Paying DVC dues - cheapest place for gift cards!

[Blizzyblizz]

Sharing my research in case it's valuable for anyone else paying a lot in dues and annual pass renewals this year ...

If you need to buy Disney gift cards in bulk, the best place to get them is BJ's Wholesale Club (www.bjs.com). Unlike everywhere else, there is no limit on the number of cards you buy from them--you can buy dozens and dozens in one order, and they'll ship them to you. You can also use any credit card you want, including Amex. You do have to pay to become a member, which costs $55/year, but you don't have to live in a state that has a physical BJ's location.

• Standard deal = $500 Disney gift cards for $479.99 (4.0% off)
• Current Black Friday deal = $500 Disney gift cards for $472.49 (5.5% off)
• Note: they also currently have 3x $50 gift cards for $140.99 (6.0% off), but that requires redeeming 10x the number of physical cards, which is a pain

Their standard deal is the best I've found if you need them in bulk, and the Black Friday deal is even better. Combine it with credit card points/benefits, and it's awesome.

Alternatively, if you don't care about using your own particular credit card then you can also use the Target Red Card to get 5% off any time at Target, but they have quantity limits.

 

[Mercdesman]

I just got mine at BJ’s today

 

[jo-jo]

I bought too soon, Missed it by a few days..

 

[kydisneyfans]

If you have Meijer, keep watching their weekend ads. Last weekend they had 20,000($20) mperks for each $100 in gift cards purchased. It codes as grocery on my Sears Mastercard so that's another 11% back this quarter. That's effectively a 31% discount. Unfortunately they have reduced the limits lately from $500 to $100, but it works.

 

[Stormalong Smiths]

I've really appreciated the info on this thread when looking for DGC deals:

https://www.disboards.com/threads/updated-disney-gift-card-deals-and-more.3784942/

 

[ILoveMyDVC]

Sharing my research in case it's valuable for anyone else paying a lot in dues and annual pass renewals this year ...

If you need to buy Disney gift cards in bulk, the best place to get them is BJ's Wholesale Club (www.bjs.com). Unlike everywhere else, there is no limit on the number of cards you buy from them--you can buy dozens and dozens in one order, and they'll ship them to you. You can also use any credit card you want, including Amex. You do have to pay to become a member, which costs $55/year, but you don't have to live in a state that has a physical BJ's location.

• Standard deal = $500 Disney gift cards for $479.99 (4.0% off)
• Current Black Friday deal = $500 Disney gift cards for $472.49 (5.5% off)
• Note: they also currently have 3x $50 gift cards for $140.99 (6.0% off), but that requires redeeming 10x the number of physical cards, which is a pain

Their standard deal is the best I've found if you need them in bulk, and the Black Friday deal is even better. Combine it with credit card points/benefits, and it's awesome.

Alternatively, if you don't care about using your own particular credit card then you can also use the Target Red Card to get 5% off any time at Target, but they have quantity limits.

Thank you - bought 3 for now

 

[TinkAgainU]

So, unless I'm confused ... we cannot actually put Disney Gift Cards into our MDE account, but would have to carry the cards with us to the Parks, and when Mobile Ordering enter the 16+ digit number for each and every purchase? (Plus keep purchase receipts for each card in case it does not work, and make sure not to damage them so the numbers stay visible). PLEASE tell me this is not true I feel like getting Gift Cards was such a horrible decision.

 

[thadhouse]

So, unless I'm confused ... we cannot actually put Disney Gift Cards into our MDE account, but would have to carry the cards with us to the Parks, and when Mobile Ordering enter the 16+ digit number for each and every purchase? (Plus keep purchase receipts for each card in case it does not work, and make sure not to damage them so the numbers stay visible). PLEASE tell me this is not true I feel like getting Gift Cards was such a horrible decision.

You use them to pay your annual dues, not for things at the park.

 

[CarolynFH]

So, unless I'm confused ... we cannot actually put Disney Gift Cards into our MDE account, but would have to carry the cards with us to the Parks, and when Mobile Ordering enter the 16+ digit number for each and every purchase? (Plus keep purchase receipts for each card in case it does not work, and make sure not to damage them so the numbers stay visible). PLEASE tell me this is not true I feel like getting Gift Cards was such a horrible decision.

You can save the 16-digit number in a note or text or whatever on your phone, then just copy and paste when mobile ordering in MDE. IOW, a few more clicks than charging to a CC linked to MDE, but still doable. So no, buying discounted GCs to use for trip expenses is not a mistake. Using them to pay your DVC dues or to pay down the charges on your resort account are additional uses.

 

[TinkAgainU]

You use them to pay your annual dues, not for things at the park.

Got it. I am actually embarrassed that I've been giving Disney Gift Cards to friends and family (non DVC owners), assuming I was making their trips better. Now I realize I just gave them more stupid projects and stuff to carry/keep track of in the park

 

[eticketplease]

You use them to pay your annual dues, not for things at the park.

