Is this a change to paying dues with gift cards?

[eticketplease]

I guess will just have to save them up throughout the year and use them every January. So convenient, set your calendar reminders!

Turn auto pay off - use the gift cards/cc redemptions - turn auto pay back on.

I buy them throughout the year but I was going to try this for 2025 dues as I have to purchase DL tickets along with 2 AP's that are not on the same cycle. I was hoping that this would give me more time to gather them at the discounted rates above the standard 5% one.

 

[CarolynFH]

I don't think it's the security of receiving payments from the bank as much as it's the financial return of it. If you're going to pay over time, they want as much of the money as possible with minimal processing losses.

ACH, what they very likely use for bank withdrawals, has processing fees in the ballpark of 1%.

Gift cards are sold by merchants to stores at a discount, typically around $85-90 for a $100 card. The store then sells it for close to $100 (or, sometimes, with discounts as many here target).

But this means Disney only ends up getting 85-90 cents on the dollar (or however much they sell their cards to retail stores) for this money. If you're turning around and spending it on dues, that's essentially a processing fee of 10-15% for Disney to absorb into maintenance fees somehow.

For reference, credit card transaction fees are closer to 3%.

In light of the processing/transaction losses of gift cards, I'm surprised they let dues be paid by gift cards at all.

I just wanted to thank you for these details, especially about the transaction fees for bank drafts. I knew about CC merchant fees but wondered how GCs worked.

We’ve decided to pay in full with GCs now and then start saving up discounted GCs through the year to pay 2026 dues.

 

[princesscinderella]

I have the Disney visa and I would use my reward dollars to pay portions of my dues, I would select a contract and pay whatever the amount the rewards card had on it. You can pay for Disney charges on the Disney visa with the reward dollars on their website. So in theory if you were used to paying dues with the Disney reward dollars you could save it up until you have enough to pay off the dues in full with the credit card towards the end of the year and then apply the reward dollars to the dues charge through the credit card website instead. It obviously wouldn’t work to do it a few times a year but it would work to pay off a remaining balance on DVC dues, since it would need to be paid in full for a CC charge once you have auto pay. It’s called pay yourself back on the Disney rewards site.

 

[eticketplease]

It’s called pay yourself back on the Disney rewards site.

This is definitely the way to go as you can earn the extra % back and then wipe off the charge. Much better than transferring to the redemption card and then using that.

 

[CarolynFH]

This is definitely the way to go as you can earn the extra % back and then wipe off the charge. Much better than transferring to the redemption card and then using that.

How does Pay Yourself Back work? If I charge $1000 in dues, I earn $20 in rewards on my Disney Premier Visa. How does that “wipe off the charge” of $1000? I must be misunderstanding!

ETA I’m on the road, can’t log into my account to investigate.

 

[VGCgroupie]

How does Pay Yourself Back work? If I charge $1000 in dues, I earn $20 in rewards on my Disney Premier Visa. How does that “wipe off the charge” of $1000? I must be misunderstanding!

Statement credit to the card account

 

[CarolynFH]

Statement credit to the card account

But how much credit? If I charge $1000 in dues, do I just wait until I have $1000 in rewards accumulated from multiple expenditures, then apply them?

 

[eticketplease]

How does Pay Yourself Back work? If I charge $1000 in dues, I earn $20 in rewards on my Disney Premier Visa. How does that “wipe off the charge” of $1000? I must be misunderstanding!

ETA I’m on the road, can’t log into my account to investigate.

https://www.disboards.com/threads/h...rs-group-thread.3836805/page-82#post-65695821

I posted an example here.

It will only wipe out for the amount you have in your account.

So if you have $30 in rewards points and you earn at a 2% rate make a dues payment of $31 you will then have at statement close $30.62 in Points and then you can apply that amount to the $31 dues payment.

 

[eticketplease]

But how much credit? If I charge $1000 in dues, do I just wait until I have $1000 in rewards accumulated from multiple expenditures, then apply them?

Once the transaction posts you have 90 days to apply Disney dollars to it. You can only apply disney dollars to a transaction 1 time so for Dues I would recommend making lots of smaller purchases unless you have quite the stash of disney dollars. Remember you can also buy Gift cards from shop disney and wipe it out as well but there you have to use the minimum gift card amounts they offer where as dues you can actually state I want to pay $34.39 for example.

 

[VGCgroupie]

But how much credit? If I charge $1000 in dues, do I just wait until I have $1000 in rewards accumulated from multiple expenditures, then apply them?

