Money Saving Tips for Discount Disney Gift Cards
This covers our best money-saving tips for buying discount Disney gift cards via Target, Kroger, BJ’s Wholesale Club, Costco, Sam’s Club, Meijer, Best Buy and beyond. Some deals offer big savings for your Walt Disney World vacation, while others are smaller but easier. (Updated May 3, 2024.)
Since we are pretty big on stretching our vacation dollar with all sorts of travel hacks, we thought we’d share some of the best methods for scoring discounted Disney gift cards. Some of this might sound complicated and intimidating, but it’s really easy once you get the hang of it, and the upside is so tremendous that it makes the effort of learning well worth it.
With that said, I understand that this is not going to be for everyone. If you don’t have a credit card or are uncomfortable making online purchases, this definitely isn’t for you. While there are a few 101 level travel hacks here, a couple of the tricks are more 404 level.
As good deals come and go, we update this post with the best options for saving money on Disney gift cards. (If you see a “last updated” date at the top of this post, it’s because we’ve found a new limited time deal.) Some of them are convoluted and have limited applicability. Others are open to everyone but have stricter purchase limits.
Regardless, this is one of the easiest way to save money on Walt Disney World vacations–and one of the few that is “stackable” with other discounts. Subscribe to our free email newsletter for a heads up if or when more Disney gift card deals go live.
With that said, here are the various options for saving money on Disney gift cards. Note that these are not always available–they come and go. If you click a link and full price gift cards come up, you’re not missing anything–the deal isn’t being offered!
Sam’s Club
Sam’s Club has a doorbuster deal for on gift cards from May 3-5, 2024. During this sale, members may purchase Disney gift cards for 10% off, to be delivered electronically. When offered, these deals are online only and while supplies last; prices may vary in club.
Disney gift cards aren’t the only ones on sale via Sam’s Club right now. The other big one that’ll be relevant to readers of this site is Southwest Airlines. You can purchase a $500 gift card for only $420 for Southwest–a really good deal!
Note that this is an eGift card, and it will be emailed within 48 hours of purchase. It also also supposed to be limited to 2 per membership, but we’re seeing widespread reports of that not being enforced and subsequent orders not only going through but also being fulfilled–effectively making this 10% off an unlimited number of gift cards, which is huge.
From time-to-time, people have reported being able to buy multiples of gift card deals at warehouse clubs–but that’s usually been 4 instead of 2. We saw someone say they bought over $3,000 of gift cards without issues during this deal! But just because it’s working now doesn’t mean it will be in a few hours or days, so move fast!
It’s also worth noting that Sam’s Club is available via various credit card and online cashback portals. Almost all of those explicitly exclude gift card purchases from receiving cash back, but it still doesn’t hurt to try. Might get through and end up saving even more money.
Kroger Fuel Points
For those of you near Kroger grocery stores, this is one of the better “everyday” ways to save on Disney gift cards (well, technically, you’re saving money on gas, but it’s because of the gift cards). Normally, every dollar you spend at Kroger earns 1 fuel point, or 2 fuel points on gift card purchases. Kroger is currently offering 4X fuel points through May 14, 2024, which really sweetens the deal.
For every 100 fuel points you redeem, you save $0.10 off every gallon of gas (up to $1/gallon off) you purchase on a single fuel purchase. The precise value of this deal varies based upon how large of a gas tank you’re filling (and how empty your tank), so obviously those with trucks and larger vehicles are going to do better here.
Let’s say your gas tank has 25 gallons of empty space: the normal offer could be worth $25 for every $500 spent (5% savings). With the 4X deal, you’re looking at 10% savings. Stack this with a credit card that earns extra at grocery stores, and this can be one of the best deals out there when the 4X bonus is available.
While we use this for Disney gift cards, like many of the offers here, the same theory can be applied to a variety of other stores, including Target, Lowe’s, Southwest Airlines, GAP, iTunes, and Visa. Note to be mindful that the generic ‘Visa’ gift cards have an activation fee, which more or less kills the deal.
