Questions about e-gift cards

[NatsFan78]

I plan to buy four $500 e-gift cards for our Disney trip. I can get $25 off each one at Target so I was going to buy a $100 physical gift card to combine everything. What is the easiest way to manage the cards? Can I add them to a physical gift card? If so can I put them all on the same card? I plan to use them for food and souvenirs on our trip. Thank you.

 

[Kimrlav]

I buy disney gift cards and use them throughout the trip. You can manage the gift cards on the DisneyGiftCard website. It is easy to transfer an e-gift card amount to a physical gift card. I would transfer the amounts as needed to the physical gift card. The $500 amount does have to be transferred in total, you cannot transfer in different monetary increments, for example, $100 dollars from the $500 e gift card to the physical $100 card - does this make sense. If you are staying on-site at a Disney owned resort, you can charge to the magic band and just go to the front desk to apply the amount to your account. It is easy to track spending with the MDE app, so when I get to a certain amount - I go to the desk to pay off with the gift card -- just remember to do this frequently and at least 24 hours before check out.

Hope this helps! I like using the Target discount to save money on a Disney Vacation -- every bit helps!
Have a magical time.

 

[NatsFan78]

I buy disney gift cards and use them throughout the trip. You can manage the gift cards on the DisneyGiftCard website. It is easy to transfer an e-gift card amount to a physical gift card. I would transfer the amounts as needed to the physical gift card. The $500 amount does have to be transferred in total, you cannot transfer in different monetary increments, for example, $100 dollars from the $500 e gift card to the physical $100 card - does this make sense. If you are staying on-site at a Disney owned resort, you can charge to the magic band and just go to the front desk to apply the amount to your account. It is easy to track spending with the MDE app, so when I get to a certain amount - I go to the desk to pay off with the gift card -- just remember to do this frequently and at least 24 hours before check out.

Hope this helps! I like using the Target discount to save money on a Disney Vacation -- every bit helps!
Have a magical time.

So since I am staying at All-Star Movies I can just charge everything as I go to my Magicband, then go to the front desk every evening to pay my balance with the gift cards? It will not post to my debit card on file until 24 hours before checkout? That seems much easier than managing several cards. I could have everything paid by Thursday night, use my physical gift card in the park on Friday, then I leave Saturday morning. I signed up for the Target card for the discount on gift cards. Thank you so much for your help!

 

[beldred]

So since I am staying at All-Star Movies I can just charge everything as I go to my Magicband, then go to the front desk every evening to pay my balance with the gift cards? It will not post to my debit card on file until 24 hours before checkout? That seems much easier than managing several cards. I could have everything paid by Thursday night, use my physical gift card in the park on Friday, then I leave Saturday morning. I signed up for the Target card for the discount on gift cards. Thank you so much for your help!

Yep, you can charge everything to the room and then pay it off with your gift cards. I do this every trip. I highly recommend stopping at the desk each evening to pay off the current balance. They don't always wait until close to check out to run the charge. It varies based on location, how much your spend is, etc. As long as I do it this way though, I've never had my CC charged before I can pay the balance.

You'll want to get at least one physical gift card. It's much easier for them to run a physical one (and some CMs don't even know how to run the e-cards). I would load the e-cards to the Disney gift card site as well as the one physical. Then transfer money as you need it to your physical one. Then if something happens to your physical card, you can quickly get the funds back off it, pick up another physical card at any shop, and continue on. As the pp mentioned, you do have to transfer all or nothing. And each gift card only holds $1000 max.

Another good tip is to save the card info in a note on your phone, that way you can copy and paste for mobile orders.

 

[NatsFan78]

Yep, you can charge everything to the room and then pay it off with your gift cards. I do this every trip. I highly recommend stopping at the desk each evening to pay off the current balance. They don't always wait until close to check out to run the charge. It varies based on location, how much your spend is, etc. As long as I do it this way though, I've never had my CC charged before I can pay the balance.

You'll want to get at least one physical gift card. It's much easier for them to run a physical one (and some CMs don't even know how to run the e-cards). I would load the e-cards to the Disney gift card site as well as the one physical. Then transfer money as you need it to your physical one. Then if something happens to your physical card, you can quickly get the funds back off it, pick up another physical card at any shop, and continue on. As the pp mentioned, you do have to transfer all or nothing. And each gift card only holds $1000 max.

