🇨🇦 Paying for things at Disney

[mort1331]

All correct,,,,the only thing I will add is they usually ask about a ceiling for room charges, I have had to go mid trip to pay off some of the charges as we approached that amount. So just to keep an eye on that.
I have asked but they have never allowed for us to put the GC down as a prepayment against room charges, but they wont.

 

[DisneyMama811]

At the end of the day, it's 2.5%. Some people don't care paying the extra 2.5%,

i DONT but do when paying for a trip say 6k (like we will be doing ) its around $150 so bout 125 usd. that extra money can take the sting out of things. slo with the 2% cash back we can get another $120 = $95 usd so we are over $200 usd pocketed (which can cover a substantial amount of ground LL- ride purchases - BONUS event or meal we are interested in - extra special gift- Bibbidity Bob BOUT. for a modest family first time going that extra savings and fun will help make things a little more magical or less sting overall. UBER - sorry that may be our go to fund transport. for the little amount of effort saving that amount generally makes dad a bit more comfy.

I am at the stage right now to start forming my DISNEY gift card process. Can anyone please explain or link to forum to the process of using the GC's as form of payment? I just want make sure there are no hiccups.

So i purchase GC's X-$
I combine them into several to obtain the X-$ factor. (i get the concept)
(managed them off website) + physical card(s).
So i have $6k in GCs
How do i pay for room (i get it DUE at check in) and incidentals and purchases in park etc (CC on file?) or do i give the resort the GC's and they just deduct the spending from the GC's? no issues with CC on file but would want all transactions to be taken off GCs does that mean i need to continuously hit the lobby and pay with the GC?

I feel I am missing a step here lol. OR yes its that easy. I just want to run the parks and buy pay charge to room or GCs etc. Any tips?

ADD+ Also can i make a USD GC card? i thought i read somwhere you can watchteh flux in CDN -> USD $ when it is High you can CASH in so to speak and get better exchange if it drops hold the card until reasonable exchange is reaches again etc? Like right Now i see we are hovering at around .78-.79 whic isnt to bad I realize the exchange for today tells me they use exchange rate tomorrow so could buy some GCs today and then apply the tommorrow when the GC exchange will reflect todays rate. (if i read that right?) the exchange they use is the from the previous days close value.

IDEAS:
so will .02 make a difference? I think so I can get mroe bang for my buck

say all 6k at ex rate of .75 6000 cnd = 4500 usd

6k at ex rate of .78 6000 cdn = 4680 usd so a couple pennies exchange just gave me or saved me an additional $180 USD

so being thrifty there (timing) and lucky with exchange. combined with GC purchase rewards fee save etc. I can be looking at $350-380 USD extra just for planning a little bit.

yep the exchange rate makes everything worse, like you said it's not terrible now, I'm keeping an eye on it. $200 doesn't sound like a lot compared to the vacation cost overall...but it does when I think of how much food that could buy instead

 

[Disneyfan754321]

You can use Canadian credit cards everywhere but personally I recommend buying gift cards before you go(can get them at Walmart, Shoppers, Zehrs, etc) The reason to do this is so you don't get charged with the "foreign transaction fee" most Canadian credit cards charge for charging USD to your account, which is usually between 1-2%.

There are a few Credit Cards that don't have foreign transaction fees, or some that do but also have cashback that is higher than the fee(say 3% or more) which makes it still worth it as you are gaining 1% cashback compared to 0%.

We usually buy the $100 gift cards from walmart before the trip and then combine them all in to 1 gift card on our first day a the resort gift shop or any other store on property.

You also have the option of charging most things to your magicband if you are using one, which you can link your credit card to if you don't want to carry any cash or cards on you.

I do this and I take a screen shot of the digital card I combined and make it my background.

 

[2Lunds]

if you charge everything to your magic band do you just settle it when you check out, pay in one transaction thereby limiting your foreign transaction fees? or do you still get dinged every time (assuming your band has a CDN card linked to it?)

We just came home last week. All MB purchases came attached to the hotel folio at checkout (even restaurants), and mobile order food purchases were individual charges to the card directly.

 

[iceprincesskcl]

We just came home last week. All MB purchases came attached to the hotel folio at checkout (even restaurants), and mobile order food purchases were individual charges to the card directly.

Do you attach your credit card to your folio at check in and then before check out switch that two a GC?? I'm trying to navigate all of this

 

[2Lunds]

Do you attach your credit card to your folio at check in and then before check out switch that two a GC?? I'm trying to navigate all of this

Our CC is attached to our MDE account, so by extension, the Magic Bands. I never switched anything, but for whatever reason, anything we bought via Magic Band was charged via hotel folio, and direct CC purchases, as well as mobile ordered food, was charged separately each time.

 

[DVCanadian]

if you charge everything to your magic band do you just settle it when you check out, pay in one transaction thereby limiting your foreign transaction fees? or do you still get dinged every time (assuming your band has a CDN card linked to it?)

