Handing a $1000 gift card to a server?

[TexasBee]

I would register your cards on https://www.disneygiftcard.com/Manage/MyCards. Keep a card just for dining and transfer money to it periodically to refresh it off your larger cards. That way only you have access to the big cards.

 

[kaytieeldr]

Ask to see the balance after each transaction. I believe it is shown on the bottom of the receipt at every POS.

Isn't that unnecessarily redundant? If the balance is on the receipt, is a vocal response needed?

 

[OKW Lover]

I would certainly hope that CMs are honest, and 99% of them probably are. However, with a GC, you have no way to prove how much money is still on that card or should be on that card. They could skim $$$ off and then rerun with the new total and say that's all you had on there.

Every time you use a GC the receipt shows the remaining balance. Its easy enough to verify that the right amount was charged.

 

[bigeyedfish]

Why not just put a sticker or write your name in Sharpie? That way you will know it is yours when the server brings it back (I’ve heard of people getting the wrong GC back and not realizing it until later).

 

[cmwade77]

Ok, I am a little confused, don't they have a machine that they bring out to scan your magic band with when charging to your room?

Doesn't that machine also handle credit and presumably gift card transactions?

OP: If you are staying on site you can apply the gift cards to your room balance and whatever is left over at the end will get refunded back to them, then you simply charge everything to your room. A bonus for this is that you can use the gift card balance anywhere that will charge to your room, which means many places in Disney Springs that wouldn't normally take a Disney Gift Card would now be an option.

 

[Lehuaann]

Isn't that unnecessarily redundant? If the balance is on the receipt, is a vocal response needed?

Probably. I’m just not 100% sure the GC balances are shown on every POS receipt, which is why I said I believe.

I also don’t have an issue taking extra steps to keep things honest when excessive amounts of money are involved.

 

[Dug720]

I doubt that there is anywhere left that will allow a gift card purchase with a gift card.

You can't. I tried to use what was left from the special one I got when I did Wine & Dine towards the purchase of a regular gift card (just before you could do the transfer to thing) and was unable to.

 

[DisneyHardin]

Ok, I am a little confused, don't they have a machine that they bring out to scan your magic band with when charging to your room?

Doesn't that machine also handle credit and presumably gift card transactions?
.

The Magic Band scanner is not also a credit card machine.

 

[KateP85]

The scanner used for Magic Bands cannot process credit cards or gift cards, it's just a scanner.

Most of the time, your server will have to take your card away to swipe it, and then they'll bring it back. Make sure you know what was on the card before, and then look at the bottom of the receipt to see the balance after they've swiped it. If you leave a tip on the card, be sure to deduct that so you don't get thrown off.

I used to be a server at Disney, and honestly, when guests acted like I was out to scam them or steal their money, it made me feel like crap. I had guests refuse to hand over credit cards to me and instead would only give it to a manager (because a manager is more trustworthy than a server?) and guests that would tell me that they were watching me to make sure I didn't skim their card (there's not even a way to do that on the Disney systems!) I very much doubt that your servers are out to steal your money, they're just trying to do their job.

 

[bumbershoot]

Because the receipts have the balance, it would be immediately obvious if the server had stolen from your card. The only issue I can see happening is a busy server putting your card into someone else’s receipt holder thing. So check immediately; both the card itself to make sure it’s yours, and the receipt.

Write all over the card in Sharpie so it’s super-obvious that it’s yours, and don’t mark it with the running balance, that’s for sure.


Servers (in general, not necessarily at Disney) who skim cards aren’t literally skimming money at that moment; they are copying the card info to sell later. I doubt if that’s possible with a GC.

 

[bumbershoot]

I used to be a server at Disney, and honestly, when guests acted like I was out to scam them or steal their money, it made me feel like crap.

I don’t know about the statistics now, but for a good loooong time servers were the number one group who skimmed cards. It’s not YOU they didn’t trust. It was the whole system that allows it to be done so easily.

It’s why I appreciate going to Canada, because they have portable machines that they hand to you, so you do everything at the table, then take back once you’re done.

Or at Red Robin in the states you can pay at the table on their machines. No human needed, and that statistically lowers the chances of fraud happening.

 

[nkereina]

Doesn't that machine also handle credit and presumably gift card transactions?

The machine that scans MBs is scanning. Gift cards need to be swiped, which those machines don't do.

Because the receipts have the balance, it would be immediately obvious if the server had stolen from your card. The only issue I can see happening is a busy server putting your card into someone else’s receipt holder thing. So check immediately; both the card itself to make sure it’s yours, and the receipt.

Write all over the card in Sharpie so it’s super-obvious that it’s yours, and don’t mark it with the running balance, that’s for sure.


Servers (in general, not necessarily at Disney) who skim cards aren’t literally skimming money at that moment; they are copying the card info to sell later. I doubt if that’s possible with a GC.

