Paying with gift cards!

[KarlaG4Kids]

I am wondering what the best way to do this is...if anyone has tried it! I will have a number of gift cards that I wish to use to pay my bill at the resort. Is it better or easier to put the gift cards on the resort bill in the beginning of the trip, or put a credit card on and then go pay off the bill towards the end of the trip? Any pro's or con's?

 

[mericletwins]

Have you already paid for your stay? I would use them to pay for that if not. That way you don't have to fool around with them while you are down there. If you already have, the answer may have to be answered by the front desk person. The system may not allow you to add a gift card for something that hasn't been purchased yet. You may have to wait until you have a balance on your room tab before you are able to apply a gift card to it.

 

[kate2961]

I have recently been using gift cards to pay for my trips and here are my observations.

Due to the small denominations (I use $50 gift cards mostly), I find it easier to use them to pay for the trip online. You can also hand them to the CM but it takes longer. They have to first run the card to determine its balance and then they can actually apply it. This can take a long time when paying a $1,000+ bill with $50 GC.

One downside was that I needed to cancel a trip. I had used GC for the deposit. When I canceled they refunded the amount back to that same GC. Good thing I had saved it. I learned that it is important to keep the gift cards if there is any possibility of a return or refund.

We also used the GC at WDW restaurants. The CM asked if we wanted the cards with no balance back. We said no. That was a mistake. It turns out that the CM accidentally gave us back the no balance card and threw away the card with a balance. So now we always ask for the cards back.


-Kate

 

[punn]

We find it easiest to charge things to the room and then every other day we stop at the front desk to square things up. We also use the disney gift cards for as much of the trip as possibe.

 

[GAGirlInVA]

If you've already paid for your trip, we just take a few giftcards everyday we head to the parks.

We don't like to charge back to the room (with a credit, or a credit card) for budgeting purposes.

 

[KarlaG4Kids]

I have completely paid for my trip with the gift cards already. Now I am planning to just pay for the things we purchase with them also. I am thinking I will go ahead and add a credit card to my KTTW card and take the gift cards with me to spend as much as possible. Thanks for the input.

 

[cindydare]

We've done this on the past 2 trips. I put a credit card on the room, but we charge everything to the KTTW card (dining tips, souveniers, incidentals, etc) and go settle up with gift cards every couple of days, so that nothing goes on the credit card. I've been able to budget pretty well...last year we came back with $9 on the gift card! I plan to do the same for our September trip.....just waiting for Kroger to offer 4X fuel points with gift card purchases, so I can buy some to pay off the trip too!

 

[Gorechick]

We've done this on the past 2 trips. I put a credit card on the room, but we charge everything to the KTTW card (dining tips, souveniers, incidentals, etc) and go settle up with gift cards every couple of days, so that nothing goes on the credit card. I've been able to budget pretty well...last year we came back with $9 on the gift card! I plan to do the same for our September trip.....just waiting for Kroger to offer 4X fuel points with gift card purchases, so I can buy some to pay off the trip too!

I've been stocking up on GC's and really like this idea. I'll charge to our KTTW and pay off the balance with the GC's.

 

[jenrose66]

I was planning on buying $150 giftcards for each kid and writing their name on it in sharpie. Then as they see things they'd like to buy I will just use the gift card to pay for them. I was going to get a couple $100 gift cards for me and DH too. Then I was going to bring about $300 or so cash...We'd have the credit card for emergencies, but I'm not planning on using it for anything, I never leave a credit card on file for charges.

 

[wishinon3stars]

I have recently been using gift cards to pay for my trips and here are my observations.

One downside was that I needed to cancel a trip. I had used GC for the deposit. When I canceled they refunded the amount back to that same GC. Good thing I had saved it. I learned that it is important to keep the gift cards if there is any possibility of a return or refund.

We also used the GC at WDW restaurants. The CM asked if we wanted the cards with no balance back. We said no. That was a mistake. It turns out that the CM accidentally gave us back the no balance card and threw away the card with a balance. So now we always ask for the cards back.


-Kate

Thanks for sharing your experiences. This is great info that I wouldn't have thought of! I will definitely ask for my cards back even if they have a zero balance!

