Disney gift cards, anyone continuing to fund theirs?

[wendow]

Yikes!

I have plenty of financial discipline and buy gift cards for my disney cruises and make monthly payments until my paid in full date. I don't buy them all at once because I get fuel points buying them and can only use so many fuel points at a time.

And I have no worries about Disney going under.

My $0.02.

Same, friend! You and I are doing things the same. I buy our Disney gc's at a discount of a min of 10% but usually higher and I buy slowly over time adding to my stash. Disney isn't going under

 

[yeahdisney]

OP I do like to buy gift cards, towards my trip, for my trip.

I work next to a Kroger so I could take advantage of the fuel points or get target redcard discount.

I’m not afraid that Disney is going to go under.

I always save for the rainy day. I wanted to go in January 2021 to Disney, but I’m not sure If I will book/plan that trip.

I still save money towards a trip but I will currently kept it cash/bank. if I lose points or rewards or 8% return others are getting, I will accept the loss. Saving the money now gives me happiness.
Now if I get closer to the trip time and decide to go. I will do a large target 5% savings. That will give me happiness then.

 

[FCDub]

Not a chance I would be tying up money during a possible recession in vacation gift cards

 

[disneydreamer1980]

I buy Disney GCs all throughout the year, and I still continue to do so. We’re DVC and thus I know we’ll be there every year, and we have dues to pay. It all depends on your situation. I wouldn’t presume to get on here though and lecture others about their choice to buy GCs, or any other choice for that matter. I doubt having some cash tied up in GCs is gonna totally break a person and there’s always the option to sell the GCs online (for a lower price of course, and if people are still buying them now). I am strategic about buying my GCs. I use swagbucks, target red card and other deals that pop up.

 

[Darcy03231]

I don't keep money tied up in any kind of gift cards. I use my CC and earn points that I then cash in for various things (airline tickets, hotel rooms, etc.). I was sitting on $400 in gift cards that were a Christmas gift. While I was pretty sure the store would survive because they do a big on-line business I decided not to take any chances and just placed on order for things I would buy anyway instead of waiting until I saw something I wanted.

 

[mich311e]

I don't buy a lot of gift cards but I use points used on Swagbucks and certain apps to buy Disney gift cards. I also do market research and one big one ($400) paid out in a gift card, so I put that to Disney gift cards. The other one ($350) was a check, so I put that in the bank savings account for our next trip.

From here on out if I can cash out to cash I am - and putting that in savings. If I can only cash out to gift card I'll do that and go ahead and get Disney. For Swagbucks I do my first discounted gift card to Visa gift card and buy Disney from Target. After that cash out to PayPal.

I only buy gift cards straight out if I can save a real significant amount of money. Right now I feel better with cash savings.

 

[elaine amj]

I debating what to do too. I usually do Raise -> Walmart GC -> Disney gift cards from Sams Club.

I currently have a few hundred Walmart GCs I was going to use to buy Disney GCs at Sams Club. DH is suggesting we keep it as Walmart GCs for now for more flexibility. At least for another 1-2 months.

Crazy times

 

[mhautz]

I'm not too concerned about them losing their value, but I stopped buying them for my May trip back in February. Back then, I didn't think this Corona thing would actually be an issue, but out of an abundance of caution, I stopped and decided absent a great discount, I would wait until closer to the trip. And since then, I haven't seen any good discounts, at least through my typical channels. I like to buy my gift cards through Raise, but they have not had any "sitewide" discounts lately. Now I've got a trip re-scheduled for July, but there is no way I'm adding to my gift cards until I know I'm going.

 

[Teal03]

I’m not concerned about Disney going on under. However, I recently cashed out almost every place I was earning bonus money for Disney that I planned on buying discounted Disney gift cards with except Fetch to help with some bills. Only because it takes so long to accumulate points Is why I kept Fetch.

My priorities and finances may be different than yours. If you’re struggling right now please don’t continue to have your money tied up in Disney gift cards if you’re not, I wouldn’t completely stop but I wouldn’t do what I was doing before and save a percentage of what I was throwing toward Disney with so much incompetence and uncertainty going on right now.

 

[SL6827]

I’m not concerned about Disney going on under. However, I recently cashed out almost every place I was earning bonus money for Disney that I planned on buying discounted Disney gift cards with except Fetch to help with some bills. Only because it takes so long to accumulate points Is why I kept Fetch.

My priorities and finances may be different than yours. If you’re struggling right now please don’t continue to have your money tied up in Disney gift cards if you’re not, I wouldn’t completely stop but I wouldn’t do what I was doing before and save a percentage of what I was throwing toward Disney with so much incompetence and uncertainty going on right now.