BJ’s Wholesale Club
Similar story here as with the other warehouse clubs–Disney eGift cards are discounted from time to time. Unlike Sam’s Club and Costco, these are not usually 10% off–they’re random prices, like $24.49 for a $25 gift card or $95 for $100 or $141 for $150.
Those savings aren’t as good as what you’d find at the other warehouse/wholesale clubs, but there is one important thing to note, which is that BJ’s occasionally loads coupons into accounts and those can be used on gift cards. So if you have one for $10 off $125, suddenly that $150 gift card is potentially more attractive! (Of course, that means not using the coupon on something else, so there is opportunity cost.)
There’s also the reality that most households don’t have memberships to multiple wholesale clubs, and this is better than nothing. Also that limits on gift card deals may mean that you buy the “good enough” savings after maxing out the best deals!
Costco
Costco Wholesale sometimes sells Disney eGift cards for ~10% off. We were hoping that they’d match the Sam’s Club deal in May 2024, but we don’t see any Disney gift cards currently available.
When this deal is offered, you need to be an active Costco Member and signed in to your account to purchase at sale price. This is delivered via email, so the recipient’s email address must be supplied in email field on the Shipping Address page.
There’s a limit of 2 Disney gift cards per membership. These can be combined with other gift cards via Disney’s online management tool. We’ve seen scattered reports (with hit or miss results) of some Costco members being able to make two different transactions, each with 2 gift cards in them.
It seems like you’re more likely to be successful if you have a membership with multiple members on it, each having a unique ID. Or if you place one order one day, and another the next. Regardless, don’t be surprised if your second transaction is unsuccessful. (We haven’t heard of anyone managing 3 or more orders. Two is the max.)
Best Buy
Another currently unavailable but frequently repeated discount is Best Buy offering 10% discounts to My Best Buy Plus or Total members. For those who are unfamiliar with it, this is essentially their version of Amazon Prime, offering expedited shipping and access to exclusive sale prices.
It’s also not uncommon to find discount Disney gift cards are sold at Best Buy without the need for a BB+ membership. That’s happened multiple times for Black Friday or Cyber Monday, with the retailer selling $50 Disney gift cards for $45, or a savings of 10% off.
Where this deal gets really sweet is if you have If you have any Chase credit or debit cards (or the Best Buy card), as many of these have targeted offers for 10% cashback at Best Buy. That should be stackable with this offer, making the discount even better.
In terms of fine print, you’re limited to one Disney gift card per transaction and account, although some people have reported success placing 2 separate orders or buying more with different accounts. Others have had their subsequent order(s) cancelled, not that we know from personal experience or anything. Basically, it’s YMMV after the first order.
Target REDCard
The Target REDcard gets you an automatic 5% discount on any purchase at Target, including gift cards. Among other things, Target sells Disney gift cards both online and in-store, making for a simple way to save 5% on your Walt Disney World vacation.
If you don’t have a Target Red Card it might be worth getting one just to take advantage of this deal. Consider this: many Disney fans are Disney Visa cardholders (a fairly crumby credit card, honestly) because of the Disney perks. However, by virtue of this one deal, the Target Red Card is unquestionably a better card from a rewards perspective for Disney fans.
It may not have Mickey Mouse’s picture on the card, but the Target REDcard gives Disney fans (who know how to use it) greater rewards. You can also take advantage of it with the Target Red Debit Card, which can be a good option for those who don’t want a credit card…or another one.
Meijer Mperks
If you live in the Midwest or one of the other regions in the United States with Meijer stores, they often run $5 off $50 promos on gift cards. When available, this is limited to a total of 10 rewards purchases–or $500 in gift cards–per Mperks account. (Meijer routinely runs this offer, usually multiple times per year.)
This means you can purchase a single Disney gift card for $500 and you’ll earn ten rewards of $5 (or $50 total) to use on future purchases. This essentially makes it identical to the BJ’s deal, albeit without the membership and Chase Freedom credit card requirements–the only catch here is that not everyone has Meijer stores near them. Sadly, we don’t!
