Credit Card or Cash on file?

[karenh1127@h]

I do not know whether to put a cc on file with the resort and use our pass to pay for food, gifts, etc. or just pay cash as we go? What if I put a cc on file and when checking out of the resort, settled up in cash? Is is safe to leave cash in the room safes? Any help appreciated!

 

[sue1013]

Having had my wallet stolen once I learned the only thing not replaceable is cash. I would put the cc on file leave the cash in the bank and pay the cc bill when you get home.

 

[bnd1218]

I don't know if they still do this, but the last time my dh and I were at DW, we put cash on file and everytime we made a purchase, they "charged it to our room" and it was taken out of our "account" like a checking account would work. When our cash supply got low, we just gave them more - and we used traveler's cheques. It worked out really well, and my dh just kept up with the receipts, "balancing" our account every night. Hope this helps!

 

[loralie]

I don't know if they still do this, but the last time my dh and I were at DW, we put cash on file and everytime we made a purchase, they "charged it to our room" and it was taken out of our "account" like a checking account would work. When our cash supply got low, we just gave them more - and we used traveler's cheques. It worked out really well, and my dh just kept up with the receipts, "balancing" our account every night. Hope this helps!

We also left cash on our account so we could still use our room key to charge everything and if we ran low we would add more. I don't like having bills after the trip.

Have fun,

Loralie

 

[eliza61]

I do not know whether to put a cc on file with the resort and use our pass to pay for food, gifts, etc. or just pay cash as we go? What if I put a cc on file and when checking out of the resort, settled up in cash? Is is safe to leave cash in the room safes? Any help appreciated!

I more of a security freak, I just don't like traveling with a whole lot of cash on hand. While I never had a problem with the room safes, I put a cc on file and settle up with travelers checks at the end of the resort stay. This way, I don't have large bills coming in after my vacation and if some how I did get robbed or even lose my Travelers checks, AmEx replaces them.
Be safe

 

[Princess89]

We bring a lot of cash with us, but have our ways of hiding that I will not divulge. We use our CC on file, and then pay it in cash later on. It really is my DH that does this. But the CC is also for security and any problems that could possibly arise. We never had any, but you never know.

As for leaving it in the hotel safe, yes some of it is in there, but not all of it. I never had a safety problem at all with the hotel safe. DH's philosohpy is, put some here, and some there. If the safe is broken into, we don't loose all of it. They aren't going to look 10 other places for all of the cash, they will assume if there was some in the safe that would be it Must be a man thing!

 

[JeanfromBNA]

We use a debit card instead of a credit card. The result - settling up in cash - is the same.

 

[CA Disney Fans]

We also left cash on our account so we could still use our room key to charge everything and if we ran low we would add more. I don't like having bills after the trip.

Have fun,

Loralie

We did the same this past September, but also put some cash in the in room safe for out of pocket expenses that we couldn't charge to our room (i.e. cabs).

I agree with you, Loralie, about bills afterwards.

 

[CleveRocks]

You can set up a room charge with cash, travelers checks, Disney Dollars, a debit card or a credit card. They all work.

With credit and debit cards, no "hold" is placed on your account, and NOTHING is actually charged to your account until one of the following, whichever comes first: you reach the limit you set for the charge at check-in; you are near check-out time (usually the overnight hours of check-out day); or you call or request in-person that your card be charged.

Let me explain this last option .... Let's say you have a $1,000 room-charge limit, and you are currently at $995. If you try to buy something with your room card for $10, the charge will be declined. If you want to still use your room charge, you'd have to call the resort, and over the phone you can verbally authorize them to start another room charge for you. You'll then immediately be able to use your room charge again.

I got a print-out of my account a few times, so I knew when I was approaching my limit. When I knew I was within about $70 or so, I called the front desk, authorized my balance thus-far to be charged to my debit card, and then set up ANOTHER room charge account. WHatever I spent after that time was charged through as a separate charge on my debit card. So after my week at WDW I had only two charges on my debit card, about $725 for my first 6 days and about $60 for my last day.

Another tip about room charges -- you don't have to set up your room charge for the highest possible limit. At Value resorts, you can set up a room charge for up to $500, at Moderates it's $1,000 and at Deluxes it's $1,500.

When I stayed at POFQ a few weeks ago, when I checked in I set up my room charge for $800. I did the same thing last year at CBR. Both times, it was as smooth and as normal as can be. However, when I called the POFQ front desk before my last day during this recent trip to settle up my room charge and set up a new one (so I wouldn't have to have a charge declined and then have to take the time to set up a new one over the phone), the CM disagreed with me that I was even able to set up a room charge for under the $1,000 limit. I told her I'd already set up my existing one for $800, and she politely but firmly told me that was "impossible" because they "always automatically" set up the room charges for $1,000. I politely told her she was incorrect and asked her to check my account, and of course she found out the truth.

 

[bdklein]

If you have the money to pay your bill without interest, you would be foolish not use a CC. There are plenty of no-fee CC's where you get money back for using the card. Plus, you get to float the money for a month, and no risk of losing cash. Plus you have more recourse with a merchant when you use a CC.

 

[Bell30012]

Two different days on my 2005 trip the room safe was open (unlocked) when we returned from the parks. Nothing missing, there was no cash in the safe. Just my laptop, Blackberry, GPS unit from the car and a couple of other items.

The first time I thought it possible that I did it and said nothing. The second time, I was certain so I approached management of POP. They apologized and promised to look into it.

The next morning, the manager told me that he had solved the problem and apologized for someone breaching security. His claim was that the mousekeeper heard something beeping inside of it and security/maint opened it to check. Not likely since nothing in there was on.

Possibly unrelated but the rest of our trip we had a different mousekeeper.

 

[Prairiemom]

Wow I'm not happy hearing this as you would think when they have such a thing as a safe in your rom that you should be able to put valuables into it without worrying about it being broken into. This is going to be something I'll have to think about as i won't want to be leaving my purse with our cash or credit cards in it. What do other do? Do you have everythign on you at all time during the day? I would love to hear from you if you don't want to post on the board I understand but PM me with the info please. I leave in week and would love to know what you all do

Two different days on my 2005 trip the room safe was open (unlocked) when we returned from the parks. Nothing missing, there was no cash in the safe. Just my laptop, Blackberry, GPS unit from the car and a couple of other items.

The first time I thought it possible that I did it and said nothing. The second time, I was certain so I approached management of POP. They apologized and promised to look into it.

The next morning, the manager told me that he had solved the problem and apologized for someone breaching security. His claim was that the mousekeeper heard something beeping inside of it and security/maint opened it to check. Not likely since nothing in there was on.

Possibly unrelated but the rest of our trip we had a different mousekeeper.

 

[Goofyluver]

I do not know whether to put a cc on file with the resort and use our pass to pay for food, gifts, etc. or just pay cash as we go? What if I put a cc on file and when checking out of the resort, settled up in cash? Is is safe to leave cash in the room safes? Any help appreciated!

I would use a cc. If you have a dispute, you can always take it up with your credit card company. If you want to use cash, keep that with you.

 

[Bell30012]

There isn't really much else I know about it. The manager did explain that to gain access to the master key it takes a higher level CM. According to him security did have a log entry where a CM mousekeeper had called about the "beeping."

The manager was confident that it was opened by security and not a rogue key (as he called it) because only the security key will come out in the open position.

Apparently several times each week guests take keys with them. What if the key wasn't taken by a guest but rather by a CM? According to the manager the pins are changed in the lock and keys swapped.

With nothing missing and my Blackberry sitting right on top (very small, easily pocketable and very expensive at that time) I had to agree it was probably an error of the security not locking it back fully.