Credit Card Payoff of Loan

[Island_Lauri]

Does anyone know if you can use Discover or American Express to pay off the balance due on a DVC loan? I have a great offer of 0% finance charge for a year but it must pay off another credit card balance so I would like to use Disocver or Amex for cash rebates also. Thanks for any info you may have on this.

Lauri

 

[DVC-Don]

I'm pretty sure that you can use the Discover. I used my Southwest Visa to pay ours off a couple of weeks ago. Got a free round trip voucher and now I'll pay the Visa off with our home equity line of credit. I only had to call MS Accounting.

 

[dcfromva]

DVC-Don,

I used my Southwest Visa to pay ours off a couple of weeks ago. Got a free round trip voucher and now I'll pay the Visa off with our home equity line of credit.

I love this Board. I would not have thought of this on my own......(Now, I have to look for the SWA CC offer that came in the mail. )
-DC

 

[Island_Lauri]

Just got off the telephone with Accounting and they only accept Visa or Mastercard to pay off loan balances. So much for the rebates on Discover or American Express for this.

Lauri

 

[SlyHubby]

Originally posted by Island_Lauri
Just got off the telephone with Accounting and they only accept Visa or Mastercard to pay off loan balances. So much for the rebates on Discover or American Express for this.

Though you may not be able to payoff using Discover or AMEX, you can still take advantage of the 0% money. Call them and tell them to issue you balance transfer checks - you can use them to write a check for anything - even to yourself. You can issue a check directly to DVC for your payoff, or write it to yourself, and then write your own check to DVC. We've taken advantage of a number of these interest free offers over the past year.

I'm also somewhat surprised that you can't payoff with AMEX considering how closely Disney works with AMEX. When we purchased our DVC membership 2 years ago, we paid the downpayment with AMEX and then a few weeks later the entire balance with AMEX as well.

Oh - also - just remembered...be careful with those 0% and low rate offers - be sure to read the fine print. Some issuers play games with them. For instance, if you have any outstanding credit card balance at the time you take the "free" money - some (e.g. Citibank) apply your payment to the low interest rate balance (or interest free) balance first. So, your other balance is always accruing interest at the credit card rate. It's a scam. The first time I saw it with Citibank, I paid the whole balance off immediately and canceled the card. To beat them at their own game, you need to have a $0 balance before you take their money, and then only keep the 0% balance on the card, making the minimum payment each month - do not use the card for charging - just put it away.

 

[Mai Ku Tiki]

Only VISA & MC, I'm afraid. We went to DVC offices while at WDW in June to try to pay off then. Since they'd accepted AMEX for deposit, we assumed we'd use AMEX for balance (to get rebate). No dice! They explained it is AMEX's policy, not theirs.

Sooo... we took a 0% interest/1% rebate Visa offer when we came home, paid off the balance to DVC, and in 6 mos. will pay that off with home equity line of credit.

It is a relief for us not to be paying Disney's 10-11% interest!

 

[Doctor P]

The checks carry with them a fee, though, and many people do not realize that (even if they are interest free).

 

[WolfpackFan]

Another thing to be carefull about with these low interest rate balance transfers - make absolutely sure you make your payments on time. If your payment is missed or late, alot of times your rate will be jacked up to a ridiculously high rate from that point forward. Also, like the previous poster said, make sure you have a 0 balance going in. Or your entire payments will go against the new balance, while your old balance gets assessed interest at the higher rate which never gets paid off. I've used these special deals numerous times, but you've got to really pay attention to the details. In fact, this is how I'm planning on joining the DVC.

 

[Island_Lauri]

When we were at OKW in late June, they were giving away Amex/Epcot pins to everyone. They said that Amex and Disney were parting ways by the end of the year.

I appreciate everyone comments about being aware of 0% interest - especially with balances and fees. I noted that the offer was for balance transfers but they also had a check payable to myself. Very leary about using that check because I was afraid that although it came with the offer, the check to myself would be considered a cash advance and not eligible for the 0% with the balance transfer.

I learned a lesson with Discover Card years ago about reading the small print. Had an $800 charge and paid 1/2 off when the bill came in. The next month, the interest on the $400 balance was outrageous. When I called Discover, they explained that if the bill is not paid in full, they go back to the charge date (not the posting date or the date of 2nd statement) and charge interest from that date forward.

Lauri

 

[Doctor P]

Disney has signed a new agreement with Bank One/First USA to market a new affinity card that will have a frequent buyer/rebate program. I suspect that this will become the official credit card of WDW.

 

[deerh]

Just curious, why would you pay with a CC? I know the interest charged by Disney is high, but it PROBABLY IS tax dectuible, whereas the CC interest (no matter how small) is not. If using a Home equity line, that is ok, as that is PROBABLY tax ded, too, but just curious as to the cc, ours is finaced thru Disney, at a lower rate a few years ago, and we claim it on our taxes for 2 years now. Just a thought........
deerh

 

[SlyHubby]

1. Current balance transfer and check writing deals with many CC companies is 100% interest and fee free if you understand the terms and use accordingly. So, tax deductibility or not, if you pay with any type of interest bearing instrument, the 0% offers are better. I have about 3 floating right now with 0% interest for 6 months to 1 year. I've actually taken free money from one, then applied for a new card when the time was running out, and transferred the remaining balance. Citibank was having a 3.9% rate with no time limit - you just had to pay the minimum 2% a month and then you also had to not keep any other balance on the card - otherwise that was financed at 10% (that scam thing - but you could work around it if you wanted to).

2. Folks looking to pay with AMEX, Discover, or other CC not using an interest free option are generally going to pay it off immediately and only using the CC to get some other benefit - with AMEX and some others you get frequent flier miles, Discover gets cash back, others use their Upromise or BabyMint. If you have the money to pay it off, it makes sense to charge to one of these CC and then pay off the CC company taking their benefits for simply letting the money go through their hands (taking their merchant fees from the company along the way). Likewise, if you are doing the balance transfer deal, instead of paying DVC directly with a transfer check, it is better to charge to one of the cards with an extra benefit, and then transfer that balance.