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!
Hey Tom,
You asked about Canadians getting a US credit card. It is possible to get US cards without an SSN. However, you will need a US address The easiest options are using TD/BMO cross border banking to establish a US chequing account and then applying for a card attached to that account. From there, you can apply for American Express cards through their global transfer dept.
Hi I’m coming from the UK in spring 2020. Are there any money saving tips for Brits? We’re first timers. Thanks.
I was thinking the same thing, we are travelling from Ireland
Yes, free dining if available and also discounted ticket prices through sources referred to on Disney Tourist Blogs posts.. lol Wouldn’t know about any tricks that would help on your side of the pond though? Ie: Discounted gift cards, Credit Card Rewards for travel etc etc.???
Hi m coming from the UK in spring 2020. Are there any money saving tips for Brits? We’re first timers. Thanks.
I get my Disney gift cards at Home Depot using my Home Depot credit card. Every other month or so they mail me a special financing offer to be used on any purchase of xxxx amount. For example it is usually 0% for 12 months on purchases up to $1000 or 0% for 18 months on purchase between $1001-$1999 or 0% financing for 24 months on purchases of $2000+ (You chose 1 of the 3 based on your total). That’s when I load up on gift cards. I’d rather have 24 months to pay off my vacation than save 5% up front. It works on everything. Sometimes if I am actually buying let’s say an $800 lawn mower I’ll add on a $200 whatever gift card and charge the full $1000 to get 0% for 12 months. I believe their everyday 0% offer is for 6 months of any purchase of $299 or more. Again, it works on all gift cards as well as store items. Definitely my preferred way to go.
Visitorlando.com has a black friday promo code “gift” that gives you 10% off WDW tickets. You have to pay $14.95 to have them shipped to your home if you don’t want to pick them up at the visitors center. They mail your tickets FedEx and you can link them to your magic bands. You can book fast passes 60 days prior to your trip if you are staying on site.
We always take advantage of the Kroger 4x fuel points deal. We have 4 cars on the road so we are ALWAYS buying gas. We are allowed 35 gallons per visit when using points. Most times we have enough points to just pay .10 cents per gallon. With gas around $2.26 per gallon here, that’s saving around $75 on fuel. We also buy Disney gift cards throughout the year during 4x promo and use them to make payments on our booked Disney trips. We subtract what we save on gas from our trip balance.
That’s what I do. Last year I saved over $120.00 on gas after buying $1000 of gift cards when they ran the 4x gas points.
Every year Sams club has a one day sale in November. With the purchase of each new iPhone or galaxy cell phone you get approximately $400 In Sams club gift cards. With my family of 5 lines/phones that is $2,000 in sams club gift cards, which in turn I use to purchase $2,000 in Disney gift cards. This might not work for everyone but it does for us since we like to have the new phone every year. We have the Verizon plan that lets you upgrade your phone every year, and they pay it off. It’s a win win for us.
Kroger is still the best deal for us. At almost a 14% savings, it’s the best deal there is out there. I love saving $35 on our gas each time we fill up!
Curious how you’re getting to 14% savings for the Kroger deal. Including the credit card rewards, or is there something I’m missing?
We buy gift cards from Sam’s and use our Chase Disney card.
I saw at BJ’s 500$ gift card is for $469. Our tickets since we are just visiting one park would be around 395$. So I wanted to know where else I would be able to use the rest of the amount in my gift card. Can I use that somewhere at the theme park itself.
Karen, you can use the rest of the amount almost anywhere on Disney property. Shopping and dining at Disney Springs, at the resorts, in the theme parks, even online at Disneystore.com. Using gift cards to pay for most items on our Disney vacation is our go to way to pay. We save $ with various discounts throughout the year and it’s easy to keep track of them via the Disneygiftcard.com site if they were lost or stolen. Also harder to get our credit card information compromised if we aren’t using it for payment and using the gift cards instead.
I’m wondering if someone could explain the Kroger method described above? I’m very confused – do I need to purchase a Disney gift card at Kroger? Or do I use my Disney credit card to pay for gas and get points? Do I need a Kroger credit card? Help??
