How To Make Your Vacation More Affordable, According To A CFP

Getting away from it all may feel like a necessity but it’s often priced as a luxury. Between unpredictable plane ticket prices and high inflation, even a humble trip can begin to feel like an unbearable financial burden.

But before you give up your dreams of a vacation this year, you should try some cost-saving workarounds that might help you save some money. CNBC Select asked Brian Walsh, a CFP and Senior Manager of Financial Planning at SoFi, to share some of his best tips for making travel more affordable. Read on to learn more about the advice that might save your trip.

A surefire way to spend too much on a trip is to do everything at the last minute. Last-minute flights are known for often being more expensive than tickets booked at least a few months in advance. Plus, waiting too long could mean the more affordable hotel and vacation rental options fill up, leaving you stuck paying for pricey accommodations.

Many travel rewards credit cards can make booking flights and hotels more affordable thanks to the large welcome bonuses they may offer. The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, for instance, gives you 60,000 bonus points when you spend $4,000 in the first 3 months from account opening. That works out to $750 when you redeem your points through Chase Ultimate Rewards®.

The Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card also offers a great welcome bonus of 75,000 bonus miles when you spend $4,000 on purchases within 3 months from account opening. Those miles are also worth at least $750 towards travel and can be redeemed for travel-related expenses — like flights, hotels and rental cars — through Capital One Travel.

While credit cards that offer rewards for booking travel can give you some extra bang for your buck, it’s generally recommended that if you do use a credit card for purchases — like a vacation — you’ll want to pay off the balance in full each billing cycle. The value of any rewards you may earn, like points or miles, would be wiped away if you start to pay hefty interest charges.

If you’re using credit cards to pay for your trip, just make sure you aren’t digging yourself into debt that would take years to pay off. Some credit cards, like 0{0b5b04b8d3ad800b67772b3dcc20e35ebfd293e6e83c1a657928cfb52b561f97} intro APR cards, are designed to make it easier for you to pay off a balance by offering a period of no interest charges for a limited time. Just make sure you have a plan in place to pay off these purchases and don’t overspend, as you will still have to pay back all of the charges you make.

You usually have to be a new cardholder to take advantage of these 0{0b5b04b8d3ad800b67772b3dcc20e35ebfd293e6e83c1a657928cfb52b561f97} interest offers. Some of CNBC Select’s favorite 0{0b5b04b8d3ad800b67772b3dcc20e35ebfd293e6e83c1a657928cfb52b561f97} APR cards are listed below:

“Flexibility is valuable whether it’s the time of day, day of the week, or even what airport you fly into or out of,” Walsh says. “All of that can be easy ways to save on travel.”

Some airports tend to cost more to fly from, and many destinations have peak (and off-peak) seasons. If you’re going to Miami during spring break in March, you’ll likely spend more on flights than you would if you waited until the party dies down around the end of April. The same idea applies if you were going to, say, New Orleans around Mardi Gras or Denver during peak ski season.

Walsh also recommends using Google Flights to compare prices across different airlines for different dates so you can find ways to save.

Even the most carefully planned out vacations can go off the rails at the last minute. Maybe you contract the stomach flu the day before your flight, or a pipe bursts in your basement or any number of events occur that force you to cancel your vacation. Whatever the reason for your abandoned trip, you don’t want to compound the tragedy by still having to pay for fun you won’t experience.

“Sometimes when people focus on saving money on travel, they run the risk of being penny wise and pound foolish because they don’t protect their trip with travel insurance,” Walsh says.

Some credit cards offer built-in insurance if you pay with the card when you book your plans. The Chase Sapphire Reserve®, for instance, offers trip cancellation or trip interruption insurance in case you need to cancel or cut your vacation short. And for rental vehicles, the American Express® Gold Card provides coverage for damage to or theft of a rental vehicle.

When you’re on vacation, you might be tempted to go a little overboard with the spending and treat yourself a little too much — only to return home with a “financial hangover” when your checking account balance is a lot lower than you’d like.

“One thing that could be helpful for people who struggle with overspending is to just use cash,” Walsh explains. “When people use cash to buy things, they feel more pain when they make the purchase so it leads them to spend less in general.”

Carrying an envelope with your spending money is one practical way to make sure you keep tabs on how much things are costing you while you’re away. Of course, you’re forgoing any rewards or points you would earn by spending with an eligible credit card (not to mention the risk of carrying your money in a single, easily-lost bundle).

If you prefer a digital approach to segregating your spending money, some checking accounts have “bucket” features that let you separate your cash based on goals or specific spending categories. The Wealthfront Cash Account has this feature, and account holders receive a debit card so they can easily spend the money when they’re ready.

Traveling can sometimes be so expensive that you don’t think a vacation is in the cards for you this year. But with some careful planning, you could wind up saving more money than you previously thought. Remaining flexible and using rewards points when booking your travel plans is key to significant savings. Also, don’t forget to protect your trip and be mindful of how you spend while you’re away.

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