Disney Gift Card Deals

[pillow]

Ugh. Getting frustrated with BB.com! I'm trying to take advantage of the ebates offer ($5 off $25) and ordering a GC for in store pick up. I first tried, several days ago, getting a $50 ebay card and paying with a BB egift card. It was cancelled & I was't too surprised. However, I realized I had a bit of a PP balance so thought I'd use that today and it gets cancelled too! I can't figure out why it would be, since I have a balance that more than covers the purchase amount. I know I could just transfer the PP to my bank account and use that at BB, but I really like keeping my churning totally separate!!

I could never get eBay cards to work online for some reason. Try buying a $25 Disney and see what happens.

 

[joyous1]

Can anyone tell me the best way to get a discounted Walmart card to use at Sam's online? I tried to get Target GCs on Raise for over an hour, each time I went to check out the 5% off GCs in my cart were gone! I have always done the Target Red Card>Disney GC and was trying something new for an additional discount (getting the Target GC 1st.) Ughhhh. I see on Raise Walmart GC is about to 2.1% just trying to see if there is another route I should try. Thanks!

ETA: I just read the last few pages and saw some info for Sam's Club, must have been posted when I was fighting with Raise, lol. I have strictly done the Target Red Card>Disney GC for years (last trip was 2013) and I feel dumb that I didn't think to buy a Target GC 1st. In my defense we have been building a house in FL from NJ for the past 3 years (start to finish, it was rough!) Now that I live in FL, I can get back to figuring out Disney discounts. Thank you everyone for all of your contributions! Purchasing our 1st AP's next week!

 

[mkymouse40]

Is anyone just buying Target gift cards through Raise or Cardpool for 5% off and then just getting Disney gift cards at Target for an additional 5% off?

Yes, I chose not to get in to the Gamestop aspect. I did churn last year during the higher discounts offered by Raise, Cardpool, etc. then churned through Ebay, back to Target, back to Ebay, back to Target, etc. I saved about $1800 for our trip last year. I had about $1000 left of my churned cards that I am using for my September Cruise, but I had to fill in with the Raise/Target to Disney that is going on right now. A 10% discount is better than nothing to me.

 

[MinMou]

Nothing about this conversation appears to be Disney gift card related, and as a new reader when I asked about it I was told no one would be willing to spell it out for me. Its not very disney-like if you ask me.

It may not seem Disney-like, but the truth is that things work differently for everyone. Some folks have no Kmart near them, some have 2. Some have lots of reasons to shop in Gamestop, some people feel like they are in a foreign country. Some people have an easy time getting Best Buy cards, some have had their Paypal accounts closed in the process. And whatever works today may not work tomorrow.

The main thrust of this thread is to try to find ways to use rebates and coupons to increase our cash flow, and use that extra bonus to buy more gift cards, and eventually get Disney gift cards. Some people only use Target gift cards, to buy Disney gift cards, and others go elsewhere. Everything is on a "Your Mileage May Vary" basis, and that is particularly true for the people who buy gift cards and earn points for gasoline.

Some people use Swagbucks, some Shop My Way, MyPoints, M+, and almost everyone uses ebates and most try to get ebay bucks. And there are more programs I didn't include.

Honestly , by going back 100 pages, you are not wasting your time, because only you know which ways will work for you.

 

[Jason Smith]

I guess 2 more things I should add to my post for those newbies:

1) Some people here have mentioned buying Gamestop gift cardsand using that to buy ebay gift cards. This seems to be very YMMV as many Gamestop's do not allow you to buy a gift card with a gift card.

2) Many people buy discounted gift cards on the secondary gift card using Cardcash or Raise. Please note that this is extremely high risk and should be a last resort used to save money. Cardcash had an F rating from the better business bureau although they have now got it back up to a B+ although the BBB has revoked their accredited business status. Raise has a B rating from the BBB. Both companies have numerous complaints on the BBB website.

IMHO, stay away from the secondary gift market unless you are willing to take high risks and willing to spend hours fighting to get your money back if things go bad.

I know I'm going to get grief from people with comments like, "I've bought from raise many times and never had any problems." Well, just remember, there were plenty of people who bought from Bernie Madoff and had no problems either. (In fact, I know people who made a bundle off of him.)