This is what I would do. I'd double check the balance on the receipt when its brought to me and I'd take photos of the back of the gift cards with the numbers. I'd also save the receipts so all transactions are accounted for.

I know buying the gift cards are a popular thing to do and that some people can purchase Disney gift cards at a discounted rate or receive cash back, which is why they do it. I understand that. But other than that, I don't get the logic behind it. My mother in law saved $1500 before our trip last summer and purchased $1500 worth of Disney gift cards to use for spending. She only spent about $800 though, and has now been using the remaining money for birthday and Christmas presents for the grandkids for the foreseeable future. She's locked into that money now with Disney. She would have been better off using her credit card and taking that cash to pay it off when she got home. The credit card also has better fraud protection.

 

[Denise W]

Ok, I am a little confused, don't they have a machine that they bring out to scan your magic band with when charging to your room?

Doesn't that machine also handle credit and presumably gift card transactions?

OP: If you are staying on site you can apply the gift cards to your room balance and whatever is left over at the end will get refunded back to them, then you simply charge everything to your room. A bonus for this is that you can use the gift card balance anywhere that will charge to your room, which means many places in Disney Springs that wouldn't normally take a Disney Gift Card would now be an option.

He already said he is staying offsite.
Denise

 

[Lehuaann]

I don’t know about the statistics now, but for a good loooong time servers were the number one group who skimmed cards. It’s not YOU they didn’t trust. It was the whole system that allows it to be done so easily.

It’s why I appreciate going to Canada, because they have portable machines that they hand to you, so you do everything at the table, then take back once you’re done.

Or at Red Robin in the states you can pay at the table on their machines. No human needed, and that statistically lowers the chances of fraud happening.

I have even heard some crazy restaurant stories through the years pertaining to cash and the DDP. Like accepting a cash tip, then recharging that same amount to the guest’s room. Or accepting a cash payment from one table, pocketing it, then charging the bill to another party’s DDP.

Our *card was skimmed in FL, and the only place we had used it was on Disney property. The authorization didn’t appear until several weeks later and was caught at a very small amount, thankfully.

* CC, not GC

 

[DrFacilier]

The scanner used for Magic Bands cannot process credit cards or gift cards, it's just a scanner.

Most of the time, your server will have to take your card away to swipe it, and then they'll bring it back. Make sure you know what was on the card before, and then look at the bottom of the receipt to see the balance after they've swiped it. If you leave a tip on the card, be sure to deduct that so you don't get thrown off.

I used to be a server at Disney, and honestly, when guests acted like I was out to scam them or steal their money, it made me feel like crap. I had guests refuse to hand over credit cards to me and instead would only give it to a manager (because a manager is more trustworthy than a server?) and guests that would tell me that they were watching me to make sure I didn't skim their card (there's not even a way to do that on the Disney systems!) I very much doubt that your servers are out to steal your money, they're just trying to do their job.

This post was certainly not meant to point fingers at servers. I work in the service industry and would agree that the vast majority of servers everywhere are just there to do their job and not trying to steal money. My concern is in handing over a gift card with so much cash on it. In the future I will limit the amounts that I combine on the Disney gift card site but at this point is too late do do anything about that. This thread has been very helpful and these are the precautions I will be taking during my off-site stay in a couple of weeks.

1. I ordered a sweet Fab 5 Space Mountain GC (which I am assuming is not a super popular design) from the Disney Store which I will be using primarily.
2. I will be carrying a blank GC as well in case the primary card is lost or stolen.
3. The other cards that have a balance on them will be kept in the safe in our room.
4. All cards have been entered into disneygiftcard.com so it will be easy to transfer balances once the primary card needs to be replenished.
5. Best tip so far IMO: I will monitor the transaction history here https://www.disneygiftcard.com/manage/ (Thanks again @Lehuaann !)

 

[kniquy]

We just did a trip and had about $1300 in GC but i put them in smaller amounts of $250-300. I felt that i did not want a large amount on one card god forbid i lose that card. Even if you did lose a card you could immediately go on the disney gift card website and transfer the amount to another gift card. others here have suggested having an empty gift card on your account just for this reason.

 

[JoJoGirl]

This is a timely topic.

I just returned from Disney, where I used GCs to pay for our dining and souvenirs. I had two cards with balances of about $500 each. The cards were registered online, and were labeled on front with a sharpie to identify them. I also took along a couple of zero balance cards, also registered, in case one of the loaded cards was lost.

Tonight, while reviewing our receipts against the transaction history on disneygiftcard.com, I noticed an unusually large charge immediately following our Biergarten bill on 12-10. Usually you see your restaurant charge, then a separate smaller charge for the written-in tip. This time the second charge was NOT small.