Not struggling at all. Just wondering people's thoughts about the possibility of loosing the value of the gift cards in the future. That is all.

 

[Teal03]

Not struggling at all. Just wondering people's thoughts about the possibility of loosing the value of the gift cards in the future. That is all.

It was a general statement.

 

[SL6827]

It was a general statement.

Ok, gotcha.

 

[Judique]

You aren’t crazy. Anything is possible including Disney going under. (What a disaster for DVC folk that would be!) (Remember all the people saying the US parks would never close? LOL. SO many people were saying that. We really ought to remove never from our lexicon at this point.) I think it’s highly unlikely Disney goes under- but yes. It is possible.

I’ve stopped gathering Disney gift cards and am working to burn what other types of gift cards I can. Who knows what will survive this? I have enough Disney to cover 1 big trip. I had been working towards a couple this year but at this point I’m concerned that
1) I won’t get 2 trips this year
2) I will get laid off and need the cash from trip 2 if everything in my life blows up for an unspecified period of time
3) Disney won’t be what I want it to be for a long time (no fireworks? No parades? No night shows? What about Festivals?! That would definitely take some of the fun away for me)

Disney 'going under' has to be considered not as a whole entity but as separate companies. There are many incorporated companies under the Disney name.

DVC is different. For instance, many of the DVC properties are sold out and owned primarily by the members, who hire a (Disney) company to manage them.

If the Disney companies that are in other venues go under, such as the parks, it would definitely have an affect on DVC, and certainly lower the resale value, but that doesn't necessarily mean that DVC would go under. If DVD (Disney Development Company) went under you might lose Riviera and new projects in the works, that are not majority owned by members. A majority of the members would have to default on their dues for that to happen.

So if any part of Disney goes under, I still see myself enjoying some winter weeks at Boardwalk, (and perhaps going to SeaWorld or Universal a lot more often -not).

 

[wed100105]

I have around two thousand in Disney gift cards right now, and we were supposed to be at Disney right now. We own with Wyndham and are Disney nuts, so I'm not worried. We are very fortunate that our finances are stable and haven't been affected by Covid 19 (besides our stocks). However, I could absolutely understand why some people are rethinking using gift cards. There are many people who will not take a trip now anytime soon and need the money in cash.

I'm not worried about Disney going under. I hope that Disney will still be affordable for us.

 

[dtrain]

Been buying gift cards for 5 years at an average 12-15% off, right now I'm sitting on 10K worth that I had used to pay for the cancelled Hawaii cruise and future park stay. If Disney goes belly up my wife is gonna kill me.

I suppose I better start thinking about buying her jewelry and D&B bags from shopdisney in the near future.

 

[jswoodard]

Been buying gift cards for 5 years at an average 12-15% off, right now I'm sitting on 10K worth that I had used to pay for the cancelled Hawaii cruise and future park stay.

That's an amazing! How were you able to get such a great discount? I'm new to this so appreciate the guidance.

 

[dtrain]

That's an amazing! How were you able to get such a great discount? I'm new to this so appreciate the guidance.

Credit card churning and offers.

 

[Teal03]

Been buying gift cards for 5 years at an average 12-15% off, right now I'm sitting on 10K worth that I had used to pay for the cancelled Hawaii cruise and future park stay. If Disney goes belly up my wife is gonna kill me.

I suppose I better start thinking about buying her jewelry and D&B bags from shopdisney in the near future.

Wow! That’s a lot of dedication. I would have kept spending it at the Disney store by now and not let it build up lol. That averages to about $145 a month for 5 years which isn’t that bad imo. I seriously doubt Disney would go under so you will be fine. Plus legally they will have to give you your money back anyway.

 

[kristenrice]

I tried to buy a Disney gift card this morning on the ShopDisney site and they are not selling them. I don't think I have ever seen them "sold out" on the ShopDisney site so this definitely has me a bit concerned at the moment. I have just under $600 on a Disney gift card that I have saved up for an October trip. I plan to use it for dining and I add $25 to it each month with the Virtual Visa I redeem from Swagbucks. Hopefully, they are available again soon and this is simply a glitch.

ETA: I see that they DO have e-gift cards and I was able to buy one of those without a problem so I think it is just the physical ones that are on "hold" right now.

 

[dtstampz]

I used to buy myself a Disney gift card from the online store every month. It was my little treat and there were so many designs to choose from. After they took almost all of the choices away last year, I stopped buying them. I'll just save my money instead. Hoping for a fall trip after cancelling for next month.