So I have my gift cards now what help please

[Lumpy1106]

Don't they charge your credit card at some point during your stay if your spending goes above a certain threshold? I thought I heard that before.

Hasn't happened to us yet. Maybe I'm not spending enough?
Edit to add; Last trip our balance was a tick under 2K - no problem paying with the GCs the night before we checked out. I think the concierge can go in and back the charge out if that happens. Anyone want to confirm?

 

[bluezy]

Hasn't happened to us yet. Maybe I'm not spending enough?
Edit to add; Last trip our balance was a tick under 2K - no problem paying with the GCs the night before we checked out. I think the concierge can go in and back the charge out if that happens. Anyone want to confirm?

I've definitely seen people posting that they were able to have charges reversed and then use their gift cards to pay down their balance. However, it seems like since they started the rolling $100 holds on credit cards that they now only put through one charge to the credit card on file and that is done early in the morning on checkout day. At least that has been our experience. We always used to have multiple charges put through during our stay, but last year they only charged the full $1600 on the morning of checkout.

 

[TheOneWithTheTriplets]

I think the concierge can go in and back the charge out if that happens. Anyone want to confirm

In 2019, I realized on the sad bus that I had forgotten to use my GC to pay off my room balance. After some frantic googling, I found the actual front desk phone number.

The CM was able to reverse the CC charge and take my GC over the phone. She said it was very good that I called that day because it's a much simpler process to do same day. Of course, that was prepandemic, so who knows if things have changed.

 

[BeachMouse1]

Another thing people can do is get a digital giftcard. When you get the email with it, it should have an Apple wallet link and whatever android has. You can then add that digital card to your wallet. You can then reload it to your hearts content and have a digital giftcard that if you lose, you'll have bigger problems then just losing a disney giftcard...

The major downside is whatever denomination you buy it in, it will always just say that amount. For the people who like to keep track as they go, just keep a running balance in a note on your phone.

Ezpz.

Wait a minute I can buy a Disney gift card for $25 off shop Disney. I will get a link to add it to my apple wallet. The. I can register that card on the Disney gift card website and transfer my other physical gift cards to the one in my apple wallet and have all of the funds in my apple wallet and just use that on gift card in my apple wallet to pay ?

 

[kilik64]

Wait a minute I can buy a Disney gift card for $25 off shop Disney. I will get a link to add it to my apple wallet. The. I can register that card on the Disney gift card website and transfer my other physical gift cards to the one in my apple wallet and have all of the funds in my apple wallet and just use that on gift card in my apple wallet to pay ?

Yup, places will use the digital barcode for you to pay. Only real negative is it’ll always say whatever denomination you bought originally.

 

[BeachMouse1]

Yup, places will use the digital barcode for you to pay. Only real negative is it’ll always say whatever denomination you bought originally.

So it will say $25 but if I add a $200 card to it I will actually have $225 to spend correct? Just in my wallet it will always say $25?

 

[subtchr]

Wait a minute I can buy a Disney gift card for $25 off shop Disney. I will get a link to add it to my apple wallet. The. I can register that card on the Disney gift card website and transfer my other physical gift cards to the one in my apple wallet and have all of the funds in my apple wallet and just use that on gift card in my apple wallet to pay ?

So it will say $25 but if I add a $200 card to it I will actually have $225 to spend correct? Just in my wallet it will always say $25?

Yup.

I’ve had my “$25” card in my Apple Wallet for about 4-5 years now, continuously replenished from gift cards I buy at a discount.

I use my Apple Watch for the cast members to scan for payment.

 

[Darth Insidious]

Yup.

I’ve had my “$25” card in my Apple Wallet for about 4-5 years now, continuously replenished from gift cards I buy at a discount.

I use my Apple Watch for the cast members to scan for payment.

Do you get a receipt with the balance after each purchase? Thinking of doing this for my kids and just adding money each park day.

 

[subtchr]

Do you get a receipt with the balance after each purchase? Thinking of doing this for my kids and just adding money each park day.

Yes, if you want one.

The balance shows on the screen, too. I just look at it there.

 

[**Courtney**]

Yes. If the first GC you enter does not cover the balance, I believe you can use a second one. (We haven’t been since Jan 2022 so going from memory but I don’t remember it being a problem.)

@PalmettoPath, you and I come from the land of ‘magical’ Disney GCs. You and I pay $50 for a GC at home and it’s ‘magically’ worth $30 when we get to WDW.

The good thing is I use PC points to purchase the gc’s so we basically eat for free!

Whoa whoa whoa...you can buy Disney Gift cards with PC Points???? This may be life changing. I normally save all year for a huge supply shop on the really good redemption days, but if I can get gift cards for our trip that may change things....

 

[champagne&disney]

I have an android and I've never used whatever the pay thing is. Are you saying I could put my gift card on that and they can scan my phone to pay? I realize I'm living in the stone ages lol. Thanks.

You can if you have a digital card to start. I got one as a present from a friend and now I just reload this card through the gift card website after I buy gift cards at whatever retail outlet gives me the best deal. It's great! Just pull up my Apple Wallet and they scan it.

 

[jods]

You can if you have a digital card to start. I got one as a present from a friend and now I just reload this card through the gift card website after I buy gift cards at whatever retail outlet gives me the best deal. It's great! Just pull up my Apple Wallet and they scan it.

