Gift Card Question

[wdwgirl1970]

Good Evening everyone,
So my trip is not until 2023 so I know I have a lot of time well in my mind NO what is everyone's idea of starting to buy gift cards for everyone for spending money as gifts and more has anybody ever done this just opinions please

 

[henry72]

On our last trip, I bought gift cards monthly for the 10 months before our trip. I bought them at Sam's Club so they are at a small discount and then I would transfer the money so I only had 2-3 cards (you can do that at disneygiftcards.com). It worked out well at spreading our cost for meals and merchandise out. I would certainly do it again except this time on our upcoming trip I have enough money on my Disney Visa redemption card that we probably won't need any gift cards to cover expenses.

 

[Shellyred8]

I think it's a great idea to buy gift cards ahead of time. Just make sure you keep them in a safe place and don't lose them. It helps spread out the cost of the trip.

 

[starry_solo]

For my last trip, I didn't start buying gift cards until 3 months before the trip. I didn't want to tie up so much money in gift cards in case something happened that we couldn't go.

 

[Tissa]

I give them to my boys for spending money. It is a great way to budget.

 

[CouponGirl]

You should head over to the budget board...there’s some great threads there about buying discounted gift cards. With your trip not taking place until 2023 you have time (even if it doesn’t feel like it ) to take advantage of buying them when you can save additional money. Like someone else mentioned, the biggest consideration is how much money you want tied up in gift cards.

 

[MinnieMSue]

Buying gift cards is fine if you 100% know you will use them. I used to buy them more often to pay for trips and all but in recent years I have backed off in that because I don’t want to be stuck with lots of money tied up in the gift cards that won’t be used for awhile if something should happen. Now we buy a spending money gift card close to trip time and don’t use them to pay for the trip

 

[DVCismyhappyplace]

I buy them year 'round. I use my target card and save 5%. Every target trip, I buy either $50 or $100. They never go to waste - we are DVC and I justify it by saying that if for some reason we skip a year of Disney, we can use the gift cards to pay our dues.

 

[Bjkandma]

We buy them for every Disney trip. Just know that you must keep the cards, if you pay for your resort, tickets, etc. If for some reason you cancel, the money will be returned to the original cards. Disney gift cards never expire.

 

[DisDest]

I always buy the packs of cards from Sams Club. You can consolidate them online (i believe its disneygiftcard.com). There is a maximum amount you can put on a single card so if you are paying for your whole trip in cards just know you will have quite a few. After i consolidate cards i will shred/discard the empty cards and then number the cards that have money on them (1-5 or however many you have). Its nice to have a separate wallet for these if you like to stay organized. After ive bought all the cards I need or if im splitting amounts on the cards to give to different people in my party, I always write the amount that is on the card on the back (if its less than the maximum). And lastly take a picture of the backs of all your loaded cards and save them in a folder on your phone. If you loose track of the card you will still have the number and you can transfer those funds to a card that you do know the location of.

 

[lanejudy]

I would only buy gift cards if you are ok with having those funds tied up -- potentially indefinitely -- with Disney. If anything happens preventing your trip from taking place, you don't get to cash them in for refund.

 

[GGGT]

We visit 5-6 times annually and we are constantly purchasing DGCards. (4 trips with our crew of 12 and a couple of trips with just me and my wife.)

We use them for DVC Dues, AP's, Dining, shopping, resort charges, everything. We are able to save a substantial amount each year. BJ's usually has the best price for the larger denominations and Sams is a good source also.

Best of luck.

 

[FCDub]

Can’t think that tying up thousands of dollars in gift cards for one company for three years – in the middle of a pandemic and record unemployment – is a sound financial decision.

 

[kniquy]

Good Evening everyone,
So my trip is not until 2023 so I know I have a lot of time well in my mind NO what is everyone's idea of starting to buy gift cards for everyone for spending money as gifts and more has anybody ever done this just opinions please

It is a good idea, but i don't know if i would start now to buy GC's. I would wait until you book (maybe a year to year and half out) then make those GC's go further by buying discount ones from target. With the target red card you get 5% off Disney GC's - it doesn't sound like much but over time it adds up. Usually by the time our trip rolls around we will have money to cover our food and any extra shopping.

 

[NLKim]

Let's face it, if you know you are definitely going to Disney, you know you will be spending a lot of money on it. I use Disney gift cards to pay for my passes, DVC dues, as well as all my on-site expenses when I am there. I am not rich by any means but Disney has always been a HUGE priority for my family (like 1- mortgage, 2- groceries, 3 - DIsney). It is a great way to budget little by little so you do not get hit with a big expense all at once AND you can get a discount when buying them. Target gives 5% off when you use their card. and BJs usually gives 4% but occassionally they have specials when they give more. I do most of my grocery shopping at BJs so I can add a $25 - $50 gift card each time (depending on my financial situation) and then I go online and load it up to my main gift card (you can only load up to $1,000 per card). You can set a bugdet of how much you are planning to spend, and then get just enough on gift cards to make that budget.

 

[Orion Nebula]

We have bought 3,000 in cards already. We look it as no matter what happens in life, financial ruin, etc we will get to go to WDW.

 

[wdw71]

I have bought Disney GCs for the kids to use as spending money the last couple trips. It makes them think about the value of everything they want to buy. It also helps us spend less.
I am buying Disney GCs for the first time ever to help pay for our trip. My kids have been to WDW enough to make them take it for granted. I told them the estimated total cost of the trip and as we have been buying, calculating and combining the cards to get to that amount it's been an eye opener for them. It's also been fun. We are only a little more than a year away from our trip depending on the Covid mess and I started buying about 8 months ago. Now for the probably longer than usual wait for 2021 packages...

 

[Orion Nebula]

Ya it's a nice way to do it, I was hesitant putting so much money into the card thing but it's a good feeling now to have a large portion of our trip saved and ready to go. Not to mention we now can't randomly spend it. I know we would probably do the "well we will just add it back" thing and not add it back.