Best Deal on Gift Cards to purchase and Annual Pass?

[Laura's Dad]

I have waited a long time to purchase a WDW Annual Pass. We are going for 4 days/3 nights in March and 9 days/8 nights next December and I finally have the money together to make the purchase. I was very disappointed at the $50 price increase in October, but such is life.

My plan is to purchase the AP using Disney Gift Cards with a discounted price. I know that we can get 5% of via the Target Red Card, but I was wondering if there are any better opportunities via any other company that could possibly save me more than the Target deal. I know that wholesale clubs such as Sam's, BJ's, and Costco sometimes have reduced gift cards; I just don't know who has the best deal. My FastPass date for our March trip is in early January, and I would like to be able to check for AP room discounts for bothe of our upcoming trips when they become available. I would really like to purchase the AP as soon as possible with the best discounted price.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Cruising Engineer]

Check out the posts on this thread for the latest discounts available. Start at the newest one and work your way back a few pages. There are well over 1800 pages !!!!

https://www.disboards.com/threads/disney-gift-card-deals.2941964/

 

[missnic]

I renewed ours by buying gift cards at Best Buy via Swagbucks. For each $100 in gc, I got 9.50 back in Swagbucks, plus 5% cash back with my Citicard.

 

[tiggernpooh]

If you have a Discover Card, they are giving 5% cash back on wholesale club purchases up to $1500 thru December, so you can purchase up to $1500 in Disney gift cards at the reduced club price and get 5% on your Discover card. Otherwise, I think the 5% off using your Target card is about the best way to get a discount. And with Target, you can purchase e-gift cards right on the website for up to $500.

It can be kind of tricky using gift cards to purchase your AP. You will need to get on the Disney Gift Card website and set up an account so you can combine/transfer your gift card balances because you can only use one gift card per purchase on the Disney site, and you can only combine cards into a maximum of $1000, so you will need to think about how many APs you are buying and how to combine the gift cards and buy each AP separately.

Before the price increase in October, I wanted to purchase 3 APs ($849+tax =about $908 ea, I think). I bought $2700 (5@$500+ 1@$200) worth of Disney gift cards from Target (for $2565). On the Disney GC site, I entered all my gift cards, combined 2-$500 and bought tix #1, combined 2 more $500 CGs and bought tix #2, then combined the previous cards remaining amounts (approx. $92 ea.) combined with the remaining $500 and $200 and purchased tix #3 with the GC funds and then just used my Disney Visa for the remaining $24.

I hope Disney will start letting you combine the CGs into a higher amount or allow more then one gift card per transaction because once your purchase is over $1000, you can't get a full 5% off.

Good Luck!

 

[Laura's Dad]

If you have a Discover Card, they are giving 5% cash back on wholesale club purchases up to $1500 thru December, so you can purchase up to $1500 in Disney gift cards at the reduced club price and get 5% on your Discover card. Otherwise, I think the 5% off using your Target card is about the best way to get a discount. And with Target, you can purchase e-gift cards right on the website for up to $500.

It can be kind of tricky using gift cards to purchase your AP. You will need to get on the Disney Gift Card website and set up an account so you can combine/transfer your gift card balances because you can only use one gift card per purchase on the Disney site, and you can only combine cards into a maximum of $1000, so you will need to think about how many APs you are buying and how to combine the gift cards and buy each AP separately.

Before the price increase in October, I wanted to purchase 3 APs ($849+tax =about $908 ea, I think). I bought $2700 (5@$500+ 1@$200) worth of Disney gift cards from Target (for $2565). On the Disney GC site, I entered all my gift cards, combined 2-$500 and bought tix #1, combined 2 more $500 CGs and bought tix #2, then combined the previous cards remaining amounts (approx. $92 ea.) combined with the remaining $500 and $200 and purchased tix #3 with the GC funds and then just used my Disney Visa for the remaining $24.

I hope Disney will start letting you combine the CGs into a higher amount or allow more then one gift card per transaction because once your purchase is over $1000, you can't get a full 5% off.

Good Luck!

I am only buying one AP. So I should be able to get the two $500 gift cards , combine them into $1000, and then pay for my AP and still have a little bit left over, if I am correct. Is this the best way to go?

 

[Kylenick]

You can use Disney Rewards points to buy an AP if you have a Disney Visa. I also traded some Southwest reward points for Walmart gift cards that I used at Sams Club to buy discounted Disney gift cards.