Paying for trip with Disney gift cards - pay now or pay later?

[snuggly duckling]

We have a trip planned for January with our balance due in November. I am using the DIS trick of buying Disney gift cards at Target with my Red Card and getting them for 5% off. I have started accumulating them, buying a few hundred dollars worth each time I go in to Target. But now I am wondering - is it better to keep accumulating them and hold them all until November when my balance is due? Or should I start paying down my balance with them each time I purchase them?

I was initially just letting them stack up, but started worrying about the cards getting lost or stolen.

If I go ahead and start using them ahead of the due date and for some reason have to cancel my trip (I do have trip insurance) would I get the money back?

Thanks in advance!

 

[disneemama]

I'm doing the same thing for a late Nov/Dec trip. I think the money would be refunded to GC so I plan on keeping the cards in a safe place, just in case.
Only paid the depostit so far.

 

[sunshinehighway]

Pay down the balance with the cards. Also you can take a picture of the front and back of the cards just in case something happens. I don't know if they'll be able to do anything but at least if you have pictures of the card/numbers you might be able to get them replaced.

 

[DisneyMomma81]

I also email the card # and PIN to myself, if it's lost I have the info needed to get it replaced.

 

[debelfish]

I was thinking of doing the gift cards but I am too hesitant to use the money now, only to maybe have to cancel later. We are going in June but I am worried what if something major happens (job loss, etc) I'd have the money tied to Disney gift cards.
I guess you would at least know that you would use the cards eventually. Has anyone had to cancel and get a refund on a a card or multiple cards?
Elizabeth

 

[angierae]

I was thinking of doing the gift cards but I am too hesitant to use the money now, only to maybe have to cancel later. We are going in June but I am worried what if something major happens (job loss, etc) I'd have the money tied to Disney gift cards.
I guess you would at least know that you would use the cards eventually. Has anyone had to cancel and get a refund on a a card or multiple cards?
Elizabeth

A week before our trip, DH found out that due to his new job, he wouldn't be able to go with us. I had paid in mostly Disney Gift cards. They were able to take him off the reservation, drop our deluxe dining down to regular (if it was just going to be me and teenagers I didn't care about the deluxe) and refund it all back to the cards. It took a few days. We ended up using the money to do some extra fun stuff with the kids at Disney (and buy lots of pins) so I didn't care that it had to go back onto the cards - it was money I'd earmarked for Disney so I spent every penny of that $900 or so while we were at WDW.

 

[MickeyHereWeCome!]

I just paid for our trip using gc's. My travel agent told me to just hold on to the cards in case we needed to cancel. The money would have to be refunded that way.

I ended up using a TA from our athletic team's Scrip program, so I got the 5% off for buying the gc from Target and then I will get a refund through Scrip. Every little bit helps!

 

[bearloch]

I was wondering can you pay for trip and other expeses with a american express gift card that they sell at target?? then at least you could use them for other things if u cancel and need it??

But I dont know if the AE cards get the 5 percent off?

 

[starry_solo]

If you're worried about something major happening, I wouldn't tie it up in gift cards because you'll end up with the Disney $, only good for Disney stuff.

 

[wishing4PA]

DFIL was hospitalized the week before our planned (and paid for) December, 2008 trip, so instead of going to Disney, DH went to help him out. We were able to reschedule for a slightly more expensive (because it was twice as long!) stay in February, 2009. Disney just moved what had been paid already onto the new itinerary.

Now, that was with a CC, not gift cards, and it doesn't help if you genuinely need to cancel and won't be able to go later. But I wanted to mention it in case you are just afraid something may come up. It might give some peace of mind to know you could just reschedule your trip for a later date, and I can't imagine why, if you did that, it would matter how you originally paid.

 

[mommy2twingles]

We had originally paid our deposit for our trip next year in gift cards. I cancelled a week of the trip since we decided to do a cruise instead and the money was refunded back to the gift card.

Personally I would pay on the trip each time you get the gift cards. It will make it easier on the cast member who gets your phone call to make that final payment than taking tons of gift cards at one time.

 

[Tistal]

Personally I would pay on the trip each time you get the gift cards. It will make it easier on the cast member who gets your phone call to make that final payment than taking tons of gift cards at one time.

You can pay your trip off with the GCs online; you don't have to call in. I've been doing a few at a time every day so I'm not entering numbers all day long, but it's a lot faster than having to call in and read off all the numbers.

 

[mommy2twingles]

You can pay your trip off with the GCs online; you don't have to call in. I've been doing a few at a time every day so I'm not entering numbers all day long, but it's a lot faster than having to call in and read off all the numbers.

Yes but I thought there was a limit to how many you could enter a day online. For some reason 10 sticks in my mind

 

[SUSIEQ]

We had originally paid our deposit for our trip next year in gift cards. I cancelled a week of the trip since we decided to do a cruise instead and the money was refunded back to the gift card.

Personally I would pay on the trip each time you get the gift cards. It will make it easier on the cast member who gets your phone call to make that final payment than taking tons of gift cards at one time.

Since you paid with gift cards, was it refunded back to the individual gift cards, or all back to one gift card? Thanks.

 

[mommy2twingles]

Since you paid with gift cards, was it refunded back to the individual gift cards, or all back to one gift card? Thanks.

it was refunded to each individual gift card

 

[SUSIEQ]

it was refunded to each individual gift card

Thanks again. I knew they could combine gift cards, so I thought they might combine a refund on to one card.

 

[DisneyGuess]

A week before our trip, DH found out that due to his new job, he wouldn't be able to go with us. I had paid in mostly Disney Gift cards. They were able to take him off the reservation, drop our deluxe dining down to regular (if it was just going to be me and teenagers I didn't care about the deluxe) and refund it all back to the cards. It took a few days. We ended up using the money to do some extra fun stuff with the kids at Disney (and buy lots of pins) so I didn't care that it had to go back onto the cards - it was money I'd earmarked for Disney so I spent every penny of that $900 or so while we were at WDW.

I know you said it took a few days, but do you remember how many?
I had to cancel & rebook my room only reservation yesterday because of CM error, & waiting on my refund, part of which will be on a Disney GC, just wondering hoo long it may take for the money to show back up on there.

 

[amamed1]

Just wondering if anyone knows if there is a limit as to how many Disney gift cards you can buy in one visit with the target check card?

 

[snuggly duckling]

I don't know if there's a limit but I did but $800 worth at one store a couple of weeks ago.

 

[Belle0101]

Am I the only unlucky person who can't pay online? I have looked all over the WDW website and I don't have a link to pay my reservation online, anywhere.

Where it says something like "View Details" on my reservation, I've clicked that but the next page, where I thought would be the link to pay online, says "To Make Changes or Modify ..." and then gives the number to WDW.

I booked by calling WDW, I had some questions, in July of this year for October.

I'm going to call in to pay but only a few GC at a time. My stack of GC is pretty big, I wouldn't want to make a CM input those all in one call.