The Gift Card Route

I mentioned this on the FanimeCon Forums: instead of having one large charge on your credit card for your hotel stay, why not buy gift cards and pay the hotel in small increments?

This is how my plan works: in January, book the room. In the same month, buy a $100 gift card to the hotel you'll be staying at. In February, buy another $100 gift card. Repeat each month until you get the desired amount. Then when you check-out from the hotel, use all the gift cards you've accumulated; whatever the balance is after using those gift cards will be charged to the card that you put on file when you originally booked it. When you get the statement from the card company, it'll look like $100-$100-$100-$34.48 (over the period of 5-6 months) compared to $334.48 following FanimeCon. It also makes it easier to pay off the hotel when you don't have to worry about one lump charge and everything is in increments.

This gift card route can also be useful if you know you're going to eat out somewhere like Subway, McDonalds, or Jack-in-the-Box. Restaurants.com can also be a good resource for higher-end eating out - you can buy gift certificates on the cheap (you can get a $10 gift certificate to Chicago Pizza for $4!!!).

You can get all of these months in advance to draw out the ultimate cost of FanimeCon (or any other con you might attend), and that's the thing I want people to get out of this idea.