Updated Disney Gift Card Deals and More

[DisneyaholicRaquel]

I’m new to this what is the benefit of buying visa gift cards? There is an activation fee and normally not really discounted???

 

[happiestpoe]

I’m new to this what is the benefit of buying visa gift cards? There is an activation fee and normally not really discounted???

Hi! Welcome!

Have a look at this post (scroll down to 'v') from our fearless leader @FoxC63; there's some helpful information on how to purchase and use VGCs. And some useful data points collected from Disboarders.

VGCs do go on sale sometimes; there have been 5% off and 10% off sales from various retailers. Sometimes there are offers which eliminate the activation/purchase fee. It's also possible to purchase one at full price, but get a good enough deal on cash back that it effectively negates the fee (check your credit cards!).

A number of people, myself included, do not necessarily purchase them, but earn them through Swagbucks or Fetch, and then use them to purchase DGCs from shopDisney, Best Buy, BJs, and more.

 

[Marionnette]

I’m new to this what is the benefit of buying visa gift cards? There is an activation fee and normally not really discounted???

And to add to the great post by @happiestpoe , sometimes buying a vGC can be used to count toward a minimum spend on a new credit card to activate a bonus.

 

[FoxC63]

Rite Aid: Gift Card Deals
GCG

• Rite Aid is offering the following gift card deals this week:
  • Buy $25 gift cards for the following brand & earn $5 BonusCash
    • Google Play
  • Buy $50 gift cards for the following brands & earn $8 BonusCash
    • Bed Bath & Beyond
    • Buy Buy Baby
• Direct link to weekly ad
• Expires August 13, 2022
• Limit 2 per person per gift card deal

UPDATE:
Rite Aid Weekly Ad states:
Buy $50 Google Play Gift Card & Earn $5 Bonus Cash.



Gotta check the ads!

 

[bbsearchlight]

I’m new to this what is the benefit of buying visa gift cards? There is an activation fee and normally not really discounted???

The Chase Ink Cash Card gives 5% back at Office Supply Stores. Staples has the $200 Visa or Mastercards on sale every 2 or 3 weeks for no activation fee. (This week it happens to be the Visa). That means if you buy a $200 Visa at Staples this week you earn 200 x 5 = 1,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards Points.

The 1,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards Points are worth a minimum of $10 cash but can be worth as much as $15 cash if you have a Chase Sapphire Reserve Card.

You can use the $200 Visa to purchase stuff like you would with a regular credit card but you lose all the protections a regular credit card gives you. (For example, if you need to do a chargeback, the prepaid Visa and Mastercards almost always side with the merchant.) So be careful about using them online with things getting shipped where you might need to do a chargeback if it doesn't get to you or gets damaged in transit.

What I do with the prepaid cards is use them to pay my estimated taxes. My state (New Jersey) charges me $4.99 for every $200 I pay in estimated taxes with a credit card. So on every $200 tax payment I make a profit of $5.01. You can overpay on your estimated taxes or even pay estimated taxes if you don't owe any taxes and you will get the money back as a tax refund the next year.

Most states charge between 2% and 2.5% to pay taxes with a credit card.

You can also pay the IRS with the prepaid visas for a lower fee (they charge the debit fee for the prepaid visas so it is around $2.50) but you are limited to 6 payments each quarter so in a tax year you will only be able to use 24 prepaids for estimated taxes.

Frequent Miler has a great write up on using the prepaids to pay the IRS...Someone here on this forum directed me to their write up a while back but I don't remember who, so sorry about not giving them the credit.

https://frequentmiler.com/pay-taxes-via-credit-card/

 

[virge]

Thank you to everyone who shared about using the Chase offer for Shop Disney to purchase gift cards. I had the 10% offer on 2 of my cards and purchase a $50 gift card using each card. I went through Rakuten for the first card to see if it would work & the cash back is already in my account. I also appreciate the people who mentioned RMN. I signed up for the site and went through it for the second card. I’ve received the email saying cash back is pending. I would have missed the opportunity to get these cards at a discount without you all!

 

[virge]

Semi-related question, does anyone know if the Chase offer for Starbucks can be used to add funds in the Starbucks app? We don’t have a Starbucks near us, but I know my teenagers will request Starbucks at the airport when we travel to Disney in November.

