Gift Cards for Kids Spending Money...Good Idea or Bad

[Flora Fan]

Has anyone ever purchased gift cards for your kids to use instead of money?

My neice has two little ones, 4 and 6. Buying gift cards from the Disney Store over a year is a good way to save spending money without really feeling the pinch. But I wonder how the kids will handle the idea once presented with a card to spend. What do you think? How do you think your kids would handle the gift card thing?

Thanks in advance for the help.

 

[DisneyGuess]

*Bump*
I'm debating the same thing for my DS. Anyone have any suggestions or advice?

 

[starbox]

We've done it and it's GREAT. I write their name and our cell phone number on the card, and carry the reciept seperately just in case it gets lost. The kids love it, it's really fast and easy to checkout, and they get a receipt with the new balance after each transaction.

 

[TotalSnowWhite]

i'm thinking about the same thing (for almost 3 and almost 6). i thought that way they could get the gift cards for this year's bday, christmas, etc. so, if you buy a gift card at the disney store, it will be redeemable at wdw? also, can you just use it for merch or can it be used anywhere on wdw property (such as for food, add-ons, spa, etc.)?

 

[TheDizMom]

I do gift cards a lot because the kids love being able to go and pick what they want themselves. Even young kids think it's fun. We use them a lot in this family and sometimes for birthday parties the kids get invited to and we don't know the child well enough to know what they would really like. I do this more for the friends of my DS 10, because I find 10 yr old boys hard to shop for, even my own son. The poor kids seems to get a ton of Mickey stuff all the time because I know he will love it.

 

[TheDizMom]

Just thought of something else. Make sure you know what the regulations are when you get a gift card. Some places begin to dock you money if you don't use the card within a certain amount of time. I go for places where it doesn't matter if they don't use it for more then a year. I would hate to give someone a card and have it not be worth the same amount I bought it for, if for some reason they take more then a year to use it. I doubt it would be a problem with kids, as they usually want to use them right away, but check into it just in case.

 

[Luv Bunnies]

We bought each of our boys (ages 11 & 8) a $50 gift card for our trip. But, I carried the cards and the boys had to get approval before buying something. We didn't want them racing ahead to a register and buying something before we saw it. I was also worried that they would lose them. We let them buy little things at the end of the day so we wouldn't have to carry them around. They didn't have to use their cards for larger purchases like sweatshirts or DVDs.

 

[MNdisneymom]

I used Disney Dollars for my DS last September. He had 10 a day to spend on whatever silly thing mommy wouldn't buy (one of which was a $7 Lightning McQueen tattoo that was gone by the next day ) and when that was gone, that was it. At the end of the trip he had enough $$ left to buy a POC playset that he really wanted.

For my DS it worked well having the paper money, because he could see how much he had--I don't think a gift card would have worked the same way--especially at that age (he was 3.5 then).

 

[WAHMto5]

We always get the Disney Dollars and put each childs in their own envelope and I hold on to them. That way they can see exactly how much they have and they really enjoy it! They also know that when it is gone, it is gone

 

[*KeepMovingForward*]

We have almost always done gift cards or given the kids our Disney Visa rewards cards for spending money. We held onto the cards when we vacationed up until they hit their teens, now we let them hold the cards.

 

[badblackpug]

Are they still making Disney dollars? I thought they had stopped. I don't know if kids as young as 4 and 6 will see gift cards as actual money. I am not sure if, at that age, they can understand the concept that the card is woth a certain amount of money, and that with each purchase the amount decreases. If I tell my 5 or 6 year old "I don't have enough money" for something, their reply is "use the credit card." They don't equivilate the card with actual money.

 

[Chelley00]

We did Disney dollars for our youngest 2, gift cards for the older 2. Our 5 year old is just starting to learn the concept of money, so for her the Disney dollars actually gave her an idea of how much she had left, and it was educational for her to have to count out her money to pay for something she wanted. Plus she liked all the characters on her "Mickey money".

