In the first article, we talked about how more and more travelers are financing their getaways with credit cards. Then people carry that debt for months, or years, paying high interest rates and making their vacations more expensive. In the second article, we looked at three scenarios on exactly how much a family would spend depending on how they paid for their vacation.

There are alternatives to finance your travels without having to go into debt. You can still put it on a credit card to get the reward points! But you can also save in order to pay that credit card bill off before the end of the month. That way there’s no interest to pay!

We called around and searched online for ways that banks and credit unions can help people save for vacations. We couldn’t find any banks, but many credit unions offer specialized savings accounts designed specifically for goal-oriented savings.

• Graphic overview of these types of accounts

In this case, they’re usually called various things like a “vacation club” or “travel savings” accounts. You can steadily build savings in a vacation fund, including by automatically transferring a small portion of each paycheck into it.

Locally to Battle Creek, we found two credit unions that offer this type of savings account. If you aren’t in the area, you’ll have to search for local credit unions online to see who offers these types of savings accounts.

Here are the two credit unions with branches in Battle Creek that offer this kind of savings account:

The first one is Honor Credit Union, offering a special savings account focused on “Saving For A Goal,” including “an upcoming life event, like Christmas shopping, or a dream vacation.”

They have two branches in town. The first is on Beckley out by Walmart and the second is on Helmer across from the airport. At each branch, they have a dedicated “member specialist” who will sit down with you to make a budgeting plan too!

The second is Marshall Community Credit Union and they call them “Club Accounts” which can be used for various purposes, including “Vacation Savings.” They only have one branch in town though, but they also have a staff member who will sit down with you to create a budgeting plan. Their branch is east on Michigan out there before you get to 9 ½ mile, like you’re going to the casino.