Is there an advantage to using a Disney Credit Card to finance DVC?

[DanCio]

I just applied for a Disney Credit Card and they gave me a $5K plus credit line. Is there any advantage to using it for a deposit, down payment or outright purchase? I'd pay it off when the bill came so I can pay cash if I need. Just wondering what the value of a Disney card is.

Thanks

 

[andycat]

I just applied for a Disney Credit Card and they gave me a $5K plus credit line. Is there any advantage to using it for a deposit, down payment or outright purchase? I'd pay it off when the bill came so I can pay cash if I need. Just wondering what the value of a Disney card is.

Thanks

In short, I would say no. You can save more money by buying Disney gift cards (that can be used to pay maintenance fees) at a discount. Various other credit cards give more cash back, points, or discounts that the $.01 in Disney Dollars that one receives for each $1.00 USD spent with the CC. The details are probably off topic for this forum, but look at some of the discount forums and I'm sure you'll find a number of alternatives.

The advantage of the Disney credit card, to me, are the in-park discounts on food and merchandise, but DVC members generally get the same offers.

 

[DaveNan]

In short, I would say no. You can save more money by buying Disney gift cards (that can be used to pay maintenance fees) at a discount. Various other credit cards give more cash back, points, or discounts that the $.01 in Disney Dollars that one receives for each $1.00 USD spent with the CC. The details are probably off topic for this forum, but look at some of the discount forums and I'm sure you'll find a number of alternatives.

The advantage of the Disney credit card, to me, are the in-park discounts on food and merchandise, but DVC members generally get the same offers.

Agree with Gift Cards beats Disney Chase card (DC) from a savings perspective. I use DGC for my MF's. I did not use DGC for my direct points purchase, but if possible, it would beat the credit card benefit, unless you needed the 6 month interest free which I think comes with using a DC.

As far as food and merchandise discounts, AP, DVC, and DC, most the time DVC beats DC. For merchandise AP and DVC are 20% on all purchases, whereas DC is 10% on purchases over $50 at the flagship stores only (Emporium, WoD.....). For table service at many of the same restaurants all 3 are 10%. The subtle difference is DC is off the entire pretax bill, including alcohol, but AP and DVC excludes alcohol. So if you are a big drinker, DC can save you a little.

 

[erionm]

You would get 0% APR financing for 6 months on the purchase of a real estate interest, including a Member Add On, in a Disney Vacation Club® Resort.

You would also earn Disney Reward Dollars on the purchase. The regular Disney Visa Card earns 1%, while the Disney Premier Visa Card earns 2%.

 

[JohnGypsy]

As far as food and merchandise discounts, AP, DVC, and DC, most the time DVC beats DC. For merchandise AP and DVC are 20% on all purchases, whereas DC is 10% on purchases over $50 at the flagship stores only (Emporium, WoD.....). For table service at many of the same restaurants all 3 are 10%. The subtle difference is DC is off the entire pretax bill, including alcohol, but AP and DVC excludes alcohol. So if you are a big drinker, DC can save you a little.

So, for resale-only DVC members (that don't buy an AP), the DC probably makes some sense for the 10% on table service and such. Especially for a card that has no annual fee and, if I recall, gave me like $250 in gift cards for signing up and meeting the spend. Hey -- plus you get a Star Wars M&G photo now and then, I think, right?

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Agree with Gift Cards beats Disney Chase card (DC) from a savings perspective. I use DGC for my MF's. I did not use DGC for my direct points purchase, but if possible, it would beat the credit card benefit, unless you needed the 6 month interest free which I think comes with using a DC.

As far as food and merchandise discounts, AP, DVC, and DC, most the time DVC beats DC. For merchandise AP and DVC are 20% on all purchases, whereas DC is 10% on purchases over $50 at the flagship stores only (Emporium, WoD.....). For table service at many of the same restaurants all 3 are 10%. The subtle difference is DC is off the entire pretax bill, including alcohol, but AP and DVC excludes alcohol. So if you are a big drinker, DC can save you a little.

Unless something has changed you cannot use Gift cards for a purchase of DVC points.

OP - as mentioned you can get a couple of things with that CC but if you have any other CC's there may be better rewards you can get if you use them for the purchase and then pay it off.

 

[lovin'fl]

You would get 0% APR financing for 6 months on the purchase of a real estate interest, including a Member Add On, in a Disney Vacation Club® Resort.

You would also earn Disney Reward Dollars on the purchase. The regular Disney Visa Card earns 1%, while the Disney Premier Visa Card earns 2%.

This. I use my Disney Premier and get 2% back which covers a good chunk of the closing costs.