The point is, just because you haven't had a problem yet, it doesn't mean that these companies aren't risky. The complaints about them on the BBB and other websites shows that. All it takes is one bad gift card and you will negate your savings from the past 20 that you bought.

 

[JohnDaleswife]

I guess 2 more things I should add to my post for those newbies:

1) Some people here have mentioned buying Gamestop gift cardsand using that to buy ebay gift cards. This seems to be very YMMV as many Gamestop's do not allow you to buy a gift card with a gift card.

2) Many people buy discounted gift cards on the secondary gift card using Cardcash or Raise. Please note that this is extremely high risk and should be a last resort used to save money. Cardcash had an F rating from the better business bureau although they have now got it back up to a B+ although the BBB has revoked their accredited business status. Raise has a B rating from the BBB. Both companies have numerous complaints on the BBB website.

IMHO, stay away from the secondary gift market unless you are willing to take high risks and willing to spend hours fighting to get your money back if things go bad.

I know I'm going to get grief from people with comments like, "I've bought from raise many times and never had any problems." Well, just remember, there were plenty of people who bought from Bernie Madoff and had no problems either. (In fact, I know people who made a bundle off of him.)

The point is, just because you haven't had a problem yet, it doesn't mean that these companies aren't risky. The complaints about them on the BBB and other websites shows that. All it takes is one bad gift card and you will negate your savings from the past 20 that you bought.

Very good information. Thanks.

 

[Minniekins]

A rolling 60 days means that once the original $1000 purchase has passed, you have that value you spent free. So if you spent $1000 on July 20, and say you spend another $1000 on August 1, you would have $1000 freed up to spend again on Sept. 18. And after that, it would be until Sept. 30 when the next $1000 would free up.

To make it easier on yourself, I would start tracking your eBay purchase dates and amounts and calculating 60 days from that date so you know when you can spend again. This $2000 rolling limit might make it very hard to get even $300 eBay bucks each quarter because we can't predict when each eBucks promo will hit. In that case, I would try maximizing as much as possible by using 2 accounts, my account and DH's account.

Thank you, Jen and Ashwin, for taking the time to explain that, I really appreciate it! We do use both my ebay account and DD26's so that will help some. Her DBF is going to get an ebay account to try to churn a bit for their occasional trips. She and I go every year, twice a year the last year and this, but every once in a while she can get him to go, so we are going in Nov, and they are going in Dec (to celebrate his proposing in front of the castle when he joined us for a day last Dec. Crazy.)
I'm wondering, does it matter if I use my PP account when doing our churning? I usually forget and just sign into mine and it just seems easier. I thought I remembered others here doing the same for various reasons.

...
I know you can use your room charge which you can use the DGC to pay for but can you use a DGC directly also?
....

Oh yeah, good way to still use the Disney gc's at a restaurant that doesn't take it, good thinking, thx!

Online you can't use a target gift card to buy any egift cards anymore. Anytime you try to it cancels the order. But, you still get the 5% off with the redcard.

Wait, it's been a few months now since I bought at target gc's, but I thought you could still use a target gc(say, from raise or anywhere), go to target online, and buy a disney physical gc, with redcard set as default, and you'll still get that 5% discount, isn't that correct? Or am I reading it wrong?

 

[Jing]

Is anyone just buying Target gift cards through Raise or Cardpool for 5% off and then just getting Disney gift cards at Target for an additional 5% off?

I have started doing that again here and there (I stopped when I finally got brave enough for the ebay churn method until it died 4 months later). Even with my measly 16-gallon gas tank, Kroger 4x is a more secure and lucrative deal for me though.

 

[Alice Sr.]

Hi Lucigo, I apologize for some of the other members snotty response to you (no I don't expect you to read 1000+ pages to figure out what everyone is talking about.) I will be glad to give you an explanation of what is going on, please bear with me as this might be a little lengthy.

