Disney Premier Visa Card Questions

[WDW_Firefighter]

We got a Disney premier visa card offer in the mail the other day and if approved we'll receive a $200 Disney gift card after first purchase.

Can we use the $200 towards a vacation package? Also can the points we accumulate be used towards the cost of a vacation package?

When do they charge you the $49 annual fee? We don't currently have any credit cards and considered getting this one for the gift card and then cancelling it after a couple months. I don't know if we would use it enough to justify the annual fee.

 

[Disneydreamer23]

I Used my 200.00 toward my ticket purchase for Disney, the 49 fee is once a yr but I have never gotten charged one and i have had my card for a while. In points I usually get about 200/300 dollars a yr but i DO use my card alot and then pay it off and points can go to your vacation. Also You get no interest on your vacation if you use your Disney Card.

 

[tecowdw]

You've had the Premier card for awhile? It's brand new so that doesn't sound right.
:shrug:

 

[flynnibus]

The premier is a new version of the existing Disney visa. The original card does not have an annual fee but the new one does.

Rewards are collected by applying to a gift card. Be warned, cards have expiration dates and any points applied to that card carry the same expiration date.

They are also colassally slow in rewarding points. A standard cash rewards card like a discover are better deals. Disney visa is only useful for perks and special financing all the time for Disney bookings.

 

[tecowdw]

They are also colassally slow in rewarding points.

In what sense do you mean they are slow?
Yes, they have to mail you a rewards card the first time but after that, additional rewards get reloaded onto that rewards card (at least until it expires).

At least, IMHO.

 

[flynnibus]

In what sense do you mean they are slow?
Yes, they have to mail you a rewards card the first time but after that, additional rewards get reloaded onto that rewards card (at least until it expires).

At least, IMHO.

Time between spending and points showing up in your rewards balance.

The need to spend rewards only on expiring cards and disney purchases are unnecessary negatives. It's a poor choice for 'saving money' through rewards. It however is good for getting perks like early access to promotions and 6m free financing on disney bookings all the time.

 

[sbkline]

They are not slow in awarding the points. You get points on each month's statement. I previously had the regular Disney Visa, which gets 1% rewards points on all purchases. I just now upgraded to the Premiere card which gets 2% on gas, groceries, restaraunts and Disney owned and operated places, and 1% on everything else. So, the appropriate percentage of rewards points for each month is credited on that month's statement/bill. But the points are actually credited to your account immediately on the first day of the new billing cycle.

Unless, by slow, you mean the amount of time it takes to receive a gift card in the mail. I wouldn't know about that since I have only redeemed points once so far, and I did that at WDW. You can go to the Disney Visa station at DTD and pick up a blank gift card and then call the 800 number to have all your points transferred to that card, and then you're ready to use the points.

 

[sbkline]

In what sense do you mean they are slow?
Yes, they have to mail you a rewards card the first time but after that, additional rewards get reloaded onto that rewards card (at least until it expires).

At least, IMHO.

Time between spending and points showing up in your rewards balance.

The need to spend rewards only on expiring cards and disney purchases are unnecessary negatives. It's a poor choice for 'saving money' through rewards. It however is good for getting perks like early access to promotions and 6m free financing on disney bookings all the time.

The points themselves don't expire for 5 years. I first started using the Disney Rewards Visa in April of 2010 and that first batch of points doesn't expire until 2015. Points from May 2010 will expire a month later in 2015, etc. So if you're worried about putting them on a gift card that will expire then the solution is pretty simple: either don't redeem them until you're ready to use them. Or don't let them accumulate so much that you won't use them all before the gift card expires.

I guess whether the card is a good idea or not depends on how many trips you take to WDW (or Disney Land). As with any rewards card, how good it is depends on how likely you are to use the product that they reward you with. I previously had a GM card which got me rebate points for a new GM vehicle. But, of course, that presupposes that I will be buying brand new vehicles and that they will be GM ones at that. If I want to buy used, or buy a new Ford, then I'm out of luck. So the GM card isn't for me. We go to WDW every year...twice this year. So I am accumulating as many points as I can to use for next year's trip (2013). By then, I hope to have around $1000 in points accumulated, which I can use to pay all of our dining. If you aren't planning to use these points on a Disney trip, then this might not be the card for you. Personally, I would have no use for a card that would just get me rebate points to use to purchase Disney movies, coffee mugs, etc. But since I can save up the points for 2 or 3 years to knock off a huge line item on one of our annual WDW trips, then this is the card for me.

