Turning credit card rewards in to Disney $$$?

[TheRatPack]

I have 2 credit cards that still offer points. One is of course the Disney Visa, but our limit is low so we don't tend to use it as often....we'd have to pay it off 2-3 times a month.

I do have a bank Visa that has a higher rate of rewards but the catch is they don't offer Disney gift cards They offer Amazon, Target, Shell Gas and I've not really looked at the others.

So how do I turn those rewards in to Disney trip money? Is there a store that allows you to buy Disney gift cards with their own store gift cards (like Amazon?). I really would love to turn all my points in to Disney trip money, it worked really well for us this year on our OOP Table service meals and souvenirs, but we purchased the gift cards.....they weren't rewards.

Anyhow....any way to do this? Or should I just work it out to use the Disney Visa more?

Thanks!!!

 

[It'sWDW4me]

I have 2 credit cards that still offer points. One is of course the Disney Visa, but our limit is low so we don't tend to use it as often....we'd have to pay it off 2-3 times a month.

I do have a bank Visa that has a higher rate of rewards but the catch is they don't offer Disney gift cards They offer Amazon, Target, Shell Gas and I've not really looked at the others.

So how do I turn those rewards in to Disney trip money? Is there a store that allows you to buy Disney gift cards with their own store gift cards (like Amazon?). I really would love to turn all my points in to Disney trip money, it worked really well for us this year on our OOP Table service meals and souvenirs, but we purchased the gift cards.....they weren't rewards.

Anyhow....any way to do this? Or should I just work it out to use the Disney Visa more?

Thanks!!!

Take a closer look at what GC's the higher rate rewards card has available. Do they offer a MC or VISA GC? Those can be used at Disney.

Have you tried to get Chase to increase your account limit? I had 3 Disney VISA cards and they really knocked the limits down during the great CC fiasco of late 2008/early 2009. Two of the 3 cards had $7,000 limits that they knocked down to $2,000!! Last year I called Chase and said I was planning a trip to WDW and asked that the limit on one be brought back up. They increased it to $4,000.

 

[zeferjen]

I just did this. I traded all of my points in for Shell cards. I told dh that I am putting that $550 towards our Disney vacation fund. Every time I spend the $50 card, I will buy another Disney gift card to replace it.

 

[It'sWDW4me]

I just did this. I traded all of my points in for Shell cards. I told dh that I am putting that $550 towards our Disney vacation fund. Every time I spend the $50 card, I will buy another Disney gift card to replace it.

Now THAT's a good idea!

 

[TheRatPack]

Thanks everyone I checked again this morning and they offer Amazon, Darden restaurants (isn't Rainforest a Darden? as well as some other DTD?), Shell gas, Target, Walmart, 100.00 airfare and Suntrust Prepaid Visa cards. There were a few others like Best Buy and Marshalls/TJ Maxx but those wouldn't really help at all LOL and we don't fly so airfare wasn't really something we'd use either.

I suppose I could get the Suntrust pre-paids.....can't I use those to order Disney gift cards? I mean I realize I could just use the Suntrust Visas to pay for our OOP expenses on the trips but I like to have Disney gift cards for each restaurant with the full amount, not a bunch of 50.00 increment cards.

Wow...thanks everyone, think I've about got this figured out with your help.

 

[TheRatPack]

Oh and thanks for the information on the Disney card, and calling to get the limit raised. We had a 2500.00 limit I believe and they dropped it to 800.00!!! I spend more than that on groceries for the month LOL and they take 2 days to post payments and make the balance available again so using it for all of our monthly bills and expenses didn't make much sense. We are trying to use CC's each month instead of our debit since the banks are starting fees (60.00 a year) in November for debit usage. I'd rather make some money in reward points then pay them 60.00 a year to access my money. I can pay off my credit card each month online....and it cost nothing. I hope they don't take away the rewards when more people start doing this though

 

[bumbershoot]

There are almost no places that let you use a gift card to buy a gift card. There are some walgreens that let you use their gc to buy other gcs, but definitely not all walgreens will do it.

Rainforest and T-Rex are Landry, not Darden.

Best way to do it is to get the cards for places you routinely use, like the previous poster did with Shell, and use that instead of cash or cc at that place, and set aside the money you would normally have spent there for buying Disney gift cards.

