Gift cards

[Laurie 🇨🇦]

We are planning on purchasing a reloadable gift card before we leave. We live in Timmins Ontario...Here’s my question...if we want to add more money to it whilst in Orlando how we would go about doing that as the Gift Card site is American. We would like to load it up every few days during our two week stay as we’re unsure on how much we will need. Has anyone done this before? Is it even an option? Or do we just load up the gift card with what we think we will spend?
Thanks in advance...

 

[Ohanaof3]

I bought gift cards on the last few vacations. I buy several and combine them on the website. I have not been able to reload online unless I buy a different card and transfer to the one I want to use.

I have also bought gift cards at the hotel gift shops onsite, world of Disney ect. You could ask to reload there.

One year I bought a card for my children for the amount of their spending money, and a different one for dining tips I anticipated. This worked well as disney was on the last half of our vacation, and we were not going to any destinations off site. What wasn’t spent, I used to pay for our next vacation.

Last thought: Buying/reloading while at Disney would defeat the purpose of saving the cad to USA money fees that are charged by your bank/credit card, unfortunately. It might be better to estimate how much you want to spend and get disney cards here before you go.

 

[TammyLynn33]

Try and figure out what you think you will spend .
Are you onsite ? Do you have a dining plan ? Are you taking water and snacks ? Look at the menus and try and estimate what you will be spending roughly per meal ..
Set a budget for souvenirs . I get my kids their own gift cards once they are gone they are gone.

 

[DonnaBeeGood]

.

 

[SaraMc]

You can buy gift cards all over property, I think you can only refill the little ones for Food and Wine etc. I would just get new ones while you are there

 

[Mollygirl21]

You can buy gift cards all over property, I think you can only refill the little ones for Food and Wine etc. I would just get new ones while you are there

If we buy a gift card while at WDW, can we re-load it when we get back home (Canada) in USD?

The ones we buy in Canada are Cdn$ but I'd like to have one I can load US$ on to save for our next trip.

Thx

 

[Laurie 🇨🇦]

I bought gift cards on the last few vacations. I buy several and combine them on the website. I have not been able to reload online unless I buy a different card and transfer to the one I want to use.

I have also bought gift cards at the hotel gift shops onsite, world of Disney ect. You could ask to reload there.

One year I bought a card for my children for the amount of their spending money, and a different one for dining tips I anticipated. This worked well as disney was on the last half of our vacation, and we were not going to any destinations off site. What wasn’t spent, I used to pay for our next vacation.

Last thought: Buying/reloading while at Disney would defeat the purpose of saving the cad to USA money fees that are charged by your bank/credit card, unfortunately. It might be better to estimate how much you want to spend and get disney cards here before you go.

 

[TammyLynn33]

I always shop at target.com for email Disney gift cards in US funds I pay through PayPal and it pops up in my email an hour or so later
Then the gift cards are in USA funds ..
( I select ship to USA to ensure I get USA )

 

[Laurie 🇨🇦]

That is exactly what my daughter and I suspected. We definitely want to avoid any bank charges and or credit card charges. I called our bank to see what charges we would incur if we used our debit cards and I was told 3.5 %. I was floored and we already know that our credit card has a 2.5 % foreign transaction fee. We will have to sit and get a number that we feel is what we will spend. I bought my first 50$ gift card yesterday to experiment as I read on this board that you can flip your Canadian card to American funds. I feel that if we do that until May we can possibly lock in some exchange rates and get a better feel for the true money that we have as it will be converted and easier to plan.
Thank you for your timely response

 

[isabellea]

Unfortunately, Disney stopped allowing transferring cdn GC to usd GC (to fix exchange rate) a while ago. You will get the exchange rate of the day when you use your cdn GC. They do have a good rate and still avoid the foreign transaction fee so that’s a plus.

 

[Laurie 🇨🇦]

Unfortunately, Disney stopped allowing transferring cdn GC to usd GC (to fix exchange rate) a while ago. You will get the exchange rate of the day when you use your cdn GC. They do have a good rate and still avoid the foreign transaction fee so that’s a plus.