Cool thank you. I actually have a few emails with gift card codes in them. Just trying to figure out what to do with them. Thanks!

 

[champagne&disney]

Cool thank you. I actually have a few emails with gift card codes in them. Just trying to figure out what to do with them. Thanks!

You’re welcome!! If you need more help, I’d be happy to do my best. I like the digital card because I forget everything except my phone

 

[jods]

You’re welcome!! If you need more help, I’d be happy to do my best. I like the digital card because I forget everything except my phone

Thank you. I will probably attempt it this week. If I get stuck I will ask for help, I appreciate the offer.

 

[kilik64]

Cool thank you. I actually have a few emails with gift card codes in them. Just trying to figure out what to do with them. Thanks!

Just codes won’t work, but if it has a link to Apple/google pay, just click that and it’ll go through the process to add to your wallet.

If you’ve never used your wallet before, make sure you set it up first.

 

[Ryoukoe]

I use Disney GC's for all of my trips...

Buying a digital GC from the Disney Store online allows you to add it to your Apple Wallet, I feel that is the safest way to buy a digital card that I am willing to keep numbers from. You can buy digital cards from Target, but I don't trust those as much and automatically move my money to a trusted card.

If I am staying on property, I charge everything to the room and then the night before I check out, I pay for everything with the GC. The nice part too is that I can see who did a transaction and let them know if they owe me money or how much they have left to spend, also this allows more than one person the use of the GC no matter where they are. Yes, you will see holds on your CC or card that is used for your reservation, but they don't actually charge anything to your card until the morning you check out.

If I buy a GC from a store ie Target or Sam's club, I automatically move the money off that card and onto one I know I can trust. Too often you hear people talking about losing $ on their GC because of fraud, its hard to get it back.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

Don't they charge your credit card at some point during your stay if your spending goes above a certain threshold? I thought I heard that before.

My card was charged every 1-3 days during our 9 night stay at CSR last trip. Some days I would wake up to a bunch of charges from the previous day and some days it would take 2-3 days.

In 2015 I took the gift card recommendations from the board. Used the Disney site to combine cards all that. I did the whole pay with a gift card at concierge thing and I had to go down every night or every other night. It became a pain.

Prior to that we just charged to our room key or MB. We went back to that and now I just charge everything to my MB and pay off my card when I get home. The whole gift card thing was a one and done for us.

I also do not want to buy a ton of gift cards and be stuck with thousands of dollars of gift cards if the trip doesn’t happen. That always made me feel a bit apprehensive. We don’t go to Disney every year, we also don’t own DVC, so we don’t always have another trip planned or booked.

 

[bluezy]

My card was charged every 1-3 days during our 9 night stay at CSR last trip. Some days I would wake up to a bunch of charges from the previous day and some days it would take 2-3 days.

In 2015 I took the gift card recommendations from the board. Used the Disney site to combine cards all that. I did the whole pay with a gift card at concierge thing and I had to go down every night or every other night. It became a pain.

Prior to that we just charged to our room key or MB. We went back to that and now I just charge everything to my MB and pay off my card when I get home. The whole gift card thing was a one and done for us.

I also do not want to buy a ton of gift cards and be stuck with thousands of dollars of gift cards if the trip doesn’t happen. That always made me feel a bit apprehensive. We don’t go to Disney every year, we also don’t own DVC, so we don’t always have another trip planned or booked.

I also find the whole using discounted gift cards to pay for *everything* to be more trouble than it's worth. I do usually buy about $2,000-3,000 worth of discounted gift cards before a trip (we usually go every other year), but I simply apply those (along with our rewards dollars from our Disney Visa) to our package so they're used before we even get to Disney. Then we charge everything back to the room and pay the credit card bill when we get home.

Interesting that your credit card was charged every few days during your trip last year. Ours was only charged on our check-out day (8-day trip, $1600 charge) and that seemed to be the norm now (our adult children who were on the same trip had the same experience -- one charge on check-out day).

 

[mi*vida*loca]

I also find the whole using discounted gift cards to pay for *everything* to be more trouble than it's worth. I do usually buy about $2,000-3,000 worth of discounted gift cards before a trip (we usually go every other year), but I simply apply those (along with our rewards dollars from our Disney Visa) to our package so they're used before we even get to Disney. Then we charge everything back to the room and pay the credit card bill when we get home.

Interesting that your credit card was charged every few days during your trip last year. Ours was only charged on our check-out day (8-day trip, $1600 charge) and that seemed to be the norm now (our adult children who were on the same trip had the same experience -- one charge on check-out day).

I would be open to doing the discounted gift cards to pay for a room, tickets or package. That wouldn’t be as big of a pain.

As for the charges, I looked back at my statement and am remembering better. Most of the charges were holds that were done every 1-2 days and fell off after a few days and at the end of the trip we had one big charge. They would do a hold around 6 am for what I charged the day before. I still had a few random charges.

Is it normal for them to do daily holds? Can you still pay at the concierge if they are doing daily holds for what I charged the day before?

 

[honeymo78]

I believe the holds replaced charging your card once you hit a certain amount. You can absolutely pay down your balance even when a hold has been put on your card. The hold will just fall off your card. Any mobile food orders or mobile shopping get charged to your payment method at the time of your purchase - that might account for the few random charges.