Disney Vacation Account - what a mess!

[Fjobe]

I have had a little luck! They refunded the amount that I put in the DVA with my debit card. The amount that I put in with gift cards has not been credited back to the gift cards. On the user agreement, they show gift cards being the third thing refunded, so maybe it will be done soon.

 

[bumbershoot]

Yay for business days! Never fun to want to do something urgent and banking related on a Friday of a holiday weekend.

 

[dreamseeker9]

Perseverance has paid off. I once again spoke to someone in the Billing Department, a very nice CM, but she didn't know what DVA was. She took the time to speak to her manager and to call a few phone numbers to try to find out more information. She talked with a CM from WDW who said that they are backed up with the DVA, and she recommended that I just submit the online help form again.

So I decided to try once more and called the 407 number listed on the DVA website. I got looped into the WDW vacation planning, where CM Eunice saved the day! She actually knew what the DVA was. I even questioned her when she was going to cancel it for me to be sure she was canceling the DVA and not my upcoming reservations - she assured me it was for the DVA. She initiated the full refund and cancellation of the account and said I should see the refund in 7-10 business days. Fine by me, I just want my money back! I told her how the DVA didn't work when I tried to use it to pay for my reservation, she was surprised.

Fjobe, I'm glad to hear you received a refund to your debit card amount, and I hope you receive the gift card refund very soon!

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

Wow good luck figuring it all out.

 

[Fjobe]

Yay to you Dreamseeker! I'm glad you got it all figured out!

I also received word that my giftcards have been refunded, so I think I am in good shape now. Someone from Disneyland called me today to let me know I had been refunded, and they asked me why I was closing the account. They were very nice.

How funny that someone at WDW wound up helping you and someone at Disneyland helped me!

 

[bubblesaunty]

I joined the Disney vacation account in January. After I read your situation I tried to make a payment and it did not work for me either. I called the number on the site same as you. Either I was referred to the same number I called or was told they did not know what a vacation account was. Today I was just told by a member in Disneyland CA, that I had to wait for the 4 to 6 weeks for the gift card to arrive before I could use the Disney Vacation account. Basically called me an idiot as I had to listen to him read the entire vacation account FAQ to me out loud and kept telling me to wait for my gift card. I told him that was not right and that was only for the Bonus gift cards or gift cards ordered with the left balance under 500.00. What a mess. He basically wanted me off his phone and told me to send an e-mail through the contact us so I did and then a message popped up that it could take up to 10 days for a response. Glad I did not wait until the day our vacation had to be paid in full. I will not put another dime into the vacation account. Now I hope that I get the 344.00 dollars that has been sitting in it.

 

[dreamseeker9]

I joined the Disney vacation account in January. After I read your situation I tried to make a payment and it did not work for me either. I called the number on the site same as you. Either I was referred to the same number I called or was told they did not know what a vacation account was. Today I was just told by a member in Disneyland CA, that I had to wait for the 4 to 6 weeks for the gift card to arrive before I could use the Disney Vacation account. Basically called me an idiot as I had to listen to him read the entire vacation account FAQ to me out loud and kept telling me to wait for my gift card. I told him that was not right and that was only for the Bonus gift cards or gift cards ordered with the left balance under 500.00. What a mess. He basically wanted me off his phone and told me to send an e-mail through the contact us so I did and then a message popped up that it could take up to 10 days for a response. Glad I did not wait until the day our vacation had to be paid in full. I will not put another dime into the vacation account. Now I hope that I get the 344.00 dollars that has been sitting in it.

Very sorry to hear that, but unfortunately I'm not surprised. I hope you luck out as I did and finally reach a CM who knows what the heck the Disney Vacation Account is. I have yet to receive my full refund, but she did warn me that it could take up to 2 billing cycles, and it's only been a little over a week.

Today marks 10 days since I submitted my query through the DVA Contact us - no response yet.

 

[goofyredraider]

Does anyone have a better number for me to call to close my account??? I can't get anyone on the line that knows what to do. :/

 

[goingtowdwwithkiddos]

Does anyone have a better number for me to call to close my account??? I can't get anyone on the line that knows what to do. :/

Just out of curiosity why are you wanting to close it??

I have one with no auto and only funded via target giftcards it seems to be working as I had planned and we are not going until July 2015. I have no issues with my money being tied up and would prefer to not have to give the GC over the phone.

 

[dvc at last !]

Did not know anything about a DVA account.
Hope it all works out for you.
Glad I do not have a DVA account.

 

[dreamseeker9]

Yesterday, someone from the billing department called to tell me that my DVA money should be refunded in a few days!

The Billing Department's phone number is 714-956-6492. However, this is Disneyland billing, and when I called that number twice after another CM told me to call there, neither CM in Billing knew about the DVA. But that's the number that the CM called me from yesterday to refund my money.

 

[BWV Dreamin]

Has there been anyone that has had a positive experience with this type if account?

 

[texasroni75]

This is making me glad I keep most of my Disney vacation savings in a Jar in my closet LOL. Seriously, I would love to be earning interest on it, but if I went through what the OP did, it would drive me crazy!

