Best way to purchase/use Disney gift cards for meals in the parks

[laura428]

I’ve used a mix of Disney e-gift cards (available through a program at work) and Scrip e-cards (to benefit my kids’ school) to pay for our tickets and resort. However, I’d like to also use gift cards to pay for our meals while at the World. This both maximizes the “free” money I get from work, and almost makes it like a Disney Dining Plan in that meals are pre-paid but without the DDP restrictions. Unfortunately, I can only get e-cards through work, not physical gift cards (major bummer because they’re available at a 6% discount). I called customer service this morning to make sure there wasn’t some way to bank e-gift cards in MDE so that I could just use my Magic Band and have them charge against those cards instead of my credit card. There’s not. :/

SO... back to the physical gift card idea (unless you brilliant DISers know about a strategy I haven’t thought of.)

I can purchase Target gift cards, but understand Target no longer allows us to use their gift cards to purchase gift cards. At this point, I’m thinking I’ll just have to use these points for something else to make up for what I can’t purchase for Disney, but thought I’d check here first to make sure I’m not missing anything.

Clear as mud?

 

[Nixon128]

I bought one physical gift card and then on the https://www.disneygiftcard.com/ website I was able to transfer up to a $1000 of egift cards onto the one card.

 

[glocon]

Our kroger grocery stores have a program where you get fuel points for dollars spent. And gift cards are normally 2x fuel points, sometimes during special times as much as 4x fuel points. So for $500 in gift cards you can get 2000 fuel points which is $2 off per gallon of gas up to 35 gallons (bring multiple cars to fill up to maximize points). So you can get $70 worth of gas for free doing this.
It’s what we do.

 

[laura428]

I bought one physical gift card and then on the https://www.disneygiftcard.com/ website I was able to transfer up to a $1000 of egift cards onto the one card.

But can you transfer that to a physical card? I was on that site a few weeks back and had a bunch of tech issues. However, if I knew I could transfer to a card I could use in the parks, I might be willing to give it another try.

 

[Nixon128]

I did transfer all the money from the e-gift cards to the physical gift card that I will use to pay for my dining and other souvenirs. I have never had an issue with the website- it usually takes me a minute or two to load a new e-gift card and then transfer it to the primary card (the actual card I will use to pay).

 

[disneydreamer1980]

Target allows you to use their GC to buy other GCs, as long as you do it in-store. I do swagbucks and always use the Target GCs I get on there to buy Disney GCs for my trips. Also, when you’re at WDW remember to go to the front desk frequently to pay your balance with the GC before they charge the credit card on file. I think they charge it at $1000.

 

[Tomh]

We buy our Disney gift cards from Sam's Club. As a Previous Poster stated, once you have one physical card, you can use the gift card management site to transfer up to a $1000 total onto the physical card.

 

[laura428]

I did transfer all the money from the e-gift cards to the physical gift card that I will use to pay for my dining and other souvenirs. I have never had an issue with the website- it usually takes me a minute or two to load a new e-gift card and then transfer it to the primary card (the actual card I will use to pay).

Oh, that’s great!! This would be the best solution with the 6% discount. I’ll give it another try - thanks!!

 

[Amy and kids]

Target allows you to use their GC to buy other GCs, as long as you do it in-store. I do swagbucks and always use the Target GCs I get on there to buy Disney GCs for my trips. Also, when you’re at WDW remember to go to the front desk frequently to pay your balance with the GC before they charge the credit card on file. I think they charge it at $1000.

This changed several months ago. You cannot use any gift cards to buy another gift card at Target in store or online.

 

[laura428]

Target allows you to use their GC to buy other GCs, as long as you do it in-store. I do swagbucks and always use the Target GCs I get on there to buy Disney GCs for my trips. Also, when you’re at WDW remember to go to the front desk frequently to pay your balance with the GC before they charge the credit card on file. I think they charge it at $1000.

I think this changed back in June - can no longer buy gift cards with gift cards.

But thank you for the tip on paying at the front desk frequently. I was planning on just bringing our gift card into the parks with us and using this instead of my magic band. But this might work well, too.

 

[disneydreamer1980]

This changed several months ago. You cannot use any gift cards to buy another gift card at Target in store or online.

Oh, good to know. I’ve been getting amazon GCs from my swagbucks lately instead of Target ones, so I didn’t know they changed it. What a shame, it was nice being able to do that.

 

[Amy and kids]

Oh, good to know. I’ve been getting amazon GCs from my swagbucks lately instead of Target ones, so I didn’t know they changed it. What a shame, it was nice being able to do that.

Yeah, I'm on a bunch of Swagbucks FB groups and everyone was so disappointed when it changed. No one knows what to cash our their SBs for now. I've been getting the reduced Visa but then you can't get another discount because it can only be used online.

 

[tinkerbelletreasure]

I haven’t had a chance to try it out but I’ve been looking into it for our Spring Break trip... I was under the impression with scrip that you just had to print a paper copy of the ecard to use it. I’ve had to do that with some restaurants in the past and it’s usually not that big of a deal other than having to have a place to carry the printouts.

 

[Amy and kids]

I haven’t had a chance to try it out but I’ve been looking into it for our Spring Break trip... I was under the impression with scrip that you just had to print a paper copy of the ecard to use it. I’ve had to do that with some restaurants in the past and it’s usually not that big of a deal other than having to have a place to carry the printouts.

I have some printouts for Landry's that we are going to use at WDW. I wonder if it would work to take a pic of the barcode and numbers so you wouldn't have to remember to bring the printout with you?

 

[tinkerbelletreasure]

I think the reason for the printout is so they don’t have to walk away with your phone. I hate it when a server takes my phone anyway. But scrip is usually pretty good at indicating how their ecards are accepted. I know the Disney one says it needs to be printed out. I’ve only ever had one major problem trying to use scrip if I follow the directions on how they are accepted. I had a Lowe’s treat me like I was a criminal trying to scam them. So yeah, don’t shop there anymore.

 

[bushdianee]

I just purchased $600 worth of Southwest gift cards at Target about 3 weeks ago using my redcard and another 10% off for my redcard anniversary. I got $87 off my total. It was in the store.