Disney Visa?

[Sorria]

We just got the newsletter that its time to renew our annual passes. Along with it they sent a little pamphlet on the Disney Visa card. We've considered the Disney Visa Card before, mainly for the fact that you can rack up points to save for park tickets or resort stays. We're seriously thinking about it this time but I wanted to ask a few things, mainly is the card worth it? Do you get a lot of points for buying stuff, or is it like for every $1,000 you spend you get one redeeming point.

Any information any of you have with the value of the Disney Visa versues the redeeming points towards tickets/resorts I would be very appreciative.

[disneydame2004]

You get 1 point for every $100 you spend on the Visa card. You can then redeem those points for Disney Rewards Dollars at the rate of 1 point = $1.00. The Rewards Dollars go on what is essentially a gift card, and you can use the card to pay for purchases at Disney locations.

There are some other perks, like an exclusive meet & greet in Epcot with a free 5x7 photo, discount at World of Disney in Downtown Disney, free shipping for orders over $75 on DisneyShopping.com, and 0% interest on vacation packages for 6 months.
Bonus offers that earn you more points are few and far between.

To earn enough points to buy an annual pass renewal at approx. $435 (including tax), you would have to charge $43,500 to the visa card.

You can find out more about the Disney Visa Card here: Disney Rewards Visa Card From Chase - Home

[disneycrazy1956]

I give the rewards card to the DW & DD to have a blast in the world of disney. We use the card for most purchases every month and then pay it off. The rewards add up since we usually only go every other year. If we accummalate 300 or so points they can have alot of fun at world of disney and it doesn't blow my budget out of the water. lol. The discount helps, too. You also get a discount on tours of 20%.

[PlutoGirl]

We have a Disney Visa and even without all the other perks the gift card with the rewards $$ on it is a great addition when you get there. Ours last year paid for a meal and a souvenir for each of the 4 of us. It was fun and sort of like mad money. We had no trouble redeeming them or requesting the card, etc.

[mritty]

You can also use the rewards dollars to buy tickets to Disney movies in the theatre, or Disney DVDs and books from any retailer (ie, you can cash them in for a certificate to buy at Wal*Mart, you don't just have to buy from disney.com or anything).

If you do choose to transfer your rewards dollars to a rewards card, you can use the card at any WDW or DL location that accepts credit cards or room keys. I'm 90% sure you can also use them at your local Disney Store.

The only thing to be aware of is that while the rewards points have something like a 5-year expiration, the rewards *cards* have a two-year expiration. You forfeit any dollars that are still on your card when it expires. So you should generally only transfer your points to a card when you know you're about to use them (like a month before an upcoming WDW trip, for example). You can have up to two active cards at any one time. To request a new card, you need to transfer at least 20 points to it. To transfer points to an existing card, you need to transfer at least 10 points at once.

And yes, I love the free 5"x7" photo. It's pretty much one of the only places you'll ever be able to get a photo with more than one character at once. They say the selection of characters changes all the time. When I was there in November, I got my free 5x7 with Mickey, Minnie, and Goofy. Very cool....



BTW, I count at least seven Hidden Mickey's behind us (not counting the big guy himself). How about you? :-)

[harra]

Here's an off-the-wall question about the Disney Rewards Visa......

I really like my American Express because it has great web features and makes it really easy for me to get information about the activity on my card (i.e. statement is ready to view, a weekly e-mail of my balance, e-mails when payments are posted, and bunch of others).

Plus, it let's me schedule payments, etc., etc., etc.

But, my Visa which I got through my bank has a terrible web experience. It has a great reward program (1% of all purchases with no annual limit), but I am starting to hate how hard it is for me to get anything done online.

How is the Disney Visa online experience?

[mritty]

The Disney Visa is through Chase. I have two cards from them (Disney & Amazon). I love their online banking features. You can see your account balance at any time and make payments online instantly or on a single date in the future, or automatically repeatedly in the future. You can get notified when your balance reaches a certain amount, a threshhold for a single transaction is reached, payment is due in X days, payment has posted, etc. The alerts can be either via email or a SMS message, or both.

