It seems like more and more that gift cards are becoming a popular gifting option, especially for the holidays. However before you buy yours, continue reading though this post. You can save money by buying discount gift cards. Usually around the major holidays, you will see retailers put out special bonuses when you buy select gift cards. The most common one seems to be a $5 gift card when you buy $25 or $50. You can use this to save money in the long run. So during this time. It is a good time to stock up for stores you use regularly or for gifts.
However, the problem with this is that you have to wait to buy them certain times of the year. There are other options out there to help save money on gift cards the rest of the year. There are a number of places that sell discount gift cards. BJs and Target both sell gift cards at a slightly marked down price. Usually something along the lines of $95.99 for a $100 gift card. This may not be a huge savings but it adds up, especially if you get Disney gift cards for a trip. They have options for $500 gift cards but this retails for 484.99, which is a worse deal than the $100 gift card. There are other online options as well such as CardCash.com.
Our experience.
We usually pay for our Disney vacations using Disney gift cards that we buy through our local BJs wholesale club. As I stated above, you can get a similar deal at Target. On average, a Disney vacation can cost around $3,000 for a 7 day trip. (Cost will vary due to timing, discounts and number of people going). If you buy 30 gift cards from BJs to pay off the balance on the trip, you will save $120 towards the total amount. To me, this is well worth the hassle of buying and loading all the gift cards. I usually recommend buying a few cards at a time if you are buying them for a trip. This is for a couple of reasons: 1. It is less of a burden on the wallet at one time, 2. You are not in line as long and 3 you are less of a pain to the people behind you in line.
The savings takes a bit to make a real difference but adds up. This along with other methods to save money can easily decrease the cost of your trip by a couple hundred dollars. I will continue to post money-saving ideas, both for general purpose and for your next Disney trip.
For our last money-saving tips: check out HERE