I usually tip about 20% for decent/average service, but always adjust the cents so that the total bill ends in an even dollar amount. For our bill, that tip amount would have been $30.44. However, the amount charged to my gift card was $92.44. Because the charge ends in .44, and there was no charge for the correct amount, it is almost certainly the tip from the Biergarten. I would NEVER tip that much on a $150 tab. I had made a some other purchases that evening, so by the time the overcharge hit, it escaped my notice that the wrong amount had been taken.

I still have my copy of the restaurant bill and will be calling tomorrow to see if the store copy can be tracked down and checked for accuracy. Not sure what recourse there may be, since I used a gift card instead of a credit card, but you can bet they will be hearing from me.

In years of using gift cards at WDW, this is the first time this has happened to me. In the future, charging to a magic band then paying the balance at the front desk every day with gift cards may be the way to go. A bit of a hassle, but overcharges should be a lot easier to spot and dispute that way.

 

[Lisa F]

This is a timely topic.

I just returned from Disney, where I used GCs to pay for our dining and souvenirs. I had two cards with balances of about $500 each. The cards were registered online, and were labeled on front with a sharpie to identify them. I also took along a couple of zero balance cards, also registered, in case one of the loaded cards was lost.

Tonight, while reviewing our receipts against the transaction history on disneygiftcard.com, I noticed an unusually large charge immediately following our Biergarten bill on 12-10. Usually you see your restaurant charge, then a separate smaller charge for the written-in tip. This time the second charge was NOT small.

I usually tip about 20% for decent/average service, but always adjust the cents so that the total bill ends in an even dollar amount. For our bill, that tip amount would have been $30.44. However, the amount charged to my gift card was $92.44. Because the charge ends in .44, and there was no charge for the correct amount, it is almost certainly the tip from the Biergarten. I would NEVER tip that much on a $150 tab. I had made a some other purchases that evening, so by the time the overcharge hit, it escaped my notice that the wrong amount had been taken.

I still have my copy of the restaurant bill and will be calling tomorrow to see if the store copy can be tracked down and checked for accuracy. Not sure what recourse there may be, since I used a gift card instead of a credit card, but you can bet they will be hearing from me.

In years of using gift cards at WDW, this is the first time this has happened to me. In the future, charging to a magic band then paying the balance at the front desk every day with gift cards may be the way to go. A bit of a hassle, but overcharges should be a lot easier to spot and dispute that way.

Thanks for reporting. That is insane. Clearly someone felt they deserved a huge tip! That is definitely a downside to gift cards in the parks, I had forgotten they never give you a receipt confirming tip just the original amount.

I'm sure you will get it resolved one way or another even if Disney sends you a gift card for the $60 or even a check. I had a big problem at a restaurant and even though it was on DDP they issued me a refund check but they gave me the option of that of gift card. So Disney can write a check or send a gift card when money is involved.

 

[ShyMiss]

This is a timely topic.

I just returned from Disney, where I used GCs to pay for our dining and souvenirs. I had two cards with balances of about $500 each. The cards were registered online, and were labeled on front with a sharpie to identify them. I also took along a couple of zero balance cards, also registered, in case one of the loaded cards was lost.

Tonight, while reviewing our receipts against the transaction history on disneygiftcard.com, I noticed an unusually large charge immediately following our Biergarten bill on 12-10. Usually you see your restaurant charge, then a separate smaller charge for the written-in tip. This time the second charge was NOT small.

I usually tip about 20% for decent/average service, but always adjust the cents so that the total bill ends in an even dollar amount. For our bill, that tip amount would have been $30.44. However, the amount charged to my gift card was $92.44. Because the charge ends in .44, and there was no charge for the correct amount, it is almost certainly the tip from the Biergarten. I would NEVER tip that much on a $150 tab. I had made a some other purchases that evening, so by the time the overcharge hit, it escaped my notice that the wrong amount had been taken.

I still have my copy of the restaurant bill and will be calling tomorrow to see if the store copy can be tracked down and checked for accuracy. Not sure what recourse there may be, since I used a gift card instead of a credit card, but you can bet they will be hearing from me.

In years of using gift cards at WDW, this is the first time this has happened to me. In the future, charging to a magic band then paying the balance at the front desk every day with gift cards may be the way to go. A bit of a hassle, but overcharges should be a lot easier to spot and dispute that way.

Wow. Thanks for sharing. I just skimmed this thread when searching new posts. I don't have any large GC. We have DP & will pay oop for a few places. However, this post has me leaning towards bringing cash for tips.

 

[shocker]

I've never understood the need to combine them in the first place, I usually buy in smallish denominations over time, never had a problem carrying what I need for a day & refilling my wallet each night. I don't understand all the need for shuffling & transferring and I could give smaller balance cards for kids to carry for incidentals without bugging me.