The basic approach of our vacation savings plan is built on the Target 5% discount.  You can get 5% off Disney gift cards through the use of a few Target cards.  The Target based products are the Target Redcard Debit Card, the Target Redcard credit card, and the Target Prepaid Redcard.

The Target Redcard Debit card should pull money directly from your bank account.  We don’t have one of these and probably won’t.  Getting one of these doesn’t require a hard credit pull (i.e., it won’t require a credit check).

The Target Redcard credit card is just like any other credit card.  It requires a credit application and will be put on your credit record.  We do have one of these and use it often.  I’m going to be moving this to the sock drawer soon though in favor of a new method, which I will be describing in a future post.  However, the Target Redcard will be kept around and not canceled in case my new method closes (they always do).

The Target Prepaid Redcard by American Express is a prepaid card that requires money to be loaded on it.  Currently, money can be loaded via direct deposit, bank transfers, and money loaded at a physical Target store.  These loads can be done with credit cards though.  So, you can get points on your favorite credit at Target and save 5%.  That makes any credit card you have a 5% off card at Target plus whatever miles/points/cash back you would normally get.   This is really a great deal. (Edit: As of May 6th, 2015, these cards can no longer be loaded with a credit card)

Use any of these Target Redcards to buy Disney gift cards from a Target store or the Target web site (they sometimes go out of stock on the website) and you’ll get 5% off.  So, a $50 card will cost you $47.50, $100 worth of cards will cost $95.00, and so on.

What you’ll end up with is a pile of Disney Gift Cards.  We use the Disney Gift Cards to pay for cruises through one of a few different methods: providing the card numbers to our travel agent, loading them into a Disney Vacation Account ourselves, paying down a Disney vacation by calling them in to Disney, or using them in the Disney parks.  Our preferred method is to enter them in to our travel agent’s web site or entering them into the Disney Vacation Account.  We also take a handful to the parks and use them up there.

Sadly, Disney announced the closing of the Disney Vacation Account program on July 25, 2017.  They are no longer available for use. 

 

 

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