Disney Gift Card - What If Lost? Combining?

[tazleiten12]

So I have been saving up my Disney gift cards and combining them. I have a few that have the Max. $1,000 balance on them. I started to think, what happens if i lose one or more? According to the gift card web site, you need the original receipt. So do you need the original receipt for ALL the cards you combined or just the one that you have the total on? That one may have only been bought as a $50 card. Is that one $50 receipt good enough to get the $1000 total replaced?

 

[Lain]

I'm going to cut right to a practical solution.

Always record, in a spreadsheet or a notebook, the gift card number and PIN along with the balance on each card. That way, if you lose a card, you still have access to the information (and funds) stored on it. It would also be helpful if you save the card you're using and have an another card saved to the disneygiftcard .com website in case you have to move funds around. If you lose a Disney gift card with a balance on it, you can enter that gift card's number and PIN into disneygiftcard .com, see and access the balance information, and transfer that entire balance onto another card that is in your possession. Effectively, you've zero'd out your lost card and transferred all its funds onto one in your possession. You can do this anywhere by accessing the disneygiftcard .com website on your smartphone.

Personal story: I paid for a meal at Disneyland with a Disney gift card and forgot to take the card with me when we left the restaurant. Once I realized I didn't have the gift card, I immediately pulled up disneygiftcard .com on my iPhone, it already had that gift card saved, and I transferred the entire balance onto another card in my possession. Luckily, the restaurant was holding the gift card for me when I returned and the balance would've been safe anyway.

 

[Marionnette]

So I have been saving up my Disney gift cards and combining them. I have a few that have the Max. $1,000 balance on them. I started to think, what happens if i lose one or more? According to the gift card web site, you need the original receipt. So do you need the original receipt for ALL the cards you combined or just the one that you have the total on? That one may have only been bought as a $50 card. Is that one $50 receipt good enough to get the $1000 total replaced?

I agree with Lain. Always keep a record of the GCs. When I travel, I take a picture of the reverse side of the GCs with my phone. I keep them in folders based on their balances ($50, $100, $250, $500 and $1,000). When I need the money, I use the disneygiftcard .com app to transfer the balance to a card in my possession. If I happen to lose that physical GC, I keep a dummy GC with no balance on it in my online account so that I can immediately transfer the funds to it so that the finder can't use the GC I lost. Then, I purchase a physical GC in one of the stores and load it with $5. Once I have a new physical GC, I can transfer the funds to it from the dummy GC.

 

[tazleiten12]

Thanks to you both. I plan on keeping all the number/pics so i have a record. So would it be wise to have smaller amount cards? That way i can transfer $$ to them, since the max on a card is $1000. I already have cards with the max on it. I should probably get a card with a $0 balance then, in case i lose one of the $1000 cards, then i could transfer it to the $0 balance one, right?

 

[gottalovepluto]

Thanks to you both. I plan on keeping all the number/pics so i have a record. So would it be wise to have smaller amount cards? That way i can transfer $$ to them, since the max on a card is $1000. I already have cards with the max on it. I should probably get a card with a $0 balance then, in case i lose one of the $1000 cards, then i could transfer it to the $0 balance one, right?

I keep an empty Disney gift card registered in my account! That way if one gets lost I can immediately transfer the balance to the empty card. While on my trip to Disney I give the empty registered card as well as additional unregistered, empty cards to someone else in my family in case I lose the $$$$ cards. So, if I have 4 loaded Disney gift cards, I also bring 4 empty Disney gift cards, that way each loaded card has an empty backup.

Stay with me, here's my logic: I have 4 full cards registered containing all my vacation funds and 1 empty card registered for transfer purposes. I lose 1 card: I can immediately transfer the funds onto the empty card. If I loose all 4 cards: I can transfer 1 card to the empty registered card, delete missing card #1, register empty card #2, transfer funds from missing card #2, delete missing card #2, and so forth. This way I have the ability on my trip to transfer all vacation funds to new cards if necessary. A bit paranoid I know but hey, I lose things all the time and this is something I literally can't afford to lose!

 

[Marionnette]

Thanks to you both. I plan on keeping all the number/pics so i have a record. So would it be wise to have smaller amount cards? That way i can transfer $$ to them, since the max on a card is $1000. I already have cards with the max on it. I should probably get a card with a $0 balance then, in case i lose one of the $1000 cards, then i could transfer it to the $0 balance one, right?

Yes! I keep cards with $0 on them for that very purpose. And the only time that I combine up to $1K on a single GC is when I have to make a large payment to Disney (like for tickets or my DVC dues). The rest are in smaller amounts to cover only what I think that I will spend in a single day.

 

[Marionnette]

I keep an empty Disney gift card registered in my account! That way if one gets lost I can immediately transfer the balance to the empty card. While on my trip to Disney I give the empty registered card as well as additional unregistered, empty cards to someone else in my family in case I lose the $$$$ cards. So, if I have 4 loaded Disney gift cards, I also bring 4 empty Disney gift cards, that way each loaded card has an empty backup.

