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Liz Weston

Is the Disney Inspire Visa worth it? What I saved at Disney World

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Cinderella Castle at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom

Disclaimer: This post contains an affiliate/referral link to the Disney Inspire Visa. If you apply through my link and are approved, I may receive a reward from Chase at no extra cost to you. Thanks for supporting my blog!

In February, I pounced on a “buy four, get two free” deal at Walt Disney World. This unusual promotion gave our family two free hotel nights and two free theme park days when we purchased a four-night, four-day vacation package.

Not long afterward, Chase announced three new Disney-affiliated credit cards: the Disney Inspire Visa with a $149 annual fee, the Disney Premier Visa with a $49 annual fee and the no-annual-fee Disney Visa. I opted for the Disney Inspire Visa, which came with a collection of benefits that seemed tailor-made for our trip, such as:

  • A $300 Disney gift card upon approval
  • A $300 statement credit after spending $1,000 (since reduced to $200 for new applicants)
  • 200 Disney Rewards Dollars after spending $2,000 on eligible U.S. Disney resort stays and Disney Cruise Line bookings
  • 10% off at many Disney resort restaurants and merchandise locations
  • 3% in rewards on Disney purchases and gas
  • 2% on groceries and 1% on other purchases

The card also offers a $100 statement credit after spending $200 on U.S. Disney theme park tickets and annual passes, plus a $10 monthly streaming credit for eligible purchases at DisneyPlus.com, Hulu.com or Stream.ESPN.com.

I got the card primarily for the sign-up bonuses and the 200 rewards dollars we could earn on our resort stay. But the 10% discount on dining and merchandise turned out to be an unexpectedly nice perk. It knocked about $30 off our souvenir purchases and $76.52 off our sit-down meals. (Bonus tip for meat eaters: Do not miss the phenomenal filet mignon at the Brown Derby in Hollywood Studios.)

The 3% rewards rate on Disney purchases also added up faster than I expected. So far, those rewards have generated statement credits worth over $200. If you add it all up, that’s more than $1,000 in savings.

I suspect the card will continue to earn its place in my wallet even if we don’t spring for another Disney resort or cruise vacation anytime soon. We’re annual passholders at Disneyland, so the $100 statement credit for eligible ticket and annual-pass purchases, the 10% discounts on many restaurant and merchandise purchases and the 3% rewards rate on Disney spending should more than offset the $149 annual fee.

If you’re planning a Disney vacation, have good credit and pay off your cards in full every month, the Disney Inspire could be worth considering. Of course, no credit card can make a Walt Disney World vacation cheap.

Six-night packages for a family of four typically start around $3,600 at Disney’s budget hotels and $6,300 at premium resorts such as Animal Kingdom Lodge, where we stayed. The “buy four, get two free” promotion, which is no longer offered, reduced our package cost to $4,859 for our family of three. The trade-off was traveling in late August, when we had to contend with considerable heat, humidity and afternoon thunderstorms that occasionally disrupted our plans.

I used frequent-flier miles for our plane tickets and a free-night award from a Hyatt credit card for an overnight stay at the Orlando airport. Disney’s extensive bus system helped keep our transportation costs down, but we still spent about $250 on rideshares, which was cheaper for us than renting a car and paying for parking. We spent about $2,000 on meals and snacks, more than $300 on souvenirs and about $620 on Lightning Lane passes that dramatically reduced our waits for rides and attractions.

So even with the deals, miles and other savings, this was a pricey trip. That made every discount, reward and sign-up bonus from the Disney Inspire card that much more welcome.

 

Q&A: Can Roth conversions help reduce the widow’s penalty?

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Dear Liz: The letter writer who asked about Roth conversions should also consider that they or their spouse will eventually be a widow(er) and will be subject to the income tax “widow’s penalty.”

Roth conversions now protect the survivor against some of that tax bite.

Answer: The widow’s penalty refers to the higher financial burden many survivors face after losing a spouse as they change from “married filing jointly” status to “single” status.

While their incomes may drop, their taxes and other costs may rise.

Having at least some money in a tax-free account can help with this as well as a number of other situations in retirement, which is why it’s important to fund a Roth account during your working years if you can.

The main downside to Roth contributions is that you don’t get an upfront tax break for making them.

Conversions, though, are more complicated.

They trigger a tax bill and can have ripple effects, such as reducing eligibility for tax credits, financial aid or health insurance subsidies.

Late-in-life conversions can increase Medicare premiums and cause more of your Social Security checks to be taxable. That’s why conversions should only be considered after careful consultation with tax pros.

Q&A: What to do when you missed years of inherited IRA distributions

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Dear Liz: I inherited my father’s IRA through a trust in 2010. Unbeknownst to me at the time, I’ve now found out I should have taken that money out over the following years, but I didn’t.

I turned 73 in May of this year, and I’d like advice on what I should do with that account.

