Disney Rewards Dollars

[IndianaMouseLover]

Hello,

My DW and I are seriously considering applying for the Credit Card that gives Reward dollars. We want to dump our Citi Cards. Not to mention that on the first use they will send you a $100 Disney gift card. I was hpoing that some of you have it and can give us a first hand experience. I was reading the website about the card since they heavily advertise on the DVC website. Can we use the Rewards to pay dues? What are ther other advantages to applying for it since we go to WDW yearly if not twice a year?

Have there been any disadvantages? We do not carry a balance on CCs so we are not concerned about that discussion on "losing money" while trying to gain the rewards.

Please share, we are excited to hear!

 

[ToddyLu]

We are charter card holders. THere are not too many perks outside of the reward $. We are expecting at least $200 this year, but we keep our balance way down, we have just had some good size purchases this year....including our recent by in to DVC. You can book trips to WDW with no interest for 6 months. I think we get flyers in the mail for movies and stuff. Seems like we got a percent off a trip when we first joined, but I don't rmember. I just like seeing Mickey in my wallet and he gets lots of compliments.

 

[ssawka]

Are you a AAA member? We have a AAA platinum card that gives reward dollars that are paid in AAA gift certificates that you can use to buy park tickets. The difference is that the AAA card's APR is only 10%.

 

[SamSam]

If you pay off your balance monthly, I don't see a down side. That's what we do, and because we use our cc like a checkbook (pay for everything possible with it), we usually have several hundred dollars a year to use on our WDW trips. What's not to love!

 

[quirty30]

I was a charter card member as well and have been accumulating reward dollars for several years. I pay my card off every month - it's like using someone else's money and getting rewarded for it. When we go to BC in 3 days, I am bringing a reward card with $540 on it. Like ANY rewards card, if you can pay off the balance every month, there is no annual fee AND the rewards are something you'll actually use (and I suspect that in the case of Disney reward dollars, that's pretty much true for any DVC member), the card is a great deal.

 

[Tinkerbelljean]

We traded in our airline CC for the Disney card. Have one child in college and use the CC card to pay tuition and have been remodeling so we charge on the card a lot, but pay it off every month. If we don't have the money in the bank to pay it off we don't charge. Have not had a balance revolve. The reward dollars are put on a card and it does expire so make sure you spend it. We love the card as we could never find a flight to trade in our airline miles and the one time we did, we got stuck in Chicago and it was not pretty.

We use the reward dollars to buy dinners at WDW or annual passes.

Jean

 

[kmaach]

We use the card for my wife's business and put every purchase on it. When we go to WDW we usually have $700 to $1000 for purchases. WARNING: Pay off balance immediately due to the interest rate.

 

[Sandisw]

WE have the card and I have not found any drawbacks. There certainly are reward cards out there that offer a higher percentage back--we get 1% in reward dollars.

But I know these are dollars I will use and like having some of the Disney trip covered. You can use the reward dollars on anything at the world. We charge all our charges to the card, pay the bill off each month, and I will be going down in August with over $900.00. This will pay for my dining plan when I get there!

The other benefit is that you can get 6 months, interest free, on DVC charges. It says that it is up to $2500, but recently, many, including myself, have been getting it on bigger amounts.

Good luck!

 

[mikeandkarla]

One neat perk is a personal meet and greet with the characters at Epcot. We got to spend about 10 min. with Mickey and Pluto with a photopass photographer, then recieved a 5x7 picture for each of our Disney Visa accounts. Our children really enjoyed 1 on 1 time with the characters.

 

[Crystal_27]

We've had our Disney Visa for a couple of years now and we use it like a debit card, and put all of our household purchases on it and pay it off at the end of every month. We actually used our reward dollars when we went to Disney in March, 2009 and it worked great. Since we were on the DDP, we used our reward dollars for tips and souveniers and actually still have $80 remaining on our card (which we will use for our cruise in September). It was fabulous getting a "zero balance" invoice when we checked out of our hotel at the end of our trip. Also, for Disney trips, cruises, and DVC, you get 0% for 6 months to pay off the balance which is a great perk. You also get 10% off your purchase at the World of Disney store at DTD, which is nice. If you go to Disney frequently, it really is a good card to have.

