WARNING: Disney Vacation Account took money without permission

[bumbershoot]

They walked out all their senior and qualified IT workers. They replaced them with underpriced foreign workers.

That is NOT what the article everyone links to says AT ALL.

Disney IT isn't in Orlando, OMG. They are, as far as I know (and given that we know people working there...) in Seattle.

The article describes the workers as people who "monitored computers" in Orlando. That's not IT.

And the DVA is through Chase, as mentioned above.

AND as for "underpriced", I'm laughing so hard! The article describes people from India being brought over on a certain Visa. My husband works with many people on that visa. It costs MONEY to get those employees. Those employees, just to get INTO college, had to be at the very tip top of their HS classes. They are INCREDIBLY educated and intelligent. And the companies PAY for the employees to move to the US. Those Visa'd employees cost MORE than the average American worker.

I don't know what jobs were replaced by those on visas, but they certainly aren't UNDERpriced.


(as much as I like the spelling "emplooyees", I had to change it)

 

[CinderElsa]

Of course its a NO NO. However, that doesn't mean for a single minute that it might not happen. And somehow all that intended responsibility makes them evil because a computer vomits all over itself and although, it was never intended or even controllable becomes a malicious attempt to extort funds? If in the course of this, the correction is not made then it is criminal. I don't think that is going to happen, it will be fixed.

Besides that, as a person that works within the mortgage industry, do you also feel that sending money (that perhaps you are paying interest on, since it is available via credit card) to a group that holds and possibly uses your money to create their own revenue and then doesn't pay any interest to you is the act of someone that is financially savvy to begin with. Create your own account in the bank or credit union of your choice and deposit the same money into that account, earn interest and eliminate all possibilities of accidental charges.

I'm getting a 5-8% return from my DVA. How much does your savings account (not investment/retirement account) earn in interest? If you're getting a higher return than that, please share! I want in!

 

[robinb]

I'm getting a 5-8% return from my DVA. How much does your savings account (not investment/retirement account) earn in interest? If you're getting a higher return than that, please share! I want in!

How can you get any more than 2% when you get $20 back for every $1000 you spend?

 

[CinderElsa]

How can you get any more than 2% when you get $20 back for every $1000 you spend?

I get 6% cash back on the Disney GCs I buy to deposit into the account & I get 3% cash back on the deposits I make with my CC because my CC company sees it as Disney & considers it to be in the "travel" category.

I just make sure the total I have (& spend) in the account comes to a round $X,000 figure to get the additional 2%.

 

[CM Dad]

How can you get any more than 2% when you get $20 back for every $1000 you spend?

If you are comparing it to the interest rate on a savings/investment account people usually take about the annual rate of return. The 2% bonus (for even multiples of $1000) you can get from the DVA does not require that the money bee in the account for a year, so the effective annual return is higher than 2%. I suppose you could open a DVA with the minimal initial amount (I think its $10, but can verify because the web site is down :-( ), let that sit there for 120 days. In the mean time save money for your Disney vacation in whatever high interest account you have, and after the 120 days, transfer some multiple of $1000 to your DVA (limited by the maximum daily contribution) and then immediately use that balance to pay for you Disney vacation and get the bonus gift cards.

 

[Marionnette]

I get 6% cash back on the Disney GCs I buy to deposit into the account & I get 3% cash back on the deposits I make with my CC because my CC company sees it as Disney & considers it to be in the "travel" category.

I just make sure the total I have (& spend) in the account comes to a round $X,000 figure to get the additional 2%.

I think that any way that you can save money is great but you're using confusing logic.

You're getting 6% back on the Disney GCs that you buy, not because of the DVA but because of whatever method you are using to purchase those GCs at a discount.

Likewise, you could have paid Disney directly using your CC and still get the 3% cash back for travel expenses. You don't need to put the money into a DVA in order to get the 3% back.

But, by putting those GCs into the DVA and making CC deposits to the account, you are netting a savings of between 5%-8%. Only about 2% of that net savings is due to using the DVA.

 

[Zobie]

The CC I was using for contributions was stolen and used at WDW on May 3rd (wish I had been the one doing it). Now have a new CC number and went to update it on the site after they said my contribution "failed" I am wondering now if the site was hacked and that is why it has been down for so long.

 

[famy27]

Technically, yes, but, if it had been intentional and they didn't "have your permission" then that would be a much different thing then what actually seems to have happened. It's hard to ask permission for something that they never intended to have happen. 'Took a second charge due to a computer glitch' would be much more accurate and way less sinisterly incriminating.

Why should it matter if the action was intentional? If the transaction caused an overdraft or other negative consequence, I don't think it really matters to the account holder whether DVA did this on purpose or not. The title wasn't misleading at all to me. If the phone company is authorized to take my payment on June 19th, they aren't also allowed to take the same payment on the 20th and the 21st. If they took money on multiple occasions without my authorization, then I think it's 100% fair to say DVA took money without permission.

 

[nobellybutton]

Anybody else worried the site's been down for 2 days? No email about what's going on?

 

[CinderElsa]

I think that any way that you can save money is great but you're using confusing logic.

