Benefits of a Disney Visa?

[ckrieger]

We have the Visa and try to use it for groceries, gas, car repairs, ice skating lessons, anything kind of expensive. I pay it off every month otherwise the interest overshadows the rewards. We transfer the money to a rewards card before our trip and use it for food and tips. After about 18 months we have $330.

Carey

 

[sharona]

Once I knew we had a trip planned I used the card this year to pay for a couple of big ticket items. I also started using it to pay for dds music lessons, Christmas shopping, our airline tix, groceries, shopping, gas, dinners out, etc. Ended up with $246 plus I'm expecting to see that bonus $100 in rewards for the 3X offer on my next statement. Additionally got a 2nd card to get the $200 incentive so $546 to put toward our trip and all for things I would have bought anyway using cash or my debit card.

I do have a cash rewards visa also and yes that is usually a better deal but Disney Visa offered the 3X rewards right when I started planning my trip...

 

[BobbidiBoo's Mom]

I do have a cash rewards visa also and yes that is usually a better deal but Disney Visa offered the 3X rewards right when I started planning my trip...

How did you end up with this first offer from Disney? How would I get them to start to entice me with good offers like that $200 gift card. LOL

 

[sharona]

How did you end up with this first offer from Disney? How would I get them to start to entice me with good offers like that $200 gift card. LOL

The 3X rewards offer came on a post card. Many people on the DIS received the offer but the minimum amount to spend before the 3X kicked in was different and seemed to be based on spending habits. Mine was only $300 minimum but others had $3000...

The $200 offer I'd heard about from a coworker and went on their website looking for it. When I didn't see it I signed up for a different Visa with a $150 offer. Next week I got the other Visa and the $200 Disney Visa offer in the mail. Not sure if my being on their website triggered the $200 offer. It's possible I received the offer previously and threw it away since I was not planning a trip and was not really paying attention to Disney offers...

 

[minnie4me]

I was told by a credit card rep that the 3x, 5x what ever are random, though I think the more you use the card the more often you are randomly chosen. I get at least one a year, and they are usually for a 3 month period. We got the offer on both my card and DH's this time, but his was on purchases over $800 and mine was on purchases over $3000. We usually use the card in my name the most and use it for bigger purchases, thus the difference. We use a credit card to buy almost everything, especially food, gas, eating out, pharmacy and any travel, then I pay each off monthly. We are glad we are able to do that, even though I am sure the CC co is not. They take enough from us, so I don't mind taking whatever they are offering !! Our grocery store offers money off gas (at their pumps) for purchases made...they ran a special on Disney gift cards (often it is on any gift card), 20cents off per gallon (up to 30 gallons) for every $50 in card purchase. Bought a $500 card w/ Disney Visa (so at least 5 disney dollars), got $2.00 off per gallon ($60 savings) and I have $500 toward my payment. Actually we have done this 3 times...when you do the math, can't beat the deal...no matter what I've got to pay for all those things anyway.

 

[sunnyNP]

Not EVERYTHING counts though...have to read the fine print. I used the "same as cash checks" to pay for our new AC unit thinking "wow, $6000 would earn me major points", but the found out later that these credit checks don't count towards reward points AND i was charged a 3% transaction fee. In Jan, I also used it for "special disney vacation financing" which was supposed to be 6mos at 0%, but when I got the bill it was at the original rate. I just transfered the balance to another card with true 0% financing and am planning on cancelling the disney card as soon as it goes through.
I've had it for 4 years, and I just redeemed $140 disney gift card.
Hope you have better luck than me!

 

[csmommy]

I have $439 on my card right now, but I have saved this for 2 years. If you take a trip every 2 years or so, this card is great.

That exactly what we do! Love the Disney rewards.

 

[khakismum]

What we liked most about our DCC is the 6 months 0%. We used to plan our trips so that by month 5 we would be getting a bonus check or some other lump sum and we'd plan to use that for the balance pay-off. We are better about our finances now and we still use the 6 months 0% but we have the $$ sitting in the bank anyway and just use those extra months to accrue interest for *us*.

One of the things I really like about it is it is another source of discounts for us. Besides the shopping discount, sometimes we get discounts on party tickets, or tours. Our TA knows to check all discount options for us and between our APs, DCC, and AAA membership we can usually score a discount for everything.

We know the Rewards points are for Disney only, but that works for us since we go so often. It is just extra $$$ for us. We get the $$ xfered to a Visa gift card and we either use it in the shops or we just put it on our account at the hotel to charge against. We have had upward to $250 on it before. But that was a couple years worth of points collection. The funny part is, a WDW trip adds points to pay for another WDW trip! LOL

We enjoy getting the free 5x7 print and the private meeting the characters at Epcot. We do that every trip. It's like $12.95 in our pocket!

Basically, IMHO, if you do Disney at least every 2 years, and can be disciplined enough to pay the balance off every month, then it's a great idea. If you can't discipline yourself to pay it off every month, it's not so great...your interest can easily outstrip any savings the card can offer you. It comes down to a personal choice.

 

[Virtucomp]

We used Disney Rewards Visa for years to collect dollars for trips. They started doing 3X and 5X for special purchases so the points grew fast.

After the last trip we stopped using the card since we will not be going back for a while

We used the rewards points to pay for the deposit and the Keys to the kingdom tour.

We now use a different reward card that gives cash back and it is actually giving us more money overall. But it's not that special Disney money

One thing I would love to use it for is paying tuition bills. Unfortunately the college charges a 3% surcharge for paying tuition on a credit card so the rewards would be lost. If it weren't for the surcharge I'd be going for free every year.