Has this happened to anyone or does anyone know what I need to do or what is happening in this situation? I need to buy $6000 in Disney Gift Cards to pay off my trip. I started buying them from Target online with the Target redcard to get the 5%. I did the first $2000 with no problem. Waited a few days and then bought the next $2000 with no problem. Since then I can not buy any gift cards- it rejects my red card every time. It has been a good week since that last transaction. I have called Target twice and both times they tell me nothing is wrong (second time was speaking with a manager). I have also talked to my bank and there are no holds fraud wise and the transactions have all cleared the bank. Any ideas? I need to pay off my trip by April 1st and it is really ticking me off that I can’t purchase the rest of the gift cards. My red card at this point is useless.
That has happened to me. It took a while for the card to act normally again. I spoke with someone at red card when it happened to me and they explained that there is generally an average usage on your card and when you charge purchases here and there for a while and then all the sudden charge a great amount…thousands at a time the card will start to limit purchases. It takes some time for the new average to catch up and allow more higher purchases more often. Not sure if that makes any sense? It there to help protect against fraud. I had to make smaller purchases…like only a hundred at a time and several days apart for a few weeks before it fixed itself and I was able to make a large 500 or more gift card purchase again. It took almost 4 weeks My suggestion to avoid this and what I do now. Start earlier…4-6 months out and make smaller purchases a few times a month to pay down your trip. Try not to do it all in a few weeks time.
Do you have a BJs Wharehouse membership? We purchase our Disney gift cards there. The fixed dollar amount cards are already discounted.
Yes I have BJs and Sam’s Club memberships. I think I may have to use one of them just to finish what I need.
Funny thing is that I have done this many times before with absolutely no issues. This is the first time it has acted like this. Got to be something new they have done on their end.
I had this happen a couple of different times. Their fraud department locks it down and it seems like they just don’t want to turn it back on for Disney cards. You can go into a store and the manager can ring up cards with the 5% discount manually. It stinks when you need $6k but it is an option we have used. Saves quite a bit of money for sure.
Well here is an update - Card was still locked and not working for any online or even in store purchases. Had it out with a Redcard employee over the phone that didn’t know a darn thing. She told me to give it another week because it still needed to clear the purchases (even after it had already cleared my bank account) and it has been almost 2 weeks! Even told me that Target didn’t have a fraud department when I asked to be forwarded to it. I was pretty ticked. I called our local Target got a great guest services guy that gave me another number to Target Guest Services and ended up with a lady that was awesome! She has worked for Target for years. She called the redcard department and was fed the same line of bull that I was. She even argued with them and finally found out that there was a block on my card. Yep - I knew it!! It was totally on Target’s side and not mine. She found out they recently implemented a new “fraud measure” on the redcard. Doesn’t even matter that your transactions are going through your bank or not. So this is a pain in the rear. She told them they needed to be able to free the block but they said they couldn’t (or wouldn’t is what I think). So my card is now cancelled and I have to reapply and get a new debit redcard because of this mess. I may not get one because I am so ticked off. So be forewarned not to do all of your gift card purchases at one time. I have done them all seamlessly in the past. Oh and as another note - if you happen to have a package with Disney Gift Cards and it gets lost in the mail you will have to deal not with Target but with Disney to get the refund. Got told that as well by the gift card department.
So sorry that this is happening to you. We are planning to buy some Target e-cards today on line and hoping we don’t run into this. Never tried it before. I will let you know what we experience.
As much as this has been a pain for you, I have to guess that Target sees a lot of fraud…fraud for which THEY, not you, are held financially responsible for. Gift Cards, in particular, have been a big area of fraud, so it is no surprise that they feel the need to put in protections against purchasing of gift cards using their card.
Buying $6000 (well, $4000, in your case) worth of gift cards is an extremely unusual occurrence, and definitely could have the appearance of fraud.
