Chase Disney is Turning Me into a Madwoman!

[Karenj2]

gardenergirl - I don't think you can pay for your mortgage with a CC (but if you can, let me know the mortgage company!!)

When DH and I were going through fertility treatments we took out a loan for the $$$$$, paid for it with our Disney Visa (after having to ask for a limit increase), then paid it off with the loan. We got quite a bit of DRDs from that transaction, which made it slightly easier to deal with the fact that it cost a bunch to just get PG...

And OP, you're not crazy - I do the same thing! I'm a board member on a non-profit group, and once a month we go out to dinner before our meeting. Everyone else pays in cash, and I pay for it all with my CC. (It's a double bonus, because I earn $$, and I don't have to go to the ATM for cash.)

 

[RachaelA]

Oh No! Can anyone else comment on this?

I just earned 224 (used the visa to pay for our DVC purchase!) in one cycle plus 32 (and more coming!) in the 3 times rewards. Since december we've earned 500.

I think I remember reading back when we got the card 3+ years ago that the limit was 750 in a year (which would be spending $75,000), but they might have removed that limit.

 

[Diegosmom]

Havent signed up for the disney visa yet (have the $200 offer I need to do) but I have a southwest rewards card and I charge everything on that...so I can earn free flights...I also pay it off every month (well usually I am making a payment almost every week). I have been using my sears card cause they just sent me an offer for July, Aug, Sept each month that I spend $350 they will give me a credit of $15 so I am charging just $350...hey its $15 free then the rest goes on southwest...hubby just charged his car insurance $250 so we hit our $350 on tuesday and it was only the 5th...I really need to get the disney card.

 

[bumbershoot]

Clicking on the link given, and downloading the "handy" member guide PDF, you can go to page 15 and see that they state there is NO limit to the amount of rewards you can earn.


Small quibble...Disney Dollars are not what you earn. You earn Disney Dream Reward Dollars. Silly to even comment on, unless someone comes in and thinks that they will be getting actual Disney Dollars as their reward, and then totally messes up (doesn't redeem for the card, etc) and maybe loses their rewards. Disney Dream Reward Dollars.

Leave it to Disney to create names for two different things that are so easily confused. Dollars vs Dream Reward Dollars, Magic Morning vs Morning Madness, Space Mountain for two very different coasters once you're ON the coaster... Silly Disney...


I'm a madwoman with my Chase Disney DEBIT card right now. I only have until the 15th to earn my DDRDs, because after that the program is finished, and I'm sure my credit union is really peeved at all the transfers I'm doing from it. But after that I'll be at peace, because we'll just use our credit union credit card and earn WAY more points on that than we've been earning on the debit card. More than with the Disney Visa, too, but the tradeoff is that we can't spend the rewards *directly* at Disney.

 

[kkmcan]

Yup, I'm a madwoman as well with my Disney Visa. We've earned $550 in DDRD over the last year. We used $100 on our Disney cruise in March and then I just used the rest of the rewards ($450) to buy DL annual passes for our family of 4.

We put almost all of our bills on DV and a couple go on our Capital One (for airlines miles- we already have enough for one airfare and we redeemed for one airfare last Oct).

For June alone I just earned $50! We had some pretty large purchases and bills on there -booked a San Diego hotel stay (our summer vaca), booked dh's airfare to NYC for a conference, $866 spent on DL annual passes and my sons oral surgery he had 2 weeks ago. Then we had our usual bills and expenses on there so we ended up with a $5000 bill! Yikes! Good thing I know where all that money is coming from. Just paid the bill out of our checking account and not have to deal with tons of different bills to pay.

Our ds is getting braces in 2 weeks so that downpayment as well as all the monthly payments will go on the DV as well. We won't put anything on this credit card that will incure fees or cause us to lose out on a better deal.

 

[bamagirl@hrt]

I think there used to be a limit on how many reward dollars you could earn, but I think that may be gone now. We've earned 919 since last October, with most of those coming in this calendar year. We've done a lot of traveling, which earned some 3x bonus dollars, and had some major purchases. Of course, having that many makes me want to plan a trip!

 

[gardenergirl]

Thanks Karenj2, that might explain why hubs hasn't "managed" to change it over- and a good reason to quit asking him to do it-(although I don't think he's actually tried yet!).

 

[AmandaRG]

Thank you for posting this! I asked about it earlier this week on the boards but was told differently. I will be making a payment now, since I will still get my rewards and I have the $$ sitting there waiting to be paid!

Woohoo!

 

[dclfun]

Don't feel bad- I've been hooked on buying Disney gift cards on the Disney Shopping site with my Disney Visa, so earning the DDRD's from the purchase and then having the GC's which never expire to use on our upcoming trip plus the DDRD's vs. using my cc when we get there and having the DDRD's after the trip. I have a large stash right now, each with a different cute design. ---Kathy

 

[ToodlesRN]

I've been like that since Chase anncounced they are going away with the Disney Debit and now since it ends on July 15th I've been charging everything I can on my debit to get the last of the rewards I will be getting from Chase for our trip in October.

