Anyone use gift cards to pay for their WDW trip?

[maui2k5]

We are heading to WDW this August and I am contemplating buying Disney Gift cards at Target using my Target Red Card to get a 5% discount. Our trip costs roughly $5000 so this would be a $250 savings. Any downsides aside from if we cancel (extremely unlikely) I’m stuck with a lot of Disney gift cards?

 

[Capitalangel]

I paid for our trip and food using gift cards because my grocery store gives 5.00 off groceries per 50.00 gift card so 10% savings that I could use from my grocery budget and put on vacation budget! Extra 700 dollars is nice to have : ). I have also done this with at least one or two Disney cruises. As you mentioned, the downside is if you have to cancel or have money left over ( hahah) it is locked into a gift card. I had to cancel our DL trip last year for obvious reasons and so applied those cards to our next trip so that I didn’t have 3000 worth of gift cards sitting in an envelope. Make sure to keep the cards until after you have traveled because the value will go back to the cards if something is refunded.

 

[Rm4OneMore]

We do the same thing. You let me know if you need any help spending any excess gift cards. Lol

 

[Marionnette]

We are heading to WDW this August and I am contemplating buying Disney Gift cards at Target using my Target Red Card to get a 5% discount. Our trip costs roughly $5000 so this would be a $250 savings. Any downsides aside from if we cancel (extremely unlikely) I’m stuck with a lot of Disney gift cards?

Lots of people do it. There's an entire thread on the Budget Board dedicated to gift card discounts.

Downsides would be the $$$$ sunk in Disney GCs which are non-refundable.

Then there's the problem with combining GCs - you can only merge up to $1000 on a single GC using the disneygiftcard.com website.

Hacking of GCs can occur and straightening it out can be a hassle or may not get resolved at all.

GCs can get misplaced or lost.

The Disney website may limit the number of GCs that you can use in a single payment. Calling to pay with multiple GCs can be time-consuming.

If you cancel a trip which was paid for with GCs, the funds get returned to the GC that it came from. It's important to keep that GC info until you have completed your trip. For that reason, you also do not want to keep transferring balances to the same GC over and over in order to make multiple $1K payments. The maximum value that a GC can have is $1K and Disney would not be able to refund $5K to one card. That would require them to send you 4 $1K GCs and that could take a lot of time.

ETA: I buy Disney GCs throughout the year in order to pay my DVC dues every January, so I'm not against purchasing them. But you asked for the downsides so there you have them. BTW, If you're really good at it, you can do much better than a 5% discount.

 

[maui2k5]

What about buying gift cards for e-delivery?

 

[Marionnette]

What about buying gift cards for e-delivery?

What about them? They work to pay off your balances just like physical GCs.

 

[maui2k5]

So no issues with just buying 10 $500 gift cards at Target over time then applying them one by one on the disney site to pay off the trip?

 

[Marionnette]

So no issues with just buying 10 $500 gift cards at Target over time then applying them one by one on the disney site to pay off the trip?

If you spread those purchases out over time you should be fine. Just be aware that it's possible that Target's security software could flag you for possible money laundering and cancel your order. @Ladyandthepuppies recently posted that it happened to her. https://www.disboards.com/threads/target-red-card.3840841/#post-63071500

 

[pens4821]

No issues using gift cards. I buy them through the grocery store for the fuel perks ever couple months. That way it’s not quite as much a shock to the wallet when you pay for it.

As others said, downfall is you have a lot of money tied up in non refundable gift cards. We go ever 2/3 years so that money just sits there. We figure we will use them eventually though and like I said it helps make it easier to pay for instead of all at once.

 

[Robbydj13]

I have done this as well and it’s an easy way to save money besides the obvious risk if you had to cancel. I have decided not to do it this year as it is possibly we may decide to cancel depending on whether or not everything has reopened by December. But in previous years, we would use gift cards.

 

[decheez]

We are heading to WDW this August and I am contemplating buying Disney Gift cards at Target using my Target Red Card to get a 5% discount. Our trip costs roughly $5000 so this would be a $250 savings. Any downsides aside from if we cancel (extremely unlikely) I’m stuck with a lot of Disney gift cards?

It's definitely a strategy lost of people use. I personally wouldn't do it too far in advance because as other people have said, you're tying a lot of money up in gift cards that you otherwise could possibly be earning interest on. I average about 9% interest earned on my investments and this past year it was over 20%. So for me unless I was only buying them a few weeks before my trip I'd actually lose money overall compared to leaving it in an investment account. So I'd say go for it, but do so the last month before you travel!

 

[2letterwords]

I grab a Disney gift card (50-100) each month when I shop at Target. We usually do one big WDW trip every 1-2 years so it helps us spread the cost out a bit over time. We don't aim to pay off the entire cost, but we find it helpful.

 

[Belleandtinker]

We have done this many times and what did we learn....
* Trip cancels (you have gift cards not cash) - happened to us during March 2020
* Keep your gift cards/numbers so if you cancel the gift card value can be placed back on them. We didn't save them and got our gift card money back but took a few calls.

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

I don't pay for the whole trip with them but I do pay for alot of it. I buy the physical gift cards and combine them into 1. Since I go so often, I've never been worried about being stuck with alot of money on gift cards.

I tried to order them once through Target and they cancelled the order so I no longer order them on Target's website.

 

[Disneyfan754321]

I paid for all of our trip with giftcards that I bought at samsclub with my credit card so I got points as well.
I over bought and I had $300 ( 3 $100) left.
I sold it in Ebay for $300 after the fees it was what I paid for it.... so it worked out.
I was not understanding why giftcards resell for the same of slightly above but they do.
I paid the trip off slow with $25-50 giftcards every week and then took cards to act as my food plan.

If figured worst case everyone was getting disney presents from the disney store lol

 

[Disneygrl71]

I just did this last night. Bought the gc off target.com, applied and paid off our trip. Saved $100 bucks

 

[DizneyFamof4]

We go to WDW regularly and have been doing this for years. In the past, before Target got smart, I was saving up to 15% per trip, that was GREAT
Throughout the year I normally buy them at Target and whenever Sam's has a special deal. Then I always combine them using the disneygiftcard site so I do not have a ton of cards, plus it is easier to give my TA 1-3 GC numbers to payoff our reservation. Then while we are at WDW, I will go down every few days and payoff our MB room charges, and get a printout to look over for any mistakes. This way I do not need to keep any GCs with me and if I am not with the rest of my family, they can still buy stuff using the MB. Plus, if you lose a GC anyone who finds it can use it, no security, so we rather use our MBs that have a PIN.

 

[Disneyfan754321]

Dont forget to buy landrys giftcards & join landrys club.
I think I got $90 for $75 @ sams plus the credits on the landrys club card.

Sam's club
$500 for $484

 

[Dug720]

Dont forget to buy landrys giftcards & join landrys club.

Just as a note: The Landry's cards and joining their "club" are only good at their restaurants (Rainforest Cafe, T-Rex, Yak and Yeti). If you're not planning to go to any of them, those cards will do you no good as you can't use them at the other restaurants. (The post reads like they are essential to a Disney vacation and they are not.)

 

[Disneyfan754321]

Just as a note: The Landry's cards and joining their "club" are only good at their restaurants (Rainforest Cafe, T-Rex, Yak and Yeti). If you're not planning to go to any of them, those cards will do you no good as you can't use them at the other restaurants. (The post reads like they are essential to a Disney vacation and they are not.)

Thank you I should have included that.
$25 to join
$25 credit on card ( sometimes more if they have a promo)
$25 birthday credit