 

[flynnibus]

So if you're worried about putting them on a gift card that will expire then the solution is pretty simple: either don't redeem them until you're ready to use them. Or don't let them accumulate so much that you won't use them all before the gift card expires.

As I said - it's an unnecessary burden. Dealing with gift cards with expiration dates as a means to redeam points is just unnecessary overhead compared to most other rewards programs which rewards the same amount or more.

It's a PITA for no gain for you what-so-ever.

As with any rewards card, how good it is depends on how likely you are to use the product that they reward you with

Which for 1% - which is the matching rate of the normal visa card - is the same rate you get for cash from just about everyone else.. with none of the hassles of the Disney Visa reward redemption system. For 2%, you gotta pay an annaul fee, which takes $5,000 in spending just to break even on. When I can get more than 2% in promotional categories all the time on other cards. For instance, Discover is offering 5% back on select categories now that I would be buying from anyways.

Personally, I would have no use for a card that would just get me rebate points to use to purchase Disney movies, coffee mugs, etc. But since I can save up the points for 2 or 3 years to knock off a huge line item on one of our annual WDW trips, then this is the card for me.

Why not simply use a card that gives you the same amount, or more, back in CASH for use however you want.. be it saving for Disney, or spending anywhere else.

The amount Disney Visa gives in points are no better than what you can get in cash value from a number of places. It only carries constraints.

Chase offers the same cash back amounts on other chase cards too.. with none of the constraints. My chase sapphire card offers the same 1% all the time and higher on promo items.

For perks for signing up.. sapphire will give you $250 in points after spending just $3,000.

For value rewards - Disney Visa is just run of the mill, middle of the pack. If someone is interested in getting value back - there are better, less hassle cards available. Chase, Bank of America, Discover, Capital One, etc all offer cards with at least 1% baseline back in cash value.

 

[tecowdw]

It's not for everyone, for sure.

I spend alot at WDW on my Disney Visa each year but I still haven't been able to convince myself to get the Premier one with that annual fee! You may get double points but the annual fee still eats into it.

 

[sbkline]

As I said - it's an unnecessary burden. Dealing with gift cards with expiration dates as a means to redeam points is just unnecessary overhead compared to most other rewards programs which rewards the same amount or more.

It's a PITA for no gain for you what-so-ever.

Well again, it depends on the intentions of the person using the rewards points. If you're looking for rewards points to redeem for general shopping back home, then I agree. But I accumulate these points with the intention of using them all in one lump sum at WDW on a future trip. So to me, there is no burden with an expiration on a gift card when I have no intention of having any money left on that card by the end of the trip. I have over $600 accumulated so far since 2010, and I plan to keep accumulating them until next year when I hope to have around $1000. Then, when we are at Downtown Disney, I will go pick up a blank gift card (no hassle, we're there anyway right?), get on the cell phone, make a quick call to have the points activated on the card and, boom, there is our dining money for the trip. If it looks like we have extra money left, there's some souvenier money too, then.

Now again, I can see how it would be a hassle and a burden if you get a couple hundred bucks saved up and then cash it out just to have some free spending money, and then feel the pressure to figure out what to spend it on before it expires. But that's the fault of the person using the card, for not thinking through his intentions for the money before putting it on a gift card that will expire at a certain point.

By the way, how long are those gift cards good for anyway? I can't imagine that they would expire any earlier than a year from activation. Surely a person could figure out how to spend their rewards money within the alotted time. And again, if they are worried about the card expiring before they can spend all that money, then they shouldn't have accumulated such a large amount of points before cashing them out onto a card.

