Saving for Disney trip by buying discounted gift cards?

[Momof6....aka Marty 769]

A FB friend of mine recently posted a picture of a bunch of Disney gift cards.  She posted that she had saved up for her WDW trip by getting some cards through reward programs.  I would love to find some of those.  Anyone here belong to any programs that reward you with Disney gift cards?

 

The rest she bought when she could get them discounted.  I would love to do this as well.  Where have you seen discounted Disney gift cards?

 

Yes, I should have asked the friend who posted on FB.  But I can't remember which friend it was.  My computer doesn't like to scroll back through FB posts.  Maybe I should be saving for a new computer - but WDW is much more fun! :D

[Judy in Texas 150]

My daughter and son-in-law do a variation on this. They buy Disney gift cards at Kroger when they have extra money. This helps increase their Kroger reward points which gets them discounted gas. They then use the cards to pay off the trip. One catch to this... If they ever have to cancel the trip, the money goes back onto each of the cards. If you do some variation of this, don't throw out the cards until after the trip.

[BradyBzLyn...Mo 2,023]

Last year Stop & Shop had a sale where if you spent $50 they gave you a $10 credit to use next time.

 

I managed to get (6) $50 Disney gift cards (saving $50) before my local S&S decided they weren't going to let you use the credit on gift cards any longer. Not sure if they're going to run that offer again, or if the terms will change this time around from the get-go.

 

I've heard people talk about using the Target Red card to save on Disney GCs but I don't know the ins and outs of that.

 

I think Jen has mentioned something about a similar type deal with CVS, but I haven't seen anything like that up this way - most of their offers here exclude gift cards.

[mouseketab.....Carol 1,261]

The internet rewards programs used to be pretty big.... Click on ads for points, sign up for newsletters for points, do surveys for points, etc., etc., shopping for points. Play Bingo and click on the ads for points.

 

In the late 90's and early 2000s, I used to do quite a bit of this and racked up, I would say over $2000 worth a year.  Gift cards, prepaid Mastercards, gas cards, etc.

 

That market has gone WAAAAAY downhill.  I think I'm only on one survey site now that I get Delta Skymiles, and I rarely have time to do that anymore.

 

I think ebates is still viable, but that's only good if you do internet shopping.

 

Most of the sites had flawed business models, most were hoping folks would shop through their sites and the occasional "free" points would be incidental, but too many folks were only clicking for the free points and they lost money.  The advertisers were not getting return on their dollar and were pulling out.

[PureTcrazy...rita 380]

I think I remember Cheryl posting something about discounts on the cards at Costco or somewhere like that.

[Momof6....aka Marty 769]

Can you use the cards at WDW to pay for lodging?  Park tickets?  Or is it just for food and souveniers?

[mouseketab.....Carol 1,261]

You can use the Disney Gift cards for anything at the World.  Just make sure they are not "Disney Store Only" cards. I think there are a few of those floating around.

[Retired & Tired (Judy) 90]

At one time you could get Disney Gift Cards with your points on the Doscover Card, Visa Cards and others.  I have enough points now to get 2 or 3 but they have discontinued the Disney cards.  So I am continuing to collect my points until they offer Disney again.  If not, I will use them for other things.

 

Our Kroger does not offer Disney cards often but they have 100+ others.  I sometimes buy the gift cards as gifts or for my own use just to get the 5X points at Kroger.  This helps build up my Kroger gas points.  In May and June we had $1000+ so we got $1 off each gallon of gas up the 35 gallons.  We used May's points to fill up the motor home and in July used them again to fill it up.  That $35 off gas really helps.

 

We will all keep looking for Disney Gift Cards and post any information we find on them.

A few months ago I opened a savings account with my bank online and I have been making deposits in it for our December trip.  Already we have enough in there to pay for the full month's site.  I found it was much easier to save that way than to try and

just save any other way.  Every week or so I check and if there is a little left over in the checking account I put some in the

savings account.   Am so excited that when it comes time to pay the full amount due I know where it will come from.  Of course I am smart enough to apy for it with my Disney Rewards Visa card so I get the % in Disney Dollars.  Then when the end of the month comes I will use the money in the savings account to repay the Disney Card.

 

My husband says sometimes I am pretty smart.   LOL  :jumpforjoy   :partythree:

[Beckers 1,136]

We buy GC at Target and get the 5% off by using our target red card. It's a pita because they are only $50 cards, so my last trip I had a huge, huge stack and was scared I would lose them.

My brother shops at Giant and they have GC rewards and gas promotions or something that he uses. Our grocery store doesn't do anything like that.

We have a Disney visa but don't use it, our Chase freedom is a better deal reward wise.

[AuburnJen 777]

Last year Stop & Shop had a sale where if you spent $50 they gave you a $10 credit to use next time.

