Visa gift card question

[tripplanner2]

I am a teacher and got tons of gift cards from students and a group class gift. Instead of spending this money a little at a time I saved it over two years for the trip, to the tune of $500. That is a nice chunk of spending money for a vacation.

 

[smallworldnh]

I've been purchasing Disney Gift cards and Visa Gift cards all year. I plan to use the Visa ones at Universal for souvenirs and meals. Now I'm worried that they won't work. I wonder if i can buy Universal gift cards online with the Visa ones???

 

[smallworldnh]

To answer my own question, I just went to UO online to see if I can purchase and when I pulled out my "gift" cards, they actually say Visa DEBIT cards on them. You would think that any place would accept a debit card, right? I wonder if OP's cards said DEBIT and not GIFT??

 

[shystalips]

The $5-7 activation fee negates any savings

Not really, occasionally they run 3X gas reward points in some grocery stores and allow up to 25 gallons. This adds up to $37.50 off per $500 visa card. This more than takes care of the activation fee and also counts towards minimum spend for credit card bonuses, or if your lucky a 5X reward category for that quarter. I use the visa cards to pay car insurance.