 

[FoxC63]

I’m new to this what is the benefit of buying visa gift cards? There is an activation fee and normally not really discounted???

Your savings will depend on:

• Which credit card you use
• The offer on the Visa/MC gift cards
• If you can use a cashback website
• And what you plan on doing with them afterwards.

 

[Kumanate]

Semi-related question, does anyone know if the Chase offer for Starbucks can be used to add funds in the Starbucks app? We don’t have a Starbucks near us, but I know my teenagers will request Starbucks at the airport when we travel to Disney in November.

I have indeed had this trigger! To be safe I would just purchase a new GC in case one is displayed as “merchandise “ and the other as “reload”. But pretty sure it rang up and got credit for it regardless.

 

[Kumanate]

Your savings will depend on:

• Which credit card you use
• The offer on the Visa/MC gift cards
• If you can use a cashback website
• And what you plan on doing with them afterwards.

Here's one example:
I buy virtual Visa at 10% discount (5% discount is more common).
Let’s focus on a $500 purchase with 10% discount.

• Buy two $250 VV = $500
• Minus 10% discount (save $50) = $450
• Add $5.95 purchase fee x 2 = $11.90
• $450 + $11.90 = $461.90
• Calculate your savings: $500 - $461.90 = $38.10

I will have used a cashback website, which will vary so I won’t be adding that to this example, nor will I be adding the savings from my credit card whether I earned points, cashback or statement credit. We’re just focusing on a pure discount.

Now I’ll take the VV and buy Visa/MC gift cards at Kroger during 4x Fuel in-store.
$500 will yield 2,000 fuel points. Up to 35 gallons of gas per fill up. The average savings when filling two cars is $35, again x 2 = $70 in savings.

• Buy 5 x $100 Visa/MC Gift Cards = $500
• Minus Average savings $70 = $430
• Add $5.95 purchase fee x 5 = $29.75
• $430 + $29.75 = $459.75
• Calculate your savings: $500 - $459.75 = $40.25

Now I’m going to take the Visa/MC gc and buy Disney gc during the next 4x Fuel Promotion.
The average savings stays the same $70

In total I saved $148.35 on $500 which is just shy of a 30% discount (.297)
Total in Savings: $38.10 + $40.25 + $70 = $148.35

Sometimes Kroger will mail coupons Save $X when you buy Visa/MC gc. They also offer digital coupons and 5% discounts online.

Again, this is one example of many on how to save with gift cards. Your Miles may Vary (YMMV).

Love this break down, fuel points can be great if you live by fuel stations that take them. Unfortunately I live 20 min away from the nearest station that does and they likely would expire before I could use them, so you have to pick the redemption that works for you!

I prefer to take mine to different situations and aid with in store purchases where utilizing a cash back portal may not be possible (also, more likely to have the ability to split the purchase between 2+ cards) or use them when CB portals increase their rates for shopDisney. I also like to do similar to above and use visa gift cards to buy more visa gift cards on sale, stacking the savings. I like to get my visaGCs to about 15% before i think about using them to purchase disney VCs.

The visa gift cards are just one more method of min-maxing your money. In the end you have to fine tune several strategies that work best for you, what is around you, and what you need/how much to see what works. Some here were talking about going to Universal, which rarely has GCs at a discount, leaving discounted visas as the primary way of securing discounts to universal.

 

[happiestpoe]

Semi-related question, does anyone know if the Chase offer for Starbucks can be used to add funds in the Starbucks app? We don’t have a Starbucks near us, but I know my teenagers will request Starbucks at the airport when we travel to Disney in November.

It works for me. I have my Chase card linked to Apple Pay, and use that to top up my Starbucks app.

 

[DisneyaholicRaquel]

Hi! Welcome!

Have a look at this post (scroll down to 'v') from our fearless leader @FoxC63; there's some helpful information on how to purchase and use VGCs. And some useful data points collected from Disboarders.

VGCs do go on sale sometimes; there have been 5% off and 10% off sales from various retailers. Sometimes there are offers which eliminate the activation/purchase fee. It's also possible to purchase one at full price, but get a good enough deal on cash back that it effectively negates the fee (check your credit cards!).