I have been thankful each and every time the credit card companies we use have fraud protections in place. In all but one case (and there have been MANY cases), someone had actually gotten access to our credit card information by no fault of our own and started using it to try to make purchases. Our card was literally shut down in minutes in some cases of them detecting this fraud before we were ever aware of anything. The only time this was an exception was when we let our teenage son use our credit card to buy something on-line, and he entered something in wrong THREE TIMES. (I was standing in the same room.) He mentioned this, and literally within 10 seconds of me saying, “Uh oh. They are going to think our card was stolen,” we received a phone call informing us of a fraud alert. 10 seconds!!!
So, as much as this may seem like a headache for you, it is protecting people (and themselves) CONSTANTLY.
So, I am sorry to say that I am running into the same problem as you. I called and spoke with the Target Gift Card Department this morning before I tried to purchase the cards to make sure I wasn’t going to have a problem. They spoke with the fraud dept. and were told that as long as I keep the purchase below $1,500, I should be fine. So, I placed an order for (2) $500 e-cards. The order went through, but within a few minutes, they canceled my order. However, they did not restore my available credit to its full balance. Got on the phone again. They assured me if I waited 2 mins to place the order again, it would go through. I did so, and my card was rejected. I am now on the phone again trying to get this straightened out. I wish I would not have bothered with the Target gift cards at this point. I think I get 2% rewards on my Disney Visa. 
ETA: I’ve just been told that my available balance has been restored, and if I want to try to purchase again, it should go through. I checked, and per the phone line, my available balance is restored. However, I’m not going to try this for a 3rd time. I’ve wasted an entire morning on it. I’m done… I’m just going to use my Disney Visa. Target should not offer this item anymore if it is going to be such a hassle to buy it!
I regularly buy gift cards for our employees for participation in our wellness program. I used to buy physical cards from Safeway. Then they instituted a $200/4 card limit on credit purchases. Then I started buying online, but some stores would lock my card. They would tell me it was my bank, but it wasn’t because I could still use my work card at other places. I understand why they are so concerned about gift card purchases - there is a lot of fraud associated with them. But it is very frustrating. I buy all of the cards now through Amazon and Target, but mostly Amazon. And not with a Red Card. I do buy Disney cards for myself with my Red Card but tend to buy at most $200 at a time.
I am so sorry you went through this too. I won’t buy from Target using the debit red card again. It took 9 different phone calls at about an hour a piece over a 2 week span before I got a resolution of why my card wasn’t working. The last lady I was on the phone with for over 2 hours. After that ordeal, I went to Sam’s and bought the rest of my gift cards. So much less hassle. Right now I still have gift cards sitting in the mail up in KS and I am in TX. It hasn’t moved via FedEx in over a week. I am just tired of the whole mess.
Well, I hadn’t liked Target before, but 5% off is 5% off. I ordered two $500 gift cards and it went through fine. I waited a week and ordered another. When I expected to get the email with GC I got
" We wanted to let you know that order XYZ was canceled. We’re sorry for the inconvenience. You haven’t been charged for any items."
So, yesterday I called them and they said they’d research it. I expected it would be a lock that they’d remove. I’m not in a time crunch so if they’d said, “Wait another week”, that would have been fine. Today I get this from them.
"Thank you for your patience while we researched your request.
After further review on this account, it appears we’re unable to process future online orders. We invite you to shop in our Target stores for any future purchases.
We’re sorry, but we aren’t able to offer any other options for this situation. We’re always working to make Target.com better, so we appreciate your feedback."
So, basically, they don’t want me as a customer. On the phone now cancelling the card. I live in the exurbs, so a Target is probably 30 miles away. Of course, everything is far away, but I think I’d pass a min. of three Walmarts to get to the Target.
We have a Sam’s membership. Looks like they are 3% off. I think my Amazon card has 2% rewards.
I think I have to physically go in, but I’ll be nearby Saturday.
eta: They’ve put me on hold twice and then it hangs up. I haven’t even sworn or got angry yet.
Can’t help with Target but sounds like more hassle than it’s worth. Do people have the same problem if buying in store? If you live near a Meijer, about once every 4-6 weeks they have an offer for $5 back for every $50 in gift cards, or sometimes just 10% off. Not sure if they do online orders or not. Max of $50 credit so $500 in GC for $450. Each round I get $500 on my account and $500 on DH’s account.