The Best Disney Credit Card, For a Minute
A new Disney Inspire card showed up recently, and it could’ve been worse. It’s actually a noteworthy option for many Disney enthusiasts. Indeed, this card provides considerable value for this group in a quite simple fashion. Lots of points and travel hobbyists like to take things further, and Disney is no exception. Like some of you, my wife and I have enjoyed taking circuitous routes to save huge on Disney vacations. That recently popped up in a way I didn’t expect. For a minute, one of our niche products was the world’s best Disney credit card. Allow me to explain.
The Greatness of the Banana Republic Card
We’ve enjoyed spending and earning rewards on the Banana Republic card back to the Synchrony days. (Note: Multiple cards now exist across the Gap family of brands with Barclays, all with similar characteristics. I’m simply referring to the Banana Republic card today for brevity.) For us, the Banana Republic card wasn’t about a signup bonus, and it shouldn’t be for anyone else. The card’s welcome offer is generally meager. My wife and I each got a $30 certificate after first purchase. In conjunction with the card’s move to Barclays, a huge welcome offer arrived. But that’s been gone for some time, and new cardmembers now must settle for a 20% off their first purchase (snore).
Again, this card’s all about the targeted spend offers. Here’s just a sample:
- Get a $50 reward after using the card 5 times outside Gap store brands (no purchase minimum).
- Earn 5 points per dollar on all spend at grocery stores, wholesale clubs, and dining.
- Earn 10 points per dollar on all spend at grocery stores and on recurring bills.
Some 5x offers have had even wider spend categories. For the vast majority of the seven years or so we’ve each held Banana Republic cards, we’ve been targeted for such ongoing spend offers. While some have been capped like the first, most have not been. Even better, we’ve routinely been targeted for 5x offers. (The 10x version has infrequently come, and I’d be surprised if it ever returns.) Up until recently, these points were worth once cent each toward purchases at the Gap family of brands. Our family has done well.
The Card Refresh
A few weeks back, the Gap family of brands refreshed their rewards program, now called Encore. Among other changes, the program has obfuscated point values. It inflated point earning by a multiple of five. Point value went equally the other way; each one is worth a fifth of what it was, down to 0.2 cents each. There was no point devaluation as part of this refresh, though. Overnight, my point balance multiplied by five. Reward redemptions are worth the same, but a bit more math is involved now.
Another change is that the Gap family of brands has overhauled their area for selected redemptions beyond straightforward clothing ones, now called the Encore Market. Historically, marketplace redemption options were various tchotchkes to limited-edition socks, hats, bags, sweepstakes, and donations. As I previously hinted, things got a bit more interesting with gift cards. A Disney+ gift card redemption option appeared. Hmmm.
I could obtain a $150 Disney+ gift card for 75k points. That 75k amount of points was good for $150 in clothing spend, equal to the value of the Disney+ gift card. I applaud the program for expanding viable redemption options. But the last thing I needed was more Disney+ funds – we cover that and more with the Amex Platinum Digital Entertainment Credit. But then….
A Disney Tweak
It was subsequently reported that Disney updated their gift cards – Disney+ gift cards can now be used at their parks, among other options. I quickly stitched this and the above information together. I could redeem buckets of Encore points for Disney+ gift cards, but should I? We’re sitting on a considerable stash right now for our upcoming Disneyland trip. Without a Disney trip planned beyond that, I wasn’t looking to hoard too much Disney currency. Plus, we value using our Banana Republic point balance over time. Thanks to these points, our family’s clothing expenses have been relatively minimal for years, and I don’t want that to change. More importantly, I wanted to determine if I could transfer the Disney+ card balance to a “normal” one on disneygiftcard.com. Despite the recent change, the last thing I wanted was a stack of Disney+ gift cards sitting around. I was just curious enough for a small experiment.
I decided to redeem 75k Encore points for a $150 Disney+ gift card. Unfortunately, only physical Disney+ gift cards were available. While my top-tier status provides free shipping, this Encore Marketplace redemption required paying $5 shipping. For what it’s worth, I staged a multiple Disney Gift card order to better understand shipping rates. The good news was that $5 rate was per order, not per card.
Putting It All Together
The Disney+ gift card arrived within three business days, earlier than expected. I ripped open the package and hopped on disneygiftcard.com. After logging in, I was able to add the Disney+ gift card and transfer its balance to another Disney gift card.
Taking into account how I earned and redeemed these points, I could obtain a minimum of 5% in Disney gift card balance from all of my Banana Republic card spend. Given some of the points still hanging around my account were from past 10x offers, I could actually consider my card providing 10% back in Disney gift card balance. Yes, this doesn’t include the $5 shipping cost. But since that fee is per order, one could easily minimize that fee by scaling this redemption for multiple Disney+ gift cards.
Speaking of, I reflexively decided to return to the Encore Market to consider redeeming more. Now that I had my data point on successfully transferring the Disney+ gift card balance, redeeming for additional cards was more attractive. I pondered how many more to obtain.
Within seconds, that didn’t matter. The Encore Market had sold out of Disney+ gift cards. Wah wah.
Disney Credit Card – Conclusion
Before the redemption, I had considered that my conservative redemption approach might mean I would lose out on additional Disney+ gift cards. But that was part of the deal I made given the other factors I explained above. Will this offer come back? Perhaps, but I’m managing my expectations. I don’t plan on it, but I’ll periodically check and be pleasantly surprised if there’s a restock.
Much of our hobby involves creativity. But other aspects merely involve connecting fairly-obvious pieces of information. This Disney gift card play involved more of the latter than the former to obtain noteworthy value. I’ll continue both to keep prospering with my rewards, Disney-related and beyond. I’ll share more in the future, or maybe not.
Tinker and do big things!
Extremely clever.