How do I pay with Gift Cards?

[Cayaco]

At the resort, how can I pay with gift cards and not have them charge my credit card that is on file?

 

[Hopefully]

At the resort, how can I pay with gift cards and not have them charge my credit card that is on file?

I charge everything to my room using my Magic Band. Then every day or two I go to the desk and pay down my balance using my gift cards. You can NOT apply a gift card on account only pay an actual charged balance.

 

[Queen of the WDW Scene]

You can either use your magic band to charge back to your room reservation and then go to the front desk every couple days to use gift cards to pay off the room charges before they are put on yhour credit card or the easier thing to do in my opion is just take the gift cards around with you and use them to pay for things...

 

[Wood Nymph]

It is really easy to use gift cards to pay for everything at time of purchase. It is faster to hand them a gift card than to go through the charging process with the MB.

 

[Cayaco]

So at time of purchase we put it on the Amex.

We'll have 10 $100 gift card to use. I can just wake up each day, go to front desk, and say here I want to pay off the current balance before I check out?

 

[hakepb]

Yes, you can regularly pay off your balance at the front desk (I generally did it at night)

(And at disneygiftcard.com you could combine the $100 cards on to larger card(s) up to $1000)

Lately, I mostly just combine more card(s) each night and keep paying with 1 gift card instead of using the MB.

 

[tobikaye]

It is really easy to use gift cards to pay for everything at time of purchase. It is faster to hand them a gift card than to go through the charging process with the MB.

This is so true. I started paying with my gift card for items I was purchasing for myself and then only charging to the room for items that were being split amongst others.

 

[KrazeeK120]

One word of warning: do not use a gift card at a table service restaurant (or anywhere else that the card leaves your sight). Or if you do, take a picture of the back first. I learned this lesson the hard way when I used a GC to pay at 'Ohana and was not given back the same card with which I'd paid, and didn't realize it until later.

Nowadays, I charge to my MB and pay off the balance at the desk. Personal preference.

 

[Wood Nymph]

One word of warning: do not use a gift card at a table service restaurant (or anywhere else that the card leaves your sight). Or if you do, take a picture of the back first. I learned this lesson the hard way when I used a GC to pay at 'Ohana and was not given back the same card with which I'd paid, and didn't realize it until later.

Nowadays, I charge to my MB and pay off the balance at the desk. Personal preference.

I remember you talking about this experience. I like using a gift card and I thought that if I marked the back of the card with permanent marker then I would know that it was my card.

 

[tobikaye]

Another thing for those that plan to use gift cards, get at least one that is different from others, especially now that you can transfer balances. For 2017, I got a unique card from the Disney Gift Card site for $25 and then I added my other gift cards to that one. Almost all of the CMs on my trips in January and June mentioned they had not seen that gift card before when I did use it. I also bought my sister a unique one for our June trip so she would know which one was hers if she handed to me to hold for her.

 

[BaymaxForever]

While it’s just as easy to pay at the time of purchase with a gift card, I’m so nervous about losing one and I’m terrible at keeping track of cash! If I split the balances between a couple cards I’m scared I would easily misplace one or if I had a large balance on one or two I’m scared of the same thing! (I do the method where you leave one card that you can transfer the balance to if that happens using the Disney girtcard website.)

I just find it less stressful use the band and then pay off every two days at the resort. That way if the family splits up we don’t have to worry about who has which gift card and where we stuck it last. There is info out there about how much you can charge to you room before it will charge your credit card. I think it varies by resort class.

 

[Kimberle]

It's very easy. The night before you check out, go to the front desk and have them apply the cards to your bill. I do this every trip.

 

[buzznina]

I much prefer to use our MBs and stop at lobby every 2-3 days, then to pay everything with GCs. I would not wait til the night before because WDW has been known to charge your CC when you reach 50% of your room charge allowance. GCs do not have a security pin to use it, so if you lose it, you lost the $ on it. I also like to get a print out when I pay off the balance in the lobby, it is so much easier to go over all purchases to check for any discrepancies then dealing with a bunch of receipts. I will go to the lobby first thing in the morning when DW and DDs are getting ready or after we get back at night, so it does not interfere with park time I personally do not find paying everything with GCs saves any time.