The idea here is to find ways to get Disney gift cards at a discount, which can then be used to buy park tickets, pay for your hotel and even your food. Here are some of the ways that you can save money on Disney gift cards:

1) Thru ebay: Ebay has a program called ebay bucks which gives you 2% back for any purchases. (You must sign up for this program in your ebay account.) However, every once in a while they offer bonus bucks where instead of 2% back they will give you 6%, 8%, or even 10% back. But even better, you can pay with an ebay gift card that you can sometimes purchase at a discount. So, for example, you go into target and buy an ebay gift card for $100 using your target redcard which gives you 5% off anything at target. You then wait until ebay is running their 8% ebay bucks offer and use the $100 ebay giftcard to purchase a best buy gift card. You are now up to a 13% discount. (the original 5% from target + the 8% from ebay.) You now take the best buy gift card and go into best buy and do one of 2 things: 1) You can buy a Disney gift card which you have now gotten at a 13% discount or 2) Use your Best Buy gift card to buy an ebay gift card. You then use the ebay gift card the next time an 8% ebay bucks offer comes out and buy another best buy gift card (So your discount is now at 21%). This is called "Rinse and Repeat". The more times you rinse and repeat, the more your savings will be.

Things to be careful of: People have told stories of their paypal accounts getting shut down when using too many gift cards on ebay. As the famous saying goes "everything in moderation" - if you start buying $2000 worth of gift cards every time ebay has their bonus bucks, you should expect to be shut down. Also, never attract attention to yourself: when buying gift cards at Best Buy, don't go in and start buying a ton of gift cards at a time. If a cashier tells you it can't be done, just apologize and try another cashier or another best buy. It is not worth your the fight or your dignity even if you are right. (there are many people who would disagree with me on that, I know because I see them yelling at cashiers or store managers.)

2) Thru American Express: American express has offers on their credit cards that can save you money without having to rinse and repeat. For example, right now Amex has an offer that if you spend $25 at Bed, bath, and Beyond you get $5 automatically back on your credit card. So yesterday, I went into Bed, bath, and Beyond and purchased a $25 Disney gift card. I got $5 back on my credit card and 1% the credit card gives me back, for a total savings of 21%.

Similarly, last year Amex had a deal with Newegg that spend $200, get $25 back. So I bought a $200 ebay gift card at NewEgg and immediately started my rinse and repeat with a 13.5% discount.

Similarly, currently Amex has a deal at Best Buy: Spend $250, get $25 back. You can go to best Buy and buy a Disney gift card and your discount is 11% or you can buy an ebay gift card and start the rinse and repeat at 11%.

Please note that there are a number of American Express cards that have no annual fee (American Express Blue Cash, American Express Everyday, American Express Simplycash). You can also add free authorized users. For example, I added my mother, father and sister as authorized users on some of my cards, so I have a total of 8 actual credit cards and can get these deals 8 times. I don't want to spend too much time here on the Amex process, there are other forums that go into details on that.

Another way that you can get discounted ebay gift cards is thru Rite Aid, which sometime offers bonus plenty points. a few weeks ago they offered $8 in plenty points when buying an ebay gift card, or a 17% discount (a little less since you probably will end up using the points at Exxon/Mobil whose gas prices are usually more expensive than everyone else - at least in my area. )

Finally, don't forget when buying gift cards on ebay, always go through a cash portal like ebates to get an additional 1% back on your purchase. If you don't know what ebates is, visit their site and it will explain to you what to do.

I hope this explains to you what this whole forum is about, and I'll be in Disneyworld from August 15 -August 18 (In 3 weeks!)

Thanks for the cc info. I had no idea about the authorized user option. Do you know if that would work for the Discover card also? I was going to apply tonight based on the special double point offer I received. Not really crazy about getting both but it does seem AMEX card holders get a lot of deal offers.

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

I'm wondering, does it matter if I use my PP account when doing our churning?

I use one Paypal account for both my eBay account and DH's eBay account. I tried opening a PP account for DH, but it never worked on eBay, so I just gave up. I haven't had any issues as of yet . . .

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

Thanks for the cc info. I had no idea about the authorized user option. Do you know if that would work for the Discover card also? I was going to apply tonight based on the special double point offer I received. Not really crazy about getting both but it does seem AMEX card holders get a lot of deal offers.