Our older 2 (at 13 and 11 on our trip) were old enough to understand gift cards, how they work, how to figure how much was left etc. Plus, it was easy for them to carry around themselves.

 

[*KeepMovingForward*]

Are they still making Disney dollars? I thought they had stopped. I don't know if kids as young as 4 and 6 will see gift cards as actual money. I am not sure if, at that age, they can understand the concept that the card is woth a certain amount of money, and that with each purchase the amount decreases. If I tell my 5 or 6 year old "I don't have enough money" for something, their reply is "use the credit card." They don't equivilate the card with actual money.

You can get the Disney Dollars at the Disney stores. I just bought some over the weekend.

I hear you about the kids not understanding the concept of the card. When I was little I used to say "write a check ma" or "charge it"-not realizing you had to still pay for things!

 

[drivencrazy]

We just got back....... our 4 kids ages 12, 9, 4 and 2 each had their own VISA gift card from the bank... for birthdays and Christmas when family asked what the kids wanted or needed, we said cash or gc's... family gave cash which was put into the kids savings accounts till it was time for the trip... then they each decided how much they wanted on the Visa card and a trip to the bank and they each had their own card!

It worked out great for us... each one knew how much $$ they had for spending ($100 for the younger 2 and $145 for the older girls). If they wanted something they would ask for the card and go pay for it and give the card back. They made some really good choices and had to keep in mind about how much was left because ours doesn't give the remaining balance. They all have some $$ left that they will use when we go on another trip in June or will put the $$ back in the bank.

The kids liked to have their credit cards way better than having to mess with cash and it was so much easier keeping the cards for the right kids...not having to see who's money is who's.......

 

[annaaidan99]

We did this for our September trip, since DS had a birthday the weekend before the trip- it didn't make sense to go all out buying presents when we would be at WDW in a week. So, we gave him the $$, and it was his to spend at the parks as he wished. Honestly, it worked so much better than our prior trip, where he basically asked for everything. With his own money, he was very careful about his purchases- it was cute. We spent a little of our money for pins for him, as he really liked those, but for toys and such- it was his money.

 

[Flora Fan]

Thanks everyone for putting down your experiences. I think this will really help us make a good decision for the kids.

I had forgotten about the Disney Dollars. It will be nice for them to have a choice.

 

[MaidMarian]

Our daughter will be almost 3 when we go on our next trip in December. I've already set aside the gift card I got for signing up for the disney Visa and I'll pick up some disney dollars too before the trip. She loves swiping the charge card buying groceries so I know she'll love having her own"credit card" plus I like the idea of dollars too so she can start to get an idea of money.

 

[LSUmom4kids]

Last summer before our 8/06 trip, we had our kid's birthday party (all 4 of them have birthdays within 28 days). Whoever asked for gift suggestions, we told them $$ for WDW or Disney gift cards. The oldest was 19 so he actually received cash, but the other 3 got Disney gift cards! They each had over $200 on their cards.

Mom held all gift cards and had the final say on their purchases. I was proud of several times when my DD8 asked how much $$ would she have left if she purchased a particular item? When I told her, she said Nevermind and didn't purchase it! I was proud of her self-control!

They each bought two different Mickey hats so this year when we go back, they won't have to buy hats!

I recommend the Disney gift cards highly and will tell anyone who asks about what to get the kid's for their birthday present? Disney Gift Cards please.

 

[Hartbrken38]

how do you get a gift visa card? Our kids 10 and 12 would like this.

 

[*KeepMovingForward*]

how do you get a gift visa card? Our kids 10 and 12 would like this.

A lot of the places that sell a variety of gift cards (like Rite Aid, Walgreens, Eckerd, CVS) sell the Visa cards and they can be reloaded constantly. You can also get Visa cards from some of the banks-my bank, Commerce, allows you to purchase Visa gift cards and those are reloadable too.