paying off room charges daily?

[yeheyprincex2]

We