 

[Rob S.]

We are also charter members and have used our reward dollars for meals and even annual passes. Reward dollars can be used to pay your annual dues. You would first need to transfer them to a rewards card, and then use that card to pay your dues (works just like a credit card).

The one additional perk that nobody has mentioned yet is the 20% discount you get on tours (Keys to the Kingdom, Backstage Magic, etc.)

There is no downside if you pay the balance off monthly.

 

[Inkmahm]

I used my Amex blue more because I get a greater % back in cash. But when I can't use Amex, I use the Disney Visa. I'm also a charter member and enjoy using the Tinkerbell card. I get comments on it all the time.

 

[TSMIII]

We do the same as several PPs have mentioned - we use the Disney Rewards Visa like a debit card for everyday expenses (gas, groceries, car repairs, clothing, etc.) and pay it off at the end of the month.

We then use the reward dollars for park tickets & meals at WDW.

Additionally, I have an AMEX JetBlue card that I use for business trips and expenses to earn free flights.

Our last trip in April only cost us our MFs and one airline ticket as our meals, tickets, souvenirs and two other airline tickets were paid for with the rewards from our two cards.

 

[disneynutz]

The Chase Disney Rewards card is best used for Disney discounts and the deferred interest program.

There are better CC reward programs out there that give you higher reward points.

 

[disdad09]

The Disney card is good to apply for to get the 100$ disney card that they give you.

However I have a rewards card that gives me 2 points for every dollar that I spend and I can use those points for hotels and airfair which is my biggest expences.

The disney card for me gives me way to few reward points for the dollors I charge on it.

I would rather use my other reward card becuase it gives me more points.

But always pay off your monthly balance on your credit cards or dont use them.

 

[rkwier]

We recently opened our Disney Visa. I just wanted to share with you a little lesson that I learned, unfortunately the hard way.

We initially opened the card because we are going on a Disney Cruise - no interest for 6 months. Well, I begin using the card like our debit card for purchases. Each time, I made a payment to our Disney CC to cover the expense. I called to verify that the payments would go to purchases first and not to the cruise before I started doing this. However, what the person on the phone neglected to tell me that the payments only go towards the purchases made AFTER the statement date containing those purchases is generated if there is a previous balance. Since my only prior purchase was the cruise, all of the payments that I made went soley to that purchase. So, now my cruise balance is substantially lower, but now I need to go back and cover the expenses again. I am sure that the issue only came about because I had the cruise as my previous purchase and not retail items, which I should have really known since the statement had not been generated - and here I thought that I was being so smart.

 

[senecabeach]

The Chase Disney Rewards card is best used for Disney discounts and the deferred interest program.

There are better CC reward programs out there that give you higher reward points.

Absolutely !!!
With the Disney CC you need to spend $100. to get $1. back....stinks.
Other cc's have 1:1 ratio for every day uses.

 

[IndianaMouseLover]

I have another question that just came to me.

Is there any catch to the reward dollars as in how long can you acculumate them. Do they expire???

 

[calypso*a*go-go]

I have another question that just came to me.

Is there any catch to the reward dollars as in how long can you acculumate them. Do they expire???

The rewards don't expire for five years -- however once they are transferred to the rewards card for use, they expire when the card does (which I believe is the end of the calendar year...so don't transfer any dollars unless you know for sure you will be using them).

 

[hlkeck]

I don't think anyone answered your question about paying dues with rewards dollars -- yes, you can. I think our annual dues were like $700 this year, and I was able to convert over about $350 in Disney dollars. Our inital goal was to be able to put everything on this card and pay for the dues completely, but we have other rewards cards, too...so you know...but we were able to pay half of it and that helped tremendously.