Disney Gift Cards - best way to save $?

Once upon a time, Target allowed me to "double discount" using my 5% Pharmacy rewards card and my Red Card. This resulted in a savings of around 9% per $50.00 card. I am hearing that this is no longer allowed for gift cards. I purchased $1400.00 worth over 14 months and used it as my "personal dining plan". I also used my Disney Visa exclusively, paying off the balance each month, for 16 months prior to our trip, earning around $600 of reward points. For my next trip, I will do a combination of Red Card discounts and "free" Target gift cards and maybe some Disney Visa reward points. I am trying to accumulate airline miles at the moment.
 
Speaking of getting gift cards from target..I've been thinking about doing that. I work for target so I get 15% off, but have yet to buy a Disney gift card lol.

Might have to for my next trip in 2 weeks
I don't think that the Team Member discount can be applied to the purchase of GCs (or what some people insist on calling "Entertainment" Cards) anymore. The 5% REDCard discount still works.
 
Sam's Club offers packs of $150 gift cards in $50 increments for $142.98. I use my Discover Card to purchase them and get 1% cash back. I also have the plus membership which earns $10 in rewards for every $500 spent. I decided to pick up 1 pack per month until our October trip. Just the gift card savings alone will net an extra $50 in Disney dollars. All the rewards on top of that are just a bonus. I figure we will pretty much be able to pay for everything from gift cards. I prefer to spread the costs out so this really works for my family.
 
Sam's Club offers packs of $150 gift cards in $50 increments for $142.98. I use my Discover Card to purchase them and get 1% cash back. I also have the plus membership which earns $10 in rewards for every $500 spent. I decided to pick up 1 pack per month until our October trip. Just the gift card savings alone will net an extra $50 in Disney dollars. All the rewards on top of that are just a bonus. I figure we will pretty much be able to pay for everything from gift cards. I prefer to spread the costs out so this really works for my family.

I was told at my sams club that gift cards do not count towards rewards for every $500
 

Are the disney gift cards you all are talking about the same as the disney store gift cards? I have one for the disney store - will I be able to use that at disney world or just the disney store in the mall/online? Thanks!
 
I dont think DSC and DGC are the same thing.... but I will ask again regarding the DISNEY VACATION ACCOUNT... I am signing up and have no option for adding GC just Credit/Debit card info... ir will that ooption be availble until I create my account ? I dont want them to take the $ from my credit card
 
I dont think DSC and DGC are the same thing.... but I will ask again regarding the DISNEY VACATION ACCOUNT... I am signing up and have no option for adding GC just Credit/Debit card info... ir will that ooption be availble until I create my account ? I dont want them to take the $ from my credit card
You have to initially fund the account using a CC or debit card. I believe that you can schedule that funding to occur on a future date and not on the very date that you open the account. Once you've opened the account, you will be able to add GCs by clicking on the link for making a one-time payment. You can then go in and cancel the debit/credit card payment that you had scheduled for the future.
 
Are the disney gift cards you all are talking about the same as the disney store gift cards? I have one for the disney store - will I be able to use that at disney world or just the disney store in the mall/online? Thanks!

You need to check the back of the gift card to see what it states. There are some Disney gift cards that can be used for almost anything Disney, but there are some Disney Store gift cards that can only be used at Disney Stores. There should be something indicating where it is usable.
 
We use our Target card to buy one $50 gift card a month until we go on out trip, usually starting about 6 months before we leave.
 
I don't think that the Team Member discount can be applied to the purchase of GCs (or what some people insist on calling "Entertainment" Cards) anymore. The 5% REDCard discount still works.

As far as I know you can use team member discount for specific gift cards..but not for a visa or MasterCard gift card. I'm going to have to inquire
 
I heard from another team member that our discount no longer applies to gift cards. I will be purchasing one soon and will find out if they were right or not.
 
I paid for everything but flights with Disney GCs purchased at Target (with 5% discount). It was not a problem at all. As my trip got closer, I logged into the Disney site and added cards toward my payment. It took some time, but it was fun watching the balance due come down. I will say that I stored my Target receipts showing the gift card numbers separate from the gift cards, as I was paranoid something would happen to them. After paying for the trip package, I brought the remaining cards to WDW, keeping one in my bag during the day (just in case) and the remaining cards in the room safe. Every night or two, I went to the concierge in Old Port Royale and used the cards to pay down room charges.


What kind of room charges? I just remembered that I also have to save for tips. :sad2: How much do I need to save for room charges?
 
What kind of room charges? I just remembered that I also have to save for tips. :sad2: How much do I need to save for room charges?

However much you charge yourself. Paying in the park with your magic band? It charges that to your room. Then anything within the hotel you charge such as room service or extras.

There's no hidden fees to be paid kind of room charges
 
You need to check the back of the gift card to see what it states. There are some Disney gift cards that can be used for almost anything Disney, but there are some Disney Store gift cards that can only be used at Disney Stores. There should be something indicating where it is usable.

