Is getting a Disney Visa card worth it...

[Joshua&CalebDad]

So I am wondering if getting a Disney Visa card is worth trying to get. Is it easy to rack up points and then redeem them on your Disney trip? I have a trip planned for the end of November and I was thinking about getting one. Does anyone have the card and what do you do to try and rack up the points? Can you get points for anything you purchase or use the card for (i.e. bill/mortgage)? Thanks for taking the time to read this and reply. I look forward to hearing back from everyone. :wave:

 

[harryk]

we Recently got the 1% card and my wife and kids used it in NYC for a weekend and our plan is to pay for the trip to WDW in May, we will pay it off the next day and should have about 700 pts to use on the WDW trip. Question is what to use it on?

MEALS and SNACKS

 

[dreamfinder]

To the OP, check to see if you can get a better rewards card. If you can get say 2.5% back to use on your favorite airline, you may get a better deal by flying for free, but paying for hotel room. And make sure that you will be able to pay it off each month. Any finance charges more than cancel out the bonus.

In addition, this particular rep told me that Walmart
is classified as a grocery store for the purposes of this card so, if she gave me correct information, then I will get the 2% on our grocery shopping at Walmart. But whether she is correct on that part or not, it sounds like I would still get enough extra rewards points throughout the year to offset the $49 annual fee and still get extra points on top of that, so I went ahead and signed up for the card.

Easiest and most accurate way to tell, check your last statement. Next to each line item it should tell you the category it was placed in. Each store may be different, but your statement is going to be the most accurate picture of the places YOU shop.

Yeah, thats exactly what I thought as well. I'm going to try to call Disney and pay them directly for the remaining balance on the trip even though I'm 98% sure I won't be able to. At the end of the day, the AAA discount is $280 and the 5% back on what we owe would be about $120 in bonus Disney Dollars, so booking through AAA is still worth it.

Except you can get the AAA discount through Disney directly. Assuming you are talking about the normal 15% discount, just call up 1 407 wdisney and ask for the AAA rate. Now if your AAA agent had a special deal going, IE free $50 gift card, something like that, then you would need to book through them to get it. But just the discount, call WDW direct.

 

[ann0d]

We are also Day 1 members. We love our card. I put everything on it I can. And no Walmart is not considered a grocery store for the 2%. We do a lot of shopping at Walmart and never get the extra 1%. I have even started putting utilities on the card as long as there is no technology fee. We go twice a year and most of the week is free food. This summer we are planning on a new kitchen and should have enough of points for a free room, plus some extra for food. As others have stated you must pay off the balance every month.

I think it depends on which Wal-mart. My sister goes to one and it is under food, but the one I go to is not. Same thing with Target, I get mine under food and I never buy food there, BUT my sister's Target is not under food. I think it depends on how the store sets it up. Don't know how that is determined.

Could it be if it is a Super Wal-mart? :shrug:

 

[ann0d]

The 5% they are offering for the first 3 months, is that off everything you purchase or just the gas/grocery/vacation?

 

[Tinkwings]

I paid college tuitions on mine, and really racked up the points. Just pay it off every month. Great card for Disney travelers with some nice discounts too.

Cool had not thought of that, have my first starting college this Fall!

I use if for EVERYTHING and in turn use the $$$ for food every trip...usually can rack up $500-700$ every year. Am upgrading to the new one that gives 5% for first 3 months...then 2% after...easily makes up for the $49 fee as I would make much more than that towards a trip as I use it now. Plus I have taken advantage of the 6mo no interest option to payoff after tax refund timing. :king:

AND only this visa, I have had many different ones over the years, has called me a few times to verify it was me shopping at a store with a large purchase, and call me at home a few times when an odd transaction appeared coming throught their system that DAY....to me that is priceless.:sohappy:

 

[Tinkwings]

The 5% they are offering for the first 3 months, is that off everything you purchase or just the gas/grocery/vacation?

It is not on everything, but gas, groceries, restaurants and any disney purchases, online or park trips. There is also an offer on the net for a $100 credit for upgrading too! I am going for the 5% I think! Not sure if other is available for current card holders and I aim to keep my number!

 

[sublimesting]

It's worth it because I get to have a little Disney magic every time I pull out the card. Plus I get compliments on it all the time and it strikes up many conversations (especially with ex-CMs).

 

[Joshua&CalebDad]

Such great info...

I would have never thought that my questioon would have ellicited so many responses. I want to thank everyone for taking the time to post to this discussion. I have enjoyed reading the comments and have gotten some great infromation. I'm also sure that there are others out there who have read this and gotten some great info. Please keep the tid bits coming.