Warehouse Clubs
Even easier than the Kroger Fuel Points is the discounted Disney gift cards Sam’s Club and Costco sometimes sell. These gift cards (or packs of gift cards) aren’t always available, and when they are, the savings are usually 4-6%, but if you’re not too keen on the other methods (or don’t have Kroger near you), it can be a “better than nothing” scenario.
This deal can be sweetened if you have a Chase Freedom credit card, as wholesale clubs are one of the rotating 5X categories (this quarter, in fact). Speaking of credit cards, make sure you have the correct credit card when visiting your warehouse club of choice (Sam’s Club now accepts Visa; Costco stopped accepting AmEx). You don’t want to have to pay in cash, causing you to lose out on that bonus!
Cashback Portals
Another way to sweeten the deal is by combining the gift card churning with cashback shopping portals. There are a variety of these, and the percentages of cashback they offer can vary based upon what promos they’re offering, and the product purchased. I like to use cashbackmonitor.com or evreward.com for a quick “at a glance” comparison of the cashback portals.
I use cashback portals fairly regularly, but this typically does not hold true when it comes to gift card churning. Many retailers exclude gift cards from their cashback offers, and while you can still game the system to get cashback on gift card purchases (although they are technically excluded, the retailers and cashback sites often do not effectively communicate as to the substance of the order), it’s inconsistent.
More importantly (for me, at least), I’ve heard stories of people being blacklisted from certain online retailers as a result of “manipulating” the cashback portals for their gift card purchase rackets. This is another “your mileage may vary” situation, so consider giving it a try for greater savings.
This is another option that can be leveraged in myriad different ways, and with cards that have nothing to do with Disney. If you’re really serious and/or crazy, you could go full circle and apply the principles gleaned here to do manufactured spends. I’m not going to go into further detail on that, as the line between that type of churning and “gift card laundering” is a thin one. Both sides of that “line” are totally legal, the latter might cause some headaches.
With all of these strategies, I’d recommend not doing this too far in advance of your trip; if you’re doing any of this 3 years in advance, you aren’t beating the system at all–you’d be better off making actual investments given typical ROI and the time value of money.
I’d also recommend not tying up more money than you can afford to be stuck in limbo; if you’re paying interest on credit cards to fund this, you’re also losing in the grand scheme of things. Finally, be careful. While all of this is perfectly legal, businesses aren’t exactly “fans” of customers exploiting their policies. If you are cycling a lot of money through any retailer solely in gift card purchases, you might draw some attention to yourself, and risk catching their ire.
With all of that said, good luck leveraging these Disney gift card hacks to save a little more money on your Walt Disney World vacation! With a little work, these strategies can be incredibly valuable and make those exorbitant prices a little more palatable. Once you learn the ropes with using these tactics for Disney, think bigger picture. There are entire blogs and websites devoted to travel hacks, including churning, manufactured spends, etc. Once you get the hang of it, the possibilities are almost endless.
Likewise, if anything sounds confusing, feel free to ask questions–everyone starts from the beginning, and my explanations as someone who has been ‘hacking’ for a while might be insufficient for walking beginners through these processes from start to finish.
Need Disney trip planning tips and comprehensive advice? Make sure to read Disney Parks Vacation Planning Guides, where you can find comprehensive guides to Walt Disney World, Disneyland, and beyond! For Disney updates, discount information, a free download of our Money-Saving Tips for Walt Disney World eBook, and much more, sign up for our free monthly newsletter!
Your Thoughts
Have you tried purchasing “discount” Disney gift cards to cut the cost of your vacation? Any other strategies you’ve used to save for a Walt Disney World trip? Questions about any of the techniques we’ve shared? We love hearing from readers, so please share some of your favorite ways to save, or any other thoughts or questions you have, in the comments!