Thanks! Duh! I guess I should have just looked! I checked the back and it lists disneyworld, disneyland, disney cruise, etc. YAY! Now I feel silly it said it there all along!
 
Wherever you buy, just make sure tat you are buying the Disney gift cards for shopping, dining, and playing NOT Disney Store cards which are only for merchandise at Disney Stores!!!!!!!!!!!!!:teacher:
 
Sam's Club offers packs of $150 gift cards in $50 increments for $142.98. I use my Discover Card to purchase them and get 1% cash back. I also have the plus membership which earns $10 in rewards for every $500 spent. I decided to pick up 1 pack per month until our October trip. Just the gift card savings alone will net an extra $50 in Disney dollars. All the rewards on top of that are just a bonus. I figure we will pretty much be able to pay for everything from gift cards. I prefer to spread the costs out so this really works for my family.

I am about to do something similar. I am going to Walmart anyway :scared1: so I am going to get a Walmart giftcard with my Disney visa. I am then going to use that gift card to purchase this http://www.samsclub.com/sams/disney-3-x-50-disney-3-x-50/prod10510183.ip $150 Disney gift card for $142.98. So, I will get about a 5% discount on the gift card, as well as earn my Disney reward dollars.
 
Okay, so I saw this on th DL side of the boards here, getting help from a disser there, and it worked out great! Hopefully I explain okay, lol.

There are a couple places you can get discounted egift cards, and use those thru your target redcard acct online, to get a good discount. One is cardpool.com and the other is raise.com They offer all sorts of different gc's. I was looking for target cards and they are offered on Raise for a higher discount than at cardpool, up to 5.7 percent off(varying to like 3 percent). (They also offer other cards, some at bigger discounts then the target ones, if interested.) They are being sold all the time, so sometimes the five percent ones go out of stock. I didn't realize that would happen but then I just waited for them to be back in before buyng.
So, I bought 4 Target gc's at Raise, with a value of $564.65 that were discounted at 5.5 percent, so spent $533.59. That saved me 31.06 I paid with my Disney Visa, which gives me reward dollars, too. (My other choice I considered was my SW Visa to get rewards points towards free flights, but had my disney card with me so used that.) Then, I took those egift cards to my target redcard account online. So, you set up your redcard acct, and have the target redcard selected as your default payment, very important. Then, go shop for your Disney gc's, sold in $50 increments. You can buy 8 in one transaction, using up to 4 gc's in the one transaction, so better to have bigger gc's if possible. Then go to check out and proceed to go to payment page. Your order will have a summary of items costs to the right of the page. Under this will be several links, one being the Pay with a target gift card, open that link. There you will be able to put in the gift cards. You'll need the info from your Raise acct, that they give after purchase. There is an account number and pin number on the back of gc's that they give you at Raise and you'll use these at target to apply each gift card(they work same as if you had the gift card in hand, instead of an egift card on the screen). When you use your target redcard to pay, you get a 5% discount. You also get a five percent discount using a target gift card, if you have the target redcard set as your default payment on your redcard online acct.

So, I had almost enough to buy 12 $50 disney gc's using the target gc's I bought at Raise
8 gift cards at target cost $380, 4 gift cards cost $190, So that is $570.00(564.65 target gc plus free $5 target gc, plus .35 cents).
Target gift cards getting a 5% discount.
Got a 5.5% discount buying those target gift cards to buy the disney gift cards.
So, basically I spent $533.59 (plus .35cents and a free $5 Target gc) to get $600.00 in Disney gift cards!!! That's an approximately 10.5% discount!! That's as good as when i was able to use the redcard 5% and the target pharmacy 5% discounts together. And, really it was very easy, especially considering I did it all on my laptop, didn't have to go to target at all!

Hopefully you can understand my explanation of how to do it, and it helps you out. Please let me know if you have any questions!
 
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Hi all, I have a question... I have been reading about the DGC but have never gotten them myself... with a big trip in the planning stages I want to be able to save as much as I can... so, what is you strategy for getting the GC ?

*I have read something about buying them with Target's Red Card or websites like Raise or Sam's Club... please let me know!

Thank you.

taniahappy, I meant to quote you in my post above, so you'd get notified of my answer to your original post. I had never heard of Raise until about a week, maybe 10 days ago, but now I'm really happy I have, it worked out great!
 
I am about to do something similar. I am going to Walmart anyway :scared1: so I am going to get a Walmart giftcard with my Disney visa. I am then going to use that gift card to purchase this http://www.samsclub.com/sams/disney-3-x-50-disney-3-x-50/prod10510183.ip $150 Disney gift card for $142.98. So, I will get about a 5% discount on the gift card, as well as earn my Disney reward dollars.

Well, after all of that (because I am used to buying in store), I found out I could have just paid directly with my Disney Visa at Sam's Club online. In store, you can't use a Visa, but online you can. :)
 


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