Disney Gift Cards versus Cash

[edk35]

We have been getting/using Disney gift cards for years. I just pick them up at Target using my red card or I order online at Target with red card. I have a friend that gets one every week when she does her grocery shopping. it is just part of her budget each week I also have an online savings account that we only put money in for trips. Out of sight out of mind.

 

[Alynw]

Not at all. You can find GCs for all sorts of companies that might be useful. Do you eat at Rainforest? GC. Do you fly a particular airline? GC. I used Swagbucks to buy a GC for an oil change at Jiffy Lube with my 1.5% cashback CC, and prepaid for a discount, plus I got almost 1K in Swagbucks on my (necessary) oil change, which earned me a $10 visa gift card. Those add up too. Oh, and I’ll still get the cash back reward from my CC.

You can find discounts on Prepaid Visas too. Safeway in my area is running a discount on them, plus you usually get 4X rewards points for fuel or grocery. You can always take those savings and earmark for trips or put them into additional GC.

Wow, i didnt realize how in depth u can get with these. Talk about taking gc to a whole new level, I def see where it could really start adding up. I wish i had the motivation to for something like this but i gota give it some more thought, maybe i can talk the wife into handling this. Although i love planning our trip, so who knows, might just give it shot.

 

[crazymomof4]

I might have used it a bit..... takes maybe 15 minutes to combine 15 cards. You can only store 5 at a time so I usually name the ones I plan to empty as A,B,C,D. Transfer the funds to the Main one, then delete the blanks. Just remember to write on the one you are transferring the funds to. Now who has creative ideas for blanks?

I could literally "tile" my shower with my blank cards! LOL
I've seen them used as "days" on a countdown to trip calendar
I use them as book marks

 

[Jules123]

This is the first time I’ve bought gift cards to fund a trip. I’ve bought a couple $500 e-gift cards and applied them to my balance already. I’m planning on paying the rest off this way too. Is there any reason I should change from the e-gift to plastic ones?

 

[Patches Lee]

This is the first time I’ve bought gift cards to fund a trip. I’ve bought a couple $500 e-gift cards and applied them to my balance already. I’m planning on paying the rest off this way too. Is there any reason I should change from the e-gift to plastic ones?

Other than if you are buying discount GCs I've found the 3 packs of $50 at Sam's Club is a bigger discount than the $500 e-gift cards

 

[jen7233]

We are using our credit cards to make purchases in the parks. If we were staying in a Disney resort, I'd put it on the magic band. I can see the appeal of the gift cards and I think the large majority here respond that they use gift cards, but as for me personally I'm not bothering, it's one extra thing to do and account for.

 

[Cruising Engineer]

Is there any reason I should change from the e-gift to plastic ones?

Only if you are using the https://www.disneygiftcard.com/ site to consolidate multiple cards into one. You need to have a plastic card to "buy something" at the parks instead of repeating the card number over the phone or computer to order or pay for something.

 

[AJollyHoliday]

I love reading about everyone's method for getting GC and saving $$. DH and I just paid off $70k+ in debt in 12 months and so I don't ever want to go back including using CC. Since we did our first DVC Disney trip in 2013 and came home with over $1000 in money spent, I realized I had to do something to make Disney affordable. So I started Swagbucks, Shopkick, and a target debit card (remember, no CC for me). I typically keep track of what I pay for GCs and what I have in GCs. It is a game to me and any $$ I can save is worth its weight in Mickey Ice Cream Bars. I combine my GCs like others have said and give one to my DH and I carry the other and they are registered on the website. I like the idea of keeping a spreadsheet. I typically just wrote it down in a journal I have.

Each trip we go on we use GCs exclusively. I don't use the MB, just hand over my GC. I like it as well because I can see my balance and know where I am in my spending. We have it down pat and know what we need for GCs for each trip. I also like GCs because there is no hacking of a CC or DC or having to deal with any of that nonsense.

 

[Cruising Engineer]

Since we did our first DVC Disney trip in 2013 and came home with over $1000k in money spent, I realized I had to do something to make Disney affordable.

$1,000,000 ($1000k) Holy Smokes, what did you buy for a million bucks?

