The op states the restrictions on pulling from it. I want to be able to use my gc when I need it. I might forgo the dva and just used the GC. I just don’t want to buy a $2000 from Target to buy ap for the family and then I can’t buy them. Thanks for the response maybe it’s not as bad as I think.
@snevetif ticket purchases are absolutely covered by your DVA. I would encourage you to open an account ASAP if you want if for tickets. You can earn 2% on each $1000 you spend once your account has been open 120 days. Here is the link to the DVA information page. I personally have used mine to pay for tickets, room costs, a few tours, and combined GC on to a large balance card $1000 once. https://disneyvacationaccount.disney.go.com/
Thanks @AuntB_luvsDisney I just opened it. I stack GC and also set a monthly payment. I appreciate the info! Another extra discount won’t hurt!
This is a great way to save some money- but there may be a better way. One of my hobbies is ‘travel hacking’. Basically, you get credit cards with a premium for signing up and making a minimum spend. So, for example, we just got 2 United Mileage Plus cards from Chase (one for me and one for my wife). Once we spend $2,000.00 within 3 months, we receive a bonus of 50,000 miles. This generally translates into one economy round trip flight in the US. A round trip flight is worth much more than several percentage points and/or cash back in the above examples- plus you will still get a good chunk of the savings outlined above.
So, here is how it works- in the travel hacking world it is known as ‘manufacturing spending’ to get to the $2,000,00 (in this example) minimum spend. Step 1- get the card. Step 2- we will use the Sam’s Club example above- just follow it step-by-step using your new credit card. Step 3- buy $2,000.00 worth of gift cards and put them in your Disney account. Step 4- put the credit card in the desk drawer and NEVER USE IT AGAIN (be sure to cancel it before the annual fee is due after the first year). Step 5- pay off the credit card in full- then apply for a new card with other benefits you would like to get- a hotel card, another airline card, bank card points (like membership rewards), etc. Step 6- repeat steps 1 through 5.
Using this method, my wife and I have accrued over 2 million points and miles over the past 2 years. We rarely pay to stay in a hotel- and we travel a LOT. We just got back from a 2 week trip to England- and the 2 first class tickets were paid for with miles/points. The tickets would have been 13 thousand dollars if we paid cash, but we used miles and paid 650.00 in taxes and fees. Most of our hotels while there were paid for with points as well. The beautiful thing about this hobby is that we took a new credit card with us, and almost met the minimum spend requirements for the sign up bonus with food, rental car, and other miscellaneous expenses while there.
This hobby is not for everyone. You should have a pretty decent credit rating so you get approved for cards. You have to keep track of the minimum spend requirements on various cards, their renewal dates (so you can cancel before the annual fee is due), and have the money available to pay the card off in full as soon as you meet the spend requirements to avoid interest and late fees. You have to keep track of points and miles in various accounts with multiple hotels, airlines, and bank cards- and use them before they are lost due to inactivity. It requires a lot of discipline and attention to detail- but the payoff is huge. If you are applying for a large loan in the near future, this may not be the hobby for you- as your credit score takes a temporary hit every time you get a new card. With that said, once the credit inquiries clear, your score should go back up- mine went up to 830 at one point. If this sounds interesting to you, there are various sites that can walk you through all the nuances of getting started- one of my favorites is frugaltravelguy.com- they have a ‘rookie guide’ link at the top of the page. Have fun.
Thanks for the info @Happy_2_B - I started looking into these methods recently and need to come up with a plan.
I’ve been hoping to get over to Ireland & the Czech Republic to visit some cousins and take my kids to see my grandparents’ towns. With a family of 4, I think this sort of thing might be my best shot to get us all there affordably.
We’re pretty static with loans etc so am not too concerned about credit score hits, but am curious: any rule of thumb for how long it takes the score to recover after it dips?
Hi @JJT- this is a good question, and is not easily answered since the exact formula the three major credit reporting agencies use is different for each agency. Generally speaking, each ‘hard inquiry’ that occurs when you apply for a card will affect your score approximately 5-7 points- and it will be completely diminished over 2 years depending on the reporting agency. My understanding of the system- which isn’t expert by any means- is that it will start to drop off at around 3 months- then more will come off from 6-12 months, and a little bit remains for the following year, then is taken off completely. When I started this hobby I was at 770ish. The first year, I applied for over a dozen cards and my score went down to about 710. I continued applying at a slower rate the next year, and my score started climbing as the hard inquiries began to diminish and my available credit line went higher and higher (available credit on each new card adds points over time, and will stay there until you cancel the card). Then I had a period of about 6 months when I didn’t apply for cards at all- and it went up to 830. I just did another round of cards recently, and it went back down to 800.
Of importance is to have a no annual fee card with the same bank (in my example Chase), so that when a card is cancelled to avoid the annual fee the credit line of the card you are cancelling can be transferred over to the one with no annual fee. You do not want to lose available credit if possible- as that increases your score as previously mentioned, so transfer the credit line to another card where possible.
