New to Using Disney Gift Cards - Am I Understanding Correctly?

[krissyh]

The $500 cards are out of stock on the website and my club "pulled them yesterday".

 

[GPC0321]

The $500 cards are out of stock on the website and my club "pulled them yesterday".

I wonder what that's about? I can't remember if I saw any when I was in the store a couple of weeks ago, but I *think* I did. I hope there are some around when I'm ready to start buying. I guess multiple 3-packs will do, but I would really like less cards to manage.

 

[MAGICX2]

Our Sams now accepts American Express. Yahoooooo! We used to go get Walmart gift cards with our Hilton Honors AE to buy our Disney giftcards at Sams. Now we just use our AE card to get them. Cut out the middle man-Walmart. We bought 4 giftcards for $500 each at one time. We have never had them to limit how much we buy. Last summer we probably bought $3000 at one time.

Did you ever have any trouble using a Walmart GC to purchase your Disney GC packs at Sams Club? We have IHG rewards points that we would like to exchange for Walmart cards, but want to make sure we can use them at Sams. I know you can use Walmart cards at Sams club for other purchases, but wasn't sure if they allowed GC purchase by GC.

 

[cindyfan]

What is DVA?

 

[jmmess]

What is DVA?

Disney Vacation Account

 

[cindyfan]

Disney Vacation Account

I kinda figured that's what it stood for.... but I've never heard of it. What is it and how does it work?

 

[cindyfan]

Can someone explain what a Disney Vacation Account is? And how it works?

 

[5kidsmommy]

Can someone explain what a Disney Vacation Account is? And how it works?

It's a savings account through Disney. There is no fee to use it. For every $1000 you use to pay towards your vacation or tickets they will send you a gift card for $20. It's very easy to use.

 

[cindyfan]

It's a savings account through Disney. There is no fee to use it. For every $1000 you use to pay towards your vacation or tickets they will send you a gift card for $20. It's very easy to use.

Interesting! I've never heard of it before. So how do you start the account? And do you have to have reservations already set? How and when do you pay into it?
Do you have a link that explains it all?

 

[5kidsmommy]

Interesting! I've never heard of it before. So how do you start the account? And do you have to have reservations already set? How and when do you pay into it?
Do you have a link that explains it all?

https://disneyvacationaccount.disney.go.com/how-my-vacation-account-works/

All the answers to your questions are here. You start the account by making an initial deposit. And no you do not need to have reservations set. You can always get a refund if you decide you won't be going but it goes back to the original payment form, so keep all your gift cards.

 

[mcorbo]

This may be a problem if you need to get a refund back to the card. They are only supposed to refund a max of $1000 back onto a Disney Gift Card. So if you pay $1000 using a certain card, then load more onto the card and use it to pay again, they may only refund $1000 back to that card and have to issue the remainder as a check (which would take weeks if not months to process)

I have been Buying mine at SAMs and have bought 4 packs at a time with no issue. I also have combined them onto 1 card at 1,0000, go and make a payment and then go back to the gift card site and add more to the same card. I was at a different SAMs a few weeks ago and they had $500 gift card for $475.

 

[MAGICX2]

Did you ever have any trouble using a Walmart GC to purchase your Disney GC packs at Sams Club? We have IHG rewards points that we would like to exchange for Walmart cards, but want to make sure we can use them at Sams. I know you can use Walmart cards at Sams club for other purchases, but wasn't sure if they allowed GC purchase by GC.

UPDATE....I ordered $1000 worth of Walmart gift cards from our travel rewards program. They came in 20, $50 cards. I took the cards to the self checkout at our Sams Club and purchased 7 packs of the $150 Disney card multi packs. Used my Walmart gift cards no problem!!

 

[EnchantedTikiGal]

I used the Disney Vacation account to pay off our trip, $5400. I bought all my gift cards at Target for 5% off, combined them into 5 cards with 1k each, all over the course of 2-3 months. Put those on my DVA as I went along, paid off the vacation 4 weeks ago and just received my DVA bonus $100 gift card 2 weeks before we leave! It all worked totally perfect for me, so I'd recommend it based on my experience.

 

[jodim]

Did you ever have any trouble using a Walmart GC to purchase your Disney GC packs at Sams Club? We have IHG rewards points that we would like to exchange for Walmart cards, but want to make sure we can use them at Sams. I know you can use Walmart cards at Sams club for other purchases, but wasn't sure if they allowed GC purchase by GC.

No, I did this repeatedly on my last trip to WDW in August.