accounting about a week behind on gift cards

[Snurk71]

I faxed in my git card list to accounting last week to pay my dues and noticed they still weren't applied today. So I called to make sure they got my fax (they did), and the person I talked to said they were about a week behind applying gift card faxes.she sounded a little stressed. ..

 

[disneynutz]

Enjoy it while you can, IMO DVC will be discussing gift card policy in an upcoming staff meeting.

Bill

 

[DrewT]

Seems like an easy solution would be to update the online system to allow members to pay with gift cards online then we could just enter them ourselves. I just faxed in my gift card list yesterday.

 

[buzzandzurg]

Just did mine last week. Went through in a few days. Really easy and I hope they keep that option.

 

[psimon]

Enjoy it while you can, IMO DVC will be discussing gift card policy in an upcoming staff meeting.

Bill

Are you suggesting we won't be happy?

--Paul in Southern NJ

 

[disneynutz]

Are you suggesting we won't be happy?

--Paul in Southern NJ

Gift cards aren't intended to save money and offer discounts, they exist to make Disney more money.

In this case they do not increase Disney's bottom line and they increase costs to all DVC owners who are paying to have them processed.

People who buy them to pay dues probably won't forget that they have them, stick them in a drawer for a few years, or never use them so they aren't following the use patterns of most "gift" cards.

Bill

 

[psimon]

Gift cards aren't intended to save money and offer discounts, they exist to make Disney more money.

In this case they do not increase Disney's bottom line and they increase costs to all DVC owners who are paying to have them processed.

People who buy them to pay dues probably won't forget that they have them, stick them in a drawer for a few years, or never use them so they aren't following the use patterns of most "gift" cards.

Bill

True....

It would significantly cut their processing issue if they let US enter them online.

I have to take the time to make s spreadsheet for them.... I can take that time to do the entering.

---Paul in Southern NJ

 

[disneynutz]

True....

It would significantly cut their processing issue if they let US enter them online.

I have to take the time to make s spreadsheet for them.... I can take that time to do the entering.

---Paul in Southern NJ

True but the cost of installing the software on the website and maintaining it to benefit only the people who use gift cards to pay their dues isn't worth it to Disney, you aren't making them money.

You are also banking on buying the cards at a discount which may change in the future, Target doesn't offer them to save the buyer money, they offer them to make Target more money. I don't think that they intended for them to be purchased in bulk.

Bill

 

[psimon]

True but the cost of installing the software on the website and maintaining it to benefit only the people who use gift cards to pay their dues isn't worth it to Disney, you aren't making them money.

You are also banking on buying the cards at a discount which may change in the future, Target doesn't offer them to save the buyer money, they offer them to make Target more money. I don't think that they intended for them to be purchased in bulk.

Bill

I agree with the first part... not so sure about the second.

Anything they put on their shelves, they would be happy to sell out of. They would rather me by 4 printers than 1, 6 phone cases instead of 1, all of their Tide instead of 1. If it moves, it makes them $.

In the quantities they buy gift cards, they are getting discounts, whether it's Disney or TGI Fridays. If they weren't making money on it they wouldn't sell it... and I doubt they are losing money on the gift cards.

---Paul in Southern NJ

 

[Noelle]

An easy solution would be to officially allow us to use the Disney Vacation Account to pay our Dues. I know some people have had success doing it even though the website states you can't pay your dues that way. But it eliminates the leg work from Member Services. The owners would enter all the gift cards and then call MS with the account number.

 

[Snurk71]

True but the cost of installing the software on the website and maintaining it to benefit only the people who use gift cards to pay their dues isn't worth it to Disney, you aren't making them money.

Bill

I at least partially disagree . While using the gift cards isn't making disney money, it iscosting them money in labor costs- which I think is your premise on why they would just disallow them. However, I believe thousands (yes, thousands) of members use them. I know that's out of hundreds of thousands of owners. But it is still used and could be put in the member's hands instead.

Taking credit cards as payment doesn't make disney money either - that's probably costing them close to 3%. And I don't hear you suggesting they're going to disallow orlimit credit cards.

 

[disneynutz]

I at least partially disagree . While using the gift cards isn't making disney money, it iscosting them money in labor costs- which I think is your premise on why they would just disallow them. However, I believe thousands (yes, thousands) of members use them. I know that's out of hundreds of thousands of owners. But it is still used and could be put in the member's hands instead.