Thanks so much for the tips! I just got a $200 Disney gift card from Target that ended up costing me $170. Now that I think I understand how it works I’ll try with the larger amounts!
How did you do that? I heard about the target red card that is 5% off but don’t understand how it is more than that. I want to do this to pay the balance of my trip.
i was able to score 300$ in free target gift cards (and then convert to Disney GC with my 5% red card discount for more bang for my buck) by taking advantage of H&R blocks gift card promotion. When using H&R block online to file taxes they had a 10% back promotion for any amount of your tax refund that you placed on a gift card to one of various merchants. I put 3000$ into virtual/mobile GC (sad to say it’s all gone only 6 months later-But put to good use on things my family needed anyway). I then got an additional 300$ on my card that I was able to use to order my Disney gift cards. I am keeping my fingers crossed for the same promotion for the 2016 tax filing season!
One more quick thing–alert your credit card company just before you buy more than a few hundred dollars of giftcards on raise.com or any other websites similar to–you’ll set off the fraud protection and freeze your card.
THANK YOU FOR THIS STRATEGY!!!!
In the past 4 days I’ve purchased nearly $2250 in Target cards on Raise.com (used my Disney visa and earned 1% on it). Then headed over to Target.com to use them with my redcard. I was nervous that some of them wouldn’t work, but I had no trouble! It did require a fair amount of concentration to cut and paste and apply all the various giftcards and codes to each order. And target only had $50 cards available, with a max of 4 per order. I placed 13 separate target orders for $200 worth of giftcards and had no trouble. Got my 5% and free shipping! Now I just have to wait until they come in and consolidate them on to a two or three cards (according to the FAQ the maximum amount for a card is $1000) at disneygiftcards.com. AND then apply it to our trip balance! The husband and I are headed to Coronado Springs in August for our 10th anniversary. I had signed up for your newsletter a few months ago and happened upon the link to this page– so glad I did, it just saved me over $250!!!!! If you’re skeptical, I was, try it, it’s not as hard as it seems!
Can you please tell me more about how you did this on the target.com site? I did the raise.com part with no trouble but I was just told by Target that I can only “get the 5% REDcard discount, only if your order is placed using REDcard on Target.com.” This doesn’t seem to be consistent with the success you had. Am I missing something?
I agree with Lisa-Marie Barker. Additionally, the 5% only applies to the amount that’s charged to the REDcard. Please see program rules here: https://rcam.target.com/help/HelpDiscountRules.aspx
I’m stuck now with a bunch of Target gift cards where I could’ve bought the Disney gift cards direct from Target for 5% off rather than through Raise at 4.5%.
I’d suggest re-reading the post and trying again with your REDcard loaded. This is a known loophole that works.
If you *still* don’t believe me for whatever reason, Google it. You’ll find countless forum posts on the topic, with countless individuals posting about their (successful) results…
Hi Tom. My REDcard is in fact loaded. I even put in the CCV code. After I’ve selected all my gift cards for payment clicking on “Review My Order” removes my REDcard discount and removes my REDcard as a form of payment. I even chatted with the online rep and “Macey” stated because I’m not charging anything to my REDcard, the 5% discount doesn’t apply. I’m not sure how you’re able to bypass them. Does it matter what browser you’re using?
FYI for anyone that tries. I was having a hard time using Google Chrome for this deal to work. I just used Internet Explore and was able to get the discount the way Tom presented it. Lesson learned: use Internet Explorer.
That’s really odd. I’ve definitely used Google Chrome and haven’t had that issue–it’s a good lesson, nonetheless, if you’re having an issue! Thanks for reporting back! 🙂
Richard, you need to have your Target REDcard set as your default payment and then enter your gift cards which will cover the total amount and won’t charge it to your REDcard.
Katie – did you get all of your gc from Target ok and with no issues? I would like to do your strategy and buy around $3K worth of Disney cards in $200 increments and wondered if placing that many separate orders would be a flag?? thanks for your help!
