Organizing your gift cards

[G719]

I have decided that if we don't get free dining for our November trip, we will pay OOP instead of getting the DDP. I am thinking if I buy $1,000 of gift cards at target with my red card, I save $50. But my target only has $50 cards. So I will have 20 gift cards to use for meals. Does anyone have any good ideas of how to keep them all organized? I figured we will have sharpies in our bags for autographs so I can write on them to keep track of any balance. I think I read that you can also just use your KTTW card to pay and use gift cards to cover the charges. Would this be easier or does it take awhile at the front desk to have them load to your room account? Thanks for your
thoughts !

 

[Marionnette]

I have decided that if we don't get free dining for our November trip, we will pay OOP instead of getting the DDP. I am thinking if I buy $1,000 of gift cards at target with my red card, I save $50. But my target only has $50 cards. So I will have 20 gift cards to use for meals. Does anyone have any good ideas of how to keep them all organized? I figured we will have sharpies in our bags for autographs so I can write on them to keep track of any balance. I think I read that you can also just use your KTTW card to pay and use gift cards to cover the charges. Would this be easier or does it take awhile at the front desk to have them load to your room account? Thanks for your
thoughts !

The CMs are pretty good at swiping those GCs through. It will take a little time to put 20 of them through at once but you could break it up into 2 visits with 10 cards each time to make the wait shorter. I prefer that method to carrying around a bunch of GCs with small balances on them.

 

[dpswift]

Yes I would put them on my KTTW card. It is much easier to keep track of. I must warn you however that when we were staying at AoA it took forever to put our cards on the room account. I only did 3 at a time and I was there quite a while each time. After that on the Wonder it was fast and easy.

 

[Psychodisney]

I think it depends on the CM you encounter. Last holiday season, we had a split stay. At the BC, the CM put about $1500 of gift cards on my account. It did take a while, but it made things easy. We checked in to OKW next and that CM said she couldn't do it. I just grabbed gift cards every day and used them at various locations. Usually, your receipts will show the balance left on a card.

 

[Malibustyle23]

I've been applying gift cards here and there to my package online. Will they let you have a negative balance before you arrive by applying them online? Or will they automatically refund it back to you? If allowed I would just enter them all before leaving.

 

[leelee9878]

I have the disney gift card app for my iPhone that helps me keep track of who has each card (you can name them) and what the balances are.

 

[Marionnette]

I've been applying gift cards here and there to my package online. Will they let you have a negative balance before you arrive by applying them online? Or will they automatically refund it back to you? If allowed I would just enter them all before leaving.

No, tCRO won't intentionally let you have a negative balance. You have to bring those GCs with you. Some CMs will apply those GCs to your account when you check in. Others will make you wait until you have a balance to pay on.

I have the disney gift card app for my iPhone that helps me keep track of who has each card (you can name them) and what the balances are.

But then you still have to carry the GCs into the parks and you can end up with multiple GCs with small balances on them. If you're staying offsite, then you really have no recourse. But if you're staying in a Disney resort, carrying your KKTW is much easier.

 

[sherreis]

Last June, we checked into AKL with $1000 in gift cards and the CM swiped them all and put them on our KTTW card. It did take a little bit of time but it worked out great!

 

[thorphin]

But then you still have to carry the GCs into the parks and you can end up with multiple GCs with small balances on them. If you're staying offsite, then you really have no recourse. But if you're staying in a Disney resort, carrying your KKTW is much easier.

I called the number on the back of the card and the CM said that if you bought something for, say, $10 and handed them a card, it would subtract whatever was available on that card and then you'd be told the new amount due.

I was assured, in other words, that you wouldn't be stuck with a bunch of cards with small amounts of money ---AND you wouldn't even have to say, "this card has $2.34 on it" when you present partially used cards.

 

[GAGirlInVA]

We just carried what we thought we needed for the day into the parks and left the rest in the safe.

If the card balance was less than our total the registers just told us the remaining amount due.

 

[Marionnette]

I called the number on the back of the card and the CM said that if you bought something for, say, $10 and handed them a card, it would subtract whatever was available on that card and then you'd be told the new amount due.

I was assured, in other words, that you wouldn't be stuck with a bunch of cards with small amounts of money ---AND you wouldn't even have to say, "this card has $2.34 on it" when you present partially used cards.

This is all true and it's pretty much the way that all gift cards work, not just Disney ones.

However, I would still rather just use my KTTW card and then pay my room charges off with GCs back at the hotel than carry a bunch of GCs into the parks. Nor would I want to have to keep track of which GC had been partially used and needed to be used first in order to spend the last $2.34 on it before I swiped a fully-loaded GC at the point of sale.

 

[Photobee]

For our trip this past Nov, I figured out how much we would be spending each day for each park. (say $100). I took 2 $50 GC and wrote MK on the back of them, in a white space, with an inkpen. They were the only ones I took into the park that day. I wrote EP on the back of 2 others, HS on teh back of another 2, AK on the back of 2 more. I put aside some for spending money and wrote shop on those. I paid for things with one gift card, and when that one was empty, just had the cashier throw it away...than used the other one.

This worked perfectly for us! (hope it makes sense!)

 

[DisneyAndRedSox]

Last trip I had a stack of cards; some belonged to my DD, some for the family and I had a few that were "mine, mine, mine!"

I numbered each card with a silver shaprie marker and loaded the iPhone app. Each card was listed on the app with the "owner" and number I wrote on the card. Every morning I would look at the app to see the values and which card(s) to bring.