As for what I'm going to do...I am not generally one to use credit cards but I believe this will be well worth it. My wife and I have two young sons and can see ourselves planning a Disney vacation once a year. We went last February, are going back in November, and I'm already thinking about when to go in 2013. I hate my obsession for the Mouse, its so costly. :lol:

My wife and I will probably have to set up some ground rules to make sure we can earn the points and to ensure that we don't get hit with any finance charges because that'll be a deal breaker. I'll probably sign up for the card in the next week or so and try to accumulate some points to use for our November trip. If nothing else, we can use the points for souvenier money. I'm not sure if I'll sign up for the 1% or 2% card but I'll play that by ear. Thanks again everyone. :sohappy:

 

[ann0d]

It is not on everything, but gas, groceries, restaurants and any disney purchases, online or park trips. There is also an offer on the net for a $100 credit for upgrading too! I am going for the 5% I think! Not sure if other is available for current card holders and I aim to keep my number!

Thanks I thought it was on everything, now I have to figure out if it is worth the 100.00 or the 5% for three months.

 

[R W B]

Yes, the 2% only applies to purchases classified as groceries. That would be a pretty huge loophole, would it not.

Here's one I wondered about. Currently, I am under the 5% promotion. Could I book a trip for like 15K, get the 5% points and then cancel my trip? I think that would work. The downside is I'm sure I'd get a 15K credit on my statement as opposed to getting 15K back in cash. But if you had a lot of money laying around, you could probably score some pretty big points that way.

Of course the downside is you wouldn't get credit for any points while you paid down that credit. So really, I guess that would merely be an advance on future points. But you could do it just before th 5% expires to maximize the number of points earned during the promotional period.

We're planning a trip in the fall and I'll definitely pay off as much as I can before that promotional period ends. I'm guessing the income tax return will go towards that - which should pay for the trip. That will give us a lot of points to use towards air fare or what have you.

Usually credit card companies have stipulations to prevent you from doing that sort of thing. Often times returning something would make you forfeit the points that you got from that as well. If they didn't have some sort of way of preventing it, people would be gaming the system all the time.

If you know someone with their own business this could work. Have them charge your card for you and then just give you the cash back out of their business bank account. Now you would have to figure out how much said busniess owner would have to pay in Taxes and credit card fees for each time they ran your card to see if it would be worth it or not but in theory it would work.

 

[sbkline]

The 5% they are offering for the first 3 months, is that off everything you purchase or just the gas/grocery/vacation?

Under the premiere card, you get 2% rewards points on restaraunts, gas, groceries (whether or not Walmart Supercenters and Targets qualify as "grocery stores) and Disney owned and operated stuff. Everything else gets 1%.

It is my understanding that the 5% offer for the first 3 months only applies to those items that will qualify for the 2% as listed above, and not to the 1% items.

 

[sbkline]

Easiest and most accurate way to tell, check your last statement. Next to each line item it should tell you the category it was placed in. Each store may be different, but your statement is going to be the most accurate picture of the places YOU shop.

I guess that gets back to the question I asked earlier; if Walmart Supercenters qualify as a "grocery store", does that mean that every single thing purchased there qualifies for the 2%, including DVDs, lawnmowers, chainsaws, etc? Or is it only grocery items that qualify?

If it is the latter, then how would my credit card bill differentiate between the two? If we go grocery shopping tommorrow night and spend $350, it's just going to show up as a $350 charge to Walmart on my credit card bill. But it isn't going to differentiate between different items purchased. I mean, of that $350, $100 of it might be non-grocery items. So I may get 2% points on the $250 of grocery, and only 1% points on the $100 of non grocery items. But I don't think the credit card statement is going to show two different entries to reflect the two categories of rewards points, is it? Isn't it just going to show a $350 transaction at Walmart on 2/29/2012?

I can look at the total amount of the monthly statement, and see what percentage of that amount my monthly accumulated points comprises, but that won't necessarily tell me whether or not my Walmart transactions qualified for the 2%, depending on how much my total bill is and how many transactions there are. If my total credit card bill for the month is $1800, and I have 22 points, then I know that something on my bill is getting me 2% (because 1% accross the board would be 18 points), but is it going to specifically break it down on my bill which transactions or which portions of transactions got me 2% and which items got me 1%? Or would I just have to go through my statement and add up all the gas transactions, all the restaraunt transactions, Disney transactions and Walmart transactions and see if those items add up to the right amount to account for the extra points?

