Canceling Disney Reward Visa Q & other rewards cards

[Lovemydog]

Hello, I have racked up enough Disney dollars for our next trip, whenever that may be, & would like to start accumulating reward dollars for general travel expenses. I have two questions:

1. Would the thing to do be to transfer the reward dollars from our Visa to a Disney gift card now, then cancel the credit card? Will the gift card expire? (We won't be going to Disney for a couple of years.) And will we be able to pay for our on-site hotel, plus expenses with that gift card?

2. Can anyone recommend a good travel rewards card? I am looking at Capital One. It looks like you get rewards that can be cashed in for any hotel, flight, etc. that you book yourself. That looks convenient.

Thanks in advance!

 

[smitch425]

Hello, I have racked up enough Disney dollars for our next trip, whenever that may be, & would like to start accumulating reward dollars for general travel expenses. I have two questions:

1. Would the thing to do be to transfer the reward dollars from our Visa to a Disney gift card now, then cancel the credit card? Will the gift card expire? (We won't be going to Disney for a couple of years.) And will we be able to pay for our on-site hotel, plus expenses with that gift card?

2. Can anyone recommend a good travel rewards card? I am looking at Capital One. It looks like you get rewards that can be cashed in for any hotel, flight, etc. that you book yourself. That looks convenient.

Thanks in advance!

Can't help with question 2, but as for the first question, if you transfer your rewards to a redemption card now, that card will expire on Dec. 31, 2015. You will have to transfer them to a redemption card and then use the redemption card to buy a Disney gift card (or multiple cards) because those do not expire. If it were me, I would wait to redeem and just leave the account open so you can still take advantage of the card's perks (like early booking for deals and the free photo in Epcot).

ETA: Forgot to say, you will need to purchase your gift card(s) BEFORE you cancel the credit card. From www.disneyrewards.com/terms...

8. If your Card Account is voluntarily or involuntarily closed for any reason and/or charged off as a loss by Chase, all Reward Dollars accrued and/or posted to your Card Account, as well as any Redemption Cards issued to you and any Reward Dollars on such Redemption Cards, will be immediately cancelled and permanently forfeited. Any pending request to transfer the Reward Dollars to a Redemption Card will not be honored. Forfeited Reward Dollars cannot be reinstated to your Card Account.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

You can transfer the point before and have it put on a gift card. GC don't expire

I like the SWA CC. Right now they are offering 50,000 mile promo. Just have to charge $2,000.00 in the first 90 days. Most other cards with the same offer require you spend $3000 in first 90 days.

The other bonus is if you do online shopping and do your shopping through the SWA Rapid Rewards site you can get bonus miles. For example we bought a snowblower from Home Depot and bought throught the RR site. For every dollar you spend at HD you got rewarded 2 points per dollar. Then we paid for the snow blower with the SWA CC and earned another point. So we got 3 points per dollar spent. They are 100's of stores that with various bonus point rewards.

YOu can use the point to book flights, car, hotels right online!

I just booked a r/t to WDW this morning and used 16,000 points to book an April trip. So the 50,000 points could net me 3 r/t tickets to WDW

 

[Marionnette]

Hello, I have racked up enough Disney dollars for our next trip, whenever that may be, & would like to start accumulating reward dollars for general travel expenses. I have two questions:

1. Would the thing to do be to transfer the reward dollars from our Visa to a Disney gift card now, then cancel the credit card? Will the gift card expire? (We won't be going to Disney for a couple of years.) And will we be able to pay for our on-site hotel, plus expenses with that gift card?

2. Can anyone recommend a good travel rewards card? I am looking at Capital One. It looks like you get rewards that can be cashed in for any hotel, flight, etc. that you book yourself. That looks convenient.

Thanks in advance!

1. If you cancel the Disney Visa, you will lose those rewards points, even if they have been transferred to a rewards card. You could preserve those rewards points by using the rewards card to purchase Disney GCs. I haven't been able to do that at my local DisneyStore but I can do it online without a problem.
   
