Is this a change to paying dues with gift cards?

[pixi509]

I have a $100 gift card I'd like to use -- but because that doesn't cover the full payment, apparently I can't apply it to AD. Not and never have been enrolled in auto-pay.

This is ridiculous and not something I've encountered before.

 

[Liquidice]

Just as an FYI, I sent an email to Bill Diercksen, SVP of DVC and just received a call back about this change.

The phone call was basically just to acknowledge they had received my email and they said that they couldn't make any changes. However, they encouraged me to ask other members to reach out an email about this change to paying via gift cards.

They said the issue was raised up to management at Member Accounting and that they were surprised that the change was being made without at least a year of notice and when I said we were just notified a few weeks ago and that dues must be paid in full by 2/15/24 the CM I spoke with said that is very short notice.

If anyone is not happy about this change, I would recommend emailing william.c.diercksen@disney.com and Members@DisneyVacationClub.com to voice your unhappiness.

I'd recommend leaving a phone number in your email if you want a call back.

Here is the email I sent if you'd like to use it or send something similar:

To whom it may concern,

I wanted to bring to your attention a change that was recently announced for paying DVC annual dues in 2025. With very little notice, members were told via a notification on the website that gift card payments will no longer be accepted when enrolled in monthly auto-pay. I and many others are impacted by this. I buy gift cards throughout the year and pay my dues, usually quarterly but now I am left surprised that I must either come up with the full payment in gift cards by 2/15/25, pay in full by credit card or use auto-debit monthly.

I do not understand why this change is being made and am not happy about it. I have been paying this way for the last 4 years.

For those of us who paid monthly using gift cards, we were not given any notice. It would have been nice to have been told a year in advance to better plan for this change, but removing payment options is a negative change for members and I wish you would reconsider this change and allow us to continue paying by gift card monthly. There should be no “processing” fee to pay by gift card, just like an auto-debit so why take it away from members?

Thank you for reading my email and listening to my feedback. I hope you will reconsider this change that is negatively impacting DVC members.

Sincerely,
[insert your name and phone number here]

 

[jennypenny]

I have a $100 gift card I'd like to use -- but because that doesn't cover the full payment, apparently I can't apply it to AD. Not and never have been enrolled in auto-pay.

This is ridiculous and not something I've encountered before.

I was able to. I unenrolled from auto-pay. Then chose pay by contract, then selected one and paid the amount of the GC. I was able to do it several times until the dues were paid.

 

[CarolynFH]

I have a $100 gift card I'd like to use -- but because that doesn't cover the full payment, apparently I can't apply it to AD. Not and never have been enrolled in auto-pay.

This is ridiculous and not something I've encountered before.

I did the same as @jennypenny above, just had to go through the process from start to finish 3 times - emptied 2 DGCs and most of a third, but we’re paid in full!

 

[davidhr]

I had lost track of how many gift cards I had bought with discounts through the year. I was pleasantly surprised to realize I had enough to cover all my dues. Had to unenroll from auto pay to be able to use the gifts cards.

Now time to start the process of hunting deals for 2026 dues lol

 

[eticketplease]

This is similar to what I got when paying a partial payment after unenrolling in autopay pay.

Which is why the directions said that you could so all this until February.

But, once you pass that date, if you cancel autopay, you are going to be required to pay full., or risk interest and/or not being able to turn autopay back on.

If the system doesn’t stop one from turning it back on and doesn’t add the fee, then the system would still work like before with just extra steps

That is the big unknown since the language definitely implies no turning autopay back in for 2025 dues after Feb if you turn it off.

We also didn’t know if it would push out the due date of the monthly withdrawal as before. Glad that it is for those that don’t have enough gift cards saved at this point in time.

 

[dcfromva]

Thanks to the OP who posted this topic. I didn't even notice when I was looking at my dues statement this morning.

I had purchased a bunch of GCs and didn't have time to get them all applied before we took a trip earlier this month, so I will have to see how best to proceed.

 

[Sandisw]

I have a $100 gift card I'd like to use -- but because that doesn't cover the full payment, apparently I can't apply it to AD. Not and never have been enrolled in auto-pay.

This is ridiculous and not something I've encountered before.

You can definitely pay with gift cards until February even if not pay in full.

You just can’t have autopay enabled. When you go to pay on a contract, you have to know choose new card to get the gift cards option to show up.

Then it will allow the partial payment. I did it last night as a test with a $50 card.

Since I do autopay, I just canceled it, paid the $50 and then re-enrolled.

 

[HHISand]

Has anyone tried to use multiple gift cards? I turned off autopay and was able to apply the first card with no problem. When I tried it again with the second card, the system starred out the last four digits of the gift card number (and yes, I was on gift card, not credit card). When I tried to replace the stars with the numbers, it erased the entire number. When I manually typed in the numbers (instead of cutting and pasting), the system again starred the last four numbers. When I clicked apply with the stars on the last four numbers, it gave me an error. I have three separate contracts so I tried again with a second contract and the same thing happened. Have four gift cards and three contracts so I would be happy if I could simply use one gift card per contract and save the fourth for a trip in January.