[harra]

mritty,

Thanks for the quick followup and for the great feedback. My wife has been pressuring me to apply for the card and transition over. We go to a Disney Theme Park several times a year and the Disney Dollars will never go to waste. But, I end up paying 99% of the bills and must have a pleasurable experience when it comes to my money management nightmare.

I think you helped sell me on this....

[lorilovestigger]

Ray-

I have one of these and love it! I use it all the time and just pay it off then. The points seem to add up fast. Once in awhile they have "bonus points" you can earn but you can only get those if they send you a special flyer in the mail and you have to sign up for it. I got one the other day that was earn 5x more points when you spend $600 on hotels, gas, grocery and something else in the months of Jan., Feb. and March.

I use their online site all the time to make payments. You can schedule payments, view current activity, view old statements...... That's also where you would transfer your points onto a rewards card. I just got a rewards card in January and it expires at the end of December of this year. So keep that in mind. I usually transfer my points about 3 weeks or so before my trip. That gives them enough time to get the card to me. And I think I have it within 10 days of ordering it.

If you have any questions, you can always PM me.

Lori

[mritty]

Also, if you do forget to transfer points to a card before you leave for your trip, you can do it at Downtown Disney while you're there.

[harra]

You guys are making it hard to find a reason to not get this card. Granted I love my America Express One card. It gives me a 1% reward that it deposits into a bank account backed by America Express that gets 4% interest (just like ING bank) and I can add more of my own money to it.

But, there are people who refuse to take American Express (especially in the small town I live in). I guess I'm going to have to make the move. Who can refuse free Disney Dollars

Edited to Add:
I'm also one of those people who don't roll a balance, so it's all free rewards to me

[Rocketeer]

Here's my $0.02 worth of experience - I'm a minimalist and carry as few credit monkeys as possible. But with a WDW trip back a few years ago, I did sign up for the VISA, and used it only to get the 20% discounts for the behind the scene tours. I may have used it for one or two other things while there - but minimal. Then I cancelled shortly after the trip. Probably not the best for my credit rating, but I had no concerns about that.

And on the other side of the coin, harra, I'm a 'small-town' business owner, and do not (anymore) accept American Express - their merchant fees were out of this world, about double what the MC/VS/DC fees were. When someone asks if we take AE, I say nope - and they don't hesitate to pull out another card (probably a Disney Visa!) I do have a personal Chase Visa, and use it for business charges, paid off in full, with CASH back - usually a check sent back every other month... stuffed in my mattress for the next FL trip ;-) ... The unfortunate truth is that those Cash-back cards - guess where the cash comes from? For many cards it is itemized right on my statement that, for example, an additional 0.25% was charged against my account because it was a DC. Oh well - It's all a big game.

[harra]

And on the other side of the coin, harra, I'm a 'small-town' business owner, and do not (anymore) accept American Express - their merchant fees were out of this world, about double what the MC/VS/DC fees were.

I knew that. I used to be work as a corporate General Ledger Accountant and had to balance the statements from MC/VS and AMEX for one of the company's holdings. I noticed that right away. I was then told that the fees are even higher for those people who don't have a lot of throughput. The more AMEX charges you get, the lower you can negotiate the fee.

[SuzyQ]

We have both a Disney Visa and an Alaska Air Visa. You know - with the price of fuel and airline tickets getting so high, the annual fee for the AAVisa is not so bad considering we receive a companion ticket each year as well as miles for all purchases. So in essence, for us, if we spent 20,000 we could get a round trip domestic ticket on Alaska Air which (depending on where we go) is about $250-350. With our Disney Visa, that 20,000 gets us $200 is Disney Dollars.

So, for our family, the Alaska rewards card is gaining us better rewards. (Though we do love having Mickey on our Visa!)

[BethD]

I Love my Disney Visa and use it for all my everyday purchases (and of coarse pay it off at the end of the month). I also love getting the free Meet & Greet at Epcot with a FREE 5x7 photo. Hey the free photo is worth it for me! Plus when I pull out my Disney Visa card with Mickey & Friends on the front....just makes me smile!