So I have my gift cards now what help please

[mi*vida*loca]

I believe the holds replaced charging your card once you hit a certain amount. You can absolutely pay down your balance even when a hold has been put on your card. The hold will just fall off your card. Any mobile food orders or mobile shopping get charged to your payment method at the time of your purchase - that might account for the few random charges.

Good to know about the holds!

I did forget about mobile orders and ILL. Cali Grill is separate but that was our last night so maybe it was too late to add it in. Les Halles is also separate but I’m sure we did MB there unless it wasn’t working and I can’t remember. MB payment wasn’t working at Les Glaces so I paid with my card.

 

[robinb]

My card was charged every 1-3 days during our 9 night stay at CSR last trip. Some days I would wake up to a bunch of charges from the previous day and some days it would take 2-3 days.

In 2015 I took the gift card recommendations from the board. Used the Disney site to combine cards all that. I did the whole pay with a gift card at concierge thing and I had to go down every night or every other night. It became a pain.

Prior to that we just charged to our room key or MB. We went back to that and now I just charge everything to my MB and pay off my card when I get home. The whole gift card thing was a one and done for us.

You don't need to go down every few days. You just need to ask them to reverse the charges and charge the gift cards.

We have a 10-day trip planned for September and we spend an average of $75 per person per day on food. My DH and I will be there for 10 days and my DD and her BF will be there for 5 days. That's 30 days worth of food at $75 per day or $2250 (*gulp*). The minimum I can save on Disney Gift Cards is 5%, but I will often save 10-12% off them if I hit promos at the right time. I will save between $112 - $270 on meals if I use DGCs. I do admit that I would save 2% if I out it on my Fidelity Visa, but that's only $45. For me, it's worth it to keep some money out of the Mouse's pocket.

I also do not want to buy a ton of gift cards and be stuck with thousands of dollars of gift cards if the trip doesn’t happen. That always made me feel a bit apprehensive. We don’t go to Disney every year, we also don’t own DVC, so we don’t always have another trip planned or booked.

I totally get that. I own DVC so any left over DCGs (ha!) get spent on dues.

 

[Skip Coffee for Rope Drop]

Ok so I used some tricks I saw here and have my Disney gift cards all set. I have 3 physical cards with different amounts each. i have them in the Disney gift card site all registered. I have heard some people talking about combining them in case one gets lost etc.,
so should I combine them all into one? Do I take all 3 physical cards with me? Can someone explain all this to me the best way to go about being safest with these and how to use them?
Thank you

take all cards with you, you can use multiple cards for one purchase.

 

[dischris11]

I’m new to this too. I have a bunch of small denomination gift cards I’ve accrued so far. After reading this, it sounds like I go to Disney gift card and transfer the balance all to one? Is there any limit? Does it matter if the gift card says it is worth $50 or something? If I used apple wallet, can I use that to pay at the front desk or do you need a physical card for that? Also, someone above said to transfer all balances to a “trusted” gift card. How do I know which one is a trusted gift card? So far all of my gift cards are from target and Walmart. Thanks.

 

[TheOneWithTheTriplets]

After reading this, it sounds like I go to Disney gift card and transfer the balance all to one? Is there any limit?

Each card can hold no more than $1k

Does it matter if the gift card says it is worth $50 or something?

No. The system will transfer the whole remaining balance, regardless of the amount it started with, as long as the receiving card has enough room for the transfer without exceeding a $1k balance.

If I used apple wallet, can I use that to pay at the front desk or do you need a physical card for that?

No help here. I always pay off balances with physical. Hopefully someone else can chime in.

How do I know which one is a trusted gift card? So far all of my gift cards are from target and Walmart.

If you purchased yourself at these retailers, those are trusted cards.

There are certain 3rd party sites that have good deals but sometimes that's because the cards end up being associated with fraud cases. You can trust your Target and Walmart GCs.

 

[disneydarling07]

I'm planning on buying gift cards every week to save for our trip. Is there anything in Disney that you CANNOT use a gift card for? I'm mainly concerned about counter / quick service meals. Are GC accepted at all QS places?

 

[TheOneWithTheTriplets]

I'm planning on buying gift cards every week to save for our trip. Is there anything in Disney that you CANNOT use a gift card for? I'm mainly concerned about counter / quick service meals. Are GC accepted at all QS places?

I know you can't use GC to buy your MBs if you're buying them as part of an on property stay. And, I couldn't for Disneyland photopass purchased online, but I can't remember either way for world.

In park and Disney hotel QS all take Disney GCs. Some Disney Springs locations don't.

 

[georgina]

I'm planning on buying gift cards every week to save for our trip. Is there anything in Disney that you CANNOT use a gift card for? I'm mainly concerned about counter / quick service meals. Are GC accepted at all QS places?

I used my GC everywhere in the parks and Disney owned resorts. I used them for mobile orders at QS, for any G+ and $ILL purchases I made (it's a little tricky as it always showed my card on file, but scroll down a bit and it says 'use a different payment').

 

[georgina]

I also find the whole using discounted gift cards to pay for *everything* to be more trouble than it's worth. I do usually buy about $2,000-3,000 worth of discounted gift cards before a trip (we usually go every other year), but I simply apply those (along with our rewards dollars from our Disney Visa) to our package so they're used before we even get to Disney. Then we charge everything back to the room and pay the credit card bill when we get home.

Interesting that your credit card was charged every few days during your trip last year. Ours was only charged on our check-out day (8-day trip, $1600 charge) and that seemed to be the norm now (our adult children who were on the same trip had the same experience -- one charge on check-out day).

