FYI - Disney VISA

[Minnie&Mickey]

I have posted this on the Crafts and Scrapbook board also, so please bear with me if I am being repetitive. I just feel that everyone needs to be aware of this.

We use our Disney VISA for a lot of our purchases, and every month when I go online to pay off my bill, I transfer the rewards dollars to my Rewards Card. The monthly statement that is mailed to me always shows that I have 5 years to use those points before they expire. Well, today I went to transfer my rewards and it comes up saying that I need a new card. So I called the Customer Service line to find out what was going on. The lady informs me that my Rewards Card had a December expiration date and that since I didn't use my rewards dollars before then, I had lost them all ... over $300 worth!!! I asked her what happened to the 5 year expiration date and she told me that only counts if you DON'T transfer your reward dollars to the card.

I also just pulled out a confirmation sheet from the last time I made a transfer of rewards dollars, and nowhere on there does it say that my reward dollars were expiring at the end of December. Not only that, it allowed me to transfer dollars on Jan. 24 to the expired card without any problems...these are points that they are also telling me that I have lost.

I am just sick over this! Am I the only person that was not aware of this?

 

[whithouston]

The same thing happened to us. Except we only have like $20 on our card when it expired. Your rewards card has an expiration date on it, and it says it online also. The lesson I learned...don't put your reward dollars over to your card until you need it. Thanks.

 

[alwayslisad]

hmmm..I just moved mine over to a card about a week ago. Got the card in the mail and it shows a end date of 12/06 - we are cruising on 12/02/06. So I am still good to go. ( I HOPE!).


<----brrrrrr --- NH is SOOO cold right now!

 

[logan1_2000]

I actually did notice and called customer service to verify what the 12/05 expiration date on the front of my card meant in relation to the 5 year time period.

I piled up rewards dollars for quite a while, then after a large first transfer of 675 rewards dollars, I did monthly transfers, and then used the rewards card to make interim payments toward my cruise, so that the points were only at the rewards card account for 10 minutes. Eventually transferred just over a thousand rewards dollars this way. And since there are no more DCL cruises on our planning board, the day after the last billing cycle ended that was in time to get the rewards dollars in time for cruise use, I have stopped using the card and am now using a different affinity card toward a different goal in our family.

Frustrating to be sure, perhaps think of it as merely a promotion you were not able to use, rather than a loss (playing games with semantics, I know; you wont let that happen again I am sure)

 

[skibum]

Every time the issue of the Bank One Disney Visa card comes up, I feel I must tell people that it is NO GOOD! It has cost me money, and they have no decent customer service reps to take care of problems. Disney should abandon this partner, as I have done. I was excited to be a "Charter Member", but this company has way too strict rules that are only "black and white". There are way too many other credit card companies to work with (who are not always trying to scam), with better deals.

 

[sonney]

I think that the card is transferring over to Chase (or something like that) and away from Bank One. Hopefully, that will be be better, To be honest, it seemed clear to me when I made the transfer that the rewards card (and all points put on it) would expire on a certain date but I can understand how the messaging may have beeen unclear.

For the person who asked about 12/06 expiration, that generally means that it expires on 12/31/06 so you are good for the cruise!

Sonney

 

[jordgubben]

Actually, according to what I've received with my statements, Chase and Bank One have merged. For awhile we'll probably receive things under both names but then it all going to switch to say Chase.

I also thought that the information about the Rewards Card was clear but then again, I would much rather keep the rewards safe in an account where I don't have to worry about miss placing a card until it's time for me to use them.

I'm sorry that you lost so many rewards points. I would be truly pissed at myself if I did that.

 

[debloco]

I have to disagree. I have not had a problem with my Disney VISA and have found the customer service reps to be helpful and friendly.
And it is clear in the "Guide to redeeming Disney Dream Reward Dollars" that comes with the Disney VISA card when you first get it that the Reward Dollar balance in the program expires 60 billing cycles (5 years) following the billing cycle they are posted on. It also states that once you transfer a Reward Dollar balance (shown on your statement) to a Rewards Card that the Rewards card is good for one year.

 

[Crissup]

I had originally thought my rewards card was expiring in December '04. I kept telling Carol that I didn't want to transfer too much in case we didn't use it all. Finally realized that it was actually December '05. LOL!! Turned out we had a whole 'nother year on it yet.

As for Bank One vs. Chase, I prefer Bank One. I have cards from both. Bank One has always been great about letting me look up old statements online and paying the card online. Chase will only let me look up old statements or pay the card online if I agree to never receive paper statements again. So, if I have a glitch in my email, oh well, so sad I didn't get the statement. Pay the late fee!

I prefer paper statements with online statements available also.

 

[Rence]

Optimal usage is to keep the points in the account.

A couple of months before your next Disney vacation, request a card. You will get a card that will expire in about a year. You want to request it far enough in advance so that you are sure it will arrive in time.

You can then transfer the last month or two's points to the card as the accrue. On my last trip, my statement date was while we were at WDW a few days before we sailed. I called from WDW to get the last bit of points transferred to my card.

Then use the card up on the vacation. We spent the card first, to make sure all monies on it were gone. Then toss the card (or paste it in your scrapebook) and get a new card just before your next vacation.