As it is, I wanted to open a regular banking account to keep it in, but every bank (even the one I currently do banking with) wanted to charge me a monthly debit card fee - no matter how much I told them, I did not need a debit card for it, didn't want small amounts draining out each month for a service I won't be using, and could I have an account without one - they couldn't do it - unless I put it into another type of account that had other "fees" or complicated rules about getting to my $$. It's annoying, but that's banks for you.

 

[Marionnette]

This is making me glad I keep most of my Disney vacation savings in a Jar in my closet LOL. Seriously, I would love to be earning interest on it, but if I went through what the OP did, it would drive me crazy!

As it is, I wanted to open a regular banking account to keep it in, but every bank (even the one I currently do banking with) wanted to charge me a monthly debit card fee - no matter how much I told them, I did not need a debit card for it, didn't want small amounts draining out each month for a service I won't be using, and could I have an account without one - they couldn't do it - unless I put it into another type of account that had other "fees" or complicated rules about getting to my $$. It's annoying, but that's banks for you.

Try CapitalOne360 (formerly ING). They don't charge any fees and there's no minimum deposit. You can link it to your existing checking account and move your money between the accounts. I have regular deposits moved from checking at my local bank into my savings account at CapitalOne. It doesn't have a debit card, so I can't drain the savings by withdrawing cash for little expenses here and there.

 

[Colleen27]

Try CapitalOne360 (formerly ING). They don't charge any fees and there's no minimum deposit. You can link it to your existing checking account and move your money between the accounts. I have regular deposits moved from checking at my local bank into my savings account at CapitalOne. It doesn't have a debit card, so I can't drain the savings by withdrawing cash for little expenses here and there.

I second this idea. I love my CapitalOne360 accounts; I have one for travel, one for household projects, and one for car repairs/replacement and I really haven't seen a better option for short term savings. Since I don't have a debit card I can't impulse-buy sabotage my savings - the time it takes to transfer funds back to my brick and mortar checking is a built in "cooling off" period but the funds can still get there fairly quickly should I need them (unlike the Disney savings account where it can take an indefinite amount of time to get your own money back).

 

[plummer925]

Try CapitalOne360 (formerly ING). They don't charge any fees and there's no minimum deposit. You can link it to your existing checking account and move your money between the accounts. I have regular deposits moved from checking at my local bank into my savings account at CapitalOne. It doesn't have a debit card, so I can't drain the savings by withdrawing cash for little expenses here and there.

I was going to recommend the Capital One 360 as well!!

 

[delyrium]

I used it a few weeks back to put twenty gift cards toward a ticket purchase, thinking it would be easier than reading the numbers off over the phone. HA! Setting up the account and figuring out how to enter the gift cards was a royal pain, and then once I had the funds, there was no way to purchase the tickets online. When I tried to purchase the tickets over the phone, I was on the phone for no less than 40 minutes, being passed from CM to CM. Someone finally figured out how to take my freaking money eventually, but I wish i hadn't bothered.

 

[nalajms]

Hi! Just wanted to share my experience.

I opened the DVA on Monday (2/24), not having read this thread. I saw it in another discussion and looked right into it. I read through ALL the fine print. Got the first deposit using my Disney Visa. Then that evening I loaded roughly 20-$50 Disney GC that I've purchased at Target over the last few months. It was very simple, typed in the numbers and it loaded right into the account. I had some left overs from our last trip and loaded those. It only takes full dollars, so I have 1 card with 82cents on it

Tuesday I tried buying annual passes online. Tried several times, did not work. An error saying it's an invalid number kept popping up. I emailed DVA, got a generic responses pasted from the FAQ. Chatted with the ticketing people, they didn't know what DVA was. Then they said you could only purchase packages, not tickets.

Today I called ticketing. Got transferred a few times, not sure if it's DVA or the annual passes. Got a CM named Sedona (sp?). She was great! I gave her an excellent rating afterwards. She said she'd done it once before. Got all my info, gave her my DVA account number, and were done! (Make sure they put the acct number into the "Gift Card" option.)

I see the money going out of my DVA online. I have a reference number for the tickets. It could not be easier! Now I hope I can link the will call number to my MB and start booking FP+. If it wasn't for DVA, I would have had to wait till I get there to buy the tickets because they will only take 2 GC over the phone.

Yes, it's more work. But saving at least 5% using the Target GC is worth the trouble.

My only regret is not opening it sooner and getting the $20 bonus. But I'll get it for our fall trip.

 

[goofyredraider]

Just out of curiosity why are you wanting to close it??

I have one with no auto and only funded via target giftcards it seems to be working as I had planned and we are not going until July 2015. I have no issues with my money being tied up and would prefer to not have to give the GC over the phone.

Because when I called to pay the balance on my room only DL vacation, I was told the DVA can only be used on packages (by multiple CMs), so it is no use to me.

 

[mom2alix]

Because when I called to pay the balance on my room only DL vacation, I was told the DVA can only be used on packages (by multiple CMs), so it is no use to me.

I'm so glad you pointed this out. It is in the fine print, but I would have totally missed it, too. I like using the DVA for my discount gift cards, but I won't be using it for our planned DL trip in the future. I wonder why it works for WDW hotels and Aulani, but not DL?