That is certainly good to know and thanks for that !

 

[Laurie 🇨🇦]

You can buy gift cards all over property, I think you can only refill the little ones for Food and Wine etc. I would just get new ones while you are there

We are trying our best to avoid charges that are incurred by using debit and or credit cards while we are there. Ideally we will buy all of our cards here to maximize our savings...

 

[mullysisters]

Im sorry to be a bit thick, but can you explain buying Disney GC here to avoid foreign exchange rates? Thanks. I plan on taking a credit card. Also is it a good idea to purchase a dining plan for the same reason( to avoid foreign exchange rates) Thanks!

 

[Laurie 🇨🇦]

Im sorry to be a bit thick, but can you explain buying Disney GC here to avoid foreign exchange rates? Thanks. I plan on taking a credit card. Also is it a good idea to purchase a dining plan for the same reason( to avoid foreign exchange rates) Thanks!

We are staying off the property...we always rent a home in a gated community. We don’t purchase the dining plan. In the past and up to our last Disney vacation in 2017 we always put everything on our credit card...and sadly I was not aware of the 2.5% foreign transaction fee attached to every purchase made . Then I thought I’ll use my debit card instead...called the bank to confirm that there’s no extra charges and I was horrified to find out that they charge 3.5% foreign exchange fees
So I did some research and most of it from this forum and discovered that if you purchase gift cards here in Canada you can avoid all of the fees. The cards are welcome everywhere...So when we go out for dinner or when I buy souvenirs and even the purchase of park passes we will pay with our gift cards and not use our credit or debit cards. Sadly our loonie is not in great shape right now and every little bit helps...
Remember that your Canadian gift card will be converted to u.s. when it’s used.

 

[mullysisters]

Thank you! I have to admit I'm a little nervous about buying so much Disney GC. I wont be able to use them if I bring any back. Also do we know what exchange rate Disney uses? It may be higher than what we would get here.

 

[Donald - my hero]

Thank you! I have to admit I'm a little nervous about buying so much Disney GC. I wont be able to use them if I bring any back. Also do we know what exchange rate Disney uses? It may be higher than what we would get here.

You will get the exchange rate from the close of previous business day.
Take some time and go over menus to get a general idea of how much you might be spending on food. Then glance at the Disney store and get a feel for what souvenirs might cost -- you can look at products that are park specific. Once you have a ball park figure you can grab some gift cards and load them up with that amount -- most stores have ones that are "loadable" HOWEVER you can't add anything to them once you've bought it, they're not re-loadable (it is possible to combine them online as mentioned above) It's a great way to eliminate the extra fees for using credit cards in the states

 

[Tndnknin]

Thank you! I have to admit I'm a little nervous about buying so much Disney GC. I wont be able to use them if I bring any back. Also do we know what exchange rate Disney uses? It may be higher than what we would get here.

I have $350 CAD in gift cards registered online and yesterday website said they were worth $267.75 US. On the Royal Bank exchange app my $350 CAD is worth $262.09 US so Disney is giving me a better rate. Plus if I use a bank card or credit card in the states there is an additional 2.5 %to 3.5 % transaction fee on top. The disney gift cards do not have that additional fee.

 

[mullysisters]

I always shop at target.com for email Disney gift cards in US funds I pay through PayPal and it pops up in my email an hour or so later
Then the gift cards are in USA funds ..
( I select ship to USA to ensure I get USA )

Aren't you paying thru Paypal with a Cdn credit card? So, they will charge exchange plus Frorign transaction fee? Or I may be wrong.

 

[TammyLynn33]

Aren't you paying thru Paypal with a Cdn credit card? So, they will charge exchange plus Frorign transaction fee? Or I may be wrong.

they do but I get Is money deposited into my paypal monthly so it works for me

 

[flower_petals]

I always shop at target.com for email Disney gift cards in US funds I pay through PayPal and it pops up in my email an hour or so later
Then the gift cards are in USA funds ..
( I select ship to USA to ensure I get USA )

Whoa! I did not know you could do this. I have paypal funds that I don't want to exchange.