 

[SMPTE MOUSE]

I'm going to upgrade my Disney Chase Card to a Premier card. By my calculations if we put everything on the card, car payments, utilities, gas, groceries, etc, we can earn about $700 a year. That's almost enough to pay for our annual passes. POW! I didn't know about the 3 month 5% window. That's cool!

 

[TheGuyThatMakesSwords]

All personal opinion, based on changes at WDW this past year....

I would suggest NO, it's not worth it. Even though we HAVE one. Let me explain why....

Your rewards are 1.0% cash back, good only for Disney (unless you pay a fee). If you wish to USE those dollars AT WDW, you must get a "Rewards Card". We do this regularly.

In the PAST, we would arrive at WDW, drain the Rewards Card & put the cash into our room account as a "Positive Balance".

Late 2015? There was a "Policy Change" - you can't do this anymore. Now, you must wait until the room account has a NEGATIVE balance - and come back several days later to apply your "Rewards Dollars"..... more hoops.

This has just gotten too complicated for us. There are several OTHER Cards that just offer "1% cash back" - for ANYTHING (including WDW). We've set up our "other" VISA to simply credit the "Cash Back" to our balance owed - and we'll be using THIS card at WDW. Same 10%, no hoops.

Now, it's worth mentioning - we are also APs and DVC members - and we always buy a TIW card. One (or more) of those gives us all the other discounts one MIGHT get with a Disney Chase VISA. But that's US - YOUR situation could be very different.

 

[Disney4family]

We use it for everything. Last year we were able to pay for the Wild Africa Trek and the Pirates Wishes Cruise (at least $1000 total) and still have over a thousand free bucks to spend on food and souvenirs. Whenever my husband sees the visa bill, I always remind him of how much we're saving for our next trip!

 

[FrostyNaples]

Our premiere card fully pays our annual passes just for using every day purchases.

The card is paid for monthly, we do not incur interest fees.

Works great for us. 2% Gas, Grocery, Restaurants, Disney Purchases. 1% Everything else.

We are FL residents, so we don't need sky miles or the such provided by other credit cards out there.

 

[JohnD]

I already had a Chase mortgage and found as soon as I got my Visa, it tied directly into the same account. When I log in, I can see the status of both at exactly the same time. I also have it set so that I can make online payments directly from my bank account. In fact, being pay day, I just did that today. If you're good about maintaining and lining up budget for expenses to the card, you can really add up the points/Disney Rewards. As with any card, don't let you charges get away from you!

 

[CaptainAmerica]

Financially, it doesn't make sense. There are free cards out there that give you 1% cash on purchases. Cash back can be used on anything, including a Disney vacation, so you don't really gain anything with the card that limits you to Disney-only perks. I'm a big believer in my BankAmericard Travel Rewards card. 1.5% travel points (which can be redeemed towards flights and resort stays), no annual fee, and no foreign transaction fee.

Our premiere card fully pays our annual passes just for using every day purchases.

Works great for us. 2% Gas, Grocery, Restaurants, Disney Purchases. 1% Everything else.

You can do better than 1% / 2% with several different cash rewards cards out there, and without an annual fee.

 

[Weather_Lady]

As you investigate the Disney card, look at other kinds of rewards cards to see if there's a better option. For example, I earn about $260 worth of free airfare on my JetBlue AmEx every year ($300 really, minus the $40 annual fee), which I then use when we book travel to WDW. That's also far more than I could earn using a Disney Visa in a year. At 1% cash back, I'd have to put $26,000 on it in a year in order to earn $260 -- almost twice what I'm spending to earn $260 worth of points on the AmEx.

 

[71dsp]

We have a Disney Premier card and use it for nearly all of our purchases. We pay it off monthly and do not incur interest fees. We do use the 6-month 0% financing on Disney trip payments. That 6-month offer still applies when we book through Small World Vacations, so that's kind of nice. I'm on the fence about whether or not the card is worth it purely for the Disney Rewards. We take annual trips to WDW, so we don't have a problem spending the rewards we earn, but I know there are some cards that might be more lucrative. We do try to use our Discover when they offer 5% cash back on things we're likely to purchase (we don't go out of our way to get the 5%, but when they do 5% back for shopping at Amazon, it's nice!).

We have another card (Citi AA), that has some spending thresholds that we have to meet to get certain rewards, so we have to split spending across both cards. However, we pay this one off monthly as well.

If you're not paying the card off monthly and incurring the interest fees, I'd say no credit card rewards are worth that.