Credit Card Points at Disney- Start Here

Just started to follow us and it is super overwhelming? If you are wanting to use credit card points at Disney, start here to learn the basics! On this post I am going to break down what we do and why we think everyone should have at least one travel rewards credit card (and it isn’t the Disney visa).

What we teach

We are Chelsea and Kim, a mother-daughter duo who teach families how to utilize credit points to get them near to free Disney vacations! We teach families how to save large amounts using credit card points and miles. Together we have traveled to Disney parks for years using credit card points and miles, and saving tens of thousands along the way. Our friends and family members kept asking us how we could afford to go so often, and so we made it into an instagram account and blog!

We focus on couple of areas:

1. Credit Card points and miles- These are rewards points credit card companies give you for your everyday spending. They also usually give you what is called a “bonus” when you spend a certain amount after opening the card.
2. Disney Vacation Club Renting- Something many don’t know is that you can rent Disney Vacation Club (Disney’s version of a time share). This will cut the cash room rate of on property Walt Disney World, Disneyland, or other Disney owned hotels in half.

Learn how to Rent Disney Vacation Club (DVC)

Why Travel Rewards Cards

We love to use our everyday spending to be able to accumulate travel reward points and miles to make travel affordable!

If you are new- these are the basic steps we do

1. We open credit cards that offers point bonuses that we can use for travel.  For our example, I open a Chase Sapphire Card.  The credit card offer at the time is 60,000 points bonus when you spend $3,000 in three months.

2. We put everyday spending on that card including:

• groceries
• gas
• insurance (car, health, home)
• cell phone
• utilities
• online spending and also target and such
• restaurants
• prescriptions (we can reimburse ourselves through our HSA)
• medical expenses (again we then get it back with our HSA account)

3.  We pay off the total (we pay it off weekly, some pay off monthly) so that there is no interest paid on our card.  We treat our credit card as we would a debit card and only spend money on the card that we have the finances to pay for.

4.  When we spend the “minimum spend” which in our example is 3k in three months, then Chase deposits 60k travel reward points onto our  Chase rewards account.

5. Once we have finished with spending on a new card, we then open a new card and start the process over.  We only open a new personal card every three months to protect our credit (our credit score has gone up by following this formula and both of our credit scores are over 800!).  We make sure that we open less that 5 new personal cards in 24 months.

If we have two adults in a household, we refer our second adult (we call that player 2 or P2) to the same card.  This way you get a second set of points (60,000) plus you get a referral bonus of 15,000 extra points.  So if you followed this basic plan, you would have 135,000 points from just opening two cards.

6.  We use these points or miles to pay for travel to Disney and other vacations. We either transfer them to a travel partner of that card, book using those points in that cards travel portal, or in the case of Capital One, we use them to cover travel expenses and get a statement credit. In our example, we could use our points to pay for flights on Southwest airlines and still have some left over to help pay for a few nights at a Hyatt close to the parks!

What can you use them for?

You can use points and miles for flights, hotels, tickets, food,  and even cruises for your next Disney Vacation.  Here are some of our guides to help you get your next magical vacation for less!

Tickets

Learn how to pay for park tickets with points and miles here

Hotels

Our Favorite hotels by brand using points

Capital One at Disney

Ultimate guide to Capital One at Disney

Using Miles on a Disney Cruise

Use Capital One miles one your Cruise with Mickey!

How to use Miles at Aulani

Say Aloha and use miles to pay for your Aulani trip

Chase Credit Card Transfer Partners

 Airlines and Hotel companies you can transfer Chase Rewards to for travel

Card we used in our example

CHASE SAPPHIRE PREFERRED

 

Have any questions?  Comment below!