Disney Vacation Account

[SuzGM84]

**Moderator - if this thread is in the wrong board - please feel free to move it**

I was perusing some other boards and came across an interesting fact about the Disney Vacation Account (DVA) - namely that if you spend $1000 from your DVA on a vacation package, you can get a $20 Disney gift card. After looking at the FAQs on the DVA website, it says that your account must be active for a minimum of 120 days to qualify for that benefit. My question is what is considered active? Simply opening an account with a balance of $5 and then transferring the balance to pay for my trip a few days prior? Or does active mean continuous contributions?

I ask because we already have a savings account with a great interest rate set up at our local bank solely for Disney vacations and I wouldn't want to deposit cash into a DVA since it wouldn't be earning interest. However, I would totally be willing to use my credit card to load funds to the DVA and get the 1.5% cash back on that and then use the DVA to pay for a vacation and get the $20 gift card for every $1000 spent. Is that feasible? Has anyone done anything like this?

 

[mnamna]

It just has to be open for 120 days. Even if you only have the $15 minimum deposit in it.

You can only load $1000 cash per day though, or $2500 in gift cards if I remember correctly.

 

[DisneyAnytime]

Just has to be open.... To be safe, you might want to deposit the minimum amount maybe once per month and then transfer the balance a few days before you pay in full. As pp said, there is a $1000 per day transfer limit so make sure you allow enough time to transfer all your $$$. Also, they state that it may take up to 7 days for funds to be available. They FAQ also says to allow 4-6 weeks to get your bonus gift card. I cashed out our account to pay our balance on 4/23 and requested our card. The card was in our mailbox on 5/5.

 

[lampshadehead]

Anything spent before that 120 days is not going to be counted toward the bonus. I opened an account in December and put a $200.00 deposit on a package in February and that did not count towards the rewards.

 

[Dis703]

As long as the account itself is opened for 120 days you will earn the 2% back in rewards on every $1,000 you spend. I've been using it for a few years now and there are times I literally deposit the money for a day or less, just putting it there so I can make a purchase, and I still earn the reward on it. As long as you are making the payments out of the account it won't matter how long the money is there.

 

[spiceycat]

my credit union only allows transfer of $600 or less to other accounts - I guess they are differ?

 

[Dis703]

Anything spent before that 120 days is not going to be counted toward the bonus. I opened an account in December and put a $200.00 deposit on a package in February and that did not count towards the rewards.

This was not the case for us, as most of what we spent was in that 120 days and we got the reward on everything in the end.

 

[SuzGM84]

As long as the account itself is opened for 120 days you will earn the 2% back in rewards on every $1,000 you spend. I've been using it for a few years now and there are times I literally deposit the money for a day or less, just putting it there so I can make a purchase, and I still earn the reward on it. As long as you are making the payments out of the account it won't matter how long the money is there.

This is exactly what I was thinking of doing, putting the funds in there just before making the purchase to get the rewards. Glad to hear its worked for others this way!