As mentioned before, there are a lot of nuances to the hobby, and I would recommend you drop by one or more of the bloggers sites and read their rookie guides. You will get ramped up pretty fast on all the information needed to amass a stash of points and miles- then you can decide whether or not the hobby is for you. I never would have guessed we would have the amount of points/miles that we do- but once you get the hang of it and develop a tracking system to keep an eye on all the different parameters it becomes more routine. Not easier, but much more manageable. I started slow- with 1 or two cards- went through the process, then my next ‘round’ of cards tried for more as my comfort level, credit line and available funds to pay them off was in good shape. The ‘pros’ that run the major travel hacking sites do huge quantities of cards over the course of a year, but my comfort level has never reached that high- and I am content to plug away at it a little at a time. Hope this helps.
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I am trying to use Raise to buy the Target Gift cards, but running into snags. First was an email wanting me to verify a lot of personal questions. Now I have another email asking me to send two forms of ID. Is this what everyone has encountered?? I don’t give out a lot of personal information and this is giving me warning alarms that it isn’t right. For both of these emails I have to call into their customer service department.
I had to verify my first purchase and anytime I made a change to my billing account. They have had fraud issues and I believe they are cracking down and increasing their fraud prevention. Double check on website to make sure the number you are calling is what is listed in the email. Once your account is verified things go smoother. @c1701h
I put together a video going through the steps too. So, if anyone would find it helpful, here’s the link: - YouTube
If this link shouldn’t be here, just let me know and I’ll delete the post. 
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@ICONTROLWDW made this great document with screenshots of the Raise and Target processes: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2sJU_Kx-vD1RldqWkdvdHpDR00/view
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I’m only commenting so I can find this later. I’ve been away for far too long and Learning how to navigate the forum has always been the easiest for me. So I’m hoping I can manage this target/raise thing.
Has NOT been the easiest 
If you bookmark the thread you can also sort your threads by the bookmark.
For those still checking out this thread - I went out to Raise.com today and the largest % discount was 2.1%. Any savings is savings, but is it common for it to only be in this range? When some of you talk about 10% and higher savings (stacking the Raise savings with Target REDcard savings) I assume the discount on the cards was greater. Or is this just that there aren’t many Target cards on Raise at this moment which is why I’m not seeing any with larger discounts?
You have to kind of stalk raise for the best discounts. I am usually between 4-8% savings on the target card purchase.
Yeah, I’m seeing that now. Saw one for 4% off and another for 6% off earlier, but they do seem to get snatched up quickly. I started using cardpool.com, they seem to consistently have 5.5% off all Target cards. However the largest increments I found were like $25. Still with the cardpool and Target discounts that’s a 10.5% savings! And I bought on Target using Swagbucks. This is fun! 
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I personally went with Cardpool. Like @YouAreAllWeirdos noted, you can consistently get 5.5% off all Target cards. I found that Raise was very limited when looking for a discount greater than 5%. Also, the shopping portal TopCashBack offers 2% cashback on purchases made at Cardpool bringing the total cash back to 7.5% before the extra 5% from the Red Card.
Additionally, Cardpool has an awesome feature that allows you to put in the total amount that you want to purchase, and based on the cards they have in stock it will select multiple cards to equal that amount.
For example, if you put in $3000 it will execute a search through their inventory and return multiple gift cards that add up to equal $3000. This has the potential to be great; however, as I type this a search for $3000 worth of Target gift cards yields a result of 65 different gift cards that one would need to purchase and apply to their Target.com purchases! That is a daunting prospect for many I’m sure, but you’ve come this far, so why not take the savings one step further?
The maths on $3000 worth of Disney gift cards purchased from Target.com:
Total Target GC value needed for 30 x $100 Disney gift cards from Target.com:
30 x $100 x 0.95 (5% off) = $2850
Cost for $2850 worth of Target gift cards from Cardpool.com:
$2850 x 0.945 (5.5% off) = $2693.25
2% cashback from TopCashBack.com:
$2693.25 x 0.02 = $53.87
Total Cost:
$2693.25 - 53.87 = $2639.38
OR you can calculate it the easy way for an approximation:
Value of Disney Cards Needed x 0.88 (12% off) = Cost to you
$3000 x 0.88 = $2640
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A little off topic, but does anyone know if you can use the target gift cards to buy southwest gift cards? I know there’s a loophole for the Disney ones, hoping southwest had one too…
Yep! I have done this at least 4 different times to purchase southwest flights. It works the same way the disney GC do. @lgorgone
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Don’t forget to double dip on your commission sharing website. 1-2% when purchasing Target GC and then another 1-2% when you buy the disney GC from target. I use Swagbucks and then ebates respectively. But I am sure others work just as well! @Bozni