Anyone ever use a Green Dot card at Disneyland?

[Sosai X]

You know, those prepaid Visa or Mastercard debit cards. Has anyone ever used one at Disneyland? I was thinking of getting one for my upcoming trip, and use it at the parks, and leave my wallet in the hotel. If you have used one, did you have any problems? Which is better, the Visa or Mastercard?

[garbear]

Re: Anyone ever use a Green Dot card at Disneyland?

You know, those prepaid Visa or Mastercard debit cards. Has anyone ever used one at Disneyland? I was thinking of getting one for my upcoming trip, and use it at the parks, and leave my wallet in the hotel. If you have used one, did you have any problems? Which is better, the Visa or Mastercard?

You probably wouldn't be able to use it at the rollaway carts. I think you should just bring cash.

[bluejake01]

Re: Anyone ever use a Green Dot card at Disneyland?

A lot of the food carts are set up with wireless credit card machines, there are exceptions...most notable is the Dole Whip stand. You will need cash for those. You can also preload Disney Giftcards to assist with budgeting, but you have to treat the gift cards like cash...don't lose them.

[DisneyIPresume]

Re: Anyone ever use a Green Dot card at Disneyland?

I am pretty sure you can use it. I used a visa rebate card issued by my cell phone company to make a purchase.

I am not crazy about credit-card issued gift cards or pre-paid cards. California law does not allow expiration dates or devaluations on gift cards linked to a specific retailer. A loophole in the law allows pre-paid cards linked to credit issuers and not to specific retailers to decrease in value over a certain amount of time.

It is best to buy a Disney gift card which by law does not have an expiration date and is not allowed to lose its value over a period of time.

[SCUBAbe]

Re: Anyone ever use a Green Dot card at Disneyland?

My cell phone provider gave me a visa gift card once. It did work in most places, but some businesses or the system they sued woudl not accept it. For some reason the transaction would not go through. The clerk even called to verify it had a balance on it, but their machine would not process it. After that experience I made sure I had cash on me as well.

[dland_lover]

Re: Anyone ever use a Green Dot card at Disneyland?

A lot of the food carts are set up with wireless credit card machines, there are exceptions...most notable is the Dole Whip stand. You will need cash for those. You can also preload Disney Giftcards to assist with budgeting, but you have to treat the gift cards like cash...don't lose them.

Not true. They added credit card capabilities 2 or 3 months ago. I know, because that's the reason I can get a float every time I go to the park. I'm not much on having cash- slows me down, and annoyingly fills my pockets with change. :yuck:



To answer the OP, though, I've used the Visa gift card from AAA, and was very pleased with it. Of course, I gave it as a anniversary gift to my brother, so I never used it. However, setting it up was a breeze, and I never heard anything negative about it from them. A heads up, though- AAA charged a $15 fee to set up the card. I don't know if all companies do this, but I would expect they all do something similar.

I say, load up a card, and bring a little cash, for those rare occasions they don't take credit. The only locations I can think of that don't take 'plastic', are the Churro carts, Popcorn carts, the free-moving Ice Cream carts (you know, the ones with the Mickey Ice Cream bars), and those stupid carts selling the flashy necklace things. It seems, to me, that if it isn't bolted down, they don't take credit. I may be wrong about some of those, and/or forgotten some others, but I believe that is it.

I hope this helps!

[Opus1guy]

Re: Anyone ever use a Green Dot card at Disneyland?

Visa or MC gift cards should work any place Visa or MC is accepted.

One little quirk about the gift cards that you should be aware of is when using at restaurants. Most restaurant's cards systems automatically pre-authorize your card for the amount of purchase PLUS an anticipated tip amount. What the final tip actually is, is determined by what you write in on the slip you leave. But they pre-authorize a set percentage to cover tip up front.

What this means is that say you have a $50 balance on your gift card and your dinner bill is $50. Sounds like a no problem transaction, right? Wrong. Your card will likely be rejected because when they first take the card to the scanner...the system will automatically attempt to pre-authorize say $57.50 ($50 + anticipated $7.50 tip). So...your card comes back to you with a reject.

Some restaurants pre-authorize the gratuity at 15% and some use 20%. And I suppose some others could use an even higher percentage.

So using gift cards at restaurants can be a challenge or impossible if your total bill is close to the total value of the card, and/or the restaurant does not know how to "force" a fixed dollar amount so that you can pay the difference or tip separately. This is a common hassle with these things and if you call the card company (number usually on the back of the gift card) to find out why your card was not accepted...they can tell you exactly why by looking at their transaction screen. And it usually has to do with the vendor adding some amount to the pre-authorization.

