Put Your Vacation on Layaway

In mid June I saw something I thought was interesting…Sears was now allowing people to put their vacations on layaway. WOW! What a great idea…or is it? As far as I knew, most vacation tours, packages and cruises allowed you just pay the down payment and pay the rest off about a month before your departure date.

I looked online at Sears's vacation website to see what they were promoting. It looks like they are only letting you put the deposit down on cruises. When I took a cruise to Mexico and tour to Italy in 2008 I only paid for part of it at booking. The same when I went on another European tour in 2010 and then same for both trips to Hawaii (2011 and 2012). So I don’t think this is something to get too excited about.

I do think that only paying the deposit and then paying the remainder as the trip gets closer is smart. If you are planning that far in advance something may pop up and if you only paid the deposit then at least you're not out 100% of the cost. Usually when you're booking a tour/cruise with air included your deposit will be a little more because they do need the full amount to reserve your airline tickets.

Also, its smart to buy travel insurance for any sort of big vacation you plan to go on. That way if you do cancel you will be able to get some of the money back. Check out my post on travel insurance here and here is a short list of other things that are covered under your travel insurance policy.

• Lost Baggage (very important!)
• Baggage Delay ($300 a day)
• Missed Connection ($800 for any fees the airlines try to slap on you)
• Emergency Medical Transportation
• Emergence Medical and Dental
• Trip Cancellation Protection
• Trip Delay
• Trip Interruption (should you need to rush home for something)