Disney Visa Rewards Points

[wannabecruiser]

Does anyone have one of these Disney Visa's. I thought of getting one to be able to get the reward points and use the points toward purchases on a cruise. I do not know anything about it just what I have seen advertised, I am assuming that if you have points built up you can use it towards your final tally at the end of the cruise? Does anyone know anything about this. Thanks for the help. I am hoping to cruise in 2006 and I keep reading these boards to get as much info I can.

 

[JJsmama]

We love our Disney Visa. You earn 1% of your charges. We've already used our rewards at Disney World and it was easy and uncomplicated.

 

[TheWog]

Yes, you can request the rewards card from the cc company and have your points loaded onto it. You then just go down to Guest Services and they will apply all the rewards points to your onboard account. Very simple.

 

[ppiew]

Try the website: www.bankone.com/disney. In the upper right hand corner, click on member services. You will find all kinds of info on that page, plus you can apply for the card there. After you accumulate 'points', you can call or go on line and order the Rewards card. (it looks like a credit card) As you add points each month, you can transfer these points to your card. The Rewards card can be used just about anywhere that is Disney. Works great! We love ours.

 

[dbond]

Our next Disney trip is "hopefully" the DVC Member Cruise. How easy is it to use the rewards on board? Do you take the card to guest services and just apply it your account like a credit?

 

[Diamond_Girls]

Can you use Disney reward points to help pay for the actual cruise fee up-front? I am planning on putting everything I can on the card for our cruise almost 2 years away, and hope to have more points than I will use on the stateroom account... thanks!

 

[MarcyIn Florida]

Yes, you can pay for all or part of the cruise with Disney Visa reward points.

 

[fourfoxesinpa]

Here's an EASY way to get lots of points on your Disney Visa. Buy EVERYTHING you can find that is "free after rebate." Watch the Sunday ads for Staples, Office Depot, Rite Aid, Ace Hardware, etc. etc. etc. Buy the items with your Disney Visa and submit your rebate. You may have to "float" the item cost until your rebate check comes in 4-6 weeks. Then you can either keep the items you bought, give them as gifts, sell them at a garage sale, or sell them on Ebay. Either way, you have "free" reward dollars and lotsa stuff! I've done this with my AmEx card in the past and just switched to using my Disney Visa card to prepare for our 9/05 Western cruise.

 

[fourfoxesinpa]

I forgot to mention that, while our Disney Visa, gets us 1% in Disney $, we have a Citibank card that is currently giving us 5% on groceries, gas, and drugstore purchases. I make a point to use that card for those purchases and will put those reward dollars toward our trip as well (they send us a check when the reward reaches $50). We charge EVERYTHING we can n one card or another and pay it off each month. It's kind of scary the first couple of months when you see that huge bill come in but you aren't keeping lots of $ in your checking account to pay the normal day-to-day expenses. If you shop online, there are also numerous sites such as ebates.com and even US Airways has a site where, if you start your online shopping at their website, you get a percentage in cash or miles. Lots of strategies to get the most out of your cards.

 

[Diamond_Girls]

I booked the cruise through Dreams Unlimited. How do I go about having them apply reward points to the cruise cost? thanks everyone!

 

[mmouse37]

It all depends if your travel agent can use your reward card directly with Disney to make payment or if the TA accepts payment to their office and then forwards a Travel Agency payment to DCL. If it is the latter I don't see how the rewards could be applied to the cost of the cruise.

If the payment is going directly to DCL then I think it can be done. The rewards are only accepted at Disney locations like the parks, cruise, stores, etc.

We have used our reward point twice on DCL...very easy...just bring you card to guest service and apply how many points you want.....we only needed 153 to pay off the remaining balance on our shipboard account and the CM told me I had 200 points...she only used the 153 and rest are still on my card to use another time.

MJ

 

[Diamond_Girls]

I asked my DU TA and she said that we can use the reward card. We just have to give the number and exp date like any other credit card. Yay!

 

[pjacobi]

BankOne also has a VISA card with 1% cash rebate. Why limit your rebates to Disney Dollars? I prefer the CASH!


-Paul

 

[fourfoxesinpa]

One big benefit of using Bank One's Disney Visa is that you can charge your vacation and pay zero interest for six months. Even if you have the $ sitting around to pay off your vacation, let it ride in an interest earning account and then pay off the card after the 5th month has passed. Let your $ work for you, is what I say.

 

[logan1_2000]

I was a Day 1 Charter Disney Visa card holder, and yes, about every thing DW and I pay for we use the card. Used Disney VISA for the intial deposit for 2005 3rd DCL for my family, and later transferred the first 675 Disney Reward Dollars to a Disney Reward Card (not a VISA, this is the actual card/method of using the rewards dollars at WDW, DCL, DL, etc.,) and made an interim payment toward cruise with those 675 through the DU site. I had orignall y booked for the early booking discount directly w/ DCL 16 mos. in advance of embarkation (yes, same fare as everyone else quoted me at the time), but later moved it to DU to get a $100 rebate when a rebate promotion was announced many months later. Have subsequently transferred over and applied another 112 rewards dollars. So it adds up. Will continue transferring over rewards dollars monthly until final payment is due. Anything after that will use toward on-board bill.

Once you have gotten the intial rewards card, you can transfer the rewards dollars from the VISA account to the Disney Card on line, very easy. And got to keep the early booking discount when I transferred ressie to DU from DCL.

 

[Diamond_Girls]

what happens to the reward points if you have to cancel your cruise? I was thinking I'd just let the points accumulate until my final payment is due just in case...

 

[logan1_2000]

CANCEL a cruise? Why on earth would someone do that?!

Okay, seriously, a fair question, and the answer is I do not know because I never asked and have not gone down that path. With other charges (not just DCL, but, you know, the "real" world) charges get credited back to the card on which the payment was charge. For a typical VISA, MC, or Amex, for example. Would Disney put Dollars back on my Disney Card? Perhaps--I just don't know, and it might be somewhere in the fine print (I'm a lawyer but I don't bother to read it, either) of the card agreement. Possibility that I might forfeit, considering it is not truly "cash" but really a bonus of sorts, subject to conditions.

And yes, I bought the trip protection insurance!!

Your wait until the end idea is the most prudent--I just have to admit I got too excited to do nothing so making the interim payments and using Rewards Dollars to do so seemed fun.

Still, between the rewards dollars and the $1,049 in coins from pocket change my family accumulated in a giant coke bottle "bank" and designated as the cruise fund, and the DU rebate, more than half of the cost of the cruise was covered by painless methods.

 

[HFC1969]

We pay everything on it!

You'd be surprised how many points you can earn by paying mortgage, car payments, groceries & everything else on it..

Just make sure you save all the money from that month to pay the bill when it arrives... Never let it go from one month to the next...

 

[Diamond_Girls]

Thanks Logan1!
HFC1969 - how the heck do you pay your mortage with your Visa card? I would looooooooove that, but thought it was not possible...

 

[FirstTimeCruiser]

Probably a silly question (but I've never had any rewards type credit cards). Does each point on the reward card equal $1 ? I'm thinking of applying for the card to pay off the balance of my cruise.

Thanks!!