 

[AJollyHoliday]

$1,000,000 ($1000k) Holy Smokes, what did you buy for a million bucks?

hahaha, typo! I meant $1k gosh, for $1000k we could have bought the GF 3 bedroom Villa for Christmas week guarantee

 

[Disneyfan754321]

We use the disney gift card as a savings account, if I saved the cash I would find away to spend it. The 5% or gas credits from kroger are just a bonus. If I had cash I would probably put them on a visa gift card/ green dot card. They have them at the dollar tree.
For us Kroger has the best deal when they do double points/ triple points gas rewards.

 

[lavatea]

We use the disney gift card as a savings account, if I saved the cash I would find away to spend it. The 5% or gas credits from kroger are just a bonus. If I had cash I would probably put them on a visa gift card/ green dot card. They have them at the dollar tree.
For us Kroger has the best deal when they do double points/ triple points gas rewards.

I'm in a Dollar Tree and Kroger area. I dont even know what BJ's is. Could you explain what you mean about the gas points and how that relates to buying the gift cards? And what a Visa green dot is? I also have a Target debit. Just trying to figure out how to start this whole gift card savings thing.

 

[Cruising Engineer]

I'm in a Dollar Tree and Kroger area. I dont even know what BJ's is. Could you explain what you mean about the gas points and how that relates to buying the gift cards? And what a Visa green dot is? I also have a Target debit. Just trying to figure out how to start this whole gift card savings thing.

When you get the Kroger (we have Smiths) reward card, look for the digital coupons for 4X gift cards and download it to your rewards card. If you purchase a $250 DGC, that gives you 1000 points. 1000 pts at the gas pump is worth $1.00/gal off the station's price (scan your rewards card at the gas pump before paying with CC).
Just returned filling up from Smiths, purchased 30 gals, saved $30. Merchandise purchased in the grocery store for fuel pts, say 1 Apr thru 30 Apr, is good until 31 May. That's why I fill up today to use my Feb fuel points.

 

[Mrtommorrow1987]

This has prob. already been said in the thread but Sam's club typically has $50 for $48. $150 for $142 and $500 for $475 ish. We usually budget our trip out and buy the gift cards over the year. We charge everything back to the room and just pay the bill off at concierge with the gifts cards. I have changed one practice this last trip. I would always just leave the gift cards in my hotel safe and pull from there when I paid. On this last trip a $500 gift card went missing on day 4 of our trip while staying in the Boardwalk Villas. Sam's club did cancel the card once we reported it stolen and reissued us another one that we will be able to use on our next trip. I would caution anyone from leaving anything of value in your hotel safe. When I reported to the hotel they shrugged it off and I lost the gift card and kept telling me no one can get into my safe. It took me 2 mins of searching google to see that safemark safes can easily be cracked in a variety of different ways. If you are using the gift cards you may want to carry them on you for the entire trip.

 

[Marionnette]

I recently read on another board that a guest had handed their GC to pay for a purchase and the GC was supposed to have a balance left on it. The CM handed a GC back to the guest but it wasn’t the guest’s GC. It was an empty one but identical in appearance to the one that the guest had used. It was one of the generic GCs that you might get at Target or BB. The guest discovered the error rather soon afterwards when they attempted another purchase and the card turned up empty, even though their receipt from the previous purchase showed a good balance left. Of course, the GC’s ID numbers were completely different. The guest went back to where the first purchase had been made and was able to get their rightful GC back. Whether this was just CM error or a sneaky switch on their part can be left for debate.

The guest who posted about that experience made the suggestion that if you’re going to use your GCs in the parks or restaurants, that you should either use one that has an unusual design or just mark your card (with a Sharpie or by clipping a corner) so that you know that you have definitely gotten your own card back.

 

[Mrtommorrow1987]

I recently read on another board that a guest had handed their GC to pay for a purchase and the GC was supposed to have a balance left on it. The CM handed a GC back to the guest but it wasn’t the guest’s GC. It was an empty one but identical in appearance to the one that the guest had used. It was one of the generic GCs that you might get at Target or BB. The guest discovered the error rather soon afterwards when they attempted another purchase and the card turned up empty, even though their receipt from the previous purchase showed a good balance left. Of course, the GC’s ID numbers were completely different. The guest went back to where the first purchase had been made and was able to get their rightful GC back. Whether this was just CM error or a sneaky switch on their part can be left for debate.

