I am so impressed by all of you guys, I have never tried buying discount gift cards to pay for a Disney trip!
For BJ’s, do you guys just buy the $10 membership then? Is that all you need?
I am gonna have to seriously think about this…
Do you guys get nervous at all about spending thousands of dollars on Disney gift cards? I know if your trip gets cancelled, the money is refunded onto the gift cards, but that is a lot of money tied up in very specific gift cards!!
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Yes. The $10 membership is all that is needed for the gift cards. (Actually, I was fortunate to get mine before the $10 membership was even necessary…but they plugged that hole.)
One thing I noticed with purchasing at BJ’s is the discount is only good on gift cards that have a stated face value. The one’s where you can get any amount you want up to $500 are not discounted.
@lindsayvrsmith Actually, from what I understand, you can add the $10 online membership and then you remove it right before check out. Or least, you used to be able to do that. Is that the hole you mentioned being plugged, @ryan1?
Update - for those who care - DW is extremely nervous about thousands of dollars in gift cards being physically mailed to us. The chance of one of those packages being lost or stolen is too much of a risk for her… which I understand. Most likely we’ll be getting our cards via Target.com and using the Red Card discount.
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Yes. That hole is plugged.
You can still do that trick to see the prices they are offering. But when you want to finalize a purchase, you can’t unless you have the membership now.
It used to be that you just had to have the membership in the car to add the gift cards, then remove it from the cart before you checkout to avoid the $10. No longer true.
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Well. I wasn’t anxious about thousands of dollars being mailed to me but now I am. 
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When I was at Disneyland last year, there was no way to pay for a meal using Mobile Order other than with a credit card. I had a bunch of gift cards, and I couldn’t use them there. I used them elsewhere, and I was prepared for that, so it wasn’t that big of deal, but I just wanted to share that.
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I think I got $8K shipped in about 5 different shipments. I did a trial run of about $250 to see if everything worked (including calling to have my already paid off trip refunded to my credit card and then applying gift cards). Once I saw that it did, I ordered the rest. I think I split them up mostly for convenience (take advantage of different points on different credit cards) than out of fear.
We had already paid so we weren’t worried about cancelling (and live road trip distance from DLR, so even if we had to, we could find a way to spend those bucks). I was a little worried about the cards getting lost in the mail, but I figured if they didn’t make it to my hands, that was BJ’s fault and I’d ask for a refund.
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I discovered that those are simply stickers – they peel right off if you can pull them up at the edge. Much easier than scratching!
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I just ordered about $6600 worth of gift cards from BJ’s today for about $6100 (score!!) and while I am nervous about all that money going through the mail, they do send you a tracking number for the package and I used a credit card, so I figure if I never get them or don’t get some of them I can dispute it with my credit card company and get the money back…maybe?
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Yes. I do feel like there must be some safety mechanism in place right? Did you order over the phone or online? I think if I call to order I can at least ask. Tracking number with signature required sounds like a good idea. I mean. People ship expensive things all the time.
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I placed the order over the phone.
Yes. I purchased the online membership for $10 and when I ordered over the phone, he did ask me for my membership number.
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I took care of this by contacting the shipping company, in this case UPS and had them hold it for me and picked it up from them. I had to show my ID and was far more secure than leaving it on my doorstep.
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I pay for all of our Disney trips with Disney Gift Cards. It does take some work and planning, but generally speaking, I find we can save anywhere between 5 to 10 percent overall and if we do a credit card signup bonus and time it right, it can be more. When staying on site at a property like the Grand or the Poly, this is significant money and well worth it. This year, we’re doing the Chase Sapphire Preferred, which offers $500 cash back with $4,000 in purchases upon three months of account opening. Did it last year under my name and this year, under my spouse’s name. As always, if you do open a credit card for a signup bonus, make sure to pay of all balances in full to avoid any interest charges.
Just an FYI: Sam’s Club + a credit card offering 1.5 to 2 percent cash back is a better deal than the Target Red Card.