But again, I guess we're just coming at it from totally differing points of view on how to use our points. I accumulate them for quite some time to use them all at once to make a significant dent on our annual vacation budget. I'm not interested in getting a free $50 here and a free $60 there to use on random hodge podge stuff back home. I'm interested in saving up $1000 to use to have free dining on an annual Disney trip. So for my purposes, there is absolutely no hassle in getting it on a gift card rather than cash. That gift card will be used up in two weeks and the expiration date is irrelevant.

 

[flynnibus]

Well again, it depends on the intentions of the person using the rewards points

No it doesn't - the alternative is CASH.. that's the point. Why take rewards you can only use with constraints vs CASH. The card alternatives give you direct CASH - money you can use anywhere.

Then, when we are at Downtown Disney, I will go pick up a blank gift card (no hassle, we're there anyway right?), get on the cell phone, make a quick call to have the points activated on the card and, boom, there is our dining money for the trip. If it looks like we have extra money left, there's some souvenier money too, then.

Going to DTD in itself is a pain if you don't intend on going to DTD. Or what if you are going to other Disney destinations like DCL? You have to get a card if you don't already have one, and transfer points (they say there is a list of places to pickup a card on their website,but I can't find it). And once you transfer points, they are locked to that card. So depending on the age of your card, they can expire quite quickly. So you need to figure out how much you want to transfer to the card.

Compare all of this to simply having the money in your account.. you can opt to take the money out of the account via check, or simply apply the money in the account against your credit card balance.

Now again, I can see how it would be a hassle and a burden if you get a couple hundred bucks saved up and then cash it out just to have some free spending money, and then feel the pressure to figure out what to spend it on before it expires. But that's the fault of the person using the card, for not thinking through his intentions for the money before putting it on a gift card that will expire at a certain point.

It's not the fault of the user, its a CONSTRAINT of the card. Which is UNNECESSARY. That's why this system is inferior to others available.

By the way, how long are those gift cards good for anyway? I can't imagine that they would expire any earlier than a year from activation

Less then 2 years. My card created last sept expires dec of this year.

And again, if they are worried about the card expiring before they can spend all that money, then they shouldn't have accumulated such a large amount of points before cashing them out onto a card.

Or simply use a card that doesn't impose such restrictions. You're simply defending constraints as managable.. which they are.. but are completely necessary.

I'm not interested in getting a free $50 here and a free $60 there to use on random hodge podge stuff back home. I'm interested in saving up $1000 to use to have free dining on an annual Disney trip. So for my purposes, there is absolutely no hassle in getting it on a gift card rather than cash. That gift card will be used up in two weeks and the expiration date is irrelevant.

This is CASH - it's not limited in what you can use it for.

Which is preferable??

Scenario #1
I'll give you $100 but
- you can only use it at MY stores
- you must use it before a certain date or lose it
- you must know ahead of time when you are going to spend it
- I will give you more money in the future, but only if you've spent at least $1000 first (must have at least 10 points before you can redeem)
- If you accidentally lose the $100 card, and someone uses it, the value is gone and you have no way to reclaim it

Scenario #2
- I give you $100 in credits
- You pay for anything you want with the credit card
- You pay the credit card balance with the $100

Scenario #3
- I give you $100 in credits
- If you buy stuff from my stores or partners I'll give you more than the initial $100.. up to $200
- Or spend the money with my partners at any increment you want

Scenario #4
- I give you a $100 credits
- I'll deposit the $100 directly into your bank account
- Do whatever you wish

There is nothing to gain from Scenario #1 - only constraints vs pure cash value.. including CASH IN YOUR HAND vs other card offers.

You can defend the constraints all day long - but they are unnecessary and not competitive vs other offers.

You can save up for your Disney vacation via the card if you want - I'll save by taking the same money in cash or save more by spending less by multiplying the credit cash value.


The Disney Visa card is a poor choice for cash reward value. It's value is in member-exclusive perks like zero cost financing, discounts at certain disney vendors, and other perks. You are far better off to have the card, and only use it for purchases where using the card gives you a direct perk right then - not worrying about the reward balance value. Buy your monthly bills and all other expenses on a card that gives you direct cash rewards.