Not sure about Discover, but I added DH as an authorized user on my Amex Blue Cash. I made him a separate login account and I am able to add all of the same offers onto both my card and his card. So for example, I got $40 Google Express vouchers on Groupon for $12. Amex had a buy $30, get $15 back on Google Express. I placed 2x $70 orders on Google Express for Costco items we use regularly. After the statement credits, I spent roughly $54 on $140 worth of products. That is savings that could be added to a Disney fund for buying disney gift cards or churning through eBay, etc.

I love the Amex offers and having 3 cards between DH and I is great for increasing savings when there are really good offers.

 

[hsmamato2]

Makes a lot of sense. I was only asking because I thought I had missed how these deals were Disney gc related as that is what I will be purchasing for an upcoming trip.

I hear you, it can be confusing...but as noted, you thought you had missed the 'disney gc deals' because you hadn't read much of the thread yet. Hence the advice to read those pages first,then ask questions specific to your needs. The deals are disney related in that the savings are usually applied to disney gc somewhere along the way.... and that post you keep quoting was for one specific action which I (and others) were noting was definitely a shadier practice,and not a great idea to share with others to try.

 

[Marionnette]

It may not seem Disney-like, but the truth is that things work differently for everyone. Some folks have no Kmart near them, some have 2. Some have lots of reasons to shop in Gamestop, some people feel like they are in a foreign country. Some people have an easy time getting Best Buy cards, some have had their Paypal accounts closed in the process. And whatever works today may not work tomorrow.

The main thrust of this thread is to try to find ways to use rebates and coupons to increase our cash flow, and use that extra bonus to buy more gift cards, and eventually get Disney gift cards. Some people only use Target gift cards, to buy Disney gift cards, and others go elsewhere. Everything is on a "Your Mileage May Vary" basis, and that is particularly true for the people who buy gift cards and earn points for gasoline.

Some people use Swagbucks, some Shop My Way, MyPoints, M+, and almost everyone uses ebates and most try to get ebay bucks. And there are more programs I didn't include.

Honestly , by going back 100 pages, you are not wasting your time, because only you know which ways will work for you.

I totally agree with MinMou on her points. @lucigo, you're not the first person to come on this thread and ask for the Readers' Digest version of how to do what people on this thread have been doing for months. But MinMou is spot-on with her assessment. There is no single way of doing things and even the helpful posts by @Jason Smith only scratch the surface of the many methods that are being used. While actually reading the thread (or just going back about two months) might not sound like a productive afternoon to a lot of people, there is a very sound reason why there is not a "how-to" post within this thread.

 

[momto4obkids]

Minniekins

Yes, your reading that wrong. I said EGIFT card. You can't buy the egift cards from Target with a Target gift card.

 

[havaneselover]

Has anyone used shop your way for a gift card purchase from Best Buy? They are doing $15 in points on a $45 purchase for a bunch of stores (back to school special) and I'm wondering if it would work on a Disney gift card purchase.

 

[havaneselover]

I also just got a notification from Walmart that I can get a $10 Walmart e gift card for my first app purchase of $75. I'm thinking of grabbing $75 of Walmart gift cards and seeing if that works. They won't go to waste.

 

[jodim]

Has anyone used shop your way for a gift card purchase from Best Buy? They are doing $15 in points on a $45 purchase for a bunch of stores (back to school special) and I'm wondering if it would work on a Disney gift card purchase.

Yes it will work as long as your BB will let you use it for Disney GC purchase (ours does)

 

[HarleenQ]

Anyone had success recently getting a Disney GC from Best Buy with a BB GC from PPDG?

 

[LnL]

I also just got a notification from Walmart that I can get a $10 Walmart e gift card for my first app purchase of $75. I'm thinking of grabbing $75 of Walmart gift cards and seeing if that works. They won't go to waste.

Would love to know if that works for you. Also, if you have Sam's Club membership, you can use also buy Disney GCs at Sam's Club for an additional discount.

 

[havaneselover]

Would love to know if that works for you. Also, if you have Sam's Club membership, you can use also buy Disney GCs at Sam's Club for an additional discount.

I'll try it tonight. It's no risk for me since I buy groceries at Walmart.