You purchase Disney Gift cards, any gift cards (we buy restaurant and retail gift cards also), at Kroger with your Disney credit card (or any credit card, we use our Disney credit card to rack up more points) and use your Kroger rewards card when you purchase the gift cards to get the 4x’s points. Hope that helps.
I would just like to point out that the Target Red DEBIT card also gives you the 5% discount. You don’t have to get the credit card (I have both. Lol) It is linked to your checking account and it’s just like using you bank debit card. No interest charges. 🙂
We have a Disney Visa card and it is working out wonderfully for us. Our house flooded twice in 2018 and most of what we had to replace went on that credit card. We will be in Disney a week from tomorrow and have over $1000 in Disney money to spend. We also get special photo opportunities and discounts at some restaurants and stores in WDW.
I know this won’t be an option for a lot of people, but my health insurance program has a wellness program that you can earn points through by getting an annual physical and preventative screenings (like mammograms), tracking your physical activity, taking online health “courses,” etc. You can then exchange your points for gift cards. I am able to “earn” up to $250 dollars worth of gift cards each year, which we always put towards our Disney food budget.
So can you use the Disney Gift Cards you purchase to pay for your actual stay as well? Like so if I have $3000 in gift cards I can use them to pay off my Disney Package? Resort, dining plan etc etc? I live in Canada but very close to border so this may be a good option. The only other question I would then have is “how” would I pay using my Gift Card(s)? Really hoping someone can help with answering this question.
Thanks..
Do you use a travel agent? I pay my travel agent with gift cards.
Yes, you can use to reserve and pay towards balance. I did it this year. You can also combine the gift cards to one. I get many GCs because I go every year and its the perfect gift.
I also use Target Red Card to buy my own GCs. That’s how I save money throughout the year for my trip; just buy GCs and I have my spending money for my trip.
Have fun!
Yes! When paying online choose “Other” as your payment option. It will give you Gift Card as an option and you put in the card number.
Once that card is processed you can delete it and enter other card numbers.
Hi, fellow Canadian here. You will have to call Target and ask how to get a credit card or debit card from them. Their payment cards are how you can buy Disney cards for 5% off and use them to pay off your hotel, tickets, dining plan, anything Disney. It might not be possible if you are not a resident or citizen (with a SSN) of the U.S., but it’s definitely worth asking.
Thank you for the information everyone. Now only if Disney would offer some type of credit card for us Canadians. Unfortunately you can’t get US credit cards unless you have a US Address and Social Security Number! Frustrating and so we can’t take advantage of any of the discounts on gift cards that anyone is talking about. I say all Disney fans in Canada should lobby to Disney for some type of perky credit card. I would sign up in a heart beat 🙂 ..
PS- If anyone knows something I don’t please share!
Thanks,
If you have a package booked through Disney, just go to your My Disney Experience and pay with a Disney GC like you would a credit card! You can only use one form of payment per transaction, but that’s a small inconvenience.
Do you collect Airmiles CASH or PC Optimum points? you can redeem the points to pay for your items/groceries then use the money you didn’t spend on your (weekly?) grocery trip to buy a gift card. Shoppers Drug Mart, Real Canadian Superstore and Safeway/Sobey’s sell Disney Gift Cards. They will be in Canadian funds but you can use then in the US. When you swipe at point of sale they will convert to USD.
The Disney website has a Gift Card option on the payment page, or call.
Yes you can use gift cards to pay for the package. When you call to make a payment, you can just give the agent the gift card number. If you used a travel agent, they will be able to use the gift card number to make the payment as well.
Can you use Disney Gift cards to pay for food and merchandise at the Disney parks when you are there during the day?
We exchange our Amex points for Sam’s Club gift cards and then buy the discounted Disney cards there.
Note that I have had cashiers AND managers at Sam’s Club tell me that I cannot buy gift cards and pay with a Sam’s Club gift Card.
However, the last time I tried buying Disney gift cards on samsclub.com, I WAS able to pay with Sam’s Club gift cards.