 

[Tigerfan]

The Disney Visa card or Disney Premier Visa card is for the true Disney fan, while just about every credit card offers some sort of rewards or CASH back. Why not use the Disney visa to build points toward your trip.What's the big deal about being constrained to where you can use your reward card vs.CASH. Your going to WDW or DCL anyway why not use the reward card there. You seem to be hung up on CASH,so if someone gives you a gift card to a local box store do you turn it down because it's not CASH?

 

[flynnibus]

You seem to be hung up on CASH,so if someone gives you a gift card to a local box store do you turn it down because it's not CASH?

The legitimate comparison would be:

"If someone offered you a $25 gift card to a store, or $25 cash, which would you take?"

The comparison is not "no reward or not" as you would infer, it is "restricted reward vs unrestricted reward"

It's a poor decision to redirect spending to this card based on trying to collect rewards when there are better options available.

 

[sweetpee_1993]

We have not & will not "upgrade" to Premier because of the annual fee. I'll avoid credit cards that I have to pay the financial institutions a fee just to hold in my wallet if I can. That's insulting & greedy to me. As it stands, I only use my Disney Visa for Disney bookings. Other than that, it really doesn't get used. We far prefer the Discover Card. 5% on all sorts of things, lower interest rate, and no restrictions on where or how I can access the rewards money. Before vacation I can go online, dump my rewards to my bank account, and I'm done. No additional card to order or carry. Also, travel is an extra, not a necessity. You never know what can happen to make a trip not feasible. Having my rewards $$ available even if I'm not vacationing with Disney is nice. There are other vacation destinations out there, ya know. Other cruise lines, too, who doa pretty bang-up job gettin' it right. I don't like limitations or being told how I can spend my $$. That's why we prefer Discover to Disney Visa/Premier.

 

[sbkline]

The legitimate comparison would be:

"If someone offered you a $25 gift card to a store, or $25 cash, which would you take?"

The comparison is not "no reward or not" as you would infer, it is "restricted reward vs unrestricted reward"

It's a poor decision to redirect spending to this card based on trying to collect rewards when there are better options available.

It depends on where the gift card is for. If someone offered me a $25 gift card to Cracker Barrel, or $25 cash, I may be more likely to take the cash, since we don't go out to eat that often and Cracker Barrel isn't a place we regularly go. So I may find the cash more useful (although there is also the other point of view that perhaps I would take the card, as it would give my wife and I an excuse to have a night out)

On the other hand, if someone offered me a $25 gift card to Walmart, or $25 cash, I'm not sure it would really make much difference which one I would take. We spend tons of money at Walmart. That's where we both work and we are constantly buying odds and ends there. Heck, just this morning, after dropping my son off at school, I had to run in there and buy some milk and a few other things and I spend around $25. So, since Walmart is a regular item in my monthly budget, a Walmart Gift card would be as good as cash.

A WDW trip is a regular item in my budget. We go every year. I prefer to stay 10 nights. So for the room, we're talking about around 2 grand, depending on what discounts are available and where we stay. I like to eat a TS meal for every day of our stay...sometimes maybe 2 TS meals on a particular day. Those annual trips are very important to me and something I make a priority to do. Given the amount of money that we spend on these trips, a WDW gift card is as good as cash. I like to bring a wad of cash along, too, for things that require cash only (such as parking, etc), but too much cash puffs the wallet out too much and makes it hard to close. So I am perfectly content to be "constrained" to have my points on a Disney gift card, which can only be used on Disney items and which will expire in a year. Because I only intend to use it on our Disney trip and don't intend to have any left over. But again, that's because I go to WDW every year and this card suits me. It may not suit someone else who doesn't go to WDW as often as I do.

I'm not against cash. But cash has its pros and cons. One "con" of cash is that, there may be the temptation to cash out the points periodically and blow it on "toys" that you would not otherwise purchase and then you don't have those points to apply towards something that IS a regular factored item in your budget (in this case, the WDW trip). With these points being exclusively for Disney products, I know exactly what they are going for. I suppose I could still choose to cash them out and waste them on Disney products at Walmart throughout the year, but I don't want to. But that Disney trip is part of our yearly expense, and this Disney Visa card is a way for me to accumulate points to make part of that trip free. What the heck difference does it make if it's cash or not? It all spends the same when I'm there.

