Disney Vacation Account program abruptly ended

[Tony the Tigger]

Via email:

Thank you for your participation in the Disney Vacation Account program. It shows you're a true Disney fan and we're grateful for that. At this time, we are discontinuing the program and no new accounts or contributions are being accepted.

 

[DisneyBergh]

TWDC fiscal year ends Sept 30. and the accounts close on Sept. 27. Seems like Disney wants out of the savings industry before the end of their year.

 

[JohnD]

You beat me to it. I got the same email.

 

[larryz]

Now the key question: what killed the Disney Vacation Accounts?

Was it the people buying discounted gift cards then adding them to their accounts, accruing the $1000 deposit discounts?

 

[21stamps]

Now the key question: what killed the Disney Vacation Accounts?

Was it the people buying discounted gift cards then adding them to their accounts, accruing the $1000 deposit discounts?

I think people should be glad that it's over. I never heard of it until I joined disboards in early 2016... sounds like a horrible investment by the consumer.

I have to admit that I was tempted for a moment, because of the cost of my vacations and the discounts I would receive, along with the idea of the gift card discounts.. but then sensibility got the better of me.lol.
I have no desire to run around collecting gift cards and entering numbers into a computer.

 

[HauntedPirate]

I used it. Once. Never would use it again. We had purchased gift cards for a vacation and I entered them in there, and it promptly took the money I had already spent on the gift cards and made me wait a week to get access to it.

I'm honestly surprised it lasted as long as it did. Either too few people used it to make it cost-effective, or they gave away too much money in gift cards.

 

[Legendary]

We absolutely loved it. Saved a ton buying gift cards at Sam's, getting the credit card rewards and then again when applying it to our vacation. They had $500 gift cards so it really didn't take that long to enter. So worth the effort. Throughout the program we saved enough to pay for an extra trip. Sad to see it go. Means we will probably vacation a little less.

 

[Spiff McGee]

My only question is will I still receive my bonus. We booked our vacation for later in the year and still awaiting our gift cards. Not gonna be happy if that's the case.

 

[bigrigross]

I think people should be glad that it's over. I never heard of it until I joined disboards in early 2016... sounds like a horrible investment by the consumer.

I have to admit that I was tempted for a moment, because of the cost of my vacations and the discounts I would receive, along with the idea of the gift card discounts.. but then sensibility got the better of me.lol.
I have no desire to run around collecting gift cards and entering numbers into a computer.

If you did it right, you can save quite a bit of money. I saved about 12% by buying disney gift cards and paying them on the Disney vacation account. Though now that I have DVC, I save way more money that way. But if you only plan to go to Disney a couple of times, easiest way to save money so long as you purchase them correctly.

 

[Spiff McGee]

If you did it right, you can save quite a bit of money. I saved about 12% by buying disney gift cards and paying them on the Disney vacation account. Though now that I have DVC, I save way more money that way. But if you only plan to go to Disney a couple of times, easiest way to save money so long as you purchase them correctly.

I did the same thing you did, was able to save some money by buying gift cards at Sam's Club for cheaper than the gift card itself.

 

[tissandtully]

You can also buy Disney gift cards at target for 5% off with the target debit card, so you don't have to pay the Sam's membership fee. The Sam's discount is also 5% so it's the exact same deal.

 

[Tony the Tigger]

I had one earlier this year and then closed it when I realized I had to spend $1000 on lodging, and my balance due on lodging was less than $1000.

 

[21stamps]

I did the same thing you did, was able to save some money by buying gift cards at Sam's Club for cheaper than the gift card itself.

I did buy a gift card for my son to use for souvenirs.. I had thought about Sam's, but ended up getting it at the grocery and received 4x fuel points which was more valuable to me.

 

[OliveMcFly]

My family used this a lot. We would save money by buying the gift cards at Sam's Club and then get $20 for every thousand.
I've cashed out though. It was nice to offer an additional 5%. It went right on my current reservation.
I'm very curious as to what killed it.

 

[Nubs70]

My family used this a lot. We would save money by buying the gift cards at Sam's Club and then get $20 for every thousand.
I've cashed out though. It was nice to offer an additional 5%. It went right on my current reservation.
I'm very curious as to what killed it.

I surmise it has to do with the cost associated with the administration of the program. I do not believe the money can be invested to earn interest. The money needs to be held in a idle pre paid account where inflation and administration costs eats away at the value. Since there is no expiration, a zombie account just sits there. Accountants hate idle money. WDW wants money to pass through the order to cash cycle as rapidly as possible. @ParentsOf4 would be a good resource on this question.

 

[Horizons '83]

Accountants sure do get a lot of blame around here.
Finance are actually the culprits.

 

[JWG]

This never worked right for us. We spent $3,000 in January (DVC dues) and when we requested our rewards card only got $20 instead of $60. I had re-requested a rewards card, never heard anything, and now can't log in to my account because it was $0 balance and locked due to the recent news. Still trying to get my $40.

 

[John park hopper]

Does not suprise me. Looked into setting up an account this year and saw they were not goinng to offer the bonus come Dec. made me think something was up Glad I didn't

 

[Mander]

I'm sad to see it go. We'd been using it to save for our trip. I honestly didn't pay much attention to the bonus gift cards. I just needed a place to put vacation money that wasn't our regular savings. The fact that we couldn't go to our bank and withdraw/transfer it easily helped us out. For the time being, we'll just make payments on our balance. In the future we'll likely open another savings account somewhere to save for vacation. I was surprised at how well it worked for us.

 

[dreamfinder]

I think people should be glad that it's over. I never heard of it until I joined disboards in early 2016... sounds like a horrible investment by the consumer.

I have to admit that I was tempted for a moment, because of the cost of my vacations and the discounts I would receive, along with the idea of the gift card discounts.. but then sensibility got the better of me.lol.
I have no desire to run around collecting gift cards and entering numbers into a computer.

Remember, there are people who are doing anything they can to save a few more pennies towards their next trip. Doing things like watching ads online for Perk Points and taking pictures of their grocery receipts to get pennies back for buying certain goods. So spending a few minutes entering gift card numbers for a 5% return is nothing compared to filling out a survey for a quarter. Using a rewards credit card to buy discounted gift cards and then getting an additional benefit on top of those gift cards could add up. If you have a traditional savings account, or other short term investment vehicle that would still be returning north of 5% with this current financial climate, I'd love to know about it. For a die hard Disney fan, who was 100% sure of going to WDW/DLR it could have been a "good" investment. I'm using air quotes as even though the return may have been reasonable, it doesn't strike me as being very liquid if the need arose.