 

[OKgirl]

In our case, the advantage was that we called our Disney Chase Visa and told them we wanted to buy DVC and needed to up our credit limit to $34,000 (or so). It was probably $6000 at the time. They bumped us up immediately and we were able to purchase it with our credit card at 0% for 6 months. We were then able to pay it off within 6 months and earned some points for it (which we used on our next Disney trip).

 

[DizBub]

I just applied for a Disney Credit Card and they gave me a $5K plus credit line. Is there any advantage to using it for a deposit, down payment or outright purchase? I'd pay it off when the bill came so I can pay cash if I need. Just wondering what the value of a Disney card is.

Thanks

It works for us. We have used it for down payments on 2 direct purchases and to outright buy another small add on. Got 2% back on all of them plus got 6 months to pay it back with 0% interest all 3 times. Then I use the rewards $ to put towards MFs, even bought a couple of APs one year. Free money. The modest discounts we get on merchadise and dining is nice too.

I'm sure there may be better/alternative ways to do this but it's not worth it to me to go through all the nickel and diming calculations. I am happy with the return we get.

 

[kniquy]

If you are getting the 1% card then the $5000 that you could charge would get you $50 back. And using the 2% card $100 back but then there is an annual fee with that one. So it really doesn't get you much back. The card is nice to have if you are good about charging and paying off without accumulating interest. in this scenario you earn Disney reward $ that can be used for MF or a gift card for your future trip. It isn't a bad thing as long as you use it appropriately. We just had $138 in rewards that we used for our trip -- It basically averages to a free dinner. They do expire at some point, but you keep track of the rewards and just cash out when it comes time to pay MF.

 

[Hopefully]

If you are getting the 1% card then the $5000 that you could charge would get you $50 back. And using the 2% card $100 back but then there is an annual fee with that one. So it really doesn't get you much back. The card is nice to have if you are good about charging and paying off without accumulating interest. in this scenario you earn Disney reward $ that can be used for MF or a gift card for your future trip. It isn't a bad thing as long as you use it appropriately. We just had $138 in rewards that we used for our trip -- It basically averages to a free dinner. They do expire at some point, but you keep track of the rewards and just cash out when it comes time to pay MF.

We use the 2% card for nearly everything including groceries, gas, dry cleaning, medical, prescription co pays. Etc.
We pay the balance in full monthly. We earn lots of rewards points for our annual trip - once over $1000 worth. It is worth it to us.

 

[Hieraxx]

It works for us. We have used it for down payments on 2 direct purchases and to outright buy another small add on. Got 2% back on all of them plus got 6 months to pay it back with 0% interest all 3 times. Then I use the rewards $ to put towards MFs, even bought a couple of APs one year. Free money. The modest discounts we get on merchadise and dining is nice too.

I'm sure there may be better/alternative ways to do this but it's not worth it to me to go through all the nickel and diming calculations. I am happy with the return we get.

Follow up - we just decided to pull the trigger on DVC and charging it to the Disney card - just to take advantage of the 0% 6 months.

That said - do you still need to make monthly payments over those 6 months, or can you hold the entire lump sum payment until the 6 month mark - I can't read the fine print that well.......

 

[4luv2cdisney]

Follow up - we just decided to pull the trigger on DVC and charging it to the Disney card - just to take advantage of the 0% 6 months.

That said - do you still need to make monthly payments over those 6 months, or can you hold the entire lump sum payment until the 6 month mark - I can't read the fine print that well.......

You just have to make the minimum monthly payment which is determined by your total balance. I really don't know if you have nothing else on the card if it will have a minimum payment or not.

For us, we paid our "regular" charges in full every month (meeting and exceeding the minimum payment requirement) therefore, we did not HAVE TO make any payment to the deferred interest (DVC) portion.

 

[dumaresq]

This is interesting, was it buying direct? I asked if I could put my resale purchase on a credit card and was told that I could only do cashiers check or wire transfer. I really wanted the points on my card! I believe they would have allowed me to do the deposit on a card, but I wasn't paying attention

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

This is interesting, was it buying direct? I asked if I could put my resale purchase on a credit card and was told that I could only do cashiers check or wire transfer. I really wanted the points on my card! I believe they would have allowed me to do the deposit on a card, but I wasn't paying attention

Buying direct you can use a credit card.

Buying resale most places allow the deposit on the credit card but final payment needs to be cash - ie, check, wire etc.

The resale savings are still worth a lot more than any credit card incentives.

 

[DizBub]

Follow up - we just decided to pull the trigger on DVC and charging it to the Disney card - just to take advantage of the 0% 6 months.

That said - do you still need to make monthly payments over those 6 months, or can you hold the entire lump sum payment until the 6 month mark - I can't read the fine print that well.......

The way we did it was to take the total of that purchase and divide it into 6 equal payments and made sure it was paid by the due date to avoid any % payment. In reality we always paid it off early...just in case.