A number of people, myself included, do not necessarily purchase them, but earn them through Swagbucks or Fetch, and then use them to purchase DGCs from shopDisney, Best Buy, BJs, and more.

Thank you

 

[DisneyaholicRaquel]

Your savings will depend on:

• Which credit card you use
• The offer on the Visa/MC gift cards
• If you can use a cashback website
• And what you plan on doing with them afterwards.

Here's one example:
I buy virtual Visa at 10% discount (5% discount is more common).
Let’s focus on a $500 purchase with 10% discount.

• Buy two $250 VV = $500
• Minus 10% discount (save $50) = $450
• Add $5.95 purchase fee x 2 = $11.90
• $450 + $11.90 = $461.90
• Calculate your savings: $500 - $461.90 = $38.10

I will have used a cashback website, which will vary so I won’t be adding that to this example, nor will I be adding the savings from my credit card whether I earned points, cashback or statement credit. We’re just focusing on a pure discount.

Now I’ll take the VV and buy Visa/MC gift cards at Kroger during 4x Fuel in-store.
$500 will yield 2,000 fuel points. Up to 35 gallons of gas per fill up. The average savings when filling two cars is $35, again x 2 = $70 in savings.

• Buy 5 x $100 Visa/MC Gift Cards = $500
• Minus Average savings $70 = $430
• Add $5.95 purchase fee x 5 = $29.75
• $430 + $29.75 = $459.75
• Calculate your savings: $500 - $459.75 = $40.25

Now I’m going to take the Visa/MC gc and buy Disney gc during the next 4x Fuel Promotion.
The average savings stays the same $70

In total I saved $148.35 on $500 which is just shy of a 30% discount (.297)
Total in Savings: $38.10 + $40.25 + $70 = $148.35

Sometimes Kroger will mail coupons Save $X when you buy Visa/MC gc. They also offer digital coupons and 5% discounts online.

Again, this is one example of many on how to save with gift cards. Your Miles may Vary (YMMV).

Wow! I wondered why buying them was so popular…thanks for taking the time to explain with examples.

Actually thank you everyone for being so kind to explain…

 

[FoxC63]

Added Offers ~ 8/08/22

Disney Gift Card
Fareway: Buy $50 Disney Gift Cards (3rd Party Gift Cards) & Get $10 Fareway Gift Card Free

Direct link to weekly ad.​

Expires 8/20/22. GCG​

Discount District
Best Buy: Save 10% On Select Lowe’s Gift Cards

• $25 physical gift card
  • Limit 3
• $100 digital gift card
  • Limit 1
• Earn Best Buy Rewards
• Best Buy Chase Offers Exp. 8/11/22 , 9/08/22
• Cashback Monitor
• Best Buy also accepts PayPal, Discover 5% 3Q.
• Expiry date unknown. DDG

Family Dollar: Save 10% On Xbox & Fandango Gift Cards

Direct link to weekly ad.​

Expires 8/13/22. GCG​

Fareway: Buy $50 Any 3rd Party Gift Card & Get $10 Fareway Gift Card Free

Direct link to weekly ad.​

Excludes Mastercard, Visa & Fareway branded gift cards.​

Expires 8/20/22. GCG​

 

[mcdieselsauce]

Ibotta just verified my $100 from my (2) $500 gift cards purchased in the same order from shop Disney. Took a month.

 

[ksromack]

Hey another Missouri peep! haha

Me too!

 

[Kumanate]

Me too!

Show me…..

 

[zmdisneyworld]

Ibotta just verified my $100 from my (2) $500 gift cards purchased in the same order from shop Disney. Took a month.

Lucky -- I bought one $500 and was denied. It's so weird that it works for some folks and not others. I wish I knew the secret.

 

[newski_mom]

Show me…..

Haha - I'm right across the river from St Louis in Illinois (about 30 minutes north or so)

 

[Kumanate]

Lucky -- I bought one $500 and was denied. It's so weird that it works for some folks and not others. I wish I knew the secret.

weirdly the only time i have been denied was one where i had actually bought something other than a GC lol. I decided not to challenge and tempt fate.