But, most stores don’t allow paying for gift cards with gift cards, so this might go away completely at Sam’s Club as well.
We use our Chase Freedom card for things like this… they do various categories every quarter where you get 5% back. This quarter it’s on PayPal purchases so I bought on the BJ’s site using PayPal linked to my Chase card. There’s a chance they won’t apply it because it’s a gift card and that’s technically not eligible but I’ve done it in the past and we always get the 5%.
I get all my Disney gift cards at Meijer for a 10% discount. They run promos a few times per year where you can buy $50 in gift cards and get a $5 Mperks reward (which you can use toward any other purchase at the store.) You can do this up to 10 times per Mperks account.
I bought a $500 Disney gift card yesterday and received $50 in rewards that I then used towards the groceries I was going to purchase anyways. Unfortunately, Meijer locations are only in a few states.
Hi Tom, you may want to update your post regarding using the Chase Freedom card at warehouse clubs for the quarterly bonus. This year’s Q4 bonus includes department stores, PayPal and Chase Pay. BJ’s takes PayPal as payment so I got my Chase Freedom bonus buying gift cards through there!
I use Swagbucks to earn free Visa cards and then I use those to buy Disney giftcards! I’ve save $1,100 over the past year!
https://www.swagbucks.com/refer/beiramae
FYI if you want to use multiple gift cards to purchase your tickets you need to create an account on DisneyGiftCard.com and consolidate the cards. Since you usually can’t get 3k on one gift card at Target it’s nice to know you can move the finds to one card.
You can only combine to a maximum of $1000.00 per card
Target team member here. You will not save 5% on a Disney gift card if you pay with the Target red card. Also at Target, you cannot buy a Disney gift card using any other gift card.
I don’t know why but I love 50 fuel points rewards program by Kroger Feedback group at https://www.thekrogerfeedback.com. Whenever I shop at Kroger store, I take their survey withing 7 days hence I get 50 fuel points as rewards. Wow!! Thank you Kroger.
Kris, you are absolutely wrong about not being able to use a Target REDcard for a 5% discount on a Disney gift card. I do it all the time and so do loads of other people. It is unfortunate that as a Target team member, you are spreading misinformation. Check your next customer’s receipt to verify.
Just got done at target here in Elk Grove CA, attempted to buy 4 Disney gift cards at $50 each ($200 total) using my target red card (debit linked not a credit card) and was DENIED, so can confirm it doesn’t work in this scenario
Purchasing restaurant and entertainment gift cards at Target using your Red Card and receiving a 5% discount is literally one of the advertised perks on the Target Red Card website and ironically a Disney gift card is pictured.
I will echo prior comments. I just purchased $3k worth of Disney gift cards (in fact it was 60-$50 cards since the $100 are usually only available at our target around the holidays). The cashier was super sweet ringing them all in and I got my $150 savings. The receipt took a while to generate since it was so long but the 5% debit red card discount is in fact working. I’ve done this for about 8 different trips over the last few years with no issues. I shop around the Charlotte NC area.
You will save 5% using the red card. I’ve been doing it the last 6 mo buying $100 cards for $95 to build up a fund for our trip!
I save the 5% each time on Disney Gift Cards with my target red card, works for me.
This is incorrect. I buy Disney gift cards all of the time, both in store and online and I always get the 5% off using my Target red card.
Kris is a 100000000% wrong. I’ve bought $8000 worth of Disney gift cards with my Target RED card in 2019, $1000 per month, for $950, the 5% savings. I used the cards to pay for a Pirates & Pals fireworks cruise, EMM MK, DAH MK, my hotel, my dining plan, and our tickets, all at 5% off–which adds up in a Disney vacation.
Not true. We use our Redcard to buy between $3-$4,000 worth of Disney cards for every trip we take (usually every other year) and have never ever had a problem. The only occasional problem is that Target doesn’t always have $100 cards and if more than one family is buying in bulk for a trip, we have encountered the gift cards being out of stock. In that case, we just hit another Target!