 

[HallsofVA]

Re the credit limit, I had an issue with Chase where I had several Chase cards, and had originally been given a lower limit on the Disney visa card. I called, and was able to shift the limits around among the various cards to give me a higher limit on the Disney one, and the lower limit on the card I don't carry balances or make big purchases on (Amazon)

 

[TheRatPack]

There are almost no places that let you use a gift card to buy a gift card. There are some walgreens that let you use their gc to buy other gcs, but definitely not all walgreens will do it.

Rainforest and T-Rex are Landry, not Darden.

Best way to do it is to get the cards for places you routinely use, like the previous poster did with Shell, and use that instead of cash or cc at that place, and set aside the money you would normally have spent there for buying Disney gift cards.

Thanks for the clarification on the darden/landry issue. I can never keep up with all the restaurant corps. I think (previously posted) that I'll do as a previous poster said and just get the bank pre paid visa and those I can use to buy gift cards from Disney. While I would love to get gift cards to places I'd use and then just set aside that money to use at Disney.....I wouldn't do it, something would come up...etc. I'd just rather get Disney gift cards and stash them in my Passporter for our next trip and be done with it

 

[chunkygal]

If you have giftcards you get you don't want, you can sell them on many sites and then use the dough to buy what you want.

One consolidator for gift card sales is giftcardgranny.com

 

[starwood]

You can take a Visa gift card to the Disney Store and have them put that money on a Disney GC. It's easier to pay for things at Disney with the Disney GC than a Visa GC. I've had problems putting multiple Visa GC's on our room bill but the Disney GC is no problem at all.

 

[PrincessSuzanne]

Suntrust has already done away with their rewards program, at least for the check card rewards. We are leaving Suntrust because of the $60 fee they are about to impose. I use my Check card for everything and I won't be paying anyone to use it.

WDW will take Visa Gift Cards for their Gift Cards, I did it in Dec. I had gotten one of the appliance rebates and it was on a Visa gift card, I used it to purchase one of the WDW gift cards that goes on your wrist, it was really convenient.

Or, another option, is to exchange it for the Target gift card, when you go to Target ues the gift card for other purchases and put the cash on a Disney Gift Card, ours just recently started having them.

 

[cepmom]

I just did this. I traded all of my points in for Shell cards. I told dh that I am putting that $550 towards our Disney vacation fund. Every time I spend the $50 card, I will buy another Disney gift card to replace it.

DH travels a lot for work and always stays at a Chioce hotel. We had tons of Choice points last year, but they do not offer Disney gift cards as a redemption option. Instead, I redeemed the points for gas gift cards and every time I used the $50 gas gift card, I went and bought a $50 Disney gift card with the money that I didn't have to spend on gas. I think I was able to get over $600 in Disney gift cards that way.

 

[AnjieNet]

Or, another option, is to exchange it for the Target gift card, when you go to Target ues the gift card for other purchases and put the cash on a Disney Gift Card, ours just recently started having them.

Also, if you use your Target RedCard you can get the 5% off the purchase of the Disney Gift card as well.

 

[TheRatPack]

Suntrust has already done away with their rewards program, at least for the check card rewards. We are leaving Suntrust because of the $60 fee they are about to impose. I use my Check card for everything and I won't be paying anyone to use it.

Yes, they still offer it for their platinum credit card though. Most banks are charging a fee for debit card usage now....so you might not have too many choices of a new bank if you want to avoid those fees. I figured I'd just use my credit card for everything throughout the month and then use our paychecks to pay off the credit cards before interest hits. It's earned me enough for a 100.00 gift card so far and we've been doing it a month....so this will really add up. I'd much rather earn money using the credit card then pay money to access my account through a debit card. Irritates me that all the banks are doing this...and I hope that they don't discontinue credit card rewards once people start catching on and doing it this way.....but for now it's working for us so we'll continue to do this until they figure out a way to screw us out of those rewards LOL

 

[TheRatPack]

Also, if you use your Target RedCard you can get the 5% off the purchase of the Disney Gift card as well.

Does every Target have Disney gift cards? I've never really noticed too many gift cards at my Target.