No getting up to 1000 in rewards would take a very long time. I just redeem for a statement credit whenever I see that I have rewards. Sometimes I have had rewards post in time to pay off the charge I originally made. Sometimes not. Example, I had a cash stay of $5,000 before my payment was due I had $32 in rewards post available, I chose to redeem and it just applied a $32 credit to my account and it adjusted my balance due.

 

[CarolynFH]

@eticketplease and @VGCgroupie, I’ve got it now. Thanks, y’all!

 

[VGCgroupie]

But how much credit? If I charge $1000 in dues, do I just wait until I have $1000 in rewards accumulated from multiple expenditures, then apply them?

I think it just clicked what you were asking. You dont have to have enough rewards to cover the whole transaction, you can get a credit for less.

 

[eticketplease]

@eticketplease and @VGCgroupie, I’ve got it now. Thanks, y’all!

If you do have $1,000 in Disney Dollars @VGCgroupie and I will be glad to help you spend them

 

[Sandisw]

I have the Disney visa and I would use my reward dollars to pay portions of my dues, I would select a contract and pay whatever the amount the rewards card had on it. You can pay for Disney charges on the Disney visa with the reward dollars on their website. So in theory if you were used to paying dues with the Disney reward dollars you could save it up until you have enough to pay off the dues in full with the credit card towards the end of the year and then apply the reward dollars to the dues charge through the credit card website instead. It obviously wouldn’t work to do it a few times a year but it would work to pay off a remaining balance on DVC dues, since it would need to be paid in full for a CC charge once you have auto pay. It’s called pay yourself back on the Disney rewards site.

Except now, when monthly payment option is chosen, it no longer allows you to enter a GC or Disney rewards card.

The only option is to pay in full using a CC. To use the Disney rewards card, you are now going to have to opt out of monthly payments first…which has not been the case.

What is unknown, is whether the system will let owners cancel it, is a gift card/rewards card, and enroll on monthly again after Feb 15th.

All we know is the system set up has changed.

 

[CarolynFH]

If you do have $1,000 in Disney Dollars @VGCgroupie and I will be glad to help you spend them

LOL, I don’t have $1000, but what I do have are going to - pay dues!

 

[eticketplease]

To use the Disney rewards card, you are now going to have to opt out of monthly payments first…which has not been the case.

Exactly at One time you had to enroll in auto payments to pay with gift cards which is the only reason I'm enrolled in the auto payments to begin with.

 

[MICKIMINI]

Thanks for catching this! I was able to unlink my checking account from one contract and pay with the DGC's I had in the drawer. I then added my checking account information again. This will be a surprise to anyone using GC's that isn't paying attention on disboards!!

 

[princesscinderella]

Except now, when monthly payment option is chosen, it no longer allows you to enter a GC or Disney rewards card.

The only option is to pay in full using a CC. To use the Disney rewards card, you are now going to have to opt out of monthly payments first…which has not been the case.

What is unknown, is whether the system will let owners cancel it, is a gift card/rewards card, and enroll on monthly again after Feb 15th.

All we know is the system set up has changed.

Which is why I said to only use the credit card option towards the end of the year when you have enough disney rewards to apply to the balance on the credit card website and you would be paying off the dues for the year in full and no longer need the auto pay to be restarted until the following year. At that point it wouldn't matter. Obviously, this does not apply to the Disney Gift cards but it's at least a way to use the Disney Rewards.

However, who of us DVC member doesn't have other Disney charges they can apply the balance of the rewards to instead We just bought a painting from the BWV art gallery and I was pleasantly surprised to see it coded as a Disney purchase and I applied some reward $$ to that purchase. I thought that was an independent gallery not owned by Disney. It was renamed to promenade gallery from wyland so maybe its a newer change and now run by the Mouse instead.

 

[eticketplease]

Thanks for catching this! I was able to unlink my checking account from one contract and pay with the DGC's I had in the drawer. I then added my checking account information again. This will be a surprise to anyone using GC's that isn't paying attention on disboards!!

So I just unenrolled but I still just have the CC option. Do I have to log out to get the option to pay with Gift Cards?

 

[Sandisw]

So I just unenrolled but I still just have the CC option. Do I have to log out to get the option to pay with Gift Cards?

Do you have more than one contract? Do you still have a balance?

Maybe they won’t let people prepay with a 0 balance?