Another Disney Gift Card Question!

[SSDonut]

So I have managed to stockpile lots of Disney gift cards for our upcoming vacation--some I got at Target for 5% off, and some I got at BJs for 4% off, with an additional 1% on my Disney Visa.

I have never done this before, but am so glad to already have "paid" for all our dining and shopping expenses (I hope)!

Here's my question: Should I carry (some of) the gift cards around with me to use for our dining/shopping or is it just much easier to charge to the room on the KTTW card and then settle with the gift cards at the front desk every so often? And, if I do it this way, how often do I need to do that so the charge doesn't go over to my Visa (defeating the whole point!)?

Thanks!

 

[alyssa810]

I'd maybe bring what you think you'd use for the day, and keep the rest in your room. We usually try to use our gift cards up first before we start charging to the room; we've had many a trip where we had way more gift cards than we needed, so we never charged to the room at all.

 

[Cheshire Figment]

What you can do at check-in is have all the Gift Cards applied as a credit to your room account. As charges on your KTTW go through, they will first be applied to the prepayment. When they are all used up then charges will be against your credit card.

If you have unapplied credits when you check out, they will refund the excess to a single Disney Gift Card.

 

[LoriKutchey]

What you can do at check-in is have all the Gift Cards applied as a credit to your room account. As charges on your KTTW go through, they will first be applied to the prepayment. When they are all used up then charges will be against your credit card.

If you have unapplied credits when you check out, they will refund the excess to a single Disney Gift Card.

You are always such a wealth of information!! I think I will do this for my trip in May

 

[Leajess99]

What you can do at check-in is have all the Gift Cards applied as a credit to your room account. As charges on your KTTW go through, they will first be applied to the prepayment. When they are all used up then charges will be against your credit card.

If you have unapplied credits when you check out, they will refund the excess to a single Disney Gift Card.

They would not do it this way for us. They said they can only use as much in gif cards as we have charged. We go ahead and charge to the KTTW card and then give the gift cards on checkout. We have not exceeded the amount they run before checkout though.

 

[msmama]

In my experience, you have to have charged SOMETHING before they will put a credit on your account. But, they don't charge your credit card until the end of your stay so at least by the night before you have to make sure you use your gift cards.

(Personally, I do every few days, though I've never had enough GC's to cover everything).

 

[Fire14]

In my experience, you have to have charged SOMETHING before they will put a credit on your account. But, they don't charge your credit card until the end of your stay so at least by the night before you have to make sure you use your gift cards.

(Personally, I do every few days, though I've never had enough GC's to cover everything).

I know I had put GC on my KTTW account prior to charging anything as it was my way of getting around old 3 forms of payment when buying park tix.

 

[baseballmickey]

We used GCs for our most recent trip, and I carried them with us because I had read that you couldn't apply them to your KTTW card ahead of time. I didn't even bother to ask at the desk when we checked in. The biggest problem I had was keeping track of what was left on each card.

Eventually, I used the system of paying as much as I could with GCs on a single purchase without going over, and then putting the balance on the KTTW. I then paid the room charges with the remaining GC's the night before we checked out. It kept the room charges to a minimum, and it saved me the confusion of trying to keep track of what cards were fully loaded vs. having small amounts left on them.

 

[gapoochi]

just stumbled over here...have to ask...how do you get them for 5% off at Target? Thank you!

 

[Cinbride]

Also curious....

 

[sunflare]

If you have a Target debit or credit card, you automatically get 5% off all purchases. This includes the $50 Disney gift cards they sell in the stores.

 

[EMAW_KSU]

The biggest problem I had was keeping track of what was left on each card.

You can get an Disney app on your phone that tracks gift card balances.

 

[Marionnette]

So I have managed to stockpile lots of Disney gift cards for our upcoming vacation--some I got at Target for 5% off, and some I got at BJs for 4% off, with an additional 1% on my Disney Visa.

I have never done this before, but am so glad to already have "paid" for all our dining and shopping expenses (I hope)!

Here's my question: Should I carry (some of) the gift cards around with me to use for our dining/shopping or is it just much easier to charge to the room on the KTTW card and then settle with the gift cards at the front desk every so often? And, if I do it this way, how often do I need to do that so the charge doesn't go over to my Visa (defeating the whole point!)?

Thanks!

I've never had a problem putting any GCs on my resort account. But you might want to put some on the room account and carry a couple of GCs with you if you are on the dining plan. That way, you can use the GCs to pay for any food that you don't want to use dining credits on.

 

[cvjw]

What you can do at check-in is have all the Gift Cards applied as a credit to your room account. As charges on your KTTW go through, they will first be applied to the prepayment. When they are all used up then charges will be against your credit card.

If you have unapplied credits when you check out, they will refund the excess to a single Disney Gift Card.

I thought this was the way it was supposed to work also, but I had a different experience last month at BWV. I charged everything to the room, and then wanted to pay with 2 $500 disney gift cards. My balance wasn't that much yet, but I had a couple of days left to charge. 2 different CM's plus a manager told me that if you apply too much credit to your account with a gift card, and then don't end up spending it all, NO REFUNDS WILL OR CAN BE GIVEN. I didn't have this happen - I spent it all (of course), but I was told this by 3 different people, on 2 different days.

The room charges don't hit your credit card until midnight of your last night, so you can easily go down a couple of times during your stay and pay off your outstanding balance with your gift cards.

 

[SSDonut]

Wow! Thanks for all the input, everyone

I think I will go armed to do any/everything!

I'll see if they'll let me put some of the gift card $$ on my account when we check in, and if not I'll use some of the cards directly for food (we don't have a dining plan) and put some on the KTTW card, reconciling that at the front desk with the gift cards a few times through the stay.

Thanks for the info that the charges won't go to the credit card until the night before check-out too--that's really helpful to know.

When I get back, I'll let you all know what happened!!

Thanks!

 

[starry_solo]

Why not just spend the gift cards instead of charging to room and paying?