You're getting 6% back on the Disney GCs that you buy, not because of the DVA but because of whatever method you are using to purchase those GCs at a discount.

Likewise, you could have paid Disney directly using your CC and still get the 3% cash back for travel expenses. You don't need to put the money into a DVA in order to get the 3% back.

But, by putting those GCs into the DVA and making CC deposits to the account, you are netting a savings of between 5%-8%. Only about 2% of that net savings is due to using the DVA.

All true. I don't think I'd go to the trouble of purchasing multiple $50 GCs unless there was an easy way to consolidate them, though, so the DVA is a valuable tool for me. An extra $60-80 is an extra $60-80!

 

[jaccceee]

If you are comparing it to the interest rate on a savings/investment account people usually take about the annual rate of return. The 2% bonus (for even multiples of $1000) you can get from the DVA does not require that the money bee in the account for a year, so the effective annual return is higher than 2%. I suppose you could open a DVA with the minimal initial amount (I think its $10, but can verify because the web site is down :-( ), let that sit there for 120 days. In the mean time save money for your Disney vacation in whatever high interest account you have, and after the 120 days, transfer some multiple of $1000 to your DVA (limited by the maximum daily contribution) and then immediately use that balance to pay for you Disney vacation and get the bonus gift cards.

I'd have to disagree that it's more than 2%. My reasoning is that you can't make anymore money on that $1000 because it is gone. So after year, you can only have $20 + $1000 of *worthless memories.
*priceless (for you glass half full people)

Edit:So APR is still 2%

 

[Tarheel girl 1975]

The CC I was using for contributions was stolen and used at WDW on May 3rd (wish I had been the one doing it). Now have a new CC number and went to update it on the site after they said my contribution "failed" I am wondering now if the site was hacked and that is why it has been down for so long.

I don't think the site was hacked. I think they experienced an error and some transactions were processed a second time. I work in the card services department for a credit union and this isn't an uncommon. I think that once Chase realized what happened, they shut the site down so they could concentrate on getting the problem fixed.

 

[MargaretJ]

Anybody else worried the site's been down for 2 days? No email about what's going on?

Yes poor job on Disney's part by not sending an e-mail to those affected. I called Tuesday & they took my information & said they would contact me and the money would be refunded. Money was actually taken out of my account Wednesday. Called back this afternoon & the person I spoke to was quite blunt & interrupted me several times. Said they had no idea when the issue would be fixed and refund back is completely dependent on how long my bank takes to process a refund. Disappointed in how this has been handled. It is now almost time for my weekly amount to be taken; I have a feeling it won't take as long to take out as to refund. Believe as soon as the site is back up and working I may close this account and just put the money in my Credit Union account.

 

[77catwoman]

Has anyone spoken with Disney and gotten an idea about when the site will be back up and running?

 

[lauradis]

I strongly suggest that everyone take auto payments off DVA that come out of your checking/saving acct.

There have been too many threads with IT issues related to DVA for my comfort of connecting my checking/saving acct to them.

sorry DVA is run by chase, not Disney travel sub company.

 

[lauradis]

That is NOT what the article everyone links to says AT ALL.

Disney IT isn't in Orlando, OMG. They are, as far as I know (and given that we know people working there...) in Seattle.

The article describes the workers as people who "monitored computers" in Orlando. That's not IT.

And the DVA is through Chase, as mentioned above.

AND as for "underpriced", I'm laughing so hard! The article describes people from India being brought over on a certain Visa. My husband works with many people on that visa. It costs MONEY to get those employees. Those employees, just to get INTO college, had to be at the very tip top of their HS classes. They are INCREDIBLY educated and intelligent. And the companies PAY for the employees to move to the US. Those Visa'd employees cost MORE than the average American worker.

I don't know what jobs were replaced by those on visas, but they certainly aren't UNDERpriced.


(as much as I like the spelling "emplooyees", I had to change it)

They are INCREDIBLY educated and intelligent.


Thank you so much for posting that. But lets not forget Disney gets a huge tax credit for having international visa employees.

 

[lauradis]

http://sitedown.co/chase

if chase runs DVA maybe chase website issues are the root of the problem... looks like alot of down websites for the month of june starting on june 4th.

 

[Atobias]

Has anyone spoken with Disney and gotten an idea about when the site will be back up and running?

I'm extremely worried. Now the 2nd unscheduled PENDING withdrawal POSTED to my account. The other day they retracted it so I didn't think it was a problem. NOW ITS A PROBLEM AND I WISH SOMEONE WOULD LET US KNOW WHAT IS GOING ON!!! Losing my confidence and my money.

 

[lugnut33]

Look at the bright side, you'll reach your savings goals for your Disney trip much faster this way!! Magical

 

[CinderElsa]

I'm extremely worried. Now the 2nd unscheduled PENDING withdrawal POSTED to my account. The other day they retracted it so I didn't think it was a problem. NOW ITS A PROBLEM AND I WISH SOMEONE WOULD LET US KNOW WHAT IS GOING ON!!! Losing my confidence and my money.

It hit my CC as well. Fortunately, I can initiate a chargeback, which I have just done. Let them pay the fees.