There are gift cards available that can only be used at Disney Stores or at Disneystore.com. ABCgiftcards.com frequently sells these cards at a 10%-15% discount. Has anybody tried using a disneystore.com gift card on the website to buy a Disney gift card that can be used at Disney World? I have a feeling that this won’t work or the disneystore.com gift cards wouldn’t sell at such a large discount.
You are right. Disney will not let you use a gift card to buy a gift card, even with merchandise in your cart.
Good article thank-you for all of the tips. In the past I have used a similar route to your Raise-Target combination. I’ve usually use giftcardgranny to search for the best discounts on Walmart gift cards (typically 3%-4% off). If the discounted cards are available through Raise or Cardpool, make sure that you go through a shopping portal to get an additional 1%-2% cash back. You can find the best shopping portal paybacks on cashbackmonitor.com. Walmart gift cards can be used at Sam’s Club. Sam’s Club is selling Disney gift cards at a 5% discount. If you go though a shopping portal for your Sam’s Club purchase, you can receive up to another 4% cash back on your purchase right now. I haven’t done all of the math properly, but I’m guessing that with all of the cash back included this should be about a 12% discount
I just double-checked and the portals do not pay out on gift cards bought through Sam’s Club. This would lower the expected total discount to 8%-9% total. If you have a Chase Ink card I’ve got one more trick up my sleave. You can use the Chase Ink Preferred card to buy a $300 Visa gift card from Staples.com. You’ll spend $8.95 to activate the card, but you’ll receive over 1500 Ultimate Rewards which, if used properly, should be worth about $30 towards travel. Then, use the Visa gift card to buy the discounted Walmart or Target gift card and so on.
Thanks for the advice! Just paid $86.89 for a $95.72 Target gift card. Logged into account and made sure my RedCard was primary – added 2 $50.00 Disney gift cards (the $100.00 is not available currently online) and it brought price down to $95.00 with 5% savings. Applied the gift card from Raise.com (which was delivered immediately via email) and it is on its way! Thanks again!
Ok so I thought this was going to be really complicated but I figured I would give it a try….and it worked!!! Thanks so much for the detailed instructions and for saving me some money!
I just got a $100 Disney GC for $83. Thank you! Thank you!
Awesome! Raise.com and Target, I assume?
I’m very confused because I went to target.com and it says you can’t get 5% back on gift cards, I even called a customer service agent and he confirmed no cash back on gift cards. Am I missing something? What does it mean to have your red card loaded?
Mandy, that is true but I believe it works for Disney cards bc they list that as an entertainment card and not gift card.
You are getting a 5% discount when you use your red card to buy disney gift cards at target. I know this works because I have been buying them over the last several weeks to pay for our upcoming WDW trip. The 5% came off no problem, both in store and online. You just have to watch online because the first order tried to charge me sales tax, and it shouldn’t. I emptied my cart and started over and it worked fine. There’s a limit to online orders, but I haven’t been limited in store yet. I purchased 6 $100 disney gift cards at a time in store with no problem.
Target gift cards are back in stock on Raise, and Disney gift cards are back in stock on Target.com. GO GO GO!!! 🙂
only seeing max 1.2% discount on Raise.com, are all the good ones gone?
Thank you for the update Tom. Although I was only able to avail of the 1% discount from Raise, the $5 reward plus the coupon code APP10 that gave me an additional $10 off plus my 5% discount from my target card got me a nice amount of savings. Enough to pay for the gratuities for our table service dining. Thank you so much Tom really 🙂 we already have a total of 4 trips to Disney including Disney Sea in Japan and for all of those, I have turned to your blog each and every time. From daily touring to dining to snacking to where to stay in Japan…. Cant say it enough 🙂 Thank you.
Again an excellent job Tom!
It seems no matter what we do to save Disney price increases certainly put a serous dent in our pockets:(
Very interesting 😉 Great job listing and explaining all the options!
I giggled a bit reading MS. In most situations I’m averse to “getting over” because someone is then losing on the other side. But when that side has been getting over on everyone else for too long, then it’s not a problem, lol.