 

[eticketplease]

Has anyone tried to use multiple gift cards? I turned off autopay and was able to apply the first card with no problem. When I tried it again with the second card, the system starred out the last four digits of the gift card number (and yes, I was on gift card, not credit card). When I tried to replace the stars with the numbers, it erased the entire number. When I manually typed in the numbers (instead of cutting and pasting), the system again starred the last four numbers. When I clicked apply with the stars on the last four numbers, it gave me an error. I have three separate contracts so I tried again with a second contract and the same thing happened. Have four gift cards and three contracts so I would be happy if I could simply use one gift card per contract and save the fourth for a trip in January.

Yes I didn't have a problem.

The stars should show up and make sure you are entering your pin #.

Once you do that it should show how much is left on the gift card.

Make sure you type in the amount shown on the gift card and it should go through.

If the gift cards are under $1,000 you may wish to combine them at disneygiftcard.com and then try the one you combined it to.

 

[LilyJC]

Has anyone tried to use multiple gift cards?

Today so far I used 5 different gift cards with no issues. My account is a bit wonky since we have three uys and multiple contracts.

Just make sure you are selecting pay by contract if the due amount isn’t completely covered by the gift card. After you type in the last four of the account number, it is normal for the stars to pop up. Just proceed to entering the rest of the info and hit the “apply” button underneath.

 

[VGCgroupie]

okay ya'll I prepaid when this info was released just in case I couldn't use more than 1 GC. This is my 1st year paying dues. I am looking at my 7 contracts and I am SO confused. I think part of the messiness is some of my contracts are subsidized and that shows up as an adjustment. Needless to say when I logged in some have a much larger balance than it should have so its possible like @Sandisw eluded to, things might be messed up and didnt allocate they way I intended it to.

 

[Sandisw]

okay ya'll I prepaid when this info was released just in case I couldn't use more than 1 GC. This is my 1st year paying dues. I am looking at my 7 contracts and I am SO confused. I think part of the messiness is some of my contracts are subsidized and that shows up as an adjustment. Needless to say when I logged in some have a much larger balance than it should have so its possible like @Sandisw eluded to, things might be messed up and didnt allocate they way I intended it to.

I have read that DVC doesn’t always apply credits the way one wants within a membership.

It’s another reason why I won’t ever prepay.

 

[VGCgroupie]

I have read that DVC doesn’t always apply credits the way one wants within a membership.

It’s another reason why I won’t ever prepay.

This is huge mess, especially since the dues appear to also be more than expected. My VGC is calulctqing out at 8.85 not 8.55. Thats a substantial difference. Edit: Maybe it was supposed to be 8.79 not 8.55 and I pulled the wrong chart. The dues statements fried my brain, I need to step away from the computer and re visit dues later.

 

[dcfromva]

This is huge mess, especially since the dues appear to also be more than expected. My VGC is calulctqing out at 8.85 not 8.55. Thats a substantial difference. Edit: Maybe it was supposed to be 8.79 not 8.55 and I pulled the wrong chart. The dues statements fried my brain, I need to step away from the computer and re visit dues later.

I am getting 8.79 per point for for VGC plus there is a tax payment from last year--they underestimated the taxes by a little bit.

 

[dcfromva]

okay ya'll I prepaid when this info was released just in case I couldn't use more than 1 GC. This is my 1st year paying dues. I am looking at my 7 contracts and I am SO confused. I think part of the messiness is some of my contracts are subsidized and that shows up as an adjustment. Needless to say when I logged in some have a much larger balance than it should have so its possible like @Sandisw eluded to, things might be messed up and didnt allocate they way I intended it to.

This is the first year I ever prepaid before the bill posted and I was also surprised how the payment posted. My intention was to put everything on the largest contract, so I specified the BLT.0 contract when I was prepaying. When I checked the dues statement today, they applied the payment across the 7 subcontracts. I have no idea as to what formula they were using for the allocation, but the total checks out.

 

[RuntheMouse]

Just saw this on my account, not sure if it has been posted already. I see no mention of GCs being an option for payment.

 

[Sandisw]

Just saw this on my account, not sure if it has been posted already. I see no mention of GCs being an option for payment.View attachment 921354

It is not there, but they are accepted because some have used them already…including me. The new rules state you can use them before monthly payments kick in.

 

[RuntheMouse]

It is not there, but they are accepted because some have used them already…including me. The new rules state you can use them before monthly payments kick in.

I too used some gift cards earlier this month to pay dues. I just thought it was weird this came up when I went to check my dues and I had to accept the new terms.

 

[Sandisw]

I too used some gift cards earlier this month to pay dues. I just thought it was weird this came up when I went to check my dues and I had to accept the new terms.

That shows up every year for me when dues load. I have never actually read it until this year!! Hahaha