Pre-paying on Disney Visa

[Disneykidz]

I was thinking of pre-paying for my entire stay at about 2 1/2 months out, even though I currently have only and only need to put down one night. I was thinking of doing that so the money will earn rewards points on my Disney Visa. My questions,

1) If we cancel the trip 6 or more days out, do we still get the whole amount we've paid refunded back?

2) Can I pay MORE than the room bill in advance, in anticipation of meals, souvenirs, etc. we'll buy and charge to the room (again, so the Rewards points can have time to accrue and post before the trip)?

3) If I pay too much onto the account, my estimation skills might not be that accurate, will we get a refund when we check out?

Thanks!

 

[Cindy's Mom]

I'm not sure about the pre-paying in anticipation of meals, etc. BUT what you can do is get yourself a Disney Gift card for what you estimate will be your expenses and use the Disney Visa to pay for that. Granted - you can't tie that card to your Keys to the Kingdom (KTTK), but at least its all pre-paid and you get your rewards too.

The Disney gift card is accepted anywhere in WDW where they accept charge cards or the KTTK, anywhere with a swiper.

 

[Vickis3js]

So you want to pay more then the balance on your card? I don't think they allow you to do that. I had a pending charge on my card and tried paying what the total with balance with the pending charge and it wouldn't let me because it was over the balance at the time. So I don't think paying over your limit will work.

 

[Nancyg56]

You can make payments using your Disney Visa, and then pay them off. You will still have your trip paid for and not have the interest. In some cases you can pay for the trip with your Visa and will have 6 months free interest. I agree that you can buy a gift card with the Visa and then pay the card and have the points. This is what I do.

I always use my Visa to pay for my trip and then just pay it so I have the points to use while at Disney and when my niece joined us I used the Visa to buy her gift card. She had her spending money and I had the points.

 

[Disneykidz]

So you want to pay more then the balance on your card?

I'm not sure I was clear in my questions. Sorry. I want to pay more than the balance due on the room.

Yes, I would pay the balance on the credit card off right away. Doesn't make any sense to incur finance charges which are greater than the rewards dollars!

Sounds like you're saying I can pre-pay the total due for the rooms for all the days of the trip, but that I can't go above that to pay for anticipated meals.

Is this all refundable if I cancel the trip with 6 or more days to go?

Also, while it sounds like a GREAT idea, I'm not sure I'd be able to go with the gift card idea, because I'm pretty sure that is non-refundable, right?

But if I were to do the gift card thing, how would I go about it? I'm assuming I could still charge everything to the room key and then use the gift card to pay the bill at check-out. If there was $$ left on the gift card, would they cash it out for me or would I be stuck with disney $$?

Thank you everyone!!!!!

 

[Cindy's Mom]

or would I be stuck with disney $$?

Gasp! Oh the humanity! Stuck with Disney money? Is there such a thing?

 

[brergnat]

I've wondered about this too. Specifically, if you "prepay" your entire room reservation and pay OFF the credit card, what happens if you cancel? If they "refund" a huge amount to your cc, and you don't have a balance to begin with, will it go negative? How will the cc company then get your money back to you? Will they issue a check? And, if you earn rewards dollars and then get the money refunded back to you, do you have to give back the rewards dollars?

 

[Disneykidz]

I've wondered about this too. Specifically, if you "prepay" your entire room reservation and pay OFF the credit card, what happens if you cancel? If they "refund" a huge amount to your cc, and you don't have a balance to begin with, will it go negative? How will the cc company then get your money back to you? Will they issue a check? And, if you earn rewards dollars and then get the money refunded back to you, do you have to give back the rewards dollars?

Well, part of this I know.

If you pay off a credit card and then get a refund for something, you can always call them and they'll issue you a refund check. This sometimes happens to me with my Kohl's charge, but I often opt to keep the credit balance, since I'll be shopping there again soon. I know for a fact Disney Visa would issue you a check if you had a negative balance.

What I'm not 100% sure of is if they'll actuially refund the trip if you've pre-paid and cancel within the allotted time. I would think so. I guess I'll get around to calling them asking if no one here is sure one way or the other.

Also, I'm not sure what they'd do with the rewards dollars, but (in our case) as we'd only spend them if we take the trip, they'd still be readily available for disney to reclaim them if the wanted them. And rightfully so.

 

[Harambe]

I think they'd just adjust your Disney Dollar account if you cancelled the trip and had your Visa card credited back the money. The Disney Dollars are just put on a card, they are not paper dollars that they send to you.

For instance, if you are not in good standing on your Disney Visa, they will block your Disney rewards card, and even though you have moved reward dollars over to your rewards card, they will be unavailable to you if you are not in good standing on your Visa account.

Anyway - we also pay our resort bill a few months before our trip to earn reward dollars. I love going with a "loaded" rewards card. We use it for all our CS meals, and to pick up souvies, etc. It's great!

 

[Aliceacc]

ONce you pay your trip off, why not invest in bank gift cards-- AMEX or something?

Can we assume that they're accepted in WDW?

Or do it the old fashioned way: get the biggest jar you can find and throw all your extra money into it.

 

[holly7347]

I've wondered about this too. Specifically, if you "prepay" your entire room reservation and pay OFF the credit card, what happens if you cancel? If they "refund" a huge amount to your cc, and you don't have a balance to begin with, will it go negative? How will the cc company then get your money back to you? Will they issue a check? And, if you earn rewards dollars and then get the money refunded back to you, do you have to give back the rewards dollars?

I'm not sure if all credit cards operate the same way. But I have over paid a card before. I actually paid the card in full but then had a big return so my balance was negative. It was a department store credit card and it wasn't a place I shopped all the time so they eventually sent me a check for the overpayment. But it was at least 2-3 months before I got the check. I assume you could always call and ask for the check/refund sooner.

 

[Markstudy]

I heard you can't buy Disney dollars with the Visa and get points.

Are you sure you can buy Disney Gift Cards with the Visa credit card and get the points awarded?

There were two or three things that you couldn't get points on.... I'm guessing I can't pay my taxes... they are advertising their tax pay.., but I think it counts as a cash withdrawal but not towards points (disney dollars)

I'm sure cash withdrawals aren't eligible for points.