Disney Gift Card question

[Astylla]

Usually people do this because they are either getting a discount on the giftcards (Target Red Card 5% and/or Pharmacy 5% rewards), getting some kind of other reward (gas rewards at supermarkets, 5% cash back on their CC because they bought the gift cards at a certain type of store etc), or because they ask all their friends and family to give them Disney Gift Cards as gift so they have a pile of them.


I used to think using them purely as a budgeting device was crazy, but now that I've started doing gift cards (I started for the Target 5% stacked to 10% rewards) I actually kind of like how I feel we keep better track of $$ being spent in the park when using gift cards.

Pretty much this. Safeway had a promotion for 3x gas rewards points for gift card purchases..and if we are going to spend the money anyway in the parks..why not get something out of it especially with gas being so expensive out here..ugh.

We also found it works as a budget tool. We are personally using the gift cards for almost exclusively meals since we eat almost all our meals in the parks themselves or at the DLR hotels. It's a personal choice but it works for some.

 

[Lewdannie]

What am I missing?

Can someone kindly educate me? Thanks!

- Dreams

Another advantage might be that you would like to lock in the exchange rate if you are travelling from overseas

 

[dizneekrazee]

Can only be combined onto 1 card if purchased from Disney Store, not yet activated and you have the receipt for all of them. I had 40 of them that I wanted to combine but could not since purchased from Target. Luckily, I could use them all separately to pay for vacation.

If you "purchase" from the Disney Store, the card is activated immediately.

 

[larina]

If you "purchase" from the Disney Store, the card is activated immediately.

No matter where you get them the activation process starts immediately once purchased at the register. It may take a couple of hours, but usually it happens pretty quickly.

 

[gcatt]

Our kids' school sells Disney gift cards as part of their scrip program. There is no discount for us, but 3% of the proceeds goes to the school. With weekly scrip orders , it's an easy way to build up some money set aside for DLR and help the school.

Would be nicer if we could combine them, though.

 

[larina]

Our kids' school sells Disney gift cards as part of their scrip program. There is no discount for us, but 3% of the proceeds goes to the school. With weekly scrip orders , it's an easy way to build up some money set aside for DLR and help the school.

Would be nicer if we could combine them, though.

That's so cool. I wish my daughter's school would do something like that. I would actually buy that, unlike the cookie dough and candy they try to pawn off on parents (we donate cash to the PTG and other fundraisers, but we don't do food items that we won't eat).

 

[disneygirlinphoenix]

Just remember If you book travel to keep your GC's, until your travel is completed. I made the mistake of throwing them away and then when circumstances occurred and I couldn't go on my cruise, it was a pain to get that back!!!

 

[DisneyPirateGirl925]

What am I missing?

Can someone explain to me the advantage of buying a whole lot of Disney gift cards as opposed to just saving the money for the trip, charging the trip on a credit card, and then paying off the credit card with the money saved upon return?

I have read many threads on DIS about using gift cards to pay/save for a trip and I don't understand the reasoning behind what seems to be a lot of hassle, but so many people talk about it, there must just be something I"m missing. Can someone kindly educate me? Thanks!

- Dreams

My family uses it as a way to save over time. Like if we know we are going to Disney in June, for the months before we will buy a gift card here, another there and then we KNOW we will have the money to spend there even if something happens.

And my mom doesn't like the idea of our debit/credit cards being connected to anything or having to use them all the time, in case someone gets a hold of our numbers or something, besides the fact that our bank sometimes thinks our Disney charges are fraud...
So for us, having a bunch of gift cards is easier then having to call our bank during every buy to make it go through.

 

[3Minnies1Mickey]

We do it as a "Disney savings account". We don't have credit cards other than our bank card so this lets us put money away and we aren't tempted to touch it. When we went to WDW for 2 weeks we purchased 2 $500 gift cards with our tax return for all our meals. It was set aside and we knew it would be there when our trip came 6 months later.

