Disney Vacation Acct vs Gift Cards? Help!

[MrsTurnerLovesDisney]

Hi all!

My first post tho I have been a lurker on here for some time.
DH & I are taking a trip with DD (who will be almost 3) in Dec 2017 and have decided we need to start putting a bit of money back to help fund our shopping habits while at WDW aka HOME.

We have decided to stick $20-$25 a month back (possibly more as it gets closer to go time/add birthday money etc) and we are now debating between getting a Disney Vacation acct setup and having the money direct deposited ($12 every 2 weeks) or getting a $25 gift card once a month that we keep in a lockbox at home and not add that to any accounts.

Give your advice, tips, any problems you've had either way I want to hear the pros and cons of it all. We also have a Disney Visa to get points to help pay for our trip and have already gotten $205 from that.

Thanks for any and all advice!
Much Disney Love!

 

[davper]

Setup the DVA. You can do this for free. It will ask you to setup a Direct Deposit but you can schedule that for a day in the future and then cancel the deposit after the account is created. After you have had the account opened for 120 days, you will earn a $20 GC on every $1000 you spend from the DVA.

Buy your GC every month from Target using their Redcard. This will save you 5% on the GC purchase.

Deposit your GCs into the DVA until you have enough to pay for all your upfront costs. After that, just combine the GCs into a couple of larger value GCs that you can pay for daily expenses in the park.

You can also save more money buy buying discounted Target cards from Raise using your Disney Visa and still get the Redcard discount. PM me if you want instructions on how to do this.

 

[MrsTurnerLovesDisney]

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[MrsTurnerLovesDisney]

Setup the DVA. You can do this for free. It will ask you to setup a Direct Deposit but you can schedule that for a day in the future and then cancel the deposit after the account is created. After you have had the account opened for 120 days, you will earn a $20 GC on every $1000 you spend from the DVA.

Buy your GC every month from Target using their Redcard. This will save you 5% on the GC purchase.

Deposit your GCs into the DVA until you have enough to pay for all your upfront costs. After that, just combine the GCs into a couple of larger value GCs that you can pay for daily expenses in the park.

You can also save more money buy buying discounted Target cards from Raise using your Disney Visa and still get the Redcard discount. PM me if you want instructions on how to do this.

So I could take a Target gift card and use it to buy a Disney Giftcard at Target? We don't have a local Target store but I could def do that when I am at the closet once which is every few months.

 

[Ava]

So I could take a Target gift card and use it to buy a Disney Giftcard at Target? We don't have a local Target store but I could def do that when I am at the closet once which is every few months.

Yes, you can. Disney GCs are coded as "entertainment cards" at Target, so you can purchase them using a Target GC.

If you have a Target RedCard, you can also purchase Disney GCs online with Target GCs and still get the 5% RedCard discount. Set your RedCard set as your default payment method on your Target.com account; it will take the 5% off of everything in your shopping cart, then you can enter up to 4 (I think) Target GCs which it will use as payment first before charging the remainder to your RedCard.

There is a whole (long) thread on this board called Disney Giftcard Deals, which has a lot of tips like this on how to get discounts on Disney GCs.

 

[Marionnette]

So I could take a Target gift card and use it to buy a Disney Giftcard at Target? We don't have a local Target store but I could def do that when I am at the closet once which is every few months.

If you use a Target GC online to purchase a Disney GC, and you have a Target REDCard (credit or debit) set as your default payment, then you can save an additional 5% off of the face value of the Disney GC. That would mean that a $50 Disney GC would require a $47.50 Target GC to completely cover the cost.

When you purchase Target GCs from places like Cardpool, Cardcash or Raise, you can get them for a discount as well. So, let's say you purchase a Target GC valued at $47.50 for 6% off. You out-of-pocket cost would be $44.65.

There's no need to PM anyone (your post count is too low to do it anyway). Just take a look at this thread:
http://www.disboards.com/threads/disney-gift-card-deals.2941964/
I suggest starting about 5 pages from the end and if you have questions, just post them there.

 

[davper]

I just this minute ordered 6 $100 cards.

I spent $535.80 to buy $570 worth of Target GCs. I then purchased the $600 of Disney GCs. I saved $64.20 or 10.7%. This doesn't include any credit card rewards or ebates.

 

[mfly]

I just this minute ordered 6 $100 cards.

I spent $535.80 to buy $570 worth of Target GCs. I then purchased the $600 of Disney GCs. I saved $64.20 or 10.7%. This doesn't include any credit card rewards or ebates.

Are you able to get eBates on your purchase of Disney GCs from Target, or only on your purchase of Target GCs from a site like Raise?

 

[davper]

Ebates doesn't work with Raise. And sometimes it works with Target and sometimes not.