2. I preferred the Chase Sapphire Preferred Visa. It has an annual fee but they are currently offering 40K rewards points if you spend $3k in the first 3 months. Their rewards points can be transferred into any number of hotel and airline programs, used to rent cars, book airfare and hotels directly, redeem for gift cards, statement credits or even get cash back. I find their program to be so much more flexible than the Southwest Visa. You can also shop through their portal for extra rewards points.

 

[scard192]

1. If you cancel the Disney Visa, you will lose those rewards points, even if they have been transferred to a rewards card. You could preserve those rewards points by using the rewards card to purchase Disney GCs. I haven't been able to do that at my local DisneyStore but I can do it online without a problem.

1. 
   
   happy to see these details. I have the regular Disney Visa and signed up for the Premiere one to get a $200 GC. Plan to cancel the card later in the year before I have pay the annual fee again and wasn't sure about how to handle the rewards on that card as we won't be going to Disney again for a few years.
   Thanks!

 

[MinnieForMe]

I can't argue with the above suggestions:
If you need to pay for flight and have access to SW, then get their card ASAP as they are running the 50K promo.

The Chase Sapphire is my next favorite card followed by the Barclay's World Mastercard. It hasn't been mentioned but the sign up bonus is 40K (equal to $400) for a $1000 spend.

Do you have the annual fee free Disney card? If you do, why not keep it as the older the card, the better it looks on your credit report. However, if you need it to free up your credit line, you can always call Chase and have the line moved to a Chase Sapphire Preferred if you don't get instantly approved.

 

[Kachina]

1. I preferred the Chase Sapphire Preferred Visa. It has an annual fee but they are currently offering 40K rewards points if you spend $3k in the first 3 months. Their rewards points can be transferred into any number of hotel and airline programs, used to rent cars, book airfare and hotels directly, redeem for gift cards, statement credits or even get cash back. I find their program to be so much more flexible than the Southwest Visa. You can also shop through their portal for extra rewards points.

Ditto on this card. We just got our bonus rewards points, and that plus the 20% points discount you get if you book through their travel portal has one of us flying for free to WDW next time we go, with points left over. That plus the trip cancellation insurance plus the car rental collision damage waiver made this one perfect for us. Give them a look, it's a great card with a ton of perks.

We also have the capital one card, but prefer the sapphire. Nothing wrong with the capital one card, just seems like sapphire is giving us more points per purchase through their portal, and I really like their travel booking deals as well.

 

[Lovemydog]

Thanks so much everyone! I will definitely keep the Disney card open after reading your advice & check out all three rewards cards suggested. You guys are awesome.

 

[SuzanneSLO]

Thanks so much everyone! I will definitely keep the Disney card open after reading your advice & check out all three rewards cards suggested. You guys are awesome.

For many people, a good cash back card may be the best option. I believe that one of the PPs mentioned the Barclays World Mastercard.

Gary Leff discusses the alternatives to mile or points rewards here: http://boardingarea.com/viewfromthe...-miles-and-what-are-the-best-cash-back-cards/

Best of luck -- Suzanne

 

[Lovemydog]

Thanks again everyone-we went withe the Chase Sapphire, as suggested. The Southwest sounded great, but they do not fly out of our city.

One follow up: so thanks to your advice we will keep the Disney Visa open. Meantime, I notice there are reward dollars expiring each month this year beginning in April. So I am thinking I should have all points transferred to a Redemption Card now? Which it sounds like will then expire 12/31/15. If we do not travel to Disney before then, can I then put those onto a gift card which could then be used toward our on-site lodging anytime? Over the phone?

Thanks for your expertise!

 

[wiigirl]

For many people, a good cash back card may be the best option. I believe that one of the PPs mentioned the Barclays World Mastercard.

Gary Leff discusses the alternatives to mile or points rewards here: http://boardingarea.com/viewfromthe...-miles-and-what-are-the-best-cash-back-cards/

Best of luck -- Suzanne

Thanks!