Money Saving Tips for Discount Disney Gift Cards
This covers our best money-saving tips for buying discount Disney gift cards via Target, Kroger, Meijer, Sam’s Club, Best Buy, and beyond. Some deals offer big savings for your Walt Disney World vacation, while others are modest but easier. (Updated December 11, 2023.)
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!
Costco
Costco Wholesale currently is selling $250 Disney eGift Cards for $225 (deal available as of December 11, 2023–no end date is known). 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, meaning $500 for the price of $450. 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.)
Sam’s Club
From time to time, Sam’s Club 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. The last time we saw this offered was at the start of the Christmas 2023 shopping season.
Note that this is an eGift card, and it will be emailed within 48 hours of purchase. 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!
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.
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. On occasion, Kroger offers 4X fuel points (sometimes it’s for a period of weeks, sometimes for a single day), 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.
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!
BJ’s Wholesale Club
Another good deal available from time to time is via BJ’s Wholesale Club. Members can purchase a $500 gift card for a discounted amount, sometimes as low as $469.99 during sales. This savings isn’t huge on its own, but it’s sometimes the best option–and it can be “sweetened” for some Chase credit card holders.
That’s because if you have a Chase Freedom credit card, the quarterly 5% bonus category can include PayPal purchases, and you can use pay on the BJ’s site using PayPal linked to your Chase Freedom credit card. In that scenario, the effective cost ends up being under $450 for the $500 Disney gift card. Double win!
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!
Has anyone used the raise.com Disney gift cards to wards their vacation cost? I see they are normally on there for 1% discount but I regularly get a 5% off your order email from raise making it 6% off total. Any feedback would be great. Thanks.
I just crunched some numbers and came up with an alternate way to get to a 10% discount for Disney Gift Cards by combining some of the tips above. It does include having a membership or access to Sam’s Club, and a credit card with rotating cash back in warehouse stores. So far it is only theoretical as I have not done it myself.
Sam’s Club just announced a new Disney Gift Card denomination of $500 being sold at a 5% discount of $445. It seems like this is limited to one per an account, but it is not clear if that is within a time period. They also sell a pack of $150 at a cost of $143 (4.7% discount), and $50 at a cost of $48 (4.7% discount). If you buy these using a cash back card with rotating bonuses, like Discover, that can be 5% extra.
Let’s say you buy to the amount of $1,000 (using a 500, three 150, and a 50), and your savings is $48 from the discount and also about $50 from your credit card. Now put those gift cards into a Disney Vacation Savings Account for an extra bonus $20 for free per $1,000. Now you have $1,020 to spend with a personal cost of $926, or otherwise put a savings of $118.
While it may not be the best use of funds to keep them tied up in the DVSA compared to other investing options, it is a decent option when done in the short term a few months before a trip. Keep in mind that the account must be set up at least 120 days before the bonus is applied. This savings can quickly multiply if you are paying for a Disney cruise, Adventures by Disney, or a large family trip to a Disney park. Something like two people doing a domestic Adventures by Disney could be paid off with $5,100 of spending funds and personal output of only $4,630 by planning about four months out. That’s getting $470 off the sticker price, plus any travel agent bonus or Costco bonus (about $200 for this amount).
I would caveat that using a credit card with trip insurance or travel coverage may still be a better choice depending upon your needs. Some cards will provide this full coverage even if only a portion of the trip is put directly on the card.
Update: I just did this successfully and saved about $300 for a big family trip using warehouse club sold Disney gift cards and cc cash back. That’s cool. I missed out on the window to set up the Disney Savings Account that has to be done a few months ahead of time.
I just found out today/late last night as well that my order got cancelled. I was bit surprised since my last order was on August 9th with Target.com and went through successfully. I thought maybe my account was ‘blacklisted” for some reason and decided to check here to see if others had the same issue. I’m sad as well since I have quite a few Target GC’s as well that I had planned on using in the next couple of weeks. Even on this last order I had used my Target Redcard to pay a small remaining amount and it got cancelled.