 

[Philhar-Fanatic]

FLYNNIBUS...I think you are full of information and you don't really know what your talking about. We've been using DRVisa for years. We get points accumulated at the end of every month. They don't expire for years and we use them for everything Disney. The points are good for much more than Souveneers. We put our credit card on file when we arive and charge everything to our room from tips, to souveneers, to the random adult beverage. Upon checkout we present our gift card which consists of our rewards points and they apply it to our balance. I don't see where your logic is coming from. It's FREE money!!! :brick: Well at least for us it is because we pay our credit card off at the end of every month. As for the new Premium Visa, we won't be upgrading due to the yearly fee.

 

[flynnibus]

FLYNNIBUS...I think you are full of information and you don't really know what your talking about. We've been using DRVisa for years. We get points accumulated at the end of every month. They don't expire for years and we use them for everything Disney

They expire 5 years after accumulation or whenever the card your points are transfered to expires. Once they are on a card they must be used before that card expires. Simple facts.

The points are good for much more than Souveneers. We put our credit card on file when we arive and charge everything to our room from tips, to souveneers, to the random adult beverage. Upon checkout we present our gift card which consists of our rewards points and they apply it to our balance. I don't see where your logic is coming from. It's FREE money!!!

It's free DISNEY money - as opposed to 'FREE ANYKIND OF MONEY'. That's the difference. Why be constrained?

I find it humorous no one wants to upgrade to preferred because of the money is costs them - but they don't mind locking their money up to Disney for zero benefit what so ever except to Disney.

You all are bowing directly to the Disney marketing and s__________g it up. It would be one thing if Disney were giving you more Disney dollars than anyone else would give you.. but they aren't! They are infact giving you less money than you can earn in other programs that aren't restricted to only Disney-colored money.

It's such an inferior way to operate in so many manners. But hey, it's Disney right???? :hammer:

From
- inferior rates of return
- vendor lock
- poor expiration terms
- requirements to act before you spend
- Loss of credit card protections when you gift cards
etc etc etc

But hey, you all are free to use whatever financial tools you want. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make 'em drink.

 

[flynnibus]

It depends on where the gift card is for. If someone offered me a $25 gift card to Cracker Barrel, or $25 cash, I may be more likely to take the cash, since we don't go out to eat that often and Cracker Barrel isn't a place we regularly go. So I may find the cash more useful (although there is also the other point of view that perhaps I would take the card, as it would give my wife and I an excuse to have a night out)

On the other hand, if someone offered me a $25 gift card to Walmart, or $25 cash, I'm not sure it would really make much difference which one I would take. We spend tons of money at Walmart. That's where we both work and we are constantly buying odds and ends there. Heck, just this morning, after dropping my son off at school, I had to run in there and buy some milk and a few other things and I spend around $25. So, since Walmart is a regular item in my monthly budget, a Walmart Gift card would be as good as cash.

Thank you Publishers Clearing House!!! but can I get that reward in the form of a gift card instead?? :hammer:

 

[devoy1701]

I've used my Original Disney Visa Card for everything for the past 4 years, all bills, all shopping trips, etc. We just pay it off every month and we have earned roughly $200 in Disney Rewards per year. So naturally we looked into the Premiere Disney Visa when it was offered to us. However, it also got be looking into other reward programs as well. And we've decided we're going to be going with Blue Cash from Amex...possibly even the premiere card they're offering. For $75/year, AMEX Blue Cash they give you 6% CASH back on Groceries, 3% CASH on Gas and Dept Store purchases, and 1% back on everything else. Even their no-fee card STILL gives you 3% back on groceries and 2% on gas. We did some quick math and once you subtract the fees, we'll still be coming up about $200 ahead going with the Amex over the Premiere Disney Visa. We'll keep the Standard card, use it to pay for our Disney Trips since we get the 6mos 0% Financing, but I'm going to switch my day-to-day purchases over to the Amex or when Amex isn't available my Capital One Visa. They both offer better rewards with less contraints.