 

[Stinasmom]

I can see how there was confusion. I called them to get some clarification after reading a similiar thread here some weeks ago. Our card expires 12/05. so I will be sure to use up all the dollars by then. Then keep any new points in the account until I get a new card. Thank you for sharing, again sorry for your loss, but we appreciate the head's up!
My big beef with the Disney Visa is that you have to pay the balance in full for at least 2 cycles in a row to avoid finance charges. I just pay it in full everytime now. Good for me anyway. Like being forced to eat healthy food!
I have to admit I am proud to be a "charter member" too!

 

[zeke11]

what does it mean to be a charter member?

Kris

 

[pppiglet]

Your card will say Charter member from Day 1 one it. Only the first people that signed up for this have it on their cards. (and you received a collectable pin) . I personally love my Disney Visa and have no problems with it or the rewards program. And they never bother me by phone like all the other companies do.

 

[ljql_5969]

Your card will say Charter member from Day 1 one it. Only the first people that signed up for this have it on their cards. (and you received a collectable pin) . I personally love my Disney Visa and have no problems with it or the rewards program. And they never bother me by phone like all the other companies do.

My card says Charter Cardmember and I did not get anything when I signed up. I inquired about it when I recieved my cards and they said I would not get anything. That kind of frustrated me a little bit!

 

[mmouse37]

I like my Disney Visa and have had no problems with it....but I do notice that they offer different promos to different people...that may be why you did not get your charter member pin....unless it was just offered for a limited time which is very possible. I signed up from Day one and did receive my pin.

 

[tpmorley]

I still haven't received the $25 dollar bonus they promised me for signing up for the card. I signed up last July and still haven't received it and our trip is over! I have called at least 4 times and gotten different stories from every single customer rep I talked to and of course they all promised that it was all taken care of

 

[earpiemom]

i see there are alot of problems apparently with the card but i want to post one good experience...i had got the card for the sole purpose of using it for our cruise...so i booked our cruise online in order to receive a stateroom credit and somehow i booked two rooms instead of one....i apparently clicked twice...i had no idea until i received our confirmations in the mail from disney showing that we had two different room numbers....i was SICK...so, i called disney first and they were wonderful about helping me correct the problem..i then called the bank and they were also wonderful about the account...because of booking two rooms i of course was over the credit limit and they took care of all of those charges for me....just wanted to post a positive experience....

 

[jimilla]

Just my 2 cents - but I think this highlights the importance of reading all the info they send with ANY credit card.

I did notice that the points expire 5 years but the rewards card expires in a year. There was a notice that stated any unused points on the card when it expires, will be forfited.

I called- and it was explained to me that you should not transfer points to the card untill you are ready to use them. This can be done with a phone call or online.

I agree with the above poster who stated keep the points in the acct. Order a reward card about 2 months before you will need it, when you get it, transfer from your acct. to the rewards card and enjoy.

Jim

 

[HooKooDooKu]

I too have posted about "issues" I've had with the Disney Visa card.

Every time I tried to take advanage of one of their 0% finance charge specials, they eventually tried to put finance charges on the account. The first time I had to call them to task for 6 month at 0% some how does not really mean 6 months to their computers. And even though you're not supposed to get slapped with finance charges if you pay off everything but what is at 0%, they would still try to put the finance charges on my account. Each time, I had to call customer service and take them to task for what was happening and get the finance charges removed. I finally gave up and now ALWAYS pay my balance in full each month and I no longer have issues with them (except for sending me those #@$! "convenience" checks in the mail - and when you ask to be removed from the list, they take 90 days to do so, and you seem to get added back to these lists each time banks merge!!! ).

To the OP, I don't see that you've got much wiggle room to argue about the points you lost that were transfered last year. I'm ASSUMING that it's partly your fault because don't the cards have an expiration date printed on them (havn't gotten mine in the mail so I haven't seen them yet).

But when it comes to points lost because you transfered them to an invalid card, I'd be all over them getting those points back. IMHO, there's no excuss for losing points just because their computer systems let you transfer points to an invalid card no matter how much they want to say that was your fault.

 

[Minnie&Mickey]

To the OP, I don't see that you've got much wiggle room to argue about the points you lost that were transfered last year. I'm ASSUMING that it's partly your fault because don't the cards have an expiration date printed on them (havn't gotten mine in the mail so I haven't seen them yet).

I'm the OP and I'll agree, I won't get anywhere by arguing with them over this, but I am going to write them to express my displeasure. I got my card back in Dec. of 2003 and have earned over $700 worth of points on it. I used $400 of them at WDW in July and that was the last time that I even looked at the Rewards Card (it got filed away with our APs). Since I do all of my transfers online, I don't have to pull out the card to do the transfer. My Rewards Card expired a year from when it was issued, but I know of others whose card was good for longer than one year. Many people are under the impression that the points are good for one year from when the transfer was made, but that is not the case. The are good for the one year period that your card is valid. If they were good for one year from the transfer, my $300 points would still be usable.
I'm sure it will be a total waste of time, but I am going to write them a letter. I know that ultimately this is my fault for not understanding the program, so I wrote this mainly to make others aware so that they don't make the same mistake.