 

[Carol97]

Where does everyone get your giftcards at? I did see them at Sam's Club for like $48.94 for a $50 card but was wondering if anyone found any better deals?

Thanks!!

 

[KarlaG4Kids]

Where does everyone get your giftcards at? I did see them at Sam's Club for like $48.94 for a $50 card but was wondering if anyone found any better deals?

Thanks!!

If you have a target Credit or debit card you can get 5% off on your Disney gift cards. At Christmas they also offered some special deals like $10 off $50 and $10 off $75. I stocked up BIG TIME, payed our entire cruise and WDW trip with gift cards and at this point I have saved about $500 on the trip by doing it this way. Yes, I know it is a risk if we would cancel, the money would have to be refunded back to the gift cards. I have kept every single one. But the savings was well worth it for me. Especially since we have outside travel insurance and if it would end up being a last minute cancellation our insurance would be covereing since we wouldn't get refunds from DCL & WDW. That is why I want to purchase more gift cards for our spending money. Save a few more $$. Also fyi, if you transfer prescriptions to Target they will give you additional discount certificates, but our insurance won't work with Target pharmacy, so I can't cash in on that.

 

[krismanda]

If you have a target Credit or debit card you can get 5% off on your Disney gift cards. At Christmas they also offered some special deals like $10 off $50 and $10 off $75. I stocked up BIG TIME, payed our entire cruise and WDW trip with gift cards and at this point I have saved about $500 on the trip by doing it this way. Yes, I know it is a risk if we would cancel, the money would have to be refunded back to the gift cards. I have kept every single one. But the savings was well worth it for me. Especially since we have outside travel insurance and if it would end up being a last minute cancellation our insurance would be covereing since we wouldn't get refunds from DCL & WDW. That is why I want to purchase more gift cards for our spending money. Save a few more $$. Also fyi, if you transfer prescriptions to Target they will give you additional discount certificates, but our insurance won't work with Target pharmacy, so I can't cash in on that.

ohhhh...ok, this makes more sense. I keep seeing all these posts about paying with gift cards and I've been wondering why in the heck people have so many. lol

 

[buckeev]

Where does everyone get your giftcards at? I did see them at Sam's Club for like $48.94 for a $50 card but was wondering if anyone found any better deals?

Thanks!!

I stop by our neighborhood Walgreens at least once a week and pick up one or more Disney gift cards...(they even know NOT to say anything to my "significant other", just to keep the "peace" around these parts!)

 

[wdwnomad]

From reading the boards, I know what you want to do is entirely possible, my experience has been most CM's either don't know or will insist upon a credit card to inititate charging privledges. I used to buy tons of Disney Gift Cards through my neieces's school scrip program. I found out it wasn't worth the hastle to do just the gift cards in the begining. It is just as easier to do a credit card at the begining. They don't charge or hold anything at the begining. Just be sure to periodically check your balance with the front desk. If you are getting close to your charging level based on resort classification then take down some of the gift cards to the front desk and have them run them to get the balance back down. This will prevent your cc from being charged. Of course, the night before you check out go down to the front desk to do the same before they run your card to close out the account.

 

[Carol97]

I stop by our neighborhood Walgreens at least once a week and pick up one or more Disney gift cards...(they even know NOT to say anything to my "significant other", just to keep the "peace" around these parts!)

Does Walgreens ever offer deals on them?

 

[Carol97]

If you have a target Credit or debit card you can get 5% off on your Disney gift cards. At Christmas they also offered some special deals like $10 off $50 and $10 off $75. I stocked up BIG TIME, payed our entire cruise and WDW trip with gift cards and at this point I have saved about $500 on the trip by doing it this way. Yes, I know it is a risk if we would cancel, the money would have to be refunded back to the gift cards. I have kept every single one. But the savings was well worth it for me. Especially since we have outside travel insurance and if it would end up being a last minute cancellation our insurance would be covereing since we wouldn't get refunds from DCL & WDW. That is why I want to purchase more gift cards for our spending money. Save a few more $$. Also fyi, if you transfer prescriptions to Target they will give you additional discount certificates, but our insurance won't work with Target pharmacy, so I can't cash in on that.

That sounds like some great savings!! Unfortunately, we don't even have a local target around us.