Gift Card Refund Question

[tinkerone]

If I have paid a lump on a cruise using GC's by reloading balances onto one card and they have to refund the funds what happens if it is over the $1000 mark? I'm thinking if I paid using the $1000 max then loaded the card till I reached another $1000, used that to pay down the balance and did that a few more times, do they refund the total to the one GC?

 

[PrincessShmoo]

If I have paid a lump on a cruise using GC's by reloading balances onto one card and they have to refund the funds what happens if it is over the $1000 mark? I'm thinking if I paid using the $1000 max then loaded the card till I reached another $1000, used that to pay down the balance and did that a few more times, do they refund the total to the one GC?

I think I recall someone saying that they loaded up their refillable gift card to the max, and then sent the a check for the balance. I could be wrong, maybe whoever it was will see this thread and respond.

 

[Rm4OneMore]

We have a cruise in June that we pretty much paid for with one gift card. We kept buying gift cards (thanks Target!) and replenishing the main card's balance. If they cancel our cruise, I'd like to know the answer to your question beforehand.

 

[sullivan.kscott]

We've had the same thing happen this year with both DCL and WDW. With DCL, we just "forwarded" the cruise money to keep the OBB they extended and our FCC. It's "sunk" Disney money, anyway. However, we had some spending cash and a wine bottle package "preloaded" to our folio that we wanted back. With WDW, it was a full 7 night CR package with DDP that we wanted to control even if it was staying as GC.

Disney travel was kind enough to offer a series of new e-cards via email, all with a max of $1k each. Took about 3 business days to receive. I'd definitely call in to coordinate this, though, because both my DU agent and myself were told that online cancellations would go directly to the most recent GC used. Of course, with a $1k max, that could easily put you out a lot of money.

 

[CM Dad]

Is there reason people keep reloading the same gift card to the limit, rather than loading multiple cards to $1000 and using them?

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Is there reason people keep reloading the same gift card to the limit, rather than loading multiple cards to $1000 and using them?

So they don't have to keep track of multiple cards. In case of refunds.

 

[sullivan.kscott]

Is there reason people keep reloading the same gift card to the limit, rather than loading multiple cards to $1000 and using them?

For us, it’s because the website allows a max of 5 cards. But even $5k doesn’t cover any Disney vacation we’ve taken after budgeting for f&b, shore excursions, etc.

Target send e-cards of up to $500, but even that becomes cumbersome to keep track of transferring and which ones were used for payment on what date.

So long as there aren’t some obscure banking and finance laws preventing it, I’d like to see whatever integration Disney does with the GC management into the single sign on include a more robust digital wallet that allows higher card balances on one number.

Historically, this hasn’t been a problem. But the events of the last 9 months have our household questioning the value of the 5% discount, for sure.

 

[BartmanLA]

On the recent 2021 WBPC cancelled cruise the taxes and port fees were refunded to multiple gift cards, they refunded one to $760 then the balance to another gift card, I had to go through all the ones I used to pay for the cruise (7 x $1000) to find out which ones had the refunds. That's why it's VITAL to keep all the GC's you use for payment of your cruise reservation!

 

[sullivan.kscott]

On the recent 2021 WBPC cancelled cruise the taxes and port fees were refunded to multiple gift cards, they refunded one to $760 then the balance to another gift card, I had to go through all the ones I used to pay for the cruise (7 x $1000) to find out which ones had the refunds. That's why it's VITAL to keep all the GC's you use for payment of your cruise reservation!

I really wish they would implement some kind of payment summary into the online profile, where you could see payments made on each date and amount with at least the last four of whatever CC or GC was used.

 

[starry_solo]

They'll send you multiple gift cards with the max amount. I haven't seen anyone say they got a check by paying with a GC. I think the only time I've seen someone get a check is when they've used a credit card and that account was closed (and not replaced with another credit card).

 

[deliela999]

On the recent 2021 WBPC cancelled cruise the taxes and port fees were refunded to multiple gift cards, they refunded one to $760 then the balance to another gift card, I had to go through all the ones I used to pay for the cruise (7 x $1000) to find out which ones had the refunds. That's why it's VITAL to keep all the GC's you use for payment of your cruise reservation!

I don't have quite that many, but I'd been tossing the old ones in a drawer after payment. I had to sit and type in all the numbers to see which ones now had balances and make sure it all added up. I write the amounts on them with sharpie usually but I hadn't done a good job of marking them used.

 

[CM Dad]

I use a Google sheet to keep track of which gift cards I use for each cruise.

 

[Cruising Engineer]

I use an Excel spreadsheet with the card data, when, and where it was spent. And I only use my special 8 cruising gcs I save just for DCL.

 

[tinkerone]

I use an Excel spreadsheet with the card data, when, and where it was spent. And I only use my special 8 cruising gcs I save just for DCL.

View attachment 545012

I have some of those however I can't use them. They were purchased in US funds when we were in WDW but being in Canada, our cards are sold in Canadian funds and will not transfer over to the US cards.
Sad reality

 

[Cruising Engineer]

I have some of those however I can't use them. They were purchased in US funds when we were in WDW but being in Canada, our cards are sold in Canadian funds and will not transfer over to the US cards. Sad reality

That's awful. Well just hang on to them because I don't think they make this one anymore. There is a card with Mickey and Minnie on it but it's more cartoonish. I enjoy my Capt. Mickey cards and wish I purchased more. At the time, $7K was a lot for our cruises, now, well, just wish I had a few more to add to the collection.

 

[LAX]

This is what happened to me. For GCs that I had reloaded multiple times over the $1K limit, I was asked to "empty" them by transferring the balance to other GCs. Then, the refunds would go back to those same GCs until $1K is reached again. If there is more to be refunded on those GCs, it's rinse & repeat until the entire refund balance has gone back to the same card. The CM I spoke to refused to issue new GCs (even at $1K increments), so I needed to wait a few weeks to get my refund.

LAX

 

[shawthorne44]

Thanks for this. Now that I have a heads-up, I'll combine no more than $1000 total onto one GC. I have many consecutive one-night reservations since I'm a bit fuzzy on the precise dates and I don't want them saying I can't modify my dates or split the reservation. I've only done $1000 worth at this point, so I'm safe. But, I'm running to Sam's tomorrow for more.

 

[Cheburashka]

I was so happy when I finally took the trip that used up my gift cards that had made rescheduling such a royal pain during all of the Covid craziness. I'm definitely never buying large amounts of gift cards again to spend on Disney travel. Lesson learned!

 

[n2mm]

Yep, sounds like my daughter when we were canceled by hurricane Irma. She did this, and has learned her lesson. We have a great TA who called dcl and got a list of all the GC used with exact amount on each, but she also did the loading more than $1000 on a master one too. She was told to unload the payment and they reissued the amount still owed. She got it straightened out, but never uses a card for more than $1000 now when paying dcl. It took a few weeks to get it off and so glad my TA worked with us.

 

[jujubiee4]

Yep, sounds like my daughter when we were canceled by hurricane Irma. She did this, and has learned her lesson. We have a great TA who called dcl and got a list of all the GC used with exact amount on each, but she also did the loading more than $1000 on a master one too. She was told to unload the payment and they reissued the amount still owed. She got it straightened out, but never uses a card for more than $1000 now when paying dcl. It took a few weeks to get it off and so glad my TA worked with us.

So the moral is never load more than 1000 on 1 card? I have a ton in a drawer but they are 100 and
200 denominations. I always wondered if i wanted to pay something to give CM all the numbers.