Just to be clear you can use them multiple places.
This is not an exhausted list but you can use them for DVC Dues (by contract as long as you enroll in monthly payment option), Purchase AP/tickets, In the parks and resorts, Disney Springs, on DCL and at Aulani.

As @CarolynFH mentioned you can use them on mobile orders as well just have to keep in a notepad and paste it in.
The good news for mobile orders is you did not have to have the PIN just the actual card number.

 

[jo-jo]

Got it. I am actually embarrassed that I've been giving Disney Gift Cards to friends and family (non DVC owners), assuming I was making their trips better. Now I realize I just gave them more stupid projects and stuff to carry/keep track of in the park

I've never done this, but heard of people adding gift cards to the resort account . So you can still use your MB to pay for stuff in parks.

I hope someone chimes in and corrects me if I'm giving wrong information.

 

[LadybugsMum]

you can use them for DVC Dues (by contract as long as you enroll in monthly payment option),

You don't need to be enrolled in the monthly payment option in order to use gift cards. I pay yearly and use GCs to pay my dues. Choose a contract and select 'New card' and one of the options is a Disney GC.

 

[Matty B13]

I've never done this, but heard of people adding gift cards to the resort account . So you can still use your MB to pay for stuff in parks.

I hope someone chimes in and corrects me if I'm giving wrong information.

I don't think you can add it to your resort account, but what I do is go down to the front desk every day or every other day, and pay the room balance with a gift card.

 

[TinkAgainU]

Thank you everyone for clarifying. I think I'm done buying Disney Gift Cards lol. That 5% savings (after jumping thru hoops) is a terrible return for me. YMMV. As a wise person once told me, the companies like Disney Bank/Gamble on you either losing the card, or it being so awkward to use, you never use all of it. This seems to be a perfect example - and I'm their "target" (forgive the pun Target Stores) market in that respect.

 

[Annabell]

It´s good use if you use it to pay the DVC dues. Saves you a few percent. Other than that, no other use for me.

 

[kilik64]

Thank you everyone for clarifying. I think I'm done buying Disney Gift Cards lol. That 5% savings (after jumping thru hoops) is a terrible return for me. YMMV. As a wise person once told me, the companies like Disney Bank/Gamble on you either losing the card, or it being so awkward to use, you never use all of it. This seems to be a perfect example - and I'm their "target" (forgive the pun Target Stores) market in that respect.

Just in case you change your mind, the best way to handle disney giftcards to use when actually at Disney is to buy one digital card to add to your wallet on iOS or Android. Once you buy it there will be a link in the email you get to add to your wallet on your phone. To pay using this you just bring it up and they can scan it. I forget if you can tap to pay with it too, but scanning is easy enough.

Once you have that, use disneygiftcard.com to transfer any physical card balances you get to your digital card.

No need to keep up with a bunch of cards and if you lose your digital card, you have bigger problems since you've also lost your phone too lol.

If you are anti digital wallets and cards, you can also just have one physical card doing the same thing. Just have one physical card you keep and transfer any other cards you buy to that one.

The biggest downside is there is a $1,000 limit that cards can carry. You can put your cards into the disneygiftcard.com site and leave them there to transfer as needed to your primary card. It has 2FA now via text, so make sure you have that turned on. It uses your same disney login info as all their other products.

 

[CarolynFH]

Thank you everyone for clarifying. I think I'm done buying Disney Gift Cards lol. That 5% savings (after jumping thru hoops) is a terrible return for me. YMMV. As a wise person once told me, the companies like Disney Bank/Gamble on you either losing the card, or it being so awkward to use, you never use all of it. This seems to be a perfect example - and I'm their "target" (forgive the pun Target Stores) market in that respect.

Well, our dues for 2023 were over $2500, so it was worth it to us to jump through the Target Red Card hoops to save 5%=$125. We actually saved more than that by taking advantage of other GC sales and rewards offers over the year. And we’ve already paid over $1000 on our 2024 dues with discounts of 10-15% by taking advantage of GC sales in November and December.

I order the e-GC, and they usually arrive in my inbox within an hour. I open my DVC dues webpage, open the e-GC, copy and paste the relevant numbers into the DVC page, click Submit, and I’m done. So I’m not worried about losing them or not using them up!

 

[eticketplease]

You don't need to be enrolled in the monthly payment option in order to use gift cards. I pay yearly and use GCs to pay my dues. Choose a contract and select 'New card' and one of the options is a Disney GC.

Good to know. You used to have to do that. Then the downfall was dues are over $1k and the card can only have $1k

 

[LadybugsMum]

Good to know. You used to have to do that. Then the downfall was dues are over $1k and the card can only have $1k

You don't have to pay in full all at once and can make multiple payments.