Attaching disney gift card to Magic Band

[StefWalsh]

Hey guys! Down here in Orlando now and checking into Art of Animation on Monday!

I want to pick up about $50-$75 in Disney gift cards to attach to my magic band, rather than my credit card, the reason being I have budgeted that in the cash I brought with me, so that I won't have to pay the conversion on the dollar if I were to use my Visa (I am from Canada).

Is there anything I should be aware of before I do this? I recall seeing a thread several months ago in which I believe a frequent poster commented that you should buy gift cards in smaller denominations (I.e. Two $25 cards rather than one $50 card), and that you need to go down to the desk at the hotel with the cards to pay for what you have charged to the magic band. Is this correct? Any insight would be appreciated!

 

[smbowtie]

Your CC won't be charged until you reach $500. You can use Gift cards or cash to pay off what you charge each day, that way you won't have a charge on your CC.

 

[AngiTN]

Hey guys! Down here in Orlando now and checking into Art of Animation on Monday!

I want to pick up about $50-$75 in Disney gift cards to attach to my magic band, rather than my credit card, the reason being I have budgeted that in the cash I brought with me, so that I won't have to pay the conversion on the dollar if I were to use my Visa (I am from Canada).

Is there anything I should be aware of before I do this? I recall seeing a thread several months ago in which I believe a frequent poster commented that you should buy gift cards in smaller denominations (I.e. Two $25 cards rather than one $50 card), and that you need to go down to the desk at the hotel with the cards to pay for what you have charged to the magic band. Is this correct? Any insight would be appreciated!

You are not able to do that. You can use them to pay down on the bill as you charge things to your room but you can't load the account with gift cards in advance.

I don't know what the reason for using only smaller denominations of the cards would be. It won't matter if you have $500 gift cards or $25 gift cards. Any of them can be used to pay off room charges.

Be aware, they will charge the card sometime in the wee hours before you check out. If you wish to use cards to pay off the bill you must do it before bed the night before you check out. Otherwise you have a headache of refunds to the card, etc. Just save yourself the headache and pay it off the night before.

 

[StefWalsh]

Thanks very much guys! That certainly makes things clearer for me'

 

[minnie mum]

I'm puzzled as to why you are going to the bother of buying gift cards in the first place. You already have the cash with you. Put it in your resort safe. Periodically during your stay, before you reach the $500 limit, go to the front desk with your cash and pay off your charges to date. Eliminate the middle man. And as a PP mentioned, make sure you make your final payment on the evening before you check out. Any outstanding balance present early in the morning or any charges made on the day of checkout will go on your credit card.

 

[jsanch2]

But you can attach a credit card to a magic band correct? Can people staying in the same room link different cards so that everyone can pay using their magicband and their card?

 

[AngiTN]

But you can attach a credit card to a magic band correct? Can people staying in the same room link different cards so that everyone can pay using their magicband and their card?

Yes and yes

 

[StefWalsh]

I'm puzzled as to why you are going to the bother of buying gift cards in the first place. You already have the cash with you. Put it in your resort safe. Periodically during your stay, before you reach the $500 limit, go to the front desk with your cash and pay off your charges to date. Eliminate the middle man. And as a PP mentioned, make sure you make your final payment on the evening before you check out. Any outstanding balance present early in the morning or any charges made on the day of checkout will go on your credit card.

I actually didn't know you could just pay in cash until your I saw the replies here. Everything I had read previously led me to believe that I had to use a card. Now that I know, I'll probably just stick to cash.

 

[Mikie]

Cash is still good everywhere! Many people use gift cards because they can get a small discount on them at certain stores (target, sam's) or because they've received them as gifts, or they purchase them as a way of saving for the trip where the $$ is definitely set aside for disney & can't be raided for other purposes

 

[Missyrose]

But you can attach a credit card to a magic band correct? Can people staying in the same room link different cards so that everyone can pay using their magicband and their card?

Yes, you can attach different credit cards to the different bands. My one piece of advice is to have each person charge something on Day 1,then have the front desk check the folio to make sure the charges are going to the right account. It's a lot easier to untangle charges from one day instead of a full week.

 

[lovemesomepooh]

I have a question about putting money on magic bands. I was told that I could put so much money on each of my kids magic bands so they can buy what they want. I was going to do that this year instead of getting Disney cards for them.

Am I understanding that I can't put money on our cards in advance?

 

[minnie mum]

I have a question about putting money on magic bands. I was told that I could put so much money on each of my kids magic bands so they can buy what they want. I was going to do that this year instead of getting Disney cards for them.