Stay with me, here's my logic: I have 4 full cards registered containing all my vacation funds and 1 empty card registered for transfer purposes. I lose 1 card: I can immediately transfer the funds onto the empty card. If I loose all 4 cards: I can transfer 1 card to the empty registered card, delete missing card #1, register empty card #2, transfer funds from missing card #2, delete missing card #2, and so forth. This way I have the ability on my trip to transfer all vacation funds to new cards if necessary. A bit paranoid I know but hey, I lose things all the time and this is something I literally can't afford to lose!

I don't keep any cards with a balance loaded in my disneygiftcard .com account. I'm too concerned about hackers getting in and transferring those funds to one of their own GCs.

 

[gottalovepluto]

I don't keep any cards with a balance loaded in my disneygiftcard .com account. I'm too concerned about hackers getting in and transferring those funds to one of their own GCs.

It might be time for us to start a Blog: Paranoid People- Disney Edition!

 

[Lain]

I would add that when we visited Walt Disney World and stayed on-site with MagicBands, we just locked all our Disney gift cards in the safe in our room and charged everything using our MagicBands. Everything was charged back to our room, and every other night or so, I'd go down to the front desk with a Disney gift card to pay off the current balance. We never took the gift cards out of the safe and risked losing them otherwise.

 

[DizMe]

I don't use Disney GCs except in small amounts (my kids each get one). It isn't worth the hassle and headache for me for the small savings I get. I've had too many issues; I use my SW cc for points instead. I will add here that I'm not one of those people who have thousands of dollars to put on gift cards, but even if I were, I don't see saving $100 or whatever as worth it.

 

[hsmamato2]

I like your ideas.... Now I just have to sift thru my box of saved gc's (from the glory days of target/ebay) and firgure out which cards are my current cards! See... I've been saving each one, but I need to notate which ones are 'active' for my usage ,what I'm calling 'active' are any cards that I've dropped into my acct to keep on one of my 5 cards.( I've always #'d them with a sharpie, so that simplifies things, I'll just go backward based on the #'s on them) Now I'm feeling paranoid about someone stealing my balances... has anyone actually ever had that happen? (it doesn't take much to make me paranoid lol) and I REALLY like your idea to keep on at $0 balance just in case a physical card gets lost on a trip..... I usually keep most of my funds on one card (for me) then some for my DH to use freely, then for whichever kiddo I have with me that needs to use one....

 

[tzeitel]

I do what others have mentioned. I have a main gift card, and then have a back up card (labeled as such) that I take with us and keep in the room safe. If anything happened I would just transfer the $.

 

[georgina]

I love Disney gift cards! Our grocery store periodically has extra fuel rewards on them, so I can get free $12 gas for every $100 I spend on them, plus with 6% back with my AmEx, it's a great savings. I'm not one of those people who would ever spend money on a vacation that I didn't already have saved up, but I definitely see 18% savings as worth it! Keeping organized is the key, recording all the numbers, not carrying them around.

 

[tazleiten12]

Thanks for all the great ideas!

 

[coachk34]

I had no idea there was a $1000 limit on gift cards. I had planned on paying the balance of my upcoming reservation with gift cards from Sams Club. My remaining total is $1022. How do I get around Disney only allowing one form of payment? I am sure I am missing something simple. Thanks for the help.

 

[Lain]

I had no idea there was a $1000 limit on gift cards. I had planned on paying the balance of my upcoming reservation with gift cards from Sams Club. My remaining total is $1022. How do I get around Disney only allowing one form of payment? I am sure I am missing something simple. Thanks for the help.

The $1000 limit hasn't limited anyone else from using Disney Gift Cards. This limit is only per gift card; you can store your funds across multiple cards. You can also call into Reservations and give them your Disney Gift Card numbers to apply to your reservation. Before disneygiftcard .com and its combine function came along, people used to call in and read off dozens of $50 and $100 cards to pay off their vacations.

 

[hsmamato2]

the limit is per gift card, so you can have 5 gift cards in your account,each with 1000 on it.

 

[coachk34]

The $1000 limit hasn't limited anyone else from using Disney Gift Cards. This limit is only per gift card; you can store your funds across multiple cards. You can also call into Reservations and give them your Disney Gift Card numbers to apply to your reservation. Before disneygiftcard .com and its combine function came along, people used to call in and read off dozens of $50 and $100 cards to pay off their vacations.

the limit is per gift card, so you can have 5 gift cards in your account,each with 1000 on it.

Thanks for the reply. I just knew when I made my initial deposit I could only use 1 form of payment online. May just have to call in when I make the final payment.

 

[Lain]

the limit is per gift card, so you can have 5 gift cards in your account,each with 1000 on it.

I would add that yes, you can have 5 gift cards stored on your disneygiftcard .com account, but you can also "delete" any of those cards from your account when you need more room to add or manage other cards (or are worried about having this kind of info stored online). "Deleting" the cards only removes the card from your account, it doesn't delete any funds on the cards. The downside to deleting a card from your account is, of course, you no longer have access to it through disneygiftcard .com (e.g. to transfer funds if lost) unless you have the number and PIN available to input it again.

 

[PerfessorZ]

Also, there's nothing stopping you from creating a second Disney Gift Card account, although @Lain 's suggestion works just fine and it's what I do too.