Advice on purchasing a Disney Gift Card.

[Destructsean]

Not sure if I'm posting this in the right place or not..but I do need some tips.

I found a person in my area selling a Disney gift card. It's a $500 gift card being sold for $360. Seeing as my fiance and I will be in WDW in December on our honeymoon, we're all but guaranteed to be spending more than that in the parks on food, gifts, drinks, etc, so this seems like a great deal.

The person is offering to meet at a local Disney Store to verify the balance on the card before any transaction is made.

What could go wrong with this? (besides the risks of physically meeting up to exchange money, since I'll be doing this safely in a public place.)

ANY advice is appreciated.

 

[lizzygreen]

Is it a DIsney STORE gift card that is only good at the stores, or is it a Disney World Resort Gift Card that you could use on your vacation at Walt Disney World Resort? Make sure you know what you are buying.

 

[Destructsean]

Is it a DIsney STORE gift card that is only good at the stores, or is it a Disney World Resort Gift Card that you could use on your vacation at Walt Disney World Resort? Make sure you know what you are buying.

It's the type that you can use in the parks/restaurants.

 

[rosiep]

Drawback:

The person verifies the amount and the exchange made. He can then go home, call Disney and report the card lost or stolen. It will be voided and he is issued a new card. He gets $360 dollars, a $500 card and you get squat.

I'm not saying this is what will happen, only saying it is a possibility. Even if you get a written receipt for the card I think it would be a lot of trouble to report his fraud and recoup your loss.

As tempting as it sounds, I don't think I'd risk it.

 

[Destructsean]

Drawback:

The person verifies the amount and the exchange made. He can then go home, call Disney and report the card lost or stolen. It will be voided and he is issued a new card. He gets $360 dollars, a $500 card and you get squat.

I'm not saying this is what will happen, only saying it is a possibility. Even if you get a written receipt for the card I think it would be a lot of trouble to report his fraud and recoup your loss.

As tempting as it sounds, I don't think I'd risk it.

Hmm, I didn't know they could remotely void the card and he'd be issued a new one. That's an unforeseen issue, and the purpose of making the thread here.

Haha, thanks.

 

[rosiep]

It's really not my nature to think the worst of people. Most exchanges are legit I'm sure; but I am thinking of purchasing the cards myself and was worried about losing them and only just recently was told that they can be voided and reissued. So, when I read your post it immediately came to mind.

I hate being negative though.

 

[Destructsean]

It's really not my nature to think the worst of people. Most exchanges are legit I'm sure; but I am thinking of purchasing the cards myself and was worried about losing them and only just recently was told that they can be voided and reissued. So, when I read your post it immediately came to mind.

I hate being negative though.

I'm the same way. Part of me is skeptical, but it's such a good deal if it's legitimately just someone trying to get rid of an unused gift card. I just keep thinking of all the snacks I can buy with the money I'd save.

 

[ammama]

Once you get the amount verified at the store, can you have that card voided yourself and the amount reissued on a new card?

 

[LSchrow]

I'm the same way. Part of me is skeptical, but it's such a good deal if it's legitimately just someone trying to get rid of an unused gift card. I just keep thinking of all the snacks I can buy with the money I'd save.

disney GCs tend to sell for closer to face value tho (like home depot, etc). imho, that large a discount sounds very suspicious....

 

[Blackbeltdisneygirl]

disney GCs tend to sell for closer to face value tho (like home depot, etc). imho, that large a discount sounds very suspicious....

I don't have much to say about the possibility of fraud b/c I really don't know, but I did want to say that I agree with this statement. When I've looked into them I've wondered why people were willing to waste time on a couple dollars savings b/c you are right. They do sell for VERY close to face value usually. I've even seen people bid them up on ebay to OVER face value or really close to it and then the shipping makes it either over FV or not worth the effort in my opinion. I would be nervous.

 

[rosiep]

Once you get the amount verified at the store, can you have that card voided yourself and the amount reissued on a new card?

Oh..that's a point...call the store if they sell park GC's and ask if you can buy a gift card with a gift card then buy 2 cards at $250 then and there.

 

[storabelle]

Oh..that's a point...call the store if they sell park GC's and ask if you can buy a gift card with a gift card then buy 2 cards at $250 then and there.

That sounds like the safest way to go! If you decide to make the purchase have fun with all the extra loot!

 

[AshleeH]

Oh..that's a point...call the store if they sell park GC's and ask if you can buy a gift card with a gift card then buy 2 cards at $250 then and there.

I would check and see if you can do this. As far as transferring the money, just to transfer it, Disney doesn't allow that for some reason, but this way might get you around that.

I've also seen a lot of people want to consolidate all of their Disney cards to one card and Disney won't allow that either. If you can't use it to buy two separate gift cards, I would say thanks, but no thanks. Losing $140 just looks too fishy to me.

 

[bwang123]

there is huge fraud with online transactions of gift cards/codes thats why you see people bidding over the amount. i sold amazon codes online and would get ripped off a lot (it bothered me but i was getting the legit codes for referring people to a website so i was not losing money, only some time). People buy the codes/cards with stolen information (paypal accounts, credit cards), they get the code/card and then the person who had their info stolen reports it. Paypal is the worst too when it comes to making a claim on fraud. Their policies on this make recovering your money very low to zero.

if you are meeting the person at the store, it sounds more legit to me but as others stated, there is still a rip-off potential.