 

[Sagginit]

i feel like i spent a ton of money in the last few months on unexpected things. i totally got lucky with my card though, i got two back to back 3x reward deals. the first time i only hit the limit one month, the next time i hit it all three months. i started putting bills on it which was a great idea. my car needed repair so i put that on it which pushed me over that month. i then held off paying other bills till my billing cycle ended close to the end of the month to put me over what i needed for the next month. it was the silver lining to the expenses life threw at me. if i could put my rent on it i would be in business......too bad i can't swipe the card at my landlord.

i also get an employee discount at my company, but must be paid for in cash or on a CC in my name. if i go shopping with my mother i do the....well ill just put it on my card and we can do the math later and you can give me cash thing....

i have a generic bank CC that is my back up. i used that for a year and half straight until i got my chase disney. i was spending less but still only got a $50 visa giftcard when i cashed out because i never got bonus point offers. by the time i hit my one year mark from cashing out my points last fall, i will have at least 150 points. thats a nice chunk of change for one person to put towards a trip.

 

[neatokimmo]

Add me to the mad woman list! I had to call my roofer the other day and I asked the admin if I needed to pay by cash or credit. She said either was fine and I was so excited. She's probably like - what a nut job....excited about paying a bill? lol

But hey, I got $32 in extra dollars. They don't discount for cash so it was a wahhoo for me. I am up to $450ish for our Feb trip. I am a payer-offer every month so it is a freebie for us.

(I also paid for my Mom's hardwood flooring with my card for the points...and when we travel as group everyone gives me cash and I pay for stuff...it really does add up.)

 

[mommyof2princesses]

We charge everything to the Disney card! We have never paid a penny of interest as we pay it off each month, and sometimes more often if we had to buy something big. No matter how often or how much you pay, you always earn the disney rewards. The past 6 months we have had 2 different 5X rewards. So we have been racking them up. Hopefully it will cover the majority of our room for our next trip!

 

[My2CrazyGirls]

Does the original $200 card they send expire??? Also, if my husband ends up getting a $200 offer, can he do it and then his card would be a completely different account? Or could it be the same account? Or could he just not do it....1 per family?

Do I have to be at WDW to spend that $200 card?

 

[RachaelA]

Does the original $200 card they send expire??? Also, if my husband ends up getting a $200 offer, can he do it and then his card would be a completely different account? Or could it be the same account? Or could he just not do it....1 per family?

Do I have to be at WDW to spend that $200 card?

I know the rewards expire at some point, but I think its like 7 years of something. The rewards cards do expire within a year or two once you transfer over your dollars over (they send you a card with the money on it).

It would be two different accounts. I'm pretty sure its one per person because I know I've read on here about people and their spouses both having them.

You can spend the rewards card at WDW, at DL, on a vacation package, at disneystore.com. I'm pretty sure you can spend it at the actual disney store and I thought I remember reading there was a way to redeem it for disney movie tickets/movies as well.

 

[poohs4me]

This is so funny because I do the same thing. When DH buys something large he gets scolded if he does not use the Disney Card.

 

[MapleGirl]

This is so funny because I do the same thing. When DH buys something large he gets scolded if he does not use the Disney Card.

Oh yes! This would be a capital offense.

 

[DisneyArk]

We do the same thing! My kids are always saying, "Mom put that on the Disney Visa and I'll give you cash!" It's so funny!

I know it takes a long time to earn points, but it's a running joke with our family now.

 

[aribelle]

Does the original $200 card they send expire??? Also, if my husband ends up getting a $200 offer, can he do it and then his card would be a completely different account? Or could it be the same account? Or could he just not do it....1 per family?

Do I have to be at WDW to spend that $200 card?

Both DH and I applied separately got our cards and then called Chase to have them put our spouse on our card....so now we both have cards for both accounts.

And, by the way....I'm a stay at home mom with only a few hundred dollars a month part-time income, and I got a card with a $4,000 limit....DH's is triple that, but he's full time, lol. I say this so that stay at homes or part timers know they have a chance at their own card (of course, it will also depend on your credit rating, ours is in the 700's).

Plenty of places to redeem the rewards outside the parks....Disney stores if your area has one.....disneystores.com........for Disney movies and toys at places like Walmart, KB Toys, Target, etc. For the movies/toys you have to order a voucher from Disneyrewards.com and then take it to the store to get the toy/movie. Also can get vouchers for movie theatres (check disneyrewards.com for locations).

But they don't expire for quite a while....like several years, so hopefully you'll be able to collect them and take a great trip to WDW or DL!

 

[MapleGirl]

Well frost my cupcakes! I just ran my numbers with the Disney Rewards calculator and I really need to get one of those 5x rewards postcards. Does anyone know when they mail these out? Is there a way to up your chances of getting one?

OK, stay with me here....

• DH and I want to get (2) 10-Day Park Hopper passes with no expiry and the H2O option when we go back in 2.5 years. These passes will last us for the next 3-4 trips.
• Today that would cost us $1332. This doesn't even factor in price increases for the next couple of years.
• We'll have (2) 1-day passes from previous FD trips that we'll upgrade to buy the 10-day passes. These will reduce our overall costs by about $180.
• That leaves $1152 that must be paid for. *sigh*
• With our current spending we will not get near $1152 in rewards from our Disney Visa.
• With our current rate of return we'll likely have close to $500 in rewards.
• This is most excellent ("Party on dudes"), but my (over zealous, overly ambitious, rules mongering, type-A, commando-touring) goal is to have enough rewards points/Disney dollars that my OOP will be less than $500.
  

Can it be done? Only time will tell.

So do you, my fellow MEDDRD'ers (that's Mad Extreme Disney Dream Reward Dollar'ers) have any tips or advice that might help me reach this goal?