Hack to save ~20% on all WDW purchases

[mhartman09]

I've ordered several Disney gift cards from Target's website with the 5% discount using only gift cards to pay. The trick is to go through the entire checkout process as if you are using your red card to pay. Right at the end there is a final review page before you place your order. Off to the right of the screen below the order summary, there are fields to use promo codes or pay with gift card. That is where you need to select to pay with the gift cards. If you choose the gift card payment option before you get to this screen (on the regular payment info screen) it will remove the 5% red card discount).

 

[Eighty8Keys]

I've ordered several Disney gift cards from Target's website with the 5% discount using only gift cards to pay. The trick is to go through the entire checkout process as if you are using your red card to pay. Right at the end there is a final review page before you place your order. Off to the right of the screen below the order summary, there are fields to use promo codes or pay with gift card. That is where you need to select to pay with the gift cards. If you choose the gift card payment option before you get to this screen (on the regular payment info screen) it will remove the 5% red card discount).

For the past year or so I was able to do this too. However, a couple of weeks ago it stopped working for me and now I have to have at least something go to my Red Card before it will give me the 5% discount on the entire purchase. Not sure if it was just a coincidence, but it happened right after I activated my new Red Card MasterCard and had to update my default payment method on Target's website. Makes it very complicated to come up with the right combination of Target gift cards so as little as possible ends up on the Red Card.

 

[MrInfinity]

My first family trip to Disney (since I was a child myself) is coming up in less than 2 weeks. I've gotten such great advice from this community, that I want to add something back. There's lots of advice about how to save about 5% by buying WDW gift cards from target, but you can do much better. Here is how you can save roughly 20% on nearly all WDW purchases -- tickets, WDW hotels, meals, souvenirs... anything that accepts WDW gift cards.

Step by step:

1) There are many credit cards that give 5% or 6% cash back at supermarkets and pharmacies. Get one.

2) Use that credit card to buy Visa gift cards at your supermarket or pharmacy. (There is about a 1% fee on these gift cards).

3) Use the Visa gift cards to buy discounted Target gift cards as follows:

3a) Use a website like giftcardgranny.com to find which gift card reseller is currenly offering the biggest discounts on Target gift cards (I was able to get a 6.7% discount when I did this).

3b) Before going to whichever website is offering the biggest discount, go to cashbackmonitor.com to see if that website is eligible for cash back rewards through an online shopping portal (I was able to get an additional 2% cash back by buying from Cardpool through the Top Cashback portal).

4) Obtain a Target Redcard.

5) Go to the Target website and add your Target Redcard to your account.

6) Load your online Target shopping cart with WDW gift cards.

7) Use your Target gift cards to pay for the purchase. But also make sure that at least $0.01 of the purchase is charged to your Redcard. This will result in an additional 5% discount on the entire purchase. (Note: you can only use a maximum of 4 Target gift cards per purchase, so you may need to consolidate your Target gift cards into higher value gift cards before purchsing the WDW gift cards, or just place several different WDW gift card orders.

In my case I got 5% cash back from my credit card (6% cash back less the 1% fee); 6.7% discount on the Target gift cards from the gift card reseller; 2% from the cash back portal on the purchase of the Target gift cards; 5% Redcard discount on the purchase of the WDW gift cards.

5+5+6.7+2 = 18.7% Not bad!

It just so happens that I already had both a 6% cash back credit card and a Target Redcard, so this process was pretty easy. If you have to sign up for those cards, it becomes a bit more cumbersome.

This has been done for years. You've missed some of the easier %'s to add, like DVA. And .01 does not have to go on your Target card. It's discussed in detail over in the Budget board. It applies not just to Disney, but flights, restaurants, really anything you want to explore gift-carding options on. It's not a process tho like "do this and you'll get a 20% discount". Many of these are things you find by being resourceful exploring the apps and programs that give you kickbacks, and taking some risks.

 

[supersnoop]

For the past year or so I was able to do this too. However, a couple of weeks ago it stopped working for me and now I have to have at least something go to my Red Card before it will give me the 5% discount on the entire purchase. Not sure if it was just a coincidence, but it happened right after I activated my new Red Card MasterCard and had to update my default payment method on Target's website. Makes it very complicated to come up with the right combination of Target gift cards so as little as possible ends up on the Red Card.

That strange. My RED card was closed due to inactivity, but it's still saved in my profile. So, I can't actually charge anything to it, but it still works for the discount. I got a new card, but now I'm afraid to actually add it to my account.

 

[DisneyOma]

Approximately how much time does this take, going to all these websites?

 

[NYHeel]

If the Redcard that you have is a prepaid Redcard then it won't give you the discount unless you pay a little with it. If you have the credit or debit version then you don't have to actually pay anything on the red card.