Target debit card question

[jt8595]

Yes, one transaction.

[kimk2230]

So excited just bought my first Disney gift card for our trip in April. Saved 5% every little bit helps. So thankful for this thread.

[Janell]

When I was in Target the other day, a guy who worked there, said as long as you show your Red Card, you get the discount. I dont have a Red Card so I cant verify that. Has anyone been able to do that?

[PrincessTiannaLove]

I also signed up for the debit card to get the 5% & the pharmacy rewards. Was planning on buying $4500 worth in the next 2 months (land & sea total costs). I went on Friday, was going to buy $1650 worth of gift cards & the transaction declined. The CS lady took me to the front desk & called the 1-800# for me & the lady on the phone said yes, I had only used my Target card once so I have to build up a history with them. She said if I pay with the account linked to the Target account, she would immediately credit me back the 5% off. SO....I did, and then my card (Chase) locked me out. I said, hold on, went to the ATM, printed out my balance ledger which proved I had $8000.00 in the account (I was MORTIFIED) and then figured it was my fraud alert on Chases end (it was). So I ended up paying for the cruise right with my debit card. Anyone know if I go back & get the GC like I had planned, can I call DCL & have them reverse the charges & use the GC to pay? My PIF was Saturday....

[thorphin]

Intriguing! Sounds like you were at the cash register the whole time? Glad that you got the discount, though! I've seen one other similar report on the DIS. I imagine it depends heavily on your cashier.

I feel like when I approach the register, I'm going to have to tell anyone that comes up behind that they might want to move to a different register because I'm possibly going to be a troublemaker! Or, maybe I'd just take the cards up the Customer Service to begin with...

[YEWDVC]

Thanks for the heads up using the Red Card to purchase Disney Gift Cards. I only need about $500 worth and will buy a couple at a time because my trip is not until July.

[ktrask]

I only got my card in 2012, and just called to find out what I'd be able to do at a time.

She wasn't able to give me an exact limit. She let me know that they aren't in direct communication with the bank. She said they usually flag anything over $1000 on a purchase, but my history even though over a year old isn't with any large purchases. She says that she can see I use it frequently (a couple of times a month), but since there are no big dollar purchases she couldn't be sure.

I asked if I split it up into $500 purchases and did those purchases over time would that work and she said it should. So I'll try a $500 at the end of this month (when bonus money comes in) and see what happens!

[madge]

I'm not sure there's any rhyme or reason to the Target Debit card, LOL ... I have used mine pretty much daily throughout the holidays (including the purchase of 2 iPads) and at least weekly since then. I was in Florida a couple of weeks ago & the register kicked back a purchase of $200. Made no sense at all, considering the available balance in my checking account. LOL

I monitored the account online & saw nothing suspicious. Used the card at my local store last week with no problems.

My store doesn't have a pharmacy ... anyone know if I can still use the pharmacy coupons, if I get them?

[Ginny Favers]

I just got the 5% pharmacy rewards and was thinking about this...

So how do you use the 50 gift cards to pay? Do you stay on the phone with Disney for 3 hours giving them all 50 #s?

Also, where in Target do you get these cards? I've never seen them before! And I'm thinking that though they may have 10 or so, no way will they have 50 available when I go to buy...

It's by far the best deal I've seen but it does seem a little inconvenient. I wish they'd sell them in bigger increments!

[JB2K]

Originally Posted by aleask

It doesn't come out instantly, infact they take a couple days with my bank before I even see the pending charge in my account. So my guess is that even though it is a debit card they are in a sense extending you credit until their system pulls the money from your account.

The Target Debit Card is a debit card only in the sense that eventually, it will debit your everyday checking account for an amount of money you authorized a day or two earlier (this happens via the Automated Clearing House/ACH system -- a lot of utilities/merchants also use this system to debit bank accounts to pay recurring bills).

The fact that Target owns their own in-house bank (for card purposes) enables this to happen (and is the reason why their chief competitor does not offer a similar product). In fact, Target is the only national retailer of any sort who still owns their portfolio of store cards (the rest contract their card functions out to others, such as GE or Citi).

