Pay for disney vacation with gift cards

Have you ever wanted to pay for your Disney vacation with gift cards? Well, now you can!

We’d like to announce that we’ve added the ability to pay for your Disney vacations with gift cards. Now, you can use any kind of card: Visa, MasterCard, American Express—you name it. We also accept Google Pay and Apple Pay.

It’s so simple: just go to the booking page and select “Pay with Gift Card” on the payment options dropdown menu. You’ll be prompted to enter your gift card information in order to complete your booking. You can even pay with several different cards at once if you’d like!

We’re thrilled about this new feature because it allows us to offer more flexibility in how our customers pay for their stay at Disney World or Disneyland Resort. And we know that many of our guests have been waiting for this option for a long time now—so we hope that you’re as excited as we are about it!

How to Save Money on Disney Gift Cards

Target Redcard

The most consistent and easiest way to save money on Disney gift cards is via the Target RedCard. There are two versions of the Target RedCard, a credit card and a debit card version. The debit card version has the advantage of not even needing a credit check. You link it directly to your bank account.

When you pay for a Target purchase with your RedCard online or in store you receive a flat 5% off. This includes Disney gift cards which you can purchase in store OR online. That makes using your Target RedCard to buy Disney gift cards at Target a consistent way to save 5% off of all your Disney gift card purchases.

Wholesale Clubs

Wholesale clubs like Costco, BJ’s, and Sam’s Club are also great options for buying Disney gift cards. Depending on the store, you can save up to 4-6% on Disney gift cards just for buying it at the store (or online, if applicable).

Wholesale clubs become an even better source of savings when you can stack your purchases with credit card rewards. Cards like the Chase Freedom often include wholesale clubs in their 5% cash back category so you can “stack” the savings from both your credit card and the sale price at the wholesale club. We’ll discuss stacking strategies further down in the article.

Grocery Store Fuel Rewards

Groceries stores like Kroger, Safeway, and Stop and Shop have fuel rewards programs. In general you earn one point per dollar spent at the grocery store and 100 points will give you a savings of 10 cents per gallon on a fill up. In recent years many stores have given customers the ability to redeem fuel rewards for fuel or groceries, giving us even more flexibility with our rewards points.

You can often do better than 1 fuel reward per point. Grocery stores will often run 2X, 4X, or even 5X fuel rewards points earned on gift card purchases, including Disney gift cards. The best way to stay on top of these deals is to check your weekly circular. The circular will indicate if bonus points are being offered for gift card purchases and at 5X fuel rewards points you’re essentially saving 5% on your Disney gift card purchase. Make sure Disney gift cards are included in the sale before you purchase.

AMEX Offers

If you hold an American Express card, you will have access to AMEX offers. American Express offers cardholders discounts and savings at many stores. To use an AMEX offer, you simply log in to your online American Express account and “add” the offer to your card.

We’ve never seen Disney in an AMEX offer, but that doesn’t mean you can’t save money on Disney gift cards through AMEX offers. The above offer gives 1 extra Membership Reward point per eligible dollar spent at Best Buy. Since Best Buy sells Disney gift cards, we can purchase Disney gift cards from Best Buy and earn extra points. Sometimes you will see offers that give you 10% back on your purchase which represents a significant savings. Remember Home Depot, Lowe’s, Bed Bath and Beyond, and many other stores that don’t scream “Disney” sell Disney gift cards, so be sure to check your AMEX offers to see what discounts you can get. 

Cash Back Portals

One simple way to save money when shopping online is via cash back portals. Cash back portals such as Rakuten and Ibotta earn you a small percentage of cash back whenever you click through the portal to get to the retail website you make your online purchase from. While gift cards generally are excluded from cash back portal terms and conditions, sometimes gift card purchases will track for cash back through these portals so they are always worth experimentation and a try. Use cashbackmonitor.com to search for the best cash back portal for your purchase.

Credit Card Bonus Categories

Many travel rewards and cash back credit cards offer bonus categories. Some, like the American Express Everyday Preferred Card, will offer you a flat 3X points in categories such as groceries. Others, like the Chase Freedom or Discover it® cards offer quarterly bonuses. The Chase Freedom, for example, offers quarterly bonuses of 5% cash back in rotating categories up to $75 in cash back earned per quarter.

Credit card bonus categories help you earn a little bit more back when you’re buying Disney gift cards and are a key component of “stacking” rewards when buying Disney gift cards. So let’s finish things up by taking a look at how you can stack discounts together.

Where can I buy Disney gift cards?

You can buy Disney gift cards almost anywhere gift cards are sold. Some popular places to buy Disney gift cards include the grocery store, wholesale clubs, department stores like Target, electronics stores like Best Buy, and even some home improvement stores. Depending on the particular outlet, you may be able to purchase Disney gift cards in store, online, or both. 

Disney gift cards are generally sold in denominations of $25-$500, both as fixed denomination cards and variable denomination cards. A variable denomination gift card will require you to tell the cashier how much money you want to put on the gift card (generally between $25-$500).

Do Disney gift cards expire?

Disney gift cards do not expire.

Can I track my Disney gift cards online?

Disney recently updated its gift card website, disneygiftcard.com. You log in with your existing Disney account login and can manage and track up to six different Disney gift cards on the website. You can also buy gift cards directly from Disney at the same site.

Can the value of Disney gift cards be combined?

Yes! You can combine different Disney gift cards up to a maximum of $1000 total on an individual card. You do this at disneygiftcard.com. Click on the gift card you want to add money to and then click on “add funds from another card.” As long as the total when you combine two cards does not exceed $1000, you can combine the values of the cards to keep everything on one card. It’s a lot easier to manage one $200 gift card than 8 different $25 gift cards!

Can I link Disney gift cards to my Disney MagicBand or Disney MagicMobile?

As of right now, you cannot directly link a Disney gift card to your MagicBand or the new Disney MagicMobile system. However, if you’re staying at an on-site Disney World hotel you can pay your hotel room bill with a Disney gift card. Any purchases you make on your MagicBand will be billed to your hotel room so you can use a Disney gift card to pay for those purchases, albeit indirectly.