Answer: Get thee to a tax pro. You’ve got some distributions to make, taxes to pay and penalties to mitigate.

Today’s rules for inherited IRAs require most non-spouse beneficiaries to empty the accounts within 10 years, thanks to the SECURE Act of 2019.

Before that, most beneficiaries could spread required minimum distributions over their own lifetimes.

Depending on the type of trust, you might have been required to take RMDs at the same pace your father was taking them. But either way, distributions were supposed to be made.

You (or better yet, your tax pro) will need to reconstruct the distributions that should have been taken since 2010, says Mark Luscombe, principal analyst for Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting.

Those distributions should be made as soon as possible, and then you (or better yet, your tax pro) can ask for relief from the possible 25% excise tax penalty that would otherwise be owed on the distributions you missed.

Your tax pro will need a copy of the trust, your dad’s date of death and the IRA’s Dec. 31 balances for every year since then.

Q&A: Can you revoke a revocable trust?

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Dear Liz: Is it possible to revoke an irrevocable trust?

Answer: Surprisingly, yes, in some cases it’s possible to revoke an irrevocable trust, depending on state law, the terms of the trust and the circumstances. For example, a trust could be dissolved or changed if all the beneficiaries agree and a court approves. In other cases, assets can be “decanted” from the old trust and put in a new, less restrictive trust. An experienced estate planning attorney can review the trust and offer advice.

Q&A: What to do when a stolen IRS check is altered and cashed

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Dear Liz: My mail with a check to the IRS was stolen from inside the post office (I dropped it into the internal wall slot). The envelope was pre-addressed to the IRS P.O. box. The payee on the check was altered. The memo section text was removed, and parts of the upper-left section of the check were removed or altered, including a misspelling.

I discovered the mail theft after the bank’s 90-day reporting period but within the UCC (Uniform Commercial Code) filing period. I opened a police report, filed a notarized Affidavit of Check/Account Fraud with my bank, closed that checking account, and filed a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The amount lost is in the mid-five figures. Is there anything more I can do to get my money back? If not, any way to deduct the loss? I am crying all the time and losing sleep. I am a senior, if that matters.

Answer: Francoise Cleveland, AARP’s government affairs director, says you’ve already taken many of the recommended steps to deal with check fraud, including filing a police report, closing the account and working with your bank.

In addition, Cleveland recommends reporting the theft to the Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, which investigates mail theft and related check fraud. (You can file a mail theft complaint online at the USPIS.) Cleveland also encourages you to contact the AARP Fraud Watch Network for information, support and further guidance.

Whether you ultimately get your money back depends on several factors, including the specific facts of your case and state and federal law. Banks work through these determinations behind the scenes, and it can take time, Cleveland says.

That said, you may want to hire an attorney familiar with banking or consumer law. Unfortunately, it can be easy for a bank to ignore a customer, but it’s a lot harder to ignore a law firm. At a minimum, make sure your bank has copies of the police report and your USPIS filing.

As far as deducting the loss, the news isn’t good. Personal theft losses generally are deductible only in limited circumstances, such as when the theft is attributable to a federally declared disaster, Cleveland says. Victims of investment fraud may deduct their theft losses, but victims of other types of fraud (such as romance scams and government impersonators — ”I’m from the IRS and you’re about to be arrested”) aren’t eligible.

It gets worse. People have had money stolen from a 401(k) or another account where withdrawals are taxable. So not only are the victims out the money and unable to deduct their losses, but they typically still owe taxes on the withdrawal. Cleveland says AARP supports a bipartisan bill called the Tax Relief for Victims of Crimes, Scams, and Disasters Act that would provide some help to victims of fraud and unexpected disasters even if they are unable to recover their stolen funds.

You should also be aware that scammers may target you again, promising they can help you recover your stolen money. The Federal Trade Commission warns you to be wary of anyone trying to charge you an upfront fee to get your money back.

And for everyone else who’s reading this: Please take heed. Mail theft and check fraud have soared. Switch to electronic payments now before you become yet another victim.

Q&A: Are credit card surcharges a tax windfall for businesses?

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Dear Liz: Regarding the fees charged to use credit cards. Aren’t the fees charged by the credit card companies considered deductible expenses on the businesses’ taxes? It seems that if the customer pays the surcharge then the business claims a deduction on its taxes, the business is getting a big benefit. It’s nothing but a scam. If I’m paying the fee, then the business shouldn’t be able to deduct it.

Answer: You don’t have the accounting quite right. The surcharge you pay to use a credit card is generally considered income to the business. The deduction isn’t a windfall but prevents the business from being taxed on money it collected and then paid to the credit-card processor.

The surcharge allows the business to pass some or all of its processing costs onto the customers that cause it to incur the costs, rather than simply absorbing the expense. Of course, some customers will take their business elsewhere because of the surcharge, so the ultimate effect on profits is in question.