is not really good if you're wanting to plan a solid trip to Disney.

So we have a [00:50:00] course and it's linked in my profile, it's called the Disney Savings Blueprint. And we outline everything from opening cards to planning flights and to booking hotels and how you pay for tickets and dining and everything. It's very comprehensive so you can pay for what you want out of pocket and then apply credit card points to what you want or do the whole thing on points.

That's how we go to Disney. Like we can't afford to go to Disney three or four times a year without. Covering our costs pretty much entirely with points. that's linked on my Instagram profile, but I'm, I share, tried to share posts as often as I can with tips about how we save and I'm pretty active in stories, sharing those tips.

So definitely if you're not following my page and Disney is on your radar, you need to follow along check stories because that's where I'm sharing all the information about how we're doing Disney, on a budget. And I have an episode with Chelsea from Pixie Point Gals. I gotta get summer on here too 'cause I love following her.

But that's episode [00:51:00] four, about making Disney more affordable, if you guys want to check that out. Definitely go follow Heather. I love your story, so I'm glad that you mentioned that. you'll always. You like, you keep up with things like when Disney gift cards are on sale and like stuff like that, you're always posting on stories.

So it's definitely a great follow. all right, so wrapping everything up with Heather at homeschooling on points. Definitely such a refreshing take on budget, travel and points a mile. Thank you so much. I hope this reminded you that you don't have to follow every expert or influencer rule to travel for less.

Whether you're cashing out your points for a Disney cruise, snagging A DVC room through a timeshare trade, or just looking for an easy win, you are doing what's right for you and what works for you, and we're here for it. We love it. So if this [00:52:00] episode inspired you to think outside the box on your next trip, please share it with a friend who needs to hear it, and don't forget to follow or subscribe so you never miss an episode.

And if you're feeling extra generous, please leave us a review. I have a five star rating, but only a handful of reviews. So whatever you're, wherever you're listening to this, please go ahead, scroll up, down to the bottom, or if it's up at the top, wherever you're listening, go ahead, give us a rating and leave us a review.

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So please leave us a review. And until next time, keep it simple, keep it fun, and keep exploring. Thanks guys.

Thank you for [00:53:00] listening. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to subscribe and leave us a review. Next, go grab our free budget, travel 1 0 1 course. You'll find it in the show notes or@travelingfranklins.com and join the community, the Lazy Budget Travel Tips Facebook group is ready and waiting for you.

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