Taking credit cards as payment doesn't make disney money either - that's probably costing them close to 3%. And I don't hear you suggesting they're going to disallow orlimit credit cards.

As I have said, gift cards aren't bulk use payment cards, they are not being used as intended.

Credit cards are more widely used and based on total volume processed through Disney, my guess is that they do not pay 3%, in fact Chase probably pays them.

Bill

 

[Snurk71]

As I have said, gift cards aren't bulk use payment cards, they are not being used as intended.

Credit cards are more widely used and based on total volume processed through Disney, my guess is that they do not pay 3%, in fact Chase probably pays them.

Bill

I don't work for disney, but based on my experience I highly doubt chase is covering their transaction fees and they're paying more in cc fees than you'd expect. Smart businesses just build that cost into their pricing structure.

 

[Maverick]

Straying a little off topic, but I wanted to provide a little feedback since I work in the retail space and have a good general working knowledge of this...

Disney likely pays the GC selling retailer (Target in this thread's example) 8-15% of the face value of the gift card sold. Assuming 8% for an example, Disney pays Target $8.00 when the retailer sells a $100 Disney gift card. Could be as high as 15% and depends on the contract between the GC retailer and the selling retailer. So... Disney is definitely not making any money from DVC owners who buy their Gift Cards solely to pay maintenance fees which had to be paid anyway.

As far as the charge when processing a credit card goes... Disney has to pay those too. Depends on their payment switch provider and the contract they have with them. The largest of retailers with high transaction volumes and many locations (think Kroger or Home Depot) probably pay a little more than 1% of the transaction value if the 'card is present' for the transaction (AKA physically swiped at the retailer location). Smaller retailers obviously pay a much higher percentage because their overall volume is lower. There is also an increased percentage tacked onto the click charge when the card is not present (think online purchases) as there is typically more fraud in this space that cost banks and retailers more money to research and potentially higher financial losses from that fraud.

I agree that it would be GREAT to be able to enter my own Disney GC's online. Sometimes a retailer really needs to do what customers want, even if it isn't a money maker for them. But... I really don't know what percentage of DVC'ers would actually use this functionality.

I did it differently this year as our local Kroger has Disney GC's that can be loaded with a variable amount from $15-$500. I had the cashier load $500 onto two different cards to cover my MF's. Didn't need to create a spreadsheet or fax / email anything. Member services was happy to handle 2 GC's over the phone for this particular transaction.

Hope this helps!
Mav

 

[Tigger2ntinkerbell]

deleted

 

[lodge]

I'm taking an extra trip to disney because of gift card perceived savings so taking away the options to use them will cut into business.

 

[disneynutz]

I'm taking an extra trip to disney because of gift card perceived savings so taking away the options to use them will cut into business.

I don't think that they will take away the option of using them but restrict there use. Using 1 or 2 cards is different than 50 or 100.

Bill

 

[johde]

I can see Disney setting a limit on how many GC can be used to pay Dues. I'm not sure what that number is. I bought bought 2 GCs to pay my annual dues. 1 in November and 1 just yesterday. Krogers was offering 4X fuel points on gift cards. $250 in Gift Cards saves me about $35 on Gas. So, a 14% "savings". Chase is also offering 5% cash back at Grocery Stores. So, that brings the "savings" up to about 19%. It might not as good what Target had been in the past. But I can buy the variable amount cards and keep the number reasonable.

We also need to remember Disney does there auto debit interest free. Where they give an interest free "loan" to people paying the dues through auto debit. People paying with Gift Cards are giving Disney their money all at once (some times several months in advance) to take advantage of retailer Deals. Deals that don't directly effect how much money Disney gets.

 

[Tigger2ntinkerbell]

Question: Do I just copy off the back of the Gift Card and then fax it in??.

I found the fax #, . But Can I use the 6 Gift cards I have to pay my dues???

 

[tb1972]

I called DVC and was informed the max number of gift cards allowed to apply to dues was 10. I had 12 gift cards, used 10 for dues and saved the other two for a future trip. No big deal.

I agree with the others, it would be ideal to enter the gift cards on line ourselves.