Disney Visa Rewards question

[Mellie2162]

I don't have a Disney Visa but have applied for one. Im wondering if any of you use yours or have used yours to make your down payment and monthly payments to DVC? Are you allowed to earn rewards for this or are there a lot of rules about getting rewards back?

 

[PamOKW]

You can charge your down payment on the Visa and that will go toward rewards. You can also charge your yearly dues but this has to be charged in a lump sum -- it's not charged monthly. If you want to pay on a monthly basis, it has to be by direct withdrawal from a bank account (they don't charge any interest).

It's also possible to use the rewards to pay your dues.

 

[TwirlerGirl]

We've used our Disney Visa Card exclusively exclusively since receiving it. We have used it to pay for yearly maintence fees and anything else that comes up. It is very easy to redeem the points and use the rewards card. DH is sold on it.

Sandy

 

[Mellie2162]

Thanks for the info. We are very close to purchasing into DVC and we were thinking why not use this if we could get some rewards back. Now I'll have to wait and see if I get one in the mail or not, lol. How big are the rewards? For instance how many dollars do you have to spend to get x amount of reward dollars?

 

[PamOKW]

Originally posted by Mellie2162
For instance how many dollars do you have to spend to get x amount of reward dollars?

Now, that's the kicker. You get $1 for every $100 spent. So far, the opportunities for double dollars have been minimal. I think only certain Disney Store purchases have qualified. To get a real benefit you have to use it as TwirlerGirl suggests -- for everything. Just be sure not to let the balance get out of hand. If you pay it off monthly it's "free money".

 

[MermaidsMom]

If you use it to pay for your membership- I mean use it to purchase the entire membership- do you get the 6 month free interest?

 

[FredS]

I have a couple of problems with this card. If you use it "for everything" which I usually do with a couple of other reward cards, then pay off monthly it isn't so bad (although I get a higher percentage of cash back, double/triple bonuses with Discover, for instance). However, if you use it to book a trip to take advantage of the interest-free promotion, then you can't charge anything else on it at all, without incurring interest on the other charges at a very high rate.

If this had not been a Disney card, and I hoped for some perks through that association, I would not have bothered with this card. So far the perks haven't really been there, but perhaps things will improve.

 

[pumpkinboy]

Originally posted by MermaidsMom
If you use it to pay for your membership- I mean use it to purchase the entire membership- do you get the 6 month free interest?

I asked this question of BankOne (who do all the heavy lifting in the Disney Visa program), and they tell me that they no longer offer this benefit . I had put my initial DVC downpayment on the Card, and received this 0% benefit until this month (6 months later); now we pay it off and leave the balance at Zero. However, we continue to use the Card for any prepayments of our DVC loan, which we intend to kill off this year to rid ourselves of the usurious 9.75% rate (and get another 150 rewards points ).

I also thought about using the Card to pay my DVC dues all at once, but the direct-debit over the course of the year came out as the more cost-effective means (assuming 3.75%, our home equity rate, as the cost of money, the "interest" costs outweighed the rewards points).

Also, don't forget about the referral bonuses. Current DVC members in certain states (including mine) get a cash bonus for referring new folks who buy DVC directly. When we bought, the person who referred us split the $200 referral bonus with us. So if you were to buy the smallest contract and put the whole thing on your Card, you would get maybe $130 worth of Rewards Points, and splitting the referral bonus would get you another $100 cash. Kinda like a rebate on a car, but it does reduce the total spent somewhat.

 

[DemoBri1]

Originally posted by FredS
I have a couple of problems with this card. If you use it "for everything" which I usually do with a couple of other reward cards, then pay off monthly it isn't so bad (although I get a higher percentage of cash back, double/triple bonuses with Discover, for instance). However, if you use it to book a trip to take advantage of the interest-free promotion, then you can't charge anything else on it at all, without incurring interest on the other charges at a very high rate.

Fred,

I'm not sure I understand what you're saying here. Are you saying that you get charged interest no matter what, or are you saying you get charged higher interest if you don't pay off the amount at the end of the month?

 

[MikeBW]

We use it for everything and pay our balance every month. So.... we have over $220 to spend in WDW!!

 

[disney queen]

my card is 0% interest. we try to pay it off every month. i think only once we carried a balance, but we were not charged interest.

 

[pumpkinboy]

Originally posted by FredS
...However, if you use it to book a trip to take advantage of the interest-free promotion, then you can't charge anything else on it at all, without incurring interest on the other charges at a very high rate....