Another good tip is to save the card info in a note on your phone, that way you can copy and paste for mobile orders.

Thank you so much! I plan to stop by the front desk each evening to pay the charges for that day. Hopefully it will not charge my debit card this way.

 

[Kimrlav]

Thank you so much! I plan to stop by the front desk each evening to pay the charges for that day. Hopefully it will not charge my debit card this way.

The resort should not charge your debit card, if you visit the front desk each day. It really is a great way to save a few extra dollars and have most of the added vacation expenses prepaid. It is so convenient to charge to a magic band and use gift card to pay off the charges. Enjoy your vacation.

 

[AgentMama]

I would load the e-cards to the Disney gift card site as well as the one physical. Then transfer money as you need it to your physical one. Then if something happens to your physical card, you can quickly get the funds back off it, pick up another physical card at any shop, and continue on.

I wouldn't leave any cards or balance on the gift card site. Use it to transfer the money and then remove the cards from the site. There have been too many instances of people's accounts being hacked and losing their balances.

 

[NatsFan78]

Thank you!

 

[Marionnette]

I plan to buy four $500 e-gift cards for our Disney trip. I can get $25 off each one at Target so I was going to buy a $100 physical gift card to combine everything. What is the easiest way to manage the cards? Can I add them to a physical gift card? If so can I put them all on the same card? I plan to use them for food and souvenirs on our trip. Thank you.

You can only have a maximum of $1000 on a gift card. So you will not be able to transfer all 4 of the $500 eGCs to the single $100 physical GC. In fact, that first transfer would only allow one $500 eGC to be moved because that would bring your total to $600. You wouldn't be able to add another $500 to it.

If your Target has variable load GCs in stock, buy four $25 GCs and transfer one $500 eGC to each one.

 

[NatsFan78]

Thank you!

 

[DisneyMama24]

I’ve been having trouble( and have been emailing with Disney gift card )because I loaded some cards and transferred balances. The cards show the amounts but the sight won’t accept the card onto my account. From the sounds of this I might be better off not leaving them on the account anyway ! However I won’t have the ability to transfer now Not really a question…

 

[Andrew Head]

I plan to buy four $500 e-gift cards for our Disney trip. I can get $25 off each one at Target so I was going to buy a $100 physical gift card to combine everything. What is the easiest way to manage the cards? Can I add them to a physical gift card? If so can I put them all on the same card? I plan to use them for food and souvenirs on our trip. Thank you.

I'm late to this party, but can you tell me about buying gift cards with a discount? Is that a Target thing? Is there a minimum purchase amount?

Thanks!

 

[lsutigers03]

I'm late to this party, but can you tell me about buying gift cards with a discount? Is that a Target thing? Is there a minimum purchase amount?

Thanks!

I've never bought from Target because you can find better deals other places. For example if you can use the Cash app you may have a 5% off at Sam's up to $20 each day. With the normal 4% off that Sam's sells DGC at you'll get 9% off. At times Cash app increases the discount to 10% which will bring the total discount to 14%. Around Black Friday Sam's and BJ's wholesale up their normal discount for DGC. For Sam's it usually goes to 10% and BJ's is 8-10%. You can combine this with credit card bonuses. Also If you have Chase cards it's very likely you'll have a 5% or 10% off at Shop Disney. You can combine the Shop Disney purchase with cash back from a shopping portal. I like to use Retail Me Not because I want to keep my cash back with one or two portals and they always give cash back for gift card purchases.

 

[NatsFan78]

I have a Target red card. They offer two versions, debit or credit. The credit card is just like any other one. The debit card connects to your bank account and works like a debit card for that account, when you use it money is taken from your bank account to pay for your purchase. I actually have both. When you use them to buy something from Target with either version of the red card you get 5% off. I bought a $500 gift card for $475. I’m using them to pay for food, parking, and souvenirs at the park to save a little money.

 

[lanejudy]

Hopefully it will not charge my debit card this way.

Disney won't actually charge to your debit card, but if you use a debit card to back your account they will place one or more holds that could take a couple of weeks to drop.

 

[SharonZ]

If at all possible, I would use an actual credit card rather than a debit card to attach to a Magic Band. The PP is correct that they may place holds on your debit card that may take a while to drop. I wouldn't want to risk my debit card funds being on hold longer than necessary.

 

[NatsFan78]

Thank you! I never thought about it adding holds to my card. I am going to switch the card on file to a credit card.