How do you use your Disney Visa Rewards?

[calie_j]

We should have around $500 for our reward card by our DW trip in Dec. Originally I was going to use it to pay for our hotel when we check in so I don't have to mess with it or worry about using them all (I'll probably cancel the card after the trip, too many problems with it and no future trips planned). Now I'm thinking a better strategy would be to have the hotel pd before we get there for the extra rewards (a whole $5-10, lol) and use the rewards for eating out since those can't be prepaid. Will it be a hassle to do this or is it just like a cc and we can add the tip onto the bill before it's deducted off the card? Can we use it at all WDW restaurants in the parks and resorts?

How do you strategize using your rewards on your trip?

Calie

 

[Tinkim]

I didn't have quite as many as you did. I had $200 but I used it for what I thought of expensive meals. We had a character breakfast at AK and Fantasmic dinner package at H&V and I used my card to pay for those. It works just like a credit card and you just add in the tip. I had $40 left over which I used at the Emporium on Main Street in MK. Food was my biggest expense by far on the last trip so that would be my suggestion. I didn't have any trouble using it at all.

 

[doodlebug]

I am going to use my $313.00 to pay for all our Character Meals and other fun stuff I have planned for our trip.. It's not much but it will allow me to splurge a little bit!!

 

[gigi1313]

last year we only had about 125 and used them for snacks and souvies... this year we will have at least 300 (i hope) and plan to use them for meals...

 

[lovesdumbo]

I just put it on the room and then I charge everything back to the room-that way you don't have to worry what the balance is on the rewards card.

 

[tippy77]

Calie,

You said you had problems with the card? Do you mind sharing them? I am looking into getting it, but I am not completely 100% sold on it yet, so if there are any negatives, I would like to hear them. Thanks in advance!!

 

[calie_j]

Tippy, the problems I have had are pretty unique and I'm glad to share them. Twice now when I have sent in large payments ($2000-$3000) they have put a hold on my account until the check has cleared (yes I actually still physically write these out and send thru the mail ). The second time this happened I was expecting it and called to see when the hold would be removed since I had planned to go xmas shopping over the weekend. The person I talked to said the hold was on til Monday but I could call my bank in the morning and if the check had cleared I could get the hold removed. The next day which was a Thursday I did try this and even tho the check had cleared 2 days ago they would NOT remove the hold.

This just happened to me again except this time they had also taken away my available credit along with putting the hold on my payment. At the time I made the payment I owed around 2300 credit limit of 4500. I knew I had 6000 worth of medical bills I was going to put onto the cc so I made the check out for that amount plus 2000 regular payment from 2 different accounts. When I called this week to see if the checks had cleared I found out that not only did I have a hold on the account but they had given me 0 credit available also. Once again they told me I could call my bank so this time when I called back I asked to speak to a manager immediately. The manager did call my banks to verify the checks had cleared and removed the hold.

It just is ridiculous and unfair that they keep punishing me for paying them TOO much. In this last instance if I had sent them the minimum payment for $50 I still would have had over 2000 of available credit to use and I still don't understand why that was taken away from me. I can almost understand the hold but both times I tried to get it taken off the hold on my account was in effect for a full week after the check had been paid by my bank so they already had my money and it wasn't just waiting for the check to go thru. It's just a hassle to deal with this when there's other better cards out there, but I will keep using this card and getting as many rewards as possible until our trip. It is an ok card with decent rewards for that purpose.

Calie

 

[Nora94]

I am going to cash in our reward dollars 3 wks before our trip, than we are going to use them as our spending money while we are there. They said it only takes 7 - 10 days to get the Disney Dollars, but didn't want to risk it. They even said they can deliver them to a Disney resort if needed.

We are doing the meal plan, so the extra money will allow us to splurge on suveniers that we normally wouldn't.

We have had no problems with our card, and will keep it until after our little one is in kindy and we go to Disney Land with the dollars. Even then I will probably keep it cause I love Disney clothes.

Nora

 

[LorieR]

My DH and I had $303 to spend last November. We used it for breakfasts and a few lunches at the food court at POR, Dinner at Boatwrights, refillable mugs, lunch at Liberty Tree Tavern, candy at Ghiardelli's at DTD, a Mickey Mouse watch for me , snacks, souvenier photo at Splash Mountain, souveniers, snacks, etc. We did find out that you cannot use it at restraurants in DTD though. (Spent most it at the resort since DH hurt back a few days before our trip, which limited what we were able to do on this trip. )

 

[flamom]

I have a question about the disney reward card. we are going in june and i will have about 115.00 on the card. Can i request the whole 115.00 or do i have to leave like 10.00 or so in my account?. thanks

 

[Nora94]

you can take the whole amount, I asked that.

 

[ReneeQ]

Can someone remind me when the card expires, once you transfer the points to "money" on the prepaid card? Is it the end of the year in which you cash them in, or the end of the next year? We are going the third week of Jan '06. If I request them in Dec. '05, will they have to be used by 12/31/05? I'm afraid if I wait to request in Jan, I won't get them in time.
Thanks.

 

[tippy77]

Thanks Calie!

 

[kfeuer]

I just put it on the room and then I charge everything back to the room-that way you don't have to worry what the balance is on the rewards card.

We've done this too, and it works well. However, on our last trip we were staying offsite so I purchased Disney Dollars with my reward card before we left. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I remember reading somewhere that when you use the card it rounds charges up to the next dollar (i.e. if you charge $26.01 it takes $27 off your balance). Not sure if that's true, but buying Disney Dollars circumvented that issue.

 

[calie_j]

Thanks everyone for the replies, I'm sure we won't have a problem spending the whole reward card on our meals with the PS I have planned
I love the idea of putting the rewards on the hotel charge so I don't have to keep track of it, great thinking there lovesdumbo.

I'm going to order my card 3 months in advance to make sure I get it in time. Then I can transfer all my rewards to the card a week before we leave.

Calie

 

[SuzyQue]

"When do they expire AFTER getting the prepaid card?"

They expire the end of the year following the year you transferred them to your rewards card. We went last month, I called the beginning of the month for my rewards card, the card has and expiration date of 12/06.

"when you use the card it rounds charges up to the next dollar (i.e. if you charge $26.01 it takes $27 off your balance)."

I think you might be confusing that with the way you earn rewards, they round up or down on the reward depending on the amount on your charge card. But with the reward card, only the exact amount you spend is subtracted each time, and you recieve a receipt each time showing you the remaining balance (believe me, I checked each time). ~~

 

[flamom]

thank you Nora94

 

[poohj80]

We're using ours next week to buy APs.

 

[fam4jc]

I was wondering if you the rewards card comes with your name on it or so you can give it as a gift? Does anyone know? My darling nephue is getting married and can't take a honeymoon. I was thinking of giving him my reward dollars to take his bride for one or two nights... Can I give him my rewards?

 

[poohj80]

Yes you can - my card has a number, like a credit card number, but no name.