I find it very easy and convenient, just swipe the GC at QS places or use it like a credit card elsewhere. I don't get packages though, so use the GC to pay off any room charges ahead of time and then use them in the parks for everything else.

 

[bluezy]

I find it very easy and convenient, just swipe the GC at QS places or use it like a credit card elsewhere. I don't get packages though, so use the GC to pay off any room charges ahead of time and then use them in the parks for everything else.

We did that on one or two trips, but just find it so much easier to simply tap a magic band. At the time we used the gift cards at the POS, Magic Bands didn't exist so we were carrying our KTTW card, credit card, and GC (along with some cash) -- and we go to the parks bag-free, so any cards/cash are kept in a lanyard or a secured pocket. One more "thing" in the lanyard can make it too thick. It was also just one more thing to potentially lose. I know some people don't like to charge things back to the room because they don't want to deal with the holds on their credit card or they don't want to put a credit card on their room account. I understand that. We're just not those people. Like I said, I usually only accumulate about $2000-3000 worth of gift cards (because I don't feel like putting any more effort into it -- I only buy them when it's convenient) so it's easiest for me to use those to pay off our package. Even if we didn't get a package, I'd still just pay off the room-only reservation with the GCs before we got there (our room alone is usually over $3,500) and if there was anything left, I'd still just charge everything back to the room and use the gift cards to pay off that balance. That way I only have to get out the GC once or twice when I go to the front desk to pay off the charges rather than getting it out every time we want to buy something. Tap and go...much easier for us. But everyone needs to handle their finances at Disney in whatever way works best for them.

 

[georgina]

We did that on one or two trips, but just find it so much easier to simply tap a magic band. At the time we used the gift cards at the POS, Magic Bands didn't exist so we were carrying our KTTW card, credit card, and GC (along with some cash) -- and we go to the parks bag-free, so any cards/cash are kept in a lanyard or a secured pocket. One more "thing" in the lanyard can make it too thick. It was also just one more thing to potentially lose. I know some people don't like to charge things back to the room because they don't want to deal with the holds on their credit card or they don't want to put a credit card on their room account. I understand that. We're just not those people. Like I said, I usually only accumulate about $2000-3000 worth of gift cards (because I don't feel like putting any more effort into it -- I only buy them when it's convenient) so it's easiest for me to use those to pay off our package. Even if we didn't get a package, I'd still just pay off the room-only reservation with the GCs before we got there (our room alone is usually over $3,500) and if there was anything left, I'd still just charge everything back to the room and use the gift cards to pay off that balance. That way I only have to get out the GC once or twice when I go to the front desk to pay off the charges rather than getting it out every time we want to buy something. Tap and go...much easier for us. But everyone needs to handle their finances at Disney in whatever way works best for them.

Exactly. I find it easier to just swipe a GC and go rather than tap and enter a pin. I never go bagless, need to carry sunscreen, water bottle, as well as a purse to put my hat and sunglasses in for indoor stuff. I frequently stay offsite so room charging is not even an option then.

 

[slo]

It’s personal choice. I do it differently. I take 10+ gc’s with us to Disney. I take a couple to the park with us and leave the rest in the safe in the room. I keep the cards in my backpack with a sharpie. As I use them I write the declining balance on the GC. Possibly not the most convenient for some but it works for us. I’m concerned about losing a GC with a large $ value on it, just as I wasn’t one to carry large amounts of cash either.

Both options work.

This is exactly what I do too

 

[bluezy]

Exactly. I find it easier to just swipe a GC and go rather than tap and enter a pin. I never go bagless, need to carry sunscreen, water bottle, as well as a purse to put my hat and sunglasses in for indoor stuff. I frequently stay offsite so room charging is not even an option then.

Yes, staying off property is a whole different ballgame. If you're not on property you don't even have the option to charge everything back to the room and just make one or two trips to the front desk with the GCs to pay off the balance.

 

[subtchr]

We did that on one or two trips, but just find it so much easier to simply tap a magic band. At the time we used the gift cards at the POS, Magic Bands didn't exist so we were carrying our KTTW card, credit card, and GC (along with some cash) -- and we go to the parks bag-free, so any cards/cash are kept in a lanyard or a secured pocket. One more "thing" in the lanyard can make it too thick. It was also just one more thing to potentially lose. I know some people don't like to charge things back to the room because they don't want to deal with the holds on their credit card or they don't want to put a credit card on their room account. I understand that. We're just not those people. Like I said, I usually only accumulate about $2000-3000 worth of gift cards (because I don't feel like putting any more effort into it -- I only buy them when it's convenient) so it's easiest for me to use those to pay off our package. Even if we didn't get a package, I'd still just pay off the room-only reservation with the GCs before we got there (our room alone is usually over $3,500) and if there was anything left, I'd still just charge everything back to the room and use the gift cards to pay off that balance. That way I only have to get out the GC once or twice when I go to the front desk to pay off the charges rather than getting it out every time we want to buy something. Tap and go...much easier for us. But everyone needs to handle their finances at Disney in whatever way works best for them.

I use gift cards to pay for everything at Disney, but I don't use physical cards.

I have a gift card in my Apple Wallet, so I pull that up and tap my Apple Watch when paying a cashier. The exact same process as tapping a MagicBand, minus having to enter a PIN. And I don't have to wait in the (potentially long) line at the front desk to pay off my balance. I used to do what you do, but I decided I really liked skipping that step, especially if I have a room not close to the lobby and just want to go to bed when we get back to the resort!

For mobile orders, mobile checkout at gift shops, and Genie+ and ILL purchases in the app, I have my gift card number as a note in my phone, so I use copy/paste.