Originally posted by DemoBri1
...Are you saying that you get charged interest no matter what, or are you saying you get charged higher interest if you don't pay off the amount at the end of the month?...

Actually, if you take advantage of a promotion (e.g. 0% rate for 6 months), your payments go to the lower (or 0%) rate items, and your newer purchases accrue interest at the higher (standard, I believe ~12.9%) rate. Of course if you pay it off every month, you will not accrue any interest charges.

 

[Lexxiefern]

I used my disney visa to buy my DVC original purchase [and all add-ons] When I got the card it was 6 months interest free, so we just made sure it was paid off by then.

you get 1% back - maybe not the best on the market, but I love using it. We are using our rewards to stay at the AKL for 3 nights in September.

 

[SuzieQMomof3]

Mellie,

We bought for the first time just this week and put the entire payment on our Disney Visa. This will give us about 130 Disney Reward Dollars-that's almost one child's ticket! If you can pay it off right away, it's a great deal. I've been using the card as a debit card so we can easily keep track.

Good luck!

 

[FredS]

Originally posted by DemoBri1
Fred,

I'm not sure I understand what you're saying here. Are you saying that you get charged interest no matter what, or are you saying you get charged higher interest if you don't pay off the amount at the end of the month?

You technically don't get charged interest on the amount of the trip charge, but you do get charged on the other purchases, as you cannot (by virtue of having the cost of the trip charged) pay the balance in full every month. If you have $1000 for a trip, then that portion won't accrue interest during the promotional period. But if you continue to use the card, and charge $800 on other items, you cannot pay $800 and clear the interest-accruing balance. Most or all of the payment will go towards the promotional rate balance.

So, while you may get a portion at 0% for a few months, you either cannot use the remaining credit available, or if you charge on it you will be charged the regular rate of interest, which tends to be much higher than average.

Not sure if that is any clearer, but I tried!

 

[FredS]

Originally posted by pumpkinboy


Actually, if you take advantage of a promotion (e.g. 0% rate for 6 months), your payments go to the lower (or 0%) rate items, and your newer purchases accrue interest at the higher (standard, I believe ~12.9%) rate. Of course if you pay it off every month, you will not accrue any interest charges.

That is my point, you CAN'T take advantage of the six-month interest free promotion unless you don't use the card otherwise, because you have to pay off the entire balance or else incur a high interest rate on any other charges.

 

[larry_poppins]

I recently did a poll about what credit card we all use and the majority of us on this board do carry and use the Disney Visa. The next largest group have an airline branded card. This really surprised me. Most of us feel there are better reward cards out there, still we use the Disney! There must be some intangible pleasure to taking out a card with a bold red Mickey on it!

At least there is no picture of Eisner on the card.

Larry

 

[Johnnie Fedora]

All of these rewards cards have problems. We've used the United visa and another "any airline visa" and are now using the Disney visa.

There are multiple problems with the airfare visas. For example, we could not book 5 tickets on the same flight. We found flights with 3 open seats, but not 4 or 5.

The any airline card makes you book airfare through their travel company. If you need to by a cash ticket then you pay their rate for it.We'ld get a couple of free tickets, but pay $250 for any cash tickets we bought. In Chicago, we can usually get a RT to MCO for $150, off season.

The Disney card allows us to have rewards to use for each trip, even if it's 50 disney dollars. We refuse to have any balance on the card. We've used the Disney visa for a cash Vero night at a good rate, but other than that, the perks are sparce.

Overall I'm most disappointed that there is no pass discount with it.

 

[roadtripper]

Using the card for everything earned us enough rewards dollars for one free 5 day adult park hopper from the Disney Store. Since we don't have APs, the tickets are always the most expensive part of the trip, so the Disney Visa has been worth it for us.
Re: the usurious rates-- when our 6 month 0% interest was up, I called to get a lower interest rate, and got it (7.9%). I pay off the balance every month, but the lower rate is "just in case"...

 

[gracelrm]

Originally posted by roadtripper
Using the card for everything earned us enough rewards dollars for one free 5 day adult park hopper from the Disney Store. Since we don't have APs, the tickets are always the most expensive part of the trip, so the Disney Visa has been worth it for us.
Re: the usurious rates-- when our 6 month 0% interest was up, I called to get a lower interest rate, and got it (7.9%). I pay off the balance every month, but the lower rate is "just in case"...

You can just call and ask for a lower interest rate? And they'll give it to you? I had no idea!