I’ve been using his Raise/Target combo for months, but in going to buy the Disney card on Target.com today my order processed and then was canceled by Target. In talking to Target Customer Service it sounds like they’ve recently changed their gift card policies and egiftcards from third party sellers (like Raise.com) can no longer be used to buy gift cards.
Disappointing! You can still get the 5% off for buying Disney gift cards with your RedCard but won’t be able to use the Raise.com egiftcards. 🙁
Just noticed this myself and updated the post.
I hope this is a temporary issue with the system, and not a permanent policy change. Could be the end of an era. 🙁
Thank you Tom! Just bought 100 dollars worth of gift cards for $83!! Every little bit helps!
Nevermind my order was just canceled
Re: The Disney Vacation account.
I didn’t read through all the comments to see if someone told you this already but the vacation account allows you to request the balance of your account, or any amount of your balance, to be mailed to you in a physical gift card. It has to be done 2 month prior to your travel date for processing and whatnot but it is possible to get the money out of you account and on to one gift card.
Just thought you might want to know.
I’m having the same issue with Target and Raise 🙁 I was doing it successfully until today. Now I’m stuck with $$$ in Target gift cards and can’t use them for the Disney trip. Boo policy change!
Has anyone else had the issue now with not allowing gift cards on purchases of Disney gift cards? My wife and I were going to do this here shortly.
I am having issues. Apparently, Target changed their policy. 🙁
That is awesome. I guess at least we can still get the %5 off. Better than nothing.
Yes. On the Target gift cards, The Disney card fine print clearly states you cannot use a Target gift card as payment. I could not get around this.
I just did without issue
Darn it. They just canceled my order. Should have read comments before trying this;(
All: i just spoke to Target and was told they changed their policy and you can no longer use target gift cards to buy ‘specialty’ gift cards like Disney and itunes.
I had to call after my order was cancelled, twice, with no explanation. (And i had to go through two people to get that answer).
Sucks that I found out after my first Raise purchase.
Just want to thank you for this. I had complete success with the Raise/Target method and saved 10% so far. I bought a nice chunk of my hotel costs so far. Will be using your method again over the next few months. Thanks, Tom! (and Sarah)
So I went through the whole process and when you said “pay” what do I use to pay? I used my Target red card and it said error using this card! I’m a little confused.
Thank you for the tips! i also want to add for those that have a Kroger near them, Kroger recently started selling target gift cards. So you can now buy target gift cards at Kroger and earn the fuel perks then turn around, add the target gift cards to your account online with your redcard and then save the 5% off disney gift cards $$$$$$ 🙂 Tried it this weekend during double fuel perks.
On Target.com, the only Disney Gift Cards showing for me are “in store only”. Will this change to be able to purchase online if I wait, or has Target changed it so these cards can only be purchased in store now, does anybody know?
Note: Sorry that this is also posted in the reply to a previous comment. I don’t know how to delete it from there.
Ok, must have been a page loading glitch or something because now I can add them to the card. Weird, and annoying. :/
Were you ale to buy DS gift cards with your new bought raise target card? It’s not letting me pay with the GC. What am I doing wrong? Is it possible that it’s because I have a debit red card and not a credit one?
So I was going to use this Raise/Target/Disney gift card idea and then found this on the Raise website — please see the last line and let me have your thoughts. Thanks!
DELIVERY & REDEMPTION
This eGift card can be redeemed online only.
This eGift card will be delivered to your Raise account within 24 hours.
In order to redeem your Target gift card in store, you must download and add your eCard to the Target app. To add an eCard to your Target app please sign in, select “My GiftCards” from the menu, and enter the Account Number into the “add GiftCard” field. Gift cards may not be used toward the purchase of other gift cards.
Gave it a try and it worked! Even though it says Gift cards may not be used toward the purchase of other gift cards. Thanks Nikki!
I agree! It was a bit convoluted, but I saved $15. Totally worth the extra effort – thanks for the tip!
