Disney Visa - maximizing benefits

[rosiegmendez]

I am applying for a Disney Visa through their latest promo, and would like your advice on how best to maximize the benefits of the card (building up points, etc) in anticipation of our trip in April to WDW.

TIA for your advice!

 

[THERESA522]

Charge everything you possibly can - gas, groceries, utilities, and then pay it off every month.

 

[rosiegmendez]

Charge everything you possibly can - gas, groceries, utilities, and then pay it off every month.

What are the points good towards? Disney gift cards only? Disney Destinations?

 

[Aurora l]

Do the exclusive Meet & Greet at Epcot whenever possible.

 

[THERESA522]

What are the points good towards? Disney gift cards only? Disney Destinations?

The points are like cash at Disney, can be used for anything, including booking a trip.

 

[babyberger]

I don't know if you have the regular or premier visa, and if you have a bonus period. So logistics will vary a bit, but you can also figure out how much money you will need on your trip and purchase Disney gift cards before you go. This way you get the percentage back in Disney rewards before you go. As others have said I charge all I can to it and pay it off every month. We had a bonus period and earned over $700 in rewards in those 3 months alone.

Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

 

[cmadara]

We are headed down tomorrowcool1:) with our Disney Premier Rewards card. We have over $900 on it. That will pay for our food and goodies for 6 days (3 people). I put everything on it and pay it off every month. I upgraded to the Premier b/c I got extra points for a period of time- 5x/s the points when I booked our vacation and paid it off. There is a fee with upgraded card- I think $49- but it did pay for itself.
Also, I upgraded b/c you can exchange points to pay for airline miles on any airline/anyday/anytime.

 

[shocker]

I just got my visa and am investigating gift cards. I think for my situation I will end up purchasing (some) gift cards with the visa, this way I get Disney $$ for every Disney $$ I spend on giftcards. Also, where I live there is a grocery store that offers gasoline discounts for every gift card I purchase. So, I'll buy a disney gift card AND get cheaper gas which I will be paying for with my disney visa

 

[loveshak22]

I just got my visa and am investigating gift cards. I think for my situation I will end up purchasing (some) gift cards with the visa, this way I get Disney $$ for every Disney $$ I spend on giftcards. Also, where I live there is a grocery store that offers gasoline discounts for every gift card I purchase. So, I'll buy a disney gift card AND get cheaper gas which I will be paying for with my disney visa

Do you get any bonus point for buying gift cards? So if I buy a $100 gift card I'll only get $1.00 reward point right?

 

[loveshak22]

I recently signed up for the premier DV and got $100 credit. With the $49 annual fee that equates to $51 credit, which to me is basically $51 off my vacation. With the premier DV you get 2% on restaurants, gas, groceries and Disney purchases. I'm going to put my vacation on the DV (about $3,000) so I'll get 2% on that purchase so about $60 in rewards. Between now and our vacation at the end of January I'm going to put everything on it and hope to get another $50 - $100 bucks. In the end I'm hoping to get the $51 off for the statement credit plus the $60 for the 2% on the vacation plus whatever I get between now and the end of January, so hopefully another $100. That would be $211 in savings. It'll be hard to get $100 by the end of January but I should at least get $50 so $161 in savings on the low end. It's nothing fabulous but it's something and I'm not really having to do anything for that $200.

After our trip I'll probably downgrade to the regular DV so I don't have to pay the annual fee. I've got reward cards with more flexile options that I prefer to use.

 

[DsnyQueen]

I use the card mainly for my Disney vacations (cruise line and resort stays) because of the awesome 0% for 6 months savings. The added benefit is of course the disney rewards dollars which I roll right back into my next vacation. I decided not to upgrade to premier because of the annual fee, but get a lot of good perks with the standard card.

If you are on a tighter budget, you can really benefit from the 0%. Each charge starts over with the 6 month period, so you can make multiple payments over time towards a vacation that will incur no interest as long as it's paid for in 6 months from the original charge date.

 

[pmaurer74]

We have the Disney PRemier VISA and for us it is great. We use the cc for everything and pay it off every month. Of course it is nice to have six months to pay off the trip too. We have enough in rewards every year to pay for your park tickets.

