Gift cards

jberndt10

Mouseketeer
Joined
Mar 4, 2003
I notice a lot of people refer to using Disney gift cards. Is there a benefit to this rather than just using a cc? Are there opportunities to get discounts on these?
 
Yes, there are threads about discounts on Disney gift cards. I joined BJ warehouse online and only to buy gift cards at a discount. During the xmas season I got 7 to 10% off using BJs.
 
We buy ours from Sams and get a 4% discount and then get on average 4% cash back on an app called Dosh. On top of all that we use a credit card that gains us airline miles. Last year, before we bought DVC we stayed at Poly for 10 nights with park tickets and meal plan for 4 our total was $9000 we saved over $800 with the gift cards and only paid the $5 per person fees for the flights. It is pain and for some that isn’t enough saving to matter but we still do it.
 
There is a thread on the budget board about Disney gift cards. I have been paying my dues and my Disney expenses with gift cards for years. It’s a great deal!
 


Sometimes a credit card offers special deals, like $25 off a $250 purchase at Best Buy. So you can go to Best Buy and get a $250 gc for a 10% discount and apply that towards dues or a trip.

It can definitely get more complicated than that. But that's one example.
 
I notice a lot of people refer to using Disney gift cards. Is there a benefit to this rather than just using a cc? Are there opportunities to get discounts on these?
We buy Disney gift cards through target using the target red card - it gives us 5% off. I used these cards to pay my MF and i stock up on them to use for our spending $$ during our trip. They can be managed on a Disney gift card website so if for some reason you misplaced or lost your GC you could immediately go on the website and transfer the funds onto another GC, I feel this protects the funds. We will bring only one GC to the park with us and it vs charging to the room. It usually is a great feeling to return from a trip and actually have money left over on our GC's.
 
We get our gift cards from our local grocery store/gas station. We have a credit card that gives us 5% cash back on all gas station purchases. Through our local store we also get fuel perks(free gas). With normal fuel perks savings & our credit card we save 11%. About 3 times a year they offer double fuel perks on Disney Gift Cards and that save us 17%.
 


We have used gift card deals for years. Sam's at one time and Target. If its 5% or 8% if your spending hundreds of dollars it all adds up.
 
I notice a lot of people refer to using Disney gift cards. Is there a benefit to this rather than just using a cc? Are there opportunities to get discounts on these?
with very little effort you can save 7% by getting GC at BJs off the rack at a 5% discount and 2% back with a cash back credit card. You can save even more with some effort.
 
I buy mine at Target using my Redcard and save 5%. I can also buy at Sam's Club and save up to 4%. The savings add up.
 
I love the gift card deals thread on the Budget Board!

Sometimes it takes a little bit of creative purchasing but I’ve been able to save at least 10% by combining credit card deals with shopping apps like ebates, retailmenot or dosh. Most of the time it’s closer to the 15%-17% range.
 
I love the gift card deals thread on the Budget Board!

Sometimes it takes a little bit of creative purchasing but I’ve been able to save at least 10% by combining credit card deals with shopping apps like ebates, retailmenot or dosh. Most of the time it’s closer to the 15%-17% range.
I've not been quite that lucky, but this trip, if it all works, I'm averaging 11%
 
I use Swagbucks, Rakuten (formerly eBates) and other sites to earn gift cards (or redeem for PayPal) and then I "buy" Disney gift cards using the funds that I earned (sometimes earning MORE money in the process) without spending additional money out-of-pocket. By doing this, I have already earned over $1600 in the past 10 months. I'm hoping to have $1800 for our October 2019 trip and it will be used to cover our meals for our 9-day trip. It will truly be "free dining" for us:thumbsup2. If only you could use gift cards with mobile ordering...THAT would be amazing!

I also buy gift cards from Target at the 5% discount to pay for our annual dues. I used to get a better return through BestBuy when they offered the bonus through SwagBucks (almost a 10% rebate!) but that deal died. Right now, the best deal that I have been consistently able to earn is the 6% rebate from ShopDisney via RMN, but since it is hit or miss with gift cards, I will settle with the 5% discount from Target. We only have about $1100 in MF's every year so we don't need thousands of dollars in gift cards. Buying in bulk from places like BJ's or Sam's Club doesn't have a huge advantage for us, especially since our credit card has no bonus for warehouse club purchases. Target is really our best and most reliable deal.
 
While I get mine from Sams or Target, we really don't use gift cards for the savings. We just got really tired of huge folios at the end of every trip. We have several Food & Wine wrist gift cards and we just buy gift cards all throughout the year...consolidate the values on the F&W cards and they get popped in to my purse. We also stock up on Landry and Uno's gift cards, load up my Uber account and we get House of Blues Blues Busters certs....

We don't really go in to the parks anymore, so don't use the dining plan and with all the Disney stuff in my house, there's not one souvenir that I really want or need. It's just much nicer to have everything paid before we ever leave home. :)
 
Last year I bought gift cards through BJ's at 11% off. Yes, it was a PITA getting a huge stack of $25 gift cards, and it took an hour to move them all to five gift cards on the disney site, but 11% off paid for a meal at Narcoossee's for my wife and I...
 
Just charge it to your room, and then use gift cards to pay your room charges before they charge your card.
I didn’t know you could do that!! That would be perfect!
I thought that the only way you could pay for mobile orders was with dining plan credits or credit card. This is great news!
 
BJ's will have extra discounts periodically. Some credit cards offer bonus percentage back for warehouse clubs at different times. The BJ's card restricts percentage back on their own credit card for gift cards, but I think I received the bonus when purchasing with my other bank credit cards for their quarterly bonuses.
 
I didn’t know you could do that!! That would be perfect!
I thought that the only way you could pay for mobile orders was with dining plan credits or credit card. This is great news!

Well, not so great news because it's not the case. You cannot charge to your room with mobile order. Only credit/debit card or dining plan credits.

Steve
 
I notice a lot of people refer to using Disney gift cards. Is there a benefit to this rather than just using a cc? Are there opportunities to get discounts on these?
I've used gift cards in the past for 2 reasons - 1) the ability to get them at a discount either through Sams or Target, and 2) it was a good way to keep track of what money would be used on our vacation. If you aren't staying at a Disney resort, they become less useful, but it was great having them our last vacation.
 

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