 

[LittleBlackRaincloud]

I get them at Target for roughly 10% off. This saves me anywhere from $150-$200 a trip. That's a nice chunk of change. I only take a few each day with me, and lock the rest in the safe in the room. This allows me to budget each day out better.

 

[dizneekrazee]

No matter where you get them the activation process starts immediately once purchased at the register. It may take a couple of hours, but usually it happens pretty quickly.

Exactly. I was just responding to the previous poster who mentioned getting receipts for inactivated cards at TDS, which isn't possible.

 

[larina]

Exactly. I was just responding to the previous poster who mentioned getting receipts for inactivated cards at TDS, which isn't possible.

 

[Midnightred]

I love using Disney Gift Cards! I learned about it on these boards. I like to buy them, then load more money on them for the trip. It's different having the giftcards when you are at the park, because you don't take money from your bank account, and you don't have to pay the money back, like if you used a credit card. Last trip I had only 1 card, but for my trip in July, I already have 5, or one for each day. Love the idea of taking 1 card out each day for budgeting! Plus, the designs are really fun!

Midnightred

 

[happydisneyfamily]

I am officially a fan of using Disney gift cards at Disney. We just got back yesterday and it worked better than expected. I had bought and set aside gift cards slowly but surely and used it to budget our food, tax and tip included, snacks, and souvenirs plus a little cash on the side. Every time we decided to eat somewhere nice or splurge on snacks, dh would look at me and I would tell him, "I already included it in the budget." We did not have to touch our debit card at all for any of the food or souvenirs. We got everything we wanted and dh and the kids were extremely satisfied with our meals and desserts. We are already planning to go back at the end of this year and I intend to start saving some Disney gift cards for our next trip.

 

[disneydeb64]

I am a fan of the cards as well. I purchase them with Christmas/birthday money, garage sale and eBay sale money, and my Scentsy biz income. That way I feel like a good portion of our DLR trip is almost "free" (no money drawn from our bank account). Plus it's fun to collect all the different designs. When I do make a gift card purchase, I always get multiples in the lowest $25 denom. I use the bulk of them to make payments on our vacation package, so wind up taking only a few to DLR.

 

[nicleigh84]

I just read this thread and called to try to combine my gift cards. The woman told me no, they do not consolidate gift cards.

I have 8 different cards from Christmas but Disney will only let you use one card to purchase park tickets. Grrr.

 

[dizneekrazee]

I just read this thread and called to try to combine my gift cards. The woman told me no, they do not consolidate gift cards.

I have 8 different cards from Christmas but Disney will only let you use one card to purchase park tickets. Grrr.

Do you have a Disney Store near you? If so, you can use more than one when paying in store.

Disclaimer: You did not mention which ticket(s) you are interested in. TDS only carries 3,4, and 5 day PHs.

Hope that helps!!

 

[Wcpedorc]

I have 8 different cards from Christmas but Disney will only let you use one card to purchase park tickets. Grrr.[/QUOTE]

I payed for my ap(voucher) at the Disney store with over 10 gift cards, no problems.

 

[pharmama]

I have 8 different cards from Christmas but Disney will only let you use one card to purchase park tickets. Grrr.

Do you mean online or ??? You can use as many gift cards as you want to pay for tickets at the ticket booths.

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

 

[NeedDCLFix]

My wife and I purchased our annual passes using 24 gift cards in $50 denominations we had purchased from Target at 5% off. We didn't save them over time or anything like that. We knew we were going to spend the money, so a day or two before we went to the park, we loaded up at Target.

It took the booth agent at the park about 15 minutes to scan them all, but knowing we had saved about $60 for what was essentially doing nothing other than making a quick stop at Target was quite rewarding. The cast member scanning all the cards said she was actually having fun doing so. "I like seeing your total balance go down with each one swiped."

She then asked if we had been saving for a long time. I didn't want to get into a whole explanation of what we had done, so I just said, "Uh, yeah."

I SHOULD have said, "Yes, we've had to save for a LONG time because whenever we get close to affording your prices, you raise them!"