The guest who posted about that experience made the suggestion that if you’re going to use your GCs in the parks or restaurants, that you should either use one that has an unusual design or just mark your card (with a Sharpie or by clipping a corner) so that you know that you have definitely gotten your own card back.

We actually sharpie the gift card with remaining balance if there is anything left on the card after laying at concierge. That is another really good suggestion.

 

[wenrob]

This has prob. already been said in the thread but Sam's club typically has $50 for $48. $150 for $142 and $500 for $475 ish. We usually budget our trip out and buy the gift cards over the year. We charge everything back to the room and just pay the bill off at concierge with the gifts cards. I have changed one practice this last trip. I would always just leave the gift cards in my hotel safe and pull from there when I paid. On this last trip a $500 gift card went missing on day 4 of our trip while staying in the Boardwalk Villas. Sam's club did cancel the card once we reported it stolen and reissued us another one that we will be able to use on our next trip. I would caution anyone from leaving anything of value in your hotel safe. When I reported to the hotel they shrugged it off and I lost the gift card and kept telling me no one can get into my safe. It took me 2 mins of searching google to see that safemark safes can easily be cracked in a variety of different ways. If you are using the gift cards you may want to carry them on you for the entire trip.

For the future: Register your cards on disneygiftcard.com and keep a blank on there. That way if one goes missing you can easily transfer the balance to the blank.

I recently read on another board that a guest had handed their GC to pay for a purchase and the GC was supposed to have a balance left on it. The CM handed a GC back to the guest but it wasn’t the guest’s GC. It was an empty one but identical in appearance to the one that the guest had used. It was one of the generic GCs that you might get at Target or BB. The guest discovered the error rather soon afterwards when they attempted another purchase and the card turned up empty, even though their receipt from the previous purchase showed a good balance left. Of course, the GC’s ID numbers were completely different. The guest went back to where the first purchase had been made and was able to get their rightful GC back. Whether this was just CM error or a sneaky switch on their part can be left for debate.

The guest who posted about that experience made the suggestion that if you’re going to use your GCs in the parks or restaurants, that you should either use one that has an unusual design or just mark your card (with a Sharpie or by clipping a corner) so that you know that you have definitely gotten your own card back.

I have taken to collecting unique cards and writing my name/phone number on the back with a sharpie.

 

[Marionnette]

For the future: Register your cards on disneygiftcard.com and keep a blank on there. That way if one goes missing you can easily transfer the balance to the blank.

I don’t leave any GCs with balances in the website. I leave a couple of blank ones in there and I carry the blanks with me. This thread from Saturday is a cautionary tale that others should heed. https://www.disboards.com/threads/f...important-lesson-i-learned-yesterday.3742585/

I take pictures of the reverse side of the GCs I plan to use during a trip. Then I leave the them at home. When I need money, I just use the website to transfer from the GC with $ to the empty physical GC I have.

 

[wenrob]

I don’t leave any GCs with balances in the website. I leave a couple of blank ones in there and I carry the blanks with me. This thread from Saturday is a cautionary tale that others should heed. https://www.disboards.com/threads/f...important-lesson-i-learned-yesterday.3742585/

I take pictures of the reverse side of the GCs I plan to use during a trip. Then I leave the them at home. When I need money, I just use the website to transfer from the GC with $ to the empty physical GC I have.

I read that thread. I do not register off the shelf cards, I register themed ones direct from the Disney website and don’t add balances until trip time. In any case it’s always good to have copies of your numbers and at least one blank one registered so that you can transfer as soon as you notice one has gone missing. It seems I read almost daily about people losing cards and having to take the loss. Keeping a blank registered as a precaution is the easiest/fastest way to hopefully recoup.

 

[Mrtommorrow1987]

I read that thread. I do not register off the shelf cards, I register themed ones direct from the Disney website and don’t add balances until trip time. In any case it’s always good to have copies of your numbers and at least one blank one registered so that you can transfer as soon as you notice one has gone missing. It seems I read almost daily about people losing cards and having to take the loss. Keeping a blank registered as a precaution is the easiest/fastest way to hopefully recoup.

Thanks for the advice we were pretty devastated that our only $500 gift card went missing from our hotel safe. We were ecstatic with Sams club for cancelling the card and reissuing another. It has allowed my wife and I to take a quick adult weekend in Oct for food and wine.