Disney Gift Cards linked to Magic Bands?

[cruisingmom1977]

Hi!! We are going to Disney in Sept and I think I'm going to buy (1) $25.00 Disney Gift card a week (sneaking it into the grocery bill so we have spending money. I was wondering...does anyone know if I can link them all to my Disney account so they automatically load to my magic band? I don't want to have to carry 20 gift cards around unless I have to. Thanks for any advice or suggestions anyone might have
Anna

 

[DisneyLover0610]

Hi!! We are going to Disney in Sept and I think I'm going to buy (1) $25.00 Disney Gift card a week (sneaking it into the grocery bill so we have spending money. I was wondering...does anyone know if I can link them all to my Disney account so they automatically load to my magic band? I don't want to have to carry 20 gift cards around unless I have to. Thanks for any advice or suggestions anyone might have
Anna

I bring disney giftcards each time - I get a great discount through work. In October with our MagicBands, I was told the easiest way to pay with them was to charge to the band, then go to the Concierge desk and pay the balance down with our cards. That way, I wasn't carrying them on me all day, they just stayed in the safe.
Not sure if it's changed, but hope that helps!

 

[Pamnkevin]

I bring disney giftcards each time - I get a great discount through work. In October with our MagicBands, I was told the easiest way to pay with them was to charge to the band, then go to the Concierge desk and pay the balance down with our cards. That way, I wasn't carrying them on me all day, they just stayed in the safe. Not sure if it's changed, but hope that helps!

I just called last week to ask about this and they said the same thing. You'll link a credit card to your magic band, then just go to the concierge with your gift cards to pay it. Make sure your charge with your magic band does not exceed $500 before you pay it down or off or they will automatically charge your linked card

 

[mommyrosa2]

I just called last week to ask about this and they said the same thing. You'll link a credit card to your magic band, then just go to the concierge with your gift cards to pay it. Make sure your charge with your magic band does not exceed $500 before you pay it down or off or they will automatically charge your linked card

This is what we did in October but our limit was higher than $500 (want to say $1000? before they would charge it to our cc). In any case, we plan to do the same thing on both of our upcoming trips.

 

[erionm]

Make sure your charge with your magic band does not exceed $500 before you pay it down or off or they will automatically charge your linked card

The amount you can charge to your room portfolio before being charged to your CC varies based on resort category.

Values: $500
Moderates: $1000
Deluxe & Deluxe Villas: $1500

Park admission purchased as a room charge will be sent through to the CC almost immediately.

 

[chris4disney]

Hi!! We are going to Disney in Sept and I think I'm going to buy (1) $25.00 Disney Gift card a week (sneaking it into the grocery bill so we have spending money. I was wondering...does anyone know if I can link them all to my Disney account so they automatically load to my magic band? I don't want to have to carry 20 gift cards around unless I have to. Thanks for any advice or suggestions anyone might have
Anna

We're going to WDW in October and I am secretly doing the same thing. I've been buying the gift cards at Sam's club and saving a few dollars on the face value of the card. So far I've got $400 worth of gift cards hidden at home. I'm planning on surprising my DH before our trip with them. Add that to our Disney Reward Dollars earned from our Disney VISA I'm hoping to have at least $1,500 to spend on our trip.

 

[cruisingmom1977]

Thanks for all of the advice. We are pre-buying our park tickets and are doing to food plan so I only need it for incidentals but I figure if I can "squirrel" away a couple hundred dollars i will be much easier to give in to our kids when they ask for a "little something"...or when Mommy wants a "little something to drink" in Epcot.

 

[Jannephotog]

Glad to know this myself. Been debating a big giftcard purchase a few weeks before via online &, as long as we track the food & other spending, the mob sounds like the way to go...of course you know we'll probably accidentally go over the giftcard we buy lol

 

[dsmith424]

I just got back from my stay last week and we too had a bunch of gift cards we wanted to add to our magic bands. Depending on the castmember you talk too, you will get different info.

On our previous visits we had no problem adding the gift cards to the key cards and having a room credit.

When we checked in this time the castmember said they don't load gift cards to the bands because there is no way to refund money if a credit is left over at the end of the stay, and we would be able to stop by the front desk with the gift cards and pay the room balance off with them.

The next castmember I spoke with was able to load all $800 of our gift cards to our magic bands as a room credit.

It really works out the same but we didn't want to risk charges going to the credit card on file.

 

[DVCFan1994]

Thanks for all of the advice. We are pre-buying our park tickets and are doing to food plan so I only need it for incidentals but I figure if I can "squirrel" away a couple hundred dollars i will be much easier to give in to our kids when they ask for a "little something"...or when Mommy wants a "little something to drink" in Epcot.

Glad to know I am not alone in thinking that way. I've been buying them at Target with my red card for the same reason. Each kid will have one of their own, I might have a few for myself Those margaritas add up fast

 

[china mom]

Apparently you do have to have a cc on file for your room in order to use the MB for charging to your room but you can pre-pay and have a credit on your account. I did this with $50 cash on a recent stay so that I wouldn't have to carry anything with me to the WP. There would be no difference doing this with a gift card. I also went over my $50 but didn't want the charge to be on my credit card so I paid that off with 47 cents in coins.

 

[MichelleVW]

I just got back from my stay last week and we too had a bunch of gift cards we wanted to add to our magic bands. Depending on the castmember you talk too, you will get different info.

On our previous visits we had no problem adding the gift cards to the key cards and having a room credit.

When we checked in this time the castmember said they don't load gift cards to the bands because there is no way to refund money if a credit is left over at the end of the stay, and we would be able to stop by the front desk with the gift cards and pay the room balance off with them.

The next castmember I spoke with was able to load all $800 of our gift cards to our magic bands as a room credit.

It really works out the same but we didn't want to risk charges going to the credit card on file.

I asked the same question last week and she told me she couldn't do it, but come after I had a balance. I also asked when my credit card would be billed...we checked in Sunday and checked out Friday morning. They said our card would be billed after Midnight Thursday (we were at a deluxe and don't spend that much money so no way would we have hit the limit before then). I went down Wednesday night and put about $400 worth of gift cards to bring my balance down...then went down again Thursday night to add a couple more. We ended up with a $14 charge to my credit card. I could have gotten rid of that too...but decided to keep the last $50 in gift cards for next trip.

It was super convenient to charge everything to the Magic Band rather than drag all the gift cards around. I also would take all the receipts and make a note in my phone so I knew exactly how much we were spending.

 

[Alice Royal]

We were able to add $400 worth of gift cards to our room charge as a credit while we checked in (we were staying at ASMu). The CM said that it's not something they normally do, but they do have the capacity to 'sneak it in' if you ask nicely. We did a large amount because it was a short trip and we were paying for food OOP. I'm a Florida resident who has done DDP in the past before I moved here but we don't need it living so close, and since I was just bringing my mom down from NH, we chose to use the gift cards since we got them discounted through BJ's.

We were delivered a room statement every day, I think, which was the easiest way to make sure everything went through correctly. Both DMom and I had MBs with different PINs but since they were both linked to the same room, so they both worked seamlessly.