Every once in a while, I see that come up on the comments to personal finance blogs I read, and the general response to the person (who usually takes a ‘holier than thou’ approach) is “you can’t possibly be serious.”
I know this is hardly a Robin Hood type scenario, but I won’t lose any sleep over exploiting a known, totally legal loophole in the systems of the credit card companies and banks.
Now Disney gift cards are out of stock on Target.com AND Target gift cards are out of stock on Raise.com. Both should be back in stock soon (I’ll keep you posted), but it sure was crumby timing since I *just* posted this article. :-/
At least the other methods (and purchasing in-store at Target) are still working…
After seeing the prices for MVMCP tickets I decided this route would be the way to go. I just signed up for a REDcard after reading your post. Do you only get the 5% off online and not in store if you’re paying with a Target gift card and not the actual REDcard?
5% in store too!
Ooops, but only using red-card. If you use a gc at Target, you don’t get the 5%.
We are in western Pa also, and shop at the grocery chain here Giant Eagle.
They have their own gas stations that we are allowed 30 gallons of gas in a single fill with their gift card/gas points program, and my husband has it down to a science with filling his vehicle and using gas cans to get the full 30 gallons each time. When gas was $3-$4 a gallon this was particularly amazing (still a great deal at $2.50/gal).
We wait for the Disney gift cards to double their discount to 20 cents off of a gallon of gas for every $50 you buy in gift cards. They promote this!
We buy our Disney gift cards during that promotion, we then use them to pay for our trips, pay our DVC dues, shopping and dining while at the parks.
Our credit card we use to buy them with is a 1.7% back on purchases card.
With DVA, I thought you could have the balance loaded onto one gift card if done within a certain amount of time, I think I read 4-5 weeks. That gift card could be used in the parks and restaurants no?
I haven’t read that anywhere, but if someone else has, I’d love to hear about it.
The problem with DVA is that it seems to be seldom-used and ever-changing, so there’s not a ton of current, reliable info on it.
Here is what I found in the FAQ on the DVA webiste
To purchase a Disney Gift Card with your Disney Vacation Account, please call (407) 939-7734 to make your request. No more than $1,000 in total from the Disney Vacation Account can be used to purchase Disney Gift Cards every 90 days. Also, your Disney Vacation Account must be active for a minimum of 60 days in order to purchase a Disney Gift Card. Please request your Disney Gift Card at least 4-6 weeks prior to your trip to allow time for delivery to your mailing address.
So it seems you can purchase Disney giftcards with your account.
Just registered for raise.com and they do not sell Target gift cards. Not sure if I did something wrong. Are there any other stores on there that will work?
thanks
It looks like the gift cards are currently out of stock. This happens from time to time, so keep checking.
Thank you. Target is also showing Disney Gift Cards no longer available on line. Is it still possible to use the Target Gift card in the store and get the 5%. I do have a Redcard also.
Giant in Eastern PA has the Gas Points for Disney cards too, usually 8-10% if you hit it right. One note and this may happen with all grocery stores, the last time I did this, they were considering having to pay with debit rather than credit, I guess they’ve been getting fraud buying gift cards.
On a side note, with gas points, at least Giant gives you up to 25 gallons on one car. We bring gas cans to max out all 25 gallons.
Haha, that’s awesome about the gas cans! Thanks for sharing the name of the store–hopefully that’ll help others!
Giant Eagle in western PA… Wait until the fuel perks double to 20 cents off a gallon per $50 in gift cards usually, though for the leap year this year they did 29 cents off a gallon per every 50 spent, so i loaded up on places i intended to shop in order to get a free tank of gas, including disney! 🙂
As of today (May 2, 2016) target.com says Disney gift cards are “in store only.” (NOOOOO…!!!!) Hope this is temporary since I was just getting in the groove of buying my Disney gift cards.
Yes I saw that too…I’m hoping temporary..anyone know? I got a bunch of target gc I planned to use at target to buy disney gift cards online…