DVA -vs- disneygiftcard.com ?

[crazymomof4]

I am brand new to the using gift cards to pay for a WDW trip. Ours is still a ways off (Sept 2016) so I have plenty of time to learn and save.

I will be getting a number of Disney GC over the next few months and of course, would like to consolidate them. I don't have a clue as to which is my best bet for doing so. I am not very familiar with either the DVA or disneygiftcard.com process, what the restrictions are, benefits, drawbacks, etc.

I DO know that with DVA you get a $20 GC for each $1000 deposited (correct?)

Are there other advantages/disadvantages with one over the other?

I'd like to make a smart, informed choice as to what to do with these GC as they start to collect.

Any opinions, experience, tips would be appreciated! TIA!

 

[Turk February]

If you are ONLY looking to buy a lot of GCs and then consolidate them, then disneygiftcard.com is what you want to use. DVA is a savings account to help pay off your vacation, or tickets, or a few other things which are listed on their site. You must SPEND $1000 after having an active account for 120 days to get the $20 gift card (it is $20 per $1000 spent). So just depositing and then asking for a large gift card back will not get you the $20.

If you are looking to buy discounted gift cards to pay off your vacation, I would suggest DVA just because of the $20 per $1000 deal. The reward is a bit of extra money and all you're doing is depositing your cards into an account instead of slowly paying off your vacation on WDW's website.

Disneygiftcard.com has absolutely no benefits or rewards because its purpose is to just give you a current gift card balance and consolidate balances to one or more cards. I would suggest using that site if you plan to pay for things at WDW with gift cards. That way, you don't have to travel with 25 $50 cards and instead it's just 1 or 2 with large balances.

 

[sunflare]

Also, if you're using a TA, just remember that they can't use your DVA to pay for things - you have to call in and do it yourself. Kinda a pain, but if you're spending a lot of money, the $20 per thousand spent may make up for the inconvenience.

 

[supersnoop]

I'm pretty sure each gift card maxes out at $1,000. So, if you need to consolidate more than that, the DVA is better. Or you can just use multiple gift cards.

 

[cattywampus]

My experience with DVA has been that it is really designed for WDW packages, period. While you can work really hard and get it to sometimes work for other thing, the brain damage isn't worth it!

I do not buy packages as I believe going room only is a better value. I also go to DL way more often, where it is virtually useless.

While I bought DL APs for our entire group using DVA, the $40 reward was not worth the two hours it took to have the CMs tell me that I couldn't do it over and over, only to finally get it done.

I am THRILLED to now be able to consolidate cards on Disneygiftcard.com. I consolidated $4,000 and now only have to bring four cards total for our stay next month.

 

[crazymomof4]

Thanks so much! These posts have been very helpful in clarifying the differences between these two entities!!