 

[mm1971]

I have the premier Visa. Make sure you take the time to do the meet and greet at EPCOT and pick up your free picture. There is also the new Chase lounge at EPCOT.

As far as rewards, I like the ability to use the points towards flights. If you spend over $4,900 on gas, food and Disney vacations you make back the fee. Anything more than that and you are ahead with the 2% vs. 1%. We almost spend that on gas alone. We use it to pay for our groceries every week and that is over $7k annually (two preteens that eat everything in sight). So the premier makes more sense for us. The most important thing is to PAY IT OFF EVERY MONTH. If you don't pay it off and carry a balance, you will lose out on the benefits since you pay more in cc interest than you are earning in points.

 

[loveshak22]

Anyone know if you get any special rewards for buying Disney gift cards on your DV? Is it just the 2% on the Premier card or any other bonus?

 

[staceyeileen]

I got the Disney visa when we booked our Disney cruise a couple of years ago for the 0% financing. Other than that and maybe the meet and greet at Epcot, it's not a very good reward/cash back card, IMO. There are many other cards that give you better rewards. Just because a card doesn't have a Disney logo on it doesn't mean you can't save up your cash back for your Disney vacation. Cash is cash.

 

[bdink921]

I have used my Disney Visa card off and on for the past several years --- I mostly used it during promotions when 3% or 5% was offered. I would use it for EVERYTHING and pay it off every month. We earned LOT of FREE disney dollars (I love free money ). I did upgrade to premier and have a few hundred in rewards for our next trip but will be cancelling the card next year. We have another cc that gets 2% back on everything all of the time and that one works better for us.

 

[babyberger]

Anyone know if you get any special rewards for buying Disney gift cards on your DV? Is it just the 2% on the Premier card or any other bonus?

You may be able to do better than 2% but not buying direct through Disney. I did buy them while I had 5% back which was nice but now I will buy them at BJ's or Costco with a 4% discount and then my 1% back for that purchase. You have to check your local area as well since a lot of grocery stores run deals with gift card purchases.

Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

 

[snarfblatt]

We just signed up two months ago- with the $200 g/c after a $500 purchase (premier) so between that and paying for everything but utilities for it the last two month we have over $300 to spend.

I agree with PP is it the best rewards card ...not sure. We are looking into a Disney Cruise so we will probably keep using it to gain points for that. But If you don't do Disney a lot.. Those points really won't do you much good, as opposed to say, an Amex- that if you chose to use those points for Disney you could but also 100's of other places.

Bottom line- if you have a trip coming up- USE IT (within your means o course). Rack up those points!!!

 

[fuzzlekins]

I think you have to look at the other cards in your wallet as well because most offer rewards in the form of cash back even if not Disney $$. For me, I put $1,500 of our trip on my Discover because I earned 5% back on amusement parks up to that amt. We put our SeaWorld and IOA tix on my husband's Discover for the same reason. Then we each got a std Disney Visa that earned us each $200 Disney GCs for putting $500 on each card. I'll put an add'l $1500 on mine between now and our trip so I can redeem my extra $20. For groceries and gas, my Amazon card gives me 2% back and for Dept store & online purchases through Dec, Discover will give me 5% again. I will wind up using part of my Discover cash back on a Best Western GC for the trip down and back and all the remaining credit card rewards will be actual cash back for the trip. In total, I expect to save about $650 in addition to Disney's promo rate.

 

[YesMickey]

One thing of note I found out the hard way is you only get the 0% for 6 months on vacation packages only, not room only. I booked our trip for Feb. using the card and then found cheap airline tix that leaves the day we were going to drive out anyway that will get us to WDW a day early. So I tried to add the extra day early as part of the package with no luck. So I just made two(parents going too) room only ressies for that first night as we are getting in late and paid for that on the Disney Visa. When I got my bill the other day the promo is only for the Vacation package and not the room only. I thought the 6month no interest was for any Disney purchase. Not the case. So long story short, you only get Disney rewards dollars for booking room only, not the 0% for 6 month deal.