Visa gift card question

[tripplanner2]

Through the course of this year I have acquired several Visa gift cards totaling about $500. I am currently staying at Boardwalk and tried to apply the cards to my spending balance and the front desk said they do not work. Is this truly the case? Can the cards be used anywhere on property? I am so frustrated. Thanks for any help.

 

[chalee94]

You should have gotten disclaimers when you received the cards.

You cannot use them to purchase gift cards. Hotels and gas stations are not a good idea.

You should be able to use them in stores or for food (until you get close to the end of the card balance.)

I wound up using my directv reward Visa mostly at Costco and for medical co-pays.

 

[KJF]

I tried to pay the balance of my hotel bill once w/ them & found out the hard way that there's a 15% or so "hold" basically put on it, lasts about a week. They did let me use it for payment though - I just didn't have the full amount that I expected. This was at the Universal hotels, so I don't know what Disney's policy is paying w/ them. I'm a little surprised they wouldn't take them at all, but I could see the full amount not working. I really hate Visa gift cards!!

Won't work now, but future tip for you & others - take them to the grocery store/Target/etc & buy Disney gift cards w/ them. Will eliminate that issue - that's what I did this time around.

 

[AngiTN]

It's very difficult to use them. Hard lesson to know now. I have had the CM apply about $50 less than the value on the card and that worked well but it was a pain in the you know what for them and me.
Like PP, I take them to Target and purchase Disney Gift Cards with them know. Works great. Did it yesterday, for that matter, for our trip next week.
I have no idea if you can use them to purchase gift cards at the Disney shops. Can't hurt to ask.

 

[novatwinmom]

again, it won't help you now, but I find that using these type of card at Amazon works well.

 

[wishicouldgomoreofte]

Through the course of this year I have acquired several Visa gift cards totaling about $500. I am currently staying at Boardwalk and tried to apply the cards to my spending balance and the front desk said they do not work. Is this truly the case? Can the cards be used anywhere on property? I am so frustrated. Thanks for any help.

The problem is many of the front desk people erroneously run them as gift cards. They need to be run as credit cards, and say so somewhere on them or in the accompanying literature. An additional hold is usually only done at gas stations and places where there is tipping (restaurants). They don't do the additional hold at McDonalds. If you can ask for a manager, and tell them to run it as a credit card, not gift card, it should work. I used to buy them at my grocery store, which didn't carry Disney gift cards. I had a front desk person at Boardwalk make all kind of excuses why it wouldn't work when she was just running it as a gift card instead of a credit card. When she did it correctly, it worked of course. But like others have expressed, the frustrations mounted. So now I drive out of my way to buy Disney gift cards at Target. You could try buying Disney Gift card in the gift shop. Someone upthread said it would not work, but I don't know if that is correct. You can try, tell them to run it as a credit card. The main problem with using it at restaurants, coffee shops, etc, it the remaining bits left from the holds. That is how I found out McDonalds will clear out the balance, as will WalMart, fabric and craft stores, etc.
Good luck. Sorry you are having frustrations. Let us know how it turns out.

 

[GoofysNCCrew]

Through the course of this year I have acquired several Visa gift cards totaling about $500. I am currently staying at Boardwalk and tried to apply the cards to my spending balance and the front desk said they do not work. Is this truly the case? Can the cards be used anywhere on property? I am so frustrated. Thanks for any help.

You can take them to the gift shop next to the boardwalk lobby and purchase Disney gift cards with them. Then use the Disney gift cards at the front desk. Been there done that.

 

[scard192]

again, it won't help you now, but I find that using these type of card at Amazon works well.

Amazon sometimes give me problems using them as a payment method but have no problems using these cards to "reload" my Amazon gift card.

 

[Marionnette]

I use them at the grocery store. I never have a problem redeeming them to pay for food and whatnot. I just used one today to pay for groceries and a Disney GC.

 

[tripplanner2]

You can take them to the gift shop next to the boardwalk lobby and purchase Disney gift cards with them. Then use the Disney gift cards at the front desk. Been there done that.

