How I shopped at Disney World for FREE

On my phone, I have this nifty little app called Ibotta. Have you heard of it? If not, you are majorly missing some serious savings opportunities! In this case, I have used it over the last couple of months to score some Disney gift cards for FREE. Can that be right?

Disclaimer: You can totally work this to get gift cards other than Disney, I am just excited about my own Disney freebies!

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Everything at Disney is magical, except for the price tags, so I will take my savings where I can get them. $150 in free gift card savings to be exact. Sound too good to be true? It was super easy, and even kinda fun! Here’s how I did it:

Downloading the App

Ok, so I already had Ibotta downloaded on my phone when I started saving a couple of months ago. For those of you who do not already have it,however, this is where you have to start. Click here to download, and you will even receive a $10 bonus just for signing up! See, you already have your first $10 towards your Disney purchases just for downloading the app. That was easy!

Check Out your Favorite Stores and Add Offers

Now that you have the app on your phone, you can check out all of the great offers! Simply open the app, and select the store you are looking to shop at. Then you can browse the offers (Ibotta organizes them into relevant categories for you) and select the offers you are interested in. You can add as many offers as you would like, and Ibotta is adding new ones all the time. Be sure to check back often to make sure you do not miss out on any savings!

By the way, make sure you are browsing all of the different types of stores Ibotta includes, and do not just stick to grocery. Ibotta has rebates available at a good number of stores, and even includes some online retailers!

Go Shopping

This part is fun. Simply go shopping as you normally would, and pick up any of the products that you were interested in the offers for. Word to the wise, make sure you pay attention to any offer details that state your offer is on two products, or only on certain varieties of your product. There is no bigger bummer than getting home to realize the product you bought is not valid for your rebate.

There is no limit to the amount of rebates you can redeem, so shop away. Do be mindful however that most rebates can only be redeemed on one product purchase.

Redeem your Offers

Now that your shopping is complete, it is time to redeem your offers! This is the most exciting part for me by far. Simply go back into the app, select the store you were shopping in, and click “Verify Purchases”. For most of the stores, you will then scan the UPC on all of the offered products you bought before photographing the receipt and submitting it. The app makes this process super quick and easy, and it sounds much more difficult than it actually is. Promise.

Wait for your Account to Credit

This part is super easy. Once your receipt is submitted, you simply wait for your account to credit. Most receipts I have submitted have taken 24-48 hours to credit, however I did have one recently that took 4 days. It is super exciting to receive that notification though telling you that your account has been credited! Almost as exciting as Christmas morning.

Almost.

Redeem your Earnings for Gift Cards

You read right. You are getting FREE Gift Cards. Most of the options require you to have $20 accumulated before you can cash out. This seems like a lot, but I have accumulated that much in less than 2 weeks before. It does not take long at all for the savings to add up!

Cash in your Gift Cards for Disney Gift Cards

This step is another super happy one as you get to see the fruits of your labor. Depending on which store you redeemed your gift cards for, simply take your electronic gift cards to the store of your choosing and purchase your gift cards! I know for certain that both Target and Sam’s Club carry Disney gift cards in stock. My personal preference is going to Sam’s Club to redeem my gift cards, because I can get $150 in cards for just under $144 with their club pricing. Not a huge difference, but that is another $6 in cards for free, and I can use that extra $6 for a box of snacks for the trip!

Bonuses

Make sure to check the bonus tab on your Ibotta app before shopping. Ibotta offers a ton of opportunities to earn extra cash with their bonus offers. Sometimes these bonuses require purchasing “x” amount of like products, but many times, you can get extra money for your trip just by redeeming a certain number of offers in a certain time frame. Hey, money is money and I do what I can to save it.

That’s how I did it guys! $150 in FREE Disney gift cards means a shopping spree for my kiddos. (For the second year in a row.) Plus, my account will have an extra $20 after I cash out my Sam’s Club gift cards, which will mean I am getting a free $20 Sephora gift card for myself as well. Yay! Need to save more money for your trip? Check out this post to see how I saved $1600 last year without trying!

Do you use Ibotta? What would you buy with your FREE gift cards?