To get the time for the five-month trip, Neal resigned her teaching job at Kiokio School near Otorohanga at the end of last year. "I chose to leave because starting with a class of kids then being away for months is disruptive and I also wanted to have no job commitments because I didn't know my exact travel plans at the beginning of the year," she says.
With no permanent job, over $15,000 in costs for her 'OE' and desperately trying to save money to pay for it, the last thing Neal wanted to do was to go into debt. It was then her luck turned while listening to the radio one day.
She heard about Westpac's balance transfer offer, through ZM's 'Help Pay Back Your Summer' competition in conjunction with Westpac NZ which gave people the chance to win $5,000.
The balance transfer offer allows new and existing customers to transfer outstanding balances on hire purchases, store cards, other bank credit cards and personal loans to a Westpac credit card - paying only 1.99 per cent per annum for 12 months on the balances transferred. Lending criteria applies - (www.westpac.co.nz/bt)
"I had spent a bit on Christmas presents as well including a $400 personalised hunting knife for my partner and $200 on Pandora charms for mum and vouchers my brother," Neal says. "I thought I could do with $5,000 right now, so I entered. I'm really excited because I've never won anything before."
Named as one of the winners, she is putting the money towards her overseas trip - and now has no outstanding credit card balance paying it off each month to avoid incurring interest.
Neal's return flights to Europe have cost $1,700 and two tours she has signed up for - one in the UK and the other which will take her to 13 countries through Europe - will cost around $9,000. Planning on needing $5,000 for spending money, Neal is looking at over $15,000 in total.
She says the $5,000 will help pay for the European leg of her trip.
Since resigning from her job, Neal has been working a temporary job processing GST returns for a chartered accountancy firm in Otorohanga. To help ends meet when overseas, she will work as a relieving teacher in London for some of the time she is in the UK.
But before heading away she hopes to hit the road in her 17-year-old Honda Civic to get around all her distant family and friends.
"I've been to mum's and I'm going to see my brother in two weeks - and my dad. I've also been going over to Taupo to see my partner at weekends and occasionally during the week."
It's this type of summer activity that usually sees a spike in spending which is why Westpac has introduced the 1.99 per cent per annum rate for 12 months. It is designed to help Kiwis manage debt at a much lower rate.
Shane Howell, Westpac's Chief Product Officer, says sales levels over the holiday period typically rise by about $1 billion in December, with credit card spending making up just under half of that figure. Over the past year spending in New Zealand was up by about 6 per cent with credit card spending up 11 per cent in the same period.
Research house Canstar, in a survey held in the middle of last year, estimated New Zealanders pay about $2 million per day in interest payments much of it charged at 18-20 per cent.
Howell says more New Zealanders are cottoning on to the advantages of operating their cards as Neal does - but there is still a need for products like the new 1.99 per cent per annum for 12 months balance transfer offer.
