DVA - yes or no?

[MamaBelle4]

I'm debating about using DVA. I've seen many horror stories from people on these boards to make me anxious about it.

So if you've used it or are using it, what do you think? Would you do it again? If you chose not to, why?

The extra $20/$1000 sounds pretty good.

 

[Marionnette]

I'm debating about using DVA. I've seen many horror stories from people on these boards to make me anxious about it.

So if you've used it or are using it, what do you think? Would you do it again? If you chose not to, why?

The extra $20/$1000 sounds pretty good.

An extra 2% -MAXIMUM - when you spend $1000. To me, it's not worth the aggravation that the DVA has been known to cause. I had one when it was the only way to combine all of the $25 and $50 Disney GCs that I had. But now that it can be done on the disneygiftcard .com website, I have no use for the DVA. Too many horror stories. I closed my account this past spring and got a refund of the money that was in it. I look at it this way: I don't need to touch a hot stove to know that it can burn me. The DVA is a hot stove.

 

[havaneselover]

I used it to pay for my cruise. The extra $100 is paying for a night at Pop Century. It's got quirks for sure, but I'm willing to deal with those for the 2% bonus.

 

[QVCshopper]

Up until yesterday, I would have said sure, go for it. I opened an account in December and had no issues, but suddenly the Disney system merged my accounts or something and my DVA of $1900 is missing. I was EXTREMELY careful, writing my username and password down, as well as my entire 16 digit DVA number. I did absolutely nothing on my part to cause it, I'm positive. So, now I've been sent to Tech support in CA and am up against a deadline to add my extra gift cards to the DVA so I can buy 5 annual passes so we can get the extra bonus. I have a lot going on in my life, so I'm really too stressed out in other areas of life to be too stressed about this, but it's certainly annoying and something I don't want to be dealing with.

 

[PopGirl26]

I have never had any problems and have liked it as a method of payment, as it's an easy refund method in case of cancellation/credit. I will say, though, that I don't let money "sit" there. I deposit gift cards into it right before I pay for something. We've cleared an extra $150 or so, enough for our family's breakfast at 'Ohana.

 

[Alesia]

There is no way. Just no way. There are much easier and less stressful ways to make a couple hundred bucks.

 

[k&Jsmom]

I would not do it. I had a horrible experience with them. I needed a refund and what should of taken a few days took weeks! Everyone I talked to didn't know what they were doing. I was not surprised to hear all the negative reviews on the DVA.

 

[hsmamato2]

I wouldn't go to that amount of trouble for $20.... not after reading here!just not worth it

 

[LISmama810]

I started a thread a couple weeks ago asking people to share their positive/neutral experiences: http://www.disboards.com/threads/positive-dva-experiences.3513348/ It's always easy to find negative reviews of something; not so easy to find positive.

I've decided to use it. I'm making contributions from my credit card, so if something goes wrong and I'm not able to fix it, I can always dispute it. I'm also leaving enough time between when I'd LIKE to use it and when I NEED to use it that I'll be able to get things straightened out if necessary.

 

[Mr. lncredible]

I will say, though, that I don't let money "sit" there. I deposit gift cards into it right before I pay for something.

This

 

[amyy]

I make my contributions through my Disney Visa, but I can't imagine having to look through my statements to dispute the bi-weekly withdrawal. I suppose there is an easy way to do it. And I don't know the date last year when I made a withdrawal. I do have my account number written down which I learned reading a thread on here last year when people were having trouble. It has "only" been a week that I can't access my account and if you are ok with that you can give it a try. I can't wait to get my money and close out my account. I just can't believe an organization that manages savings accounts has this much trouble. Thank goodness my regular bank doesn't have these issues.

 

[hollypoast]

We used DVA for our cruise. It worked well because we could apply $ to our stateroom account for incidentals. After the cruise we had money left over and it was applied back to our DVA and we are using it for our next trip to Disney. Also, for some reason we were refunded an additional $42.xx per stateroom. This money just showed up in our account one day about 4 months after our cruise. I didn't receive any communication about what it was for. If I had used gift cards to pay for our cruise, I would have never known that the money was out there. So, I vote- YES.

 

[gottalovepluto]

The horror stories scare the daylight out of me. There was one about someone recently who couldn't access the $1000 in their account until after their trip!

 

[Friendlyadvice2]

I've not had a single issue. Couldn't be easier to use. When I'm ready to purchase something, I simply deposit the gift card (usually $1,000 at a time or whatever increment I need), call Disney to make the payment with the DVA (I tell them it's a gift card since that's how it processes anyway), immediately request my $20 gift card after making payment. Repeat as necessary. Easy, free money!

 

[Jaime4004]

I've had an account for about a year and there's always $$ in it. I just keep careful records in case there's a problem, but i've never had one. Used it last summer, paid off the trip from the disney website, using DVA, received the bonus before my trip. Currently saving up for a trip next summer. Money is automatically taken from my Disney Visa every month, I receive an email confirmation and save it. Super easy. Sorry to hear of all the problems other people have had. But i'll be keeping it until I encounter a problem...

 

[QVCshopper]

Hi - I had a problem where DVA was saying there was no account linked to my email, but I had written it down and was positive it was correct. I also had the entire 16 digit account number.

I called Saturday and they "logged" my issue. Today, I called again, but this time directly to CA and my issue was resolved within two hours after I hung up. I can now access my account fine again, there was a "backend issue" which means the system deleted my account because they thought it was a duplicate.

Anyway, the number you need to call is 714-520-6222. They know what they are talking about and have technical people right there to help.

Hope that helps.