I’m still confused at all of this. I opened up a target red for the 5% savings when I get my Disney gift cards. I don’t understand how you get an additional percentage off at raise.com if you don’t have to use your red card. Help lol
Raise.com offers it’s own discounts. For example, they are currently selling a gift card valued at $200 (there are others available) for 5.1% (% varies) off which comes out to be $189.80. If you use the code noted in the blog you will get an additional $5 off which will bring your total on Raise.com to $184.80 for a Target gift card valued at $200 a savings of $15.20.
Once you receive your Target gift card info via email within a few mins head over to Target’s site and add $200 worth of Disney gift cards to your cart (amount based off of $200 example above). Make sure your Target card is loaded on your online Target account for 5% off of the $200 worth of Disney gift cards ($10). Pay for the Disney gift cards using your Target gift card from Raise.com. I found that the Target discount showed for me but went away because the gift cards paid for the entire total. I ended up adding an additional item I was planning to purchase to my cart which required the use of my Target card in addition to the gift cards and the 5% Target discount came off.
Hope this helps!
On Target.com, the only Disney Gift Cards showing for me are “in store only”. Will this change to be able to purchase online if I wait, or has Target changed it so these cards can only be purchased in store now, does anybody know?
Thank you, it worked. I saved !!
Thank you so much! I stumbled across your blog and I am happy that I did. I was hesitant at 1st but glad I gave it a try. I ended up getting a $154.95 & a $146.21 ($301.16) for 5.1% off ($15.36) + the $5 off using the code you listed. Total on Raise site $280.80. Headed over to Target’s site and added 3 $100 Disney gift cards to my cart. It looked like the target card discount was applied but when I went to place the order the entire cost went to the gift cards and removed the Target discount. I decided to add another item to my cart that would require the use of my Target card in addition to the gift cards & the Target discount was applied ($15). I ended paying $265.80 for a $300 in Disney gift cards!
One thing I noticed is that the availability & % off fluctuates. I added a few cards to my cart to consider for no longer than 2 min & the had sold. When looking at available cards I noticed that every time I refreshed the page I would have more options. For example, during my initial search the max % off was 4%. Upon refresh a few 5.1% popped up. Another refresh, you guessed it! There were more options at 5.1% than before. Note I had the list sorted highest to lowest % off so pretty sure this change occurred.
All this to say THANK YOU & to share my experience to hopefully help the next person who is considering giving this a try!
Hi Guys,
I just bought a $50 Target GC from raise for $48 (started small with my first one) then went to target and bought a $50 Disney GC with my 5% savings and applied the target gc amount… but won’t there be a few dollars left on my target gc? My target receipt shows that only $47.50 was deducted from the target card which makes sense bed the 5% savings—but now am I suppose to just use the remainder in another purchase?
I guess the prefect trick might have been to buy a target gc for just less than exact $50 value…like one for $47…
Have you tried any of the other gift cards sites such as Gift Card Granny? Is it a reliable site? They seem to have pretty good Target gift cards at a better discount. Are there any other sites you would recommend for purchasing discounted gift cards?
I’m sure most of you know this already, but I was happy to find that you can go to disneygiftcard.com and set up an account and combine all these wonderful discounted giftcards onto single cards in amounts up to $1000 increments. As we’re carrying them with us to cover meals and incidentals, I’m keeping mine at $500 so my hubby and I can carry separate cards. But his issue with doing this was having to carry a bunch of gift cards around. This solves that issue and I get to make my inner saving diva happy 🙂 .
I just clicked this link from your newsletter saying that there are some good deals on disney gift cards right now. I have read this article before, where is the good deal? We will be going to Disney World on August 13 for a month after I take the Bar 🙂 Thank you!
The current/new deals include $500 gift cards at Sam’s Club and 4.5%+ (I’m currently seeing 4.8%) on Raise.com, which is far better than the 2-3% that has been common for the last few months. This gets Raise back up into the sweet spot where it used to be!