Thank you so much!

 

[Kimberle]

Through the course of this year I have acquired several Visa gift cards totaling about $500. I am currently staying at Boardwalk and tried to apply the cards to my spending balance and the front desk said they do not work. Is this truly the case? Can the cards be used anywhere on property? I am so frustrated. Thanks for any help.

Yup! I can speak from personal experience! I had a $50 Visa GC that I wanted to apply to our room balance. Wouldn't work. The desk said it is Visa's rule, not theirs. I had to go over to the gift shop and use it to purchase a $50 Disney Gift Card. They then applied this to my balance.

 

[Queen of the WDW Scene]

You cannot apply a gift card ahead of time for your "spending balance".
You'll have to link at credit card to your room reservation and then every couple days you can go pay off your balance with a gift card so your credit card is not charged.
Personally I would just use the gift card to purchase items instead of charging to your room and then paying off.

 

[tinka-belle]

Had the same happen to me with an AmEx gift card, front desk could not process it toward my balance. I just went to the resort shop and purchased a Disney gift card with no problems and walked back to the front desk to use it.

 

[Dean Marino]

You cannot apply a gift card ahead of time for your "spending balance".
You'll have to link at credit card to your room reservation and then every couple days you can go pay off your balance with a gift card so your credit card is not charged.
Personally I would just use the gift card to purchase items instead of charging to your room and then paying off.

Absolutely true these days.... adding: The CHASE DISNEY VISA "points" card is treated EXACTLY the same way - same as a "gift card".

 

[AngiTN]

You cannot apply a gift card ahead of time for your "spending balance".
You'll have to link at credit card to your room reservation and then every couple days you can go pay off your balance with a gift card so your credit card is not charged.
Personally I would just use the gift card to purchase items instead of charging to your room and then paying off.

People aren't talking about doing that. They are talking about using the card to pay off charges on the account. They are talking about doing the bold with a Visa gift card

 

[AngiTN]

Yup! I can speak from personal experience! I had a $50 Visa GC that I wanted to apply to our room balance. Wouldn't work. The desk said it is Visa's rule, not theirs. I had to go over to the gift shop and use it to purchase a $50 Disney Gift Card. They then applied this to my balance.

Sort of passing the buck.
It can be done. I have done it with the Visa Gift Cards several times. It was a PITA and I have since learned to get the Disney gift cards with them instead but to claim that Visa wouldn't allow them is incorrect. They will. It's just not easy to do. I can't blame the CM for claiming they can't do it though. Blame Visa, get out of messing with them, and it's not Disney's fault, it's Visa's.

 

[Queen of the WDW Scene]

People aren't talking about doing that. They are talking about using the card to pay off charges on the account. They are talking about doing the bold with a Visa gift card

OP said "spending balance" so I had assumed they wanted to do what so many others think they can do and find out that they can't which is attempt to put a gift card "on" their magic band vs linking a credit card and charging to your room reservation.

 

[Scootypuffjr]

I have no personal experience with this, but one of my friends' said that she would buy a Visa or Amex card at the grocery store to get credit card and fuel points, then take the card to customer service and use it to purchase a money order. She then would deposit the money order into her checking account, use it to pay off the credit card, then repeat. If you are stuck with a gift card it might be a good way to go to make it useable to pay off your hotel bill.

 

[tripplanner2]

Just to give an update, I took all of my random Visa cards and purchased one Disney gift card. I used that gift card to pay off the hotel balance. Kind of a pain but I was able to pay down the balance on our hotel bill by making the purchase at the resort gift shop.

 

[starry_solo]

I have no personal experience with this, but one of my friends' said that she would buy a Visa or Amex card at the grocery store to get credit card and fuel points, then take the card to customer service and use it to purchase a money order. She then would deposit the money order into her checking account, use it to pay off the credit card, then repeat. If you are stuck with a gift card it might be a good way to go to make it useable to pay off your hotel bill.

The $5-7 activation fee negates any savings