anybody have a Disney Visa?

[jenniferyawn]

Hey! I've been thinking of a Disney Visa card...how beneficial has it been for any of you fellow Disers who have one? I was thinking we'd charge about $1500/mo and pay it off each month...at least that's my hopeful plan!

 

[#1hoosierfan]

You get 1% back on most purchases. We put everything that we can on it...... utilities, groceries, gas, etc...

We have earned a few hundred dollars since last May. It is worth it IF AND ONLY IF you pay all of the balance each and every month. Otherwise the interest you pay will more than negate your rewards.

 

[TNKBELL]

I agree with the PP, it's great if you KNOW you can control your spending. Otherwise, just don't do it.

 

[adventure_woman]

We do this...what I do is input each transaction in our checkbook so it shows the money has been spent...it just all gets paid off at the same time at the end of the month.

 

[walkdmc]

It's nice to get the reward dollars but the 1% is annoying. Even more annoying is that many customers get 3x-5x the rewards during certain months. I've been a cardholder for 1 year and have yet to receive any such offer. I'm thinking of just going back to my Nordstrom Visa....I loved those Nordstrom Notes.

 

[jessp1021]

I think this is going to be my goal after taxes..I would love to have the rewards points to use on our trip in November and I think I will definitely do the same as others where I calculate the money spent to deduct it out of my checking account..I really think I need to use the checking balance book..

 

[luckyfin]

We know we can get rewards that have a bigger payout with a different card, but to us the Disney Dollars are an added bonus to our vacations. We use the reward dollars for extras that we would hesitate to pay for out of pocket, such as a round of golf, drinking around the world at Epcot, carriage rides, souvenirs... We see it as a way to add more magic to our Disney trips. We actually end up with enough by our trip every third year to pay off a chunk of the trip and have a good amount left over for the fun stuff.

 

[anna08]

If you live in an area with Southwest airlines, their Visa is much more beneficial. Easy to rack up free flights and I don't believe there are any different reward deals for certain customers. I have always paid DV in full but never get the 3x or 5x rewards deals, which would be your case as well.

 

[Pooh2]

Hubby and I each got the $200 Visa offer to start with. So we had $400 points right off. We've accumulated about $900 at this point toward our next trip!

 

[MUFFYCAT]

We've used it since day one and are please with it. There are other cards with higher rewards but it's nice to go to WDW and have your spending money or use it for the room charge.
I charge everything and pay the balance in full each cycle.
One year we had about $800 and checked into the BC concierge and paid our balance of $40 for the 3 nights.

 

[jenniferyawn]

Wow, everyone! Thanks for all the good info!! I think this will be a great plan for us since I know we're going to go back for years! The idea about deducting it from checking as you charge everything was awesome! Thanks very much!!!

 

[Sinderelly]

We LOVE our Disney Visa. Their customer service is AMAZING. We currently have $751 in reward points. to use for our upcoming cruise and WDW vacation. We plan to pay for tips, snacks, souveneirs etc. We use our card to pay for everything we can then we go online every few days to a week and pay the balance. Very easy and very rewarding.

 

[hibricc]

I got mine with the $200 offer just a couple of months before our recent trip. My wife was skeptical about the free 200 bucks ("they can't be just GIVING you $200..." Um, actually, yes, they did.), but she sure didn't complain when I was paying for meals and souvenirs with those free reward dollars!

As others have noted, other cards offer larger rewards, but we're not disciplined enough to set those rewards aside for something special (like a Disney vacation), and they usually just get applied back to our credit card payment. In a way, the limitation of the Disney Visa rewards (can only be used at WDW or Disney online) forces us to designate that money for our vacation.

All that said, I probably won't be using the Disney Visa again until I am positive we will be going again. (A sneakier person would use it to ensure a return trip, but I'm not that sneaky. )

ETA: Oh, and we didn't use any of the other benefits, like the 0% financing or character greetings. We visited the week after Christmas, and every time we were in Epcot at the right time, the line for the characters was INSANE.

 

[KerTggr]

If you aren't comfortable with using the Disney Visa CC option and managing your expenses, there is also an option at Chase to get a disney debit card. My friend has this and uses it for everything. I think the % back is less - like 0.5% instead of 1%.

(We are part of a CU which gives a better cash back option on our debit transactions so don't have any first hand knowledge of this.)