 

I managed to get (6) $50 Disney gift cards (saving $50) before my local S&S decided they weren't going to let you use the credit on gift cards any longer. Not sure if they're going to run that offer again, or if the terms will change this time around from the get-go.

 

I've heard people talk about using the Target Red card to save on Disney GCs but I don't know the ins and outs of that.

 

I think Jen has mentioned something about a similar type deal with CVS, but I haven't seen anything like that up this way - most of their offers here exclude gift cards.

CVS was doing this for a while, but it was for gas cards.  I will keep my eye out on the drug stores and see if they run something similar.  If they do, I will be sure to post it.

[rdancemom... Pam 113]

Save your coke codes! Mycokerewards offers Disney GCs occassionally. They also have AMC movie tickets you could use at DTD. I enter points throughout the year but usually only redeem after Thanksgiving when they do their big GC promotion unless I see they have the Disney GCs back up or a free theme park ticket. The pre-Christmas GC promo is terrific. I got over $200 in walmart, McDonalds, AMC, Best Buy, & Dominoes last December with coke points.

 

Enter your Disney movie codes too - both from movie tickets and dvds. Occasionally Disney movie rewards will also offer a Disney GC but those tend to go very fast when they're available.

 

MyPoints offers Rainforest and Landry's GCs as a reward. You don't have to shop thru their links, by just doing surveys and clicking email links, I usually get enough points in a year for one or two $25 cards. They also have a good selection of other merchants - including walmart, cvs, and gas cards - but IMO the best deal is usually for restaurants. There used to be a referral bonus for extra points too, so if anyone doesn't have a MyPoints acct and would like one please drop me a note and i'll send you a link for whatever bonus points they're offering.

 

Since we always spend july in wdw, we also have Landry's select club cards with July birthdays registered for DH & Starla. We ate at T-rex a few weeks ago using two $25 free birthday rewards combined with the Landry's GCs from mypoints and actually had $$ left over to buy a beach towel at Rainforest afterwards. :beer:

[Katman1356...Jason 1,140]

Don't know if it is happening at all Stop and Shops right now but I just bought some Disney gift cards and received double points.

[h2odivers...Ray 952]

I was curious if people were selling Disney gift card on eBay. And they are but the strange things is that they are selling for more than face value. I don't understand why someone would pay $51.00 for a $50.00 gift card. I'm I missing something?

[BradyBzLyn...Mo 2,023]

If you are, so am I.  That doesn't make any sense to me either.

[parrothead7368 aka Norm 101]

I use sunshinerewards.com and buy stuff through their sites and get a percentage back for Disney gift cards. It is great around Christmas especially if you do a lot of online shopping. They also have surveys for points as well.

 

Best Regards,

Norm

[CampinDisDad 1]

The easiest way I've found to save on the GCs is at Target.  We have a Red Card (5%) and get our prescriptions filled at Target.  After every 5 Rxs, they mail us an additional 5% coupon.  Stack that with the Red Card and you save 9.75% on Disney GCs.  As a PP mentioned though, they only have $25 and $50 increments.  I did this a few weeks ago and cleared out the $50s and had to get a big stack of $25s too.  I think I ended up using 63 GCs to buy our APs.

[BradyBzLyn...Mo 2,023]

Welcome, CampinDisDad! 

[Travisma 1,317]

It was on another post, but Krogers/Bakers had $10 off of $50 Disney cards.  My daughter in Omaha tried to find them on Bakers web site, but it didn't lead to any, so she doesn't know it they had stopped them.

[h2odivers...Ray 952]

The easiest way I've found to save on the GCs is at Target. We have a Red Card (5%) and get our prescriptions filled at Target. After every 5 Rxs, they mail us an additional 5% coupon. Stack that with the Red Card and you save 9.75% on Disney GCs. As a PP mentioned though, they only have $25 and $50 increments. I did this a few weeks ago and cleared out the $50s and had to get a big stack of $25s too. I think I ended up using 63 GCs to buy our APs.

We just returned Saturday from Disney and used GC purchased from target to purchase our APs. The front desk told me to deposit them into my room acct. long story short. DON'T DO IT.

Take the GC to guest relations and buy your APs from them.

And.... Welcome

[ependydad...Doug 176]

The easiest way I've found to save on the GCs is at Target.  We have a Red Card (5%) and get our prescriptions filled at Target.  After every 5 Rxs, they mail us an additional 5% coupon.  Stack that with the Red Card and you save 9.75% on Disney GCs.  As a PP mentioned though, they only have $25 and $50 increments.  I did this a few weeks ago and cleared out the $50s and had to get a big stack of $25s too.  I think I ended up using 63 GCs to buy our APs.

 

Thanks for the info. My wife was trying to explain this to me the other day. Makes more sense reading it for myself.