Gift Cards

[deidre74]

Do many people use Universal Gift Cards? Normally when at Disney we get gift cards that we use to pay down the amount of the bill at the end of our stay. Is that something that people do at Universal as well.

Trying to decide if I should get a gift card for my niece to use for her souvenir purchases while we are there.

Has anyone used GC to pay down the charges put onto the hotel bill while there.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[macraven]

i always buy the UO gift cards.
when i check into the hotel, i put a huge amount down on my account at that time.
i do a charge back to my room so that eats up the surplus i have already covered when i arrive.
it's like prepaying at check in time so i have very little to cover at check out time.

also have a few $50 gc to use in the parks for food.
always am aware of the amount i have left on them.

and, with my credit card that i use to buy the gift cards, i get the points for purchasing the gift cards.
i win both ways.

 

[deidre74]

i always buy the UO gift cards.
when i check into the hotel, i put a huge amount down on my account at that time.
i do a charge back to my room so that eats up the surplus i have already covered when i arrive.
it's like prepaying at check in time so i have very little to cover at check out time.

also have a few $50 gc to use in the parks for food.
always am aware of the amount i have left on them.

and, with my credit card that i use to buy the gift cards, i get the points for purchasing the gift cards.
i win both ways.

So is Universal different than WDW in the sense that you can put the the gift cards on your account as a credit? I know at WDW you have to go to the front desk every few days or the day before you leave and have them apply the gift cards to the charges you made...they won't put the gift cards on as a credit....Universal does it the other way if I am understanding you correctly....I can have the hotel put a 200.oo gift card onto my account and then i can go and charge things back to the room and after the 200.00 credit gets used the rest would hit my card? What happens if I have credit left over, is there a way to get that back?

 

[macraven]

yes.

i stay longer than some do and put down $2000 of gift cards on my account when i check in.
i also have a cc on the account.

when i charge in the park back to my room, that amount will be taken away from what i have available from the gift cards.
also, each evening the daily room rate is subtracted from the total of deposit for the stay.

during the trip i buy more gift cards with my cc
i use only the cc that gives me points for my purchases.
when i return to the hotel in the evening, i have added those gc on to my account again.

my cc on file does not get hit until the night before i check out.
if i have over paid on this account, i can get cash back or a credit on my credit card.
i take the credit on my cc.

 

[thr33boys]

i always buy the UO gift cards.
when i check into the hotel, i put a huge amount down on my account at that time.
i do a charge back to my room so that eats up the surplus i have already covered when i arrive.
it's like prepaying at check in time so i have very little to cover at check out time.

also have a few $50 gc to use in the parks for food.
always am aware of the amount i have left on them.

and, with my credit card that i use to buy the gift cards, i get the points for purchasing the gift cards.
i win both ways.

I must be having a moment as I'm not sure I understand how you 'win both ways'.

I understand what you're saying about getting the cc points for your gift card purchase but I don't quite understand what your other win is?

Also, wouldn't you still accumulate the same number of points if you used your cc as the main form of payment on your room charges as you would from purchasing the gift card amount?

What am I missing?

my cc on file does not get hit until the night before i check out.
if i have over paid on this account, i can get cash back or a credit on my credit card.
i take the credit on my cc.

Wouldn't it be more advantageous for you, from a points perspective to take the cash back? Having them credit your cc also reduces your accumulated points.

I'm just not sure of the strategy behind this and am very curious.