Cautionary Tale about Paying with Gift Cards

[DisneyDad82]

I have heard this money saving tip on the Dis Unplugged, Disney Food Blog, and other Disney related sights. This is the tip that if you use the Target Red Card to buy Disney gift cards you can save 5%. This is a good tip most of the time and it does work but I want to share my cautionary tale about what happened to me when I used this strategy.

I was originally planning July 2020 tip to Disney World for daughter as a surprise for her birthday. To pay for the trip I was using my Target red card to buy gift cards and save 5%. Well we all know what happened it 2020 and as a result my trip had to be canceled and rescheduled for July 2021. When I called to cancel the trip in June 2020 the Disney Travel Agent told me that because it was all payed with gift cards that it had to be refunded to the gift card the money came from. The cast member went on to explain that this could create some issues. For starters, there is a limit to how much can be put on a gift card ($1,000) and I had only used two gift cards to pay for the trip. I was continuously reloading two gift cards to make the payments. I was doing this because a cast member suggested I do this when I booked the original trip. The other issue that the cast member said could happen is that it could take up to 60 days for the refund to be processed to the gift card. This would delay me being able to rebook the trip. The cast member said that talked to Gest Relations and the solution was to put a stop payment on the refund for the cancel trip and they would hold the money since I planned to rebook in a few weeks. When I rebooked the tip they would release the money to pay for the trip. They were going to put all the notes in the system so that the cast member would know what to do.

When I called back to rebook the trip, I explained to the cast member what happened. He said that he saw it all in the notes and that he was going to release the funds. When he booked the trip my remaining balance jumped $2000. I thought this was weird considering that we had got rid of the park hopper option from our ticket. I asked the guy and he assured me that all the money was released. I was not comfortable with the answer so I called back to review everything with another cast member. She said everything looked correct and that most likely the difference was due to the fact that we were coming on 4th of July and before we were arriving after the 4th. Ultimately, we took the two free park days offer and payed off the trip in January.

Now comes the crazy part. My daughter keeps asking to go to Disney so to try and throw her off I keep saying it is to expensive maybe next year. She asked how expensive it is, so I let her build a tip on the Disney World website. We built the exact trip that we are doing and it was $1,500 less. So I immediately called Disney. The cast member tried to book the lower trip but she couldn't. She had to contact guest relations. The cast member came back and said that they can't book the lower trip because there is refund hold on your account. I was confused because to my understanding this was already done. So Gest Relations person had to call me. She explained that essentially the cast member that booked the trip made a mistake and somehow didn't release $1,785 of the money I paid and it was sitting in a refund hold. That because the trip was fully paid, they could not give the discount because it would mean that they would owe me money. So all they could do was release the $1,785 to a gift cards. At least now we have spending money.
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The lesson of the story is if you are going to use the Target Red card discount keep very meticulous notes and try to hold on to your money as long as possible before you put it on a gift card and give it to Disney. If I were to do this method again I would just save the money on the side and wait till the last min to make one large lumpsum payment. I am just happy that I found out about the money before the trip. Otherwise I would be really pissed.

 

[Meglen]

That sounds like a horrible headache. We use the target gift card trick to just pay for our food while at the park. Glad everything ended up figured out and you didn't lose the money.

 

[afan]

It's also a good idea not to load more onto a gc that you've used. I used one for my 200 deposit so now I won't add any more to it because it was almost at 1000 to start with

But they should have been able to issue new gc back, I've seen it done plenty of times on here when people have thrown out gc or other reasons. There's no reason any of this should have happened and I'd have escalted it up the chain until they gave me my refund. And really they still should, they can't make you pay more because they'd owe you money, that's ridic and plenty of people have rebooked to save after having paid and gotten money back.

 

[Marionnette]

We use GCs to pay for our DVC dues and dining. On the rare occasion when we use GCs to pay for a tour or event, those physical GCs get a sticker with the amount used and what it was used for. Then they get set aside until there's no longer a possibility that the money will be refunded.

I'm glad it worked out for you, OP. There are people who buy GCs and then end up not going to Disney at all.

 

[gottalovepluto]

Thank you for sharing your cautionary tale. Too many people definitely jump into Disney gift cards not understanding the downsides until it bites them in the rear.

Love me some Disney gift cards- but the rules matter. (No cashback is possible. Never put more than $1k on a gift card. Always keep your gift cards used on tickets, hotels and prepaid expenses until after your trip in case of refunds.)

 

[Bobb_o]

What were the prepaid expenses? I can only really think of tickets.

 

[dez1978]

What were the prepaid expenses? I can only really think of tickets.

I'm assuming they had a room and ticket package, possibly dining plan.

I've saved a TON of money using gc to pay for my trips, far more than the 5%. But it doesn't come without risks. It is a good idea to keep a spreadsheet and always keep those empty cards. What you could have asked for was to have them refund back $1000 at a time and then transferred that to an empty gc. I think they'd have done it that way. Also, a good lesson in never paying your trip in full until you absolutely have to.

 

[starry_solo]

So, should this ever happen again, tell them you lost all the gift cards and they will issue you new ones.

 

[Nebraska_Disney]

Sounds like a headache to me ! Glad it worked out for you and thank you for sharing. I am sure this 2020 year put many people in a similar situation.

I have a good 2% cash back card and I buy my GC's at Sam's to get their discount. I usually will go the same day my balance is due, buy the cards at Sam's and come home and pay for my trip. I keep the cards in my safe until after the trip. I don't get as much of a discount, but that is ok with me. A few times I have gotten lucky and "warehouse stores" are on the card for an extra 5% bonus. We pretty much will use the rewards cash for meals while in MCO.

 

[mdsouth]

Thank you for sharing your experience, OP! I appreciate the information.

 

[DharmaLou]

Yep, I keep all our gift cards separate and never re-load one card to use for payment. We've been doing this for years so we are very careful with this.