Gift Cards?

[Atchley]

I was thinking about purchasing Gift Cards with the money that I am saving for Disney so that I would not spend the money on anything else. My question is, can I give the gift cards to the front desk to apply payment for my room key before I charge or can I go down and pay the balance on my room every couple of days?
Has anyone done this? What do you think the pluses and minuses are of this?
I will not use all of the money to purchase gift cards, but a large portion of it I will. I know not everyplace takes the gift cards in the parks.
I hope I posted this question in the right place.

 

[Dacky619]

We have done it. I've been told by some people you can apply the gift cards before you charge anything, but on our last trip they weren't able to do this (maybe our CM just didn't know how). So we just charged, and then went down and applied our gift cards to that balance when we wanted to. I think the only catch is make sure you do it at least 1 day before you check out, if you try to do it on checkout morning, I think the balance has already been charged to the credit card you have on file.

 

[edk35]

We applied gift cards to our charges last Jan. I am not sure if you can apply a gift card first though. Good question though. Maybe someone else has tried and it worked and they will post on here.

 

[LauraLea]

they will apply the Disney Visa Rewards card balance in advance, but only apply gift cards after charges have been made to the room.

Laura

 

[Tamar]

Some gift cards don't work well at hotels or other "service" type places. I have a $50 gift card that someone gave me, and could not apply the whole $50 to our room charges. I also couldn't use it here at home for a haircut. Something about the cards being designed to hold something back in case there is a gratuity. Pretty sure this isn't the case with Disney gift cards, so if that's what you meant--never mind.

 

[mountdew1]

Assuming you are talking about Disney gift cards and not generic gift cards. You can pay off your balance before they charge your card. However, consider if you really want to tie the cash up in the Disney gift cards. Owning DVC you will almost definitely be going back, but some people don't like to tie up the cash in case they need to do something else with the money. If you have an unfortunate need to pull out cash to pay for something, car repairs, medical issues, etc, if you have it tied up in gift cards, you are SOL, but if it is still in cash, then you can use it for the emergency. Unless you happen to have a store nearby that is running a deal so you get more than face value, Disney gets your cash upfront with no real benefit to you. You are better off opening a new savings account, and making a few bucks while the money sits in the account. From a usability standpoint, there is no real draw back to saving money in the gift cards, but it's a questionable decision from a financial standpoint.
Generic gift cards are in my opinion, a definite no no. You end up either paying fees to get the card issue, or pay fees on a monthly basis. Either way you lose.

 

[amypetecar]

Assuming you are talking about Disney gift cards and not generic gift cards. You can pay off your balance before they charge your card. However, consider if you really want to tie the cash up in the Disney gift cards. Owning DVC you will almost definitely be going back, but some people don't like to tie up the cash in case they need to do something else with the money. If you have an unfortunate need to pull out cash to pay for something, car repairs, medical issues, etc, if you have it tied up in gift cards, you are SOL, but if it is still in cash, then you can use it for the emergency. Unless you happen to have a store nearby that is running a deal so you get more than face value, Disney gets your cash upfront with no real benefit to you. You are better off opening a new savings account, and making a few bucks while the money sits in the account. From a usability standpoint, there is no real draw back to saving money in the gift cards, but it's a questionable decision from a financial standpoint.
Generic gift cards are in my opinion, a definite no no. You end up either paying fees to get the card issue, or pay fees on a monthly basis. Either way you lose.

Everything listed above makes alot of sense and is very logical. That said, I saved up for my family tickets with gift cards over the past 12 months b/c i knew it would be the only way I wouldn't use the money for something else. the only advantage(?) is that it locks your money into Disney... which has it's risks. But for me, it worked.

 

[Dizny Dad]

We use Disney Gift Cards to pay our bill at the front desk all of the time. this last ime we not only had 12 Gift Cards with us, but purchased gift cards in the MK to use.

Group one - purchaseSam's gift card at Walmart on Disney Visa. Take Sam's gift card to Sam's and purchase the Disney Gift Card that was offered at a reduced rate from the cash value that gives the $10 special merchandise Gift Card on top ot the cash value you are spending. Now you have the Disney Rewards and the $10 Gift Cards for fun in WDW.

Group Two - DW found that if you purchare a gift card at the Merchantile on Main Street USA, you get a free pin, one that only comes with the gift cards. Purchase a bunch of those, take the boat over to WL, turn them in to the front desk for your room charges, keep the pin free, get the Disney Visa Rewards for the next trip.

Keep in mind that the Disney Rewards Visa only pays at 1%, so other cards really do you better, but don't offer at much fun when you pull it out and use it.