Am I understanding that I can't put money on our cards in advance?

No, you can't do that. They either have charging privileges to your room account, or they don't. You could try allowing them to charge with their MBs until they had reached the limit that you set for them (insist that they give you ALL receipts) and then stop their charging privileges once they've reached their limit. Or just go with the gift cards.

 

[Itinkso]

I have a question about putting money on magic bands. I was told that I could put so much money on each of my kids magic bands so they can buy what they want. I was going to do that this year instead of getting Disney cards for them. Am I understanding that I can't put money on our cards in advance?

That's correct. You cannot put money on a MagicBand because a MB does not hold any info. It links to your MDE account where your room reservation is also linked.

Every time you purchase something, the amount gets posted to your room account. Eventually, the balance gets charged to the credit card on file at the resort. You can apply the cash to your room account to reduce the balance that gets charged to your credit card.

 

[tcrandal]

This doesn't seem to be the case for the OP, but for those not understanding about why people would buy them, here's a hint...

I buy Target giftcards at 20% off, so on our flight to Disney right this very moment I have $1200+ of gift cards for Disney that I used those target cards to purchase. Hard to beat a 20% discount on anything at Disney! Plus I still get the CC rewards when I bought the target cards.

 

[Minniekins]

This doesn't seem to be the case for the OP, but for those not understanding about why people would buy them, here's a hint...

I buy Target giftcards at 20% off, so on our flight to Disney right this very moment I have $1200+ of gift cards for Disney that I used those target cards to purchase. Hard to beat a 20% discount on anything at Disney! Plus I still get the CC rewards when I bought the target cards.

Okay, I've got to ask, how the heck do you get Disney gift cards at Target for 20% off??? I was able to get my Disney gift cards at Target last year using the 5% discount for using my Red card, and then another 5% combining the Red card discount with the 5% pharmacy rewards discount card. That's still only 10% which seemed pretty good! We spent about $900 for $1000 in gift cards. I recently heard that they are not linger combining the discounts, so you only can get a total of 5%, bummer for sure! But, I can't imagine how you get 20% off the gift cards!! How do you do that, could you please share?

 

[itchin2go]

Okay, I've got to ask, how the heck do you get Disney gift cards at Target for 20% off??? I was able to get my Disney gift cards at Target last year using the 5% discount for using my Red card, and then another 5% combining the Red card discount with the 5% pharmacy rewards discount card. That's still only 10% which seemed pretty good! We spent about $900 for $1000 in gift cards. I recently heard that they are not linger combining the discounts, so you only can get a total of 5%, bummer for sure! But, I can't imagine how you get 20% off the gift cards!! How do you do that, could you please share?

Puzzled as well.

 

[summerskye]

I have a question about using multiple credit cards.

If I understand correctly, I can attach a different credit card to the kids magic bands. That way thier charges are separate from the parents. If so, is it possible to place a charge limit on the kids account?

Thanks

 

[Itinkso]

I have a question about using multiple credit cards. If I understand correctly, I can attach a different credit card to the kids magic bands. That way thier charges are separate from the parents. If so, is it possible to place a charge limit on the kids account? Thanks

Value resorts have the lowest limit set at $500 and then it resets after the system charges the attached credit card.

Gift cards may be the best way to limit spending. The Disney Gift Card app shows the real-time balance of every gift card that is registered on the app. If you lose a registered gift card, the balance of a lost card can be transferred to another or new card.

 

[summerskye]

Value resorts have the lowest limit set at $500 and then it resets after the system charges the attached credit card.

Gift cards may be the best way to limit spending. The Disney Gift Card app shows the real-time balance of every gift card that is registered on the app. If you lose a registered gift card, the balance of a lost card can be transferred to another or new card.

Thanks for the information. Kids have limit much lower than $500. Guess we will go with the gift card method.

 

[Laura's Dad]

I'm puzzled as to why you are going to the bother of buying gift cards in the first place. You already have the cash with you. Put it in your resort safe. Periodically during your stay, before you reach the $500 limit, go to the front desk with your cash and pay off your charges to date. Eliminate the middle man. And as a PP mentioned, make sure you make your final payment on the evening before you check out. Any outstanding balance present early in the morning or any charges made on the day of checkout will go on your credit card.

We were able to per-purchase $1000 worth of gift cards for our upcoming vacation for $950 at Sam's Club. We looked at how much meals, etc. were going to cost and decided to save a little money this way.