You can also run into problems when say you purchase an item for $35 and you want to pay for it with a combination of a $25 Gift Card and the balance in cash. If the clerk does not know the proper way and order in which to do this...the card could get rejected.

Of course if your pre-paid Visa/MC or gift card's balance is far in excess of any individual purchase amount/transaction...none of these things should be a problem.

[DCAFTW]

Re: Anyone ever use a Green Dot card at Disneyland?

I had a greendot card for years and I had no problems. It works just as well as any debit card, as long as you are very aware of your balance.

Also don't trip too much about cash, you can use those cards at any ATM. The fee is 2.00 plus whatever the ATM fee is. I suggest going on the Greendot website to find a fee free ATM if you are able.

[fantoongal]

Re: Anyone ever use a Green Dot card at Disneyland?

I can only speak for foods here, but pre-paid cards work just fine on our systems. And a little run down for help.

Accepts Cards:
-All restaurants
-All fruit carts
-Tiki Juice Bar (dole whip)
-Little Red Wagon (corn dogs)
-Conestoga/Harbour Galley (mcfries)
-Cappo Cart in the Hub

[GothicManor]

Re: Anyone ever use a Green Dot card at Disneyland?

To ACTUALLY answer your question ive been using them for years and they work just like regular cards I use them at DL all the time.........

[Alyssa3467]

Re: Anyone ever use a Green Dot card at Disneyland?

You can also run into problems when say you purchase an item for $35 and you want to pay for it with a combination of a $25 Gift Card and the balance in cash. If the clerk does not know the proper way and order in which to do this...the card could get rejected.

The biggest problem I see with such a thing is when you don't know the exact balance on a oartially used card, but you do know that it's lower than what you need to pay. Cashiers have no way of finding out the balance on the card, and if you give them an amount that's too high, the card will decline. In my experience, it is probably best not to tell them it is a gift card at all, and just let them see the credit card company logo and assume it's a credit card. I know I've been called over to a register to assist a few times because a gift card "wouldn't go through"; most of the time, it was because the Guest told the Cashier it was a gift card, and they hit the "Gift Card" button on the screen instead of the "Credit Card" button.

The way most retailer-issued gift cards operate is that if the balance left on the card is less than the amount due, the card will be emptied out and the total balance applied to the amount due without having to know beforehand what the card balance is. This capability does not exist with gift cards bearing credit card company logos and run as credit cards.

[flynnibus]

Re: Anyone ever use a Green Dot card at Disneyland?

You know, those prepaid Visa or Mastercard debit cards. Has anyone ever used one at Disneyland? I was thinking of getting one for my upcoming trip, and use it at the parks, and leave my wallet in the hotel. If you have used one, did you have any problems? Which is better, the Visa or Mastercard?

Too many places in DLR are still cash only - I don't think you'd really be helping yourself by trying to go plastic only with a pre-paid card.

Pre-paid are too cumbersome to deal when approaching the end of the balence and recharging them, etc.

If you want to use plastic, just get a credit card and pay it off each month

[disneyfan07]

Re: Anyone ever use a Green Dot card at Disneyland?

though I do carry credit, I prefer to pay with cash or checks. however, I do use the prepaid gift cards. those do come in handy. the best bet when using a prepaid, is if the card is registered online, you can check the balance on the card(and track transactions and other card usage including unauthorized usage). at the park(s) and the hotel(s) its best to keep track of your spending that way if you plan to use the card while at a restaurant(such as blue bayou, espn zone, etc) you will know exactly how much(if any) you have available to spend on that card.

[StrikeYerColors]

Re: Anyone ever use a Green Dot card at Disneyland?

anything with a visa, mastercard, discover, or am ex logo on it will work in any place at DL that accepts credit cards. that's one thing i love about buying there (my folks gave me a card on their discover account to buy myself things they would buy for me if i was still living at home, like groceries, and i occasionally use it to buy food in the parks. it drives me nuts when i need to use it, and a place only accepts visa or mastercard!). i always say, if DL can find a way to take your money, they will. they'll accept it in any form!

sadly, some (MOST) of the carts still only take cash. i tried to buy a pretzel in tomorrowland a week ago, and actually went to the ATM to get the cash. (a bust, since the man didn't have any cheese sauce!) same when my boy went to get a water bottle and a churro when waiting for fantasmic. luckly, the dole whip stand DID add their credit card machine! but was for ice cream, frozen lemonade, churros (they smell soooo good), pretzels, popcorn, and anything in those small sized carts, you need the cash.