We charge everything to magic bands and then use our Canadian Visa card (Scotiabank momentum cash back). Our kids can charge to the visa on the magic band.

You get the full room bill as one charge unless you hit some limits along the way ($1,000?) where they charge everything so far in a single charge and wait to do it again.

 

[Aladora]

Do you attach your credit card to your folio at check in and then before check out switch that two a GC?? I'm trying to navigate all of this

We had out CC attached to our folio and the day before we checked out I went to the front desk and got them to apply our gift cards to our outstanding balance before they charged my cc.

 

[Alderbrook]

We are buying gift cards and using points in a roundabout way through my shoppers optimum

 

[starlite_]

Question for the gift card savvy. Does this mean we can use a GC in canadian dollars at Disney Parks? How does the exchange rate work??

 

[dis_guy]

Question for the gift card savvy. Does this mean we can use a GC in canadian dollars at Disney Parks? How does the exchange rate work??

The last time we were there was in 2019. We had a few $500 Canadian Disney gift cards with us and every few days I went to the front desk to throw one of them onto our account balance before we reached the limit and it was charged to my credit card. We got the exchange rate of the day so our $500 CDN gift card came out to about $333 US. I remember doing the math and the rate that Disney used was actually a few dollars better than the published bank rates for the day.

 

[starlite_]

The last time we were there was in 2019. We had a few $500 Canadian Disney gift cards with us and every few days I went to the front desk to throw one of them onto our account balance before we reached the limit and it was charged to my credit card. We got the exchange rate of the day so our $500 CDN gift card came out to about $333 US. I remember doing the math and the rate that Disney used was actually a few dollars better than the published bank rates for the day.

Cool! I've never used gift cards like this and I'm eager to avoid the fee to use the card haha. Thanks for your help

 

[DisneyMama811]

re giftcards - I'm worried about keeping track of balance and if it has CDN $ loaded on it how much is "actually" on it (in USD) is there a way to track thag on MDE or does it show on your receipt whenever you pay with a GC??

 

[DisneyMama811]

also to add to my last question...is Disney cashless?? I've been saving money for each kid to use as souvenir money, my plan is to convert it to USD here in Canada then bring that cash with me and use it to buy a Disney GC at the resort gift shop and load that up for the kids

 

[youngdeb12]

re giftcards - I'm worried about keeping track of balance and if it has CDN $ loaded on it how much is "actually" on it (in USD) is there a way to track thag on MDE or does it show on your receipt whenever you pay with a GC??

I seem to remember it showing on the receipt, but I could be wrong. You should be adding your gift cards to the disneygiftcard.com site in the event that you lose it or misplace it, especially if you're planning on having a large balance on it. You would be able to look up the balance on that site, in CAD.

 

[hdrolfe]

re giftcards - I'm worried about keeping track of balance and if it has CDN $ loaded on it how much is "actually" on it (in USD) is there a way to track thag on MDE or does it show on your receipt whenever you pay with a GC??

It shows on the receipt how much is left (in USD). The exchange rate does fluctuate daily so it can vary a bit from one day to the next but it should be pretty close.

also to add to my last question...is Disney cashless?? I've been saving money for each kid to use as souvenir money, my plan is to convert it to USD here in Canada then bring that cash with me and use it to buy a Disney GC at the resort gift shop and load that up for the kids

Your choice, the exchange rate on the GC is actual rate, while everyone else charges you to exchange the money. The difference isn't huge of course, but it adds up if you are paying for room/tickets/food. If you are just talking about $100 USD for your kids to spend, that might only cost a few dollars more. You can use cash of course. I also like the security of the giftcards, I have them saved on the website and an empty one with me (in the safe) so if somehow I were to lose the one with money on it I can transfer everything to the empty one on the website.

 

[starlite_]

I wouldn't leave the card on the website. There have been instances of ppl getting their money stolen from there and taking months to get it back from Disney.

 

[igrsod]

We always use gift cards to pay for things. Some we just carry with us and use to pay for mobile ordered food, snacks, souvenirs etc. Others we use to pay the daily balance that might get charged to the room. We just go to the lobby each day to pay it off with the gift card.
The exchange is always that day's exchange... and the balance they tell you at Disney for your card is in USD even if you purchased the card in Canada with CAD. It's always on the receipt. It's really an easy way to pay for things and keeps you on budget.

 

[ccudmore]

I usually take $20-40 in US cash along with me... and usually come back with $20-40 US cash. Everything ends up on the credit card.

 

[Sunelis]

I usually take $20-40 in US cash along with me... and usually come back with $20-40 US cash. Everything ends up on the credit card.

This... I've been running on the same 150$ for more than 5 years (ok the 2 years pandemic break helped). The only things I use cash for is tips for Bell Services/housekeeping or when I order food at my overnight hotel on the way to and from Disney.