Debit cards, as the mainstream public knows them, is a card with a PIN or MC/Visa that instantly debits your bank account as soon as it is "swiped" (or the PIN keyed-in).

As far as "credit" goes, it's not really credit, per se -- it's just having (good) history with your card, which means Target will become more liberal with your daily/single transaction limit -- as always, YMMV.

[thorphin]

Originally Posted by Ginny Favers

So how do you use the 50 gift cards to pay? Do you stay on the phone with Disney for 3 hours giving them all 50 #s?

Also, where in Target do you get these cards? I've never seen them before! And I'm thinking that though they may have 10 or so, no way will they have 50 available when I go to buy...

You can call and read off a bunch of numbers. I've only put in four so far, but I did them all online. You go into My Disney Experience and look up your reservations. When you open up your reservation, it will tell you how much balance is remaining and then you'll be able to apply payment. The downside is that you can only pay with one gift card per transaction. So, you pay $50 every few minutes. The nice thing is that you don't have to wait on hold and you can do a few now, a few after dinner, a few in a week, until the whole thing is paid for. Seems acceptable in order to save $200 or whatever, though.

My local Target has about 25 Disney gift cards at EVERY register. You may find them in one place, along with all the other "entertainment cards" like Chili's, Home Depot, Bass Pro, etc. Some Targets have these at the registers or in the electronics department.

[Letsgo2DW]

Originally Posted by Ginny Favers

I just got the 5% pharmacy rewards and was thinking about this...

So how do you use the 50 gift cards to pay? Do you stay on the phone with Disney for 3 hours giving them all 50 #s?

Also, where in Target do you get these cards? I've never seen them before! And I'm thinking that though they may have 10 or so, no way will they have 50 available when I go to buy...

It's by far the best deal I've seen but it does seem a little inconvenient. I wish they'd sell them in bigger increments!

Our target had plenty of cards. I was able to get all 45 of mine at one register and had noticed them at every register as I was doing my other shopping.

As for using them, I called today to apply them all to our reservation. I had a great CM and it was a very simple, efficient process. It did take about 30 minutes because we did 45 cards. I didn't mind at all because I was on my lunch hour and the weather was terrible so I didn't plan to leave the office anyway.

[mint]

We picked up $2100 in cards a week or so ago with the redcard debit- 5% off and no issues. The transaction went through fine but we've had the card for over a year now. It took about 30-45 minutes to attach 40 cards over the phone to pay off our reservation and the woman I spoke to didn't mind.

[bigmochick]

Originally Posted by thorphin

You can call and read off a bunch of numbers. I've only put in four so far, but I did them all online. You go into My Disney Experience and look up your reservations. When you open up your reservation, it will tell you how much balance is remaining and then you'll be able to apply payment. The downside is that you can only pay with one gift card per transaction. So, you pay $50 every few minutes. The nice thing is that you don't have to wait on hold and you can do a few now, a few after dinner, a few in a week, until the whole thing is paid for. Seems acceptable in order to save $200 or whatever, though.

My local Target has about 25 Disney gift cards at EVERY register. You may find them in one place, along with all the other "entertainment cards" like Chili's, Home Depot, Bass Pro, etc. Some Targets have these at the registers or in the electronics department.

When did you pay with gift cards online? I tried last week & it was a no go on their new site. I got to where you enter payment but it wouldn't go thru. I call in five at a time. It's a PITA!

[thorphin]

Originally Posted by bigmochick

When did you pay with gift cards online? I tried last week & it was a no go on their new site. I got to where you enter payment but it wouldn't go thru. I call in five at a time. It's a PITA!

I paid on 2/3 on the new site. I had seen people complaining that they couldn't pay online that week and the week prior, but it worked for me. I loaded up the reservation, and when it pops up the modal window with your reservation, you have to wait about 10 seconds and the balance/payment link appears at the top of the window. (or at least, that's what I did). I had checked it the week prior and things looked the same, though I didn't try to actual pay at that point.

I made my reservation over the phone to begin with, paying my deposit by credit card over the phone at the time. I can't think of anything that I did that would make me able to pay while others can't.