Disney Visa Questions

[middlesista]

Hi - Do folks feel it is worth it to obtain a Disney Visa in order to have the few days earlier option of booking discounts when offered? The other perks sound enticing also. Currently, I only use one card - mostly to build up miles and not sure if I want another but if it is the difference between getting a discount that will allow us to apply toward our favorite resort I may have to consider.

Also - do you have to put the entire trip on the card or just the deposit?

I also read I should wait until they offer a $200.00 sign-up bonus?

 

[mickeynut1]

Hi - Do folks feel it is worth it to obtain a Disney Visa in order to have the few days earlier option of booking discounts when offered? The other perks sound enticing also. Currently, I only use one card - mostly to build up miles and not sure if I want another but if it is the difference between getting a discount that will allow us to apply toward our favorite resort I may have to consider.

Also - do you have to put the entire trip on the card or just the deposit?

I also read I should wait until they offer a $200.00 sign-up bonus?

I don't think it's worth it to get a cc that you don't want just to be able to book a discount a few days earlier than the general public, but that's just my opinion. It used to be that the deposit was the only thing that needed to be charged to the Disney Visa and the balance could be paid with any other card, but I have read in the past that some people were told the whole trip needed to be paid for with the Disney Visa, so I can't answer that with certainty. If you do decide to get the Disney Visa, waiting for a good sign up bonus would be a good idea, IMO.

 

[WouldRatherBeInWDW]

We got a Disney Visa a few years ago, specifically to earn the points for a future trip. For a long time, we put everything on it (groceries, gas, you name it) and watched the points accumulate. We finally took our first WDW trip recently and the points paid for most of our meals (no dining plan) and souvenirs. Points won't help you if your trip is coming up soon. We did also get a free character family photo at Innoventions in EPCOT and a 10% discount at World of Disney.

 

[aaarcher86]

I wouldn't get the credit card, but we did go ahead and snag the Disney debit cards through Chase. It works exactly the same as my previous debit card but it's pretty! I get all the discount perks, so why not?!

If you frequent Disney I could see the points being a nice perk.

 

[RomeGal]

I have a Disney Visa and I am a "charter cardholder since 2002" - thus says my card, anyway.

I accumulated a number of points (maybe 500) but it took me years to do it. You only get ONE disney dollar for every $100 actual dollars you charge and PAY OFF. So, if you have 500 Disney Dream Reward Dollars, you have spent $5,000. This was fine for a while because it was my only credit card (I only have one other skymiles card now...) - but then we hit some tough times and I got divorced and had to use my card more and was unable to pay off the whole balance every month. The interest rate is ridiculous, even though I was a great payer for 6-7 years paid off the whole balance, they would not lower the interest rate.

However, for the past 3 years, I have accumulated $750, which paid for half of the resort for our stay. HALF! So that was nice. But I paid a ton of interest to get there. Of course that was my fault... or, my circumstances, anyway.

It is nice to get the 10% off on merchandise, but I don't want to actually charge the purchases on it when I've brought cash to pay...

As for the 3-4 days early booking discount incentives, I have found that the discounts are ones that are about to be offered publicly, and being able to book 2-3 days before everyone else for the same discount is not a huge perk.

 

[tmbacon]

The only reason we have a Disney CC is for the points, and we did wait to sign up until we received a $200 deal. It took a while, but we accumulated about $900, which we applied towards our trip to Disney last month. I'm not sure how much I'll use it going forward, as mentioned it took quite some time to rack up those points - but I have to say, it sure was nice to get those savings during the actual trip.

 

[scard192]

I got it a few years ago because I got the $100 gift card offer. I am glad that DV holders have a 3 day head start on bookings. I have the regular card not the Premiere. The free picture at EPCOT is a nice perk.

I use it exclusively for any charge that is only 1% cash back from any credit card I have like Target, Walmart, BJ's, I charge my car insurance as there is no service fee, I also made a pretty substantial down payment on my new car last year.

I pay all my credit cards off every month so the rewards are free money that is nice to get.

I have enough in rewards to cover tips on the DDP for our trip in October.

 

[poofiesdream]

We got the CC because we got a $100. gift card for applying. We use it at Disney to get points for our next trip and a free picture at Epcot. we also use it to get merchandise discounts while there. We have the one with no annual fee so it doesn't cost us anything to have it. We do not use it for room discounts as we do better with the Fl Resident, or annual pass discounts.

 

[middlesista]

I don't think it's worth it to get a cc that you don't want just to be able to book a discount a few days earlier than the general public, but that's just my opinion. It used to be that the deposit was the only thing that needed to be charged to the Disney Visa and the balance could be paid with any other card, but I have read in the past that some people were told the whole trip needed to be paid for with the Disney Visa, so I can't answer that with certainty. If you do decide to get the Disney Visa, waiting for a good sign up bonus would be a good idea, IMO.

Has anyone else had an experience with the amount that has to be charged to the Visa account? Can it just be the deposit or do you have to charge the entire vacation?

 

[middlesista]

Thanks to everyone for your replies - helpful information.

Truly not interested in the points - just thought we would be able to utilize any discounts (if they were avail) a few days sooner in case they became unavail for our chosen resort - since the POFQ does not seem to have as many offers as the other resorts. Last time we went in 2012 the first CM we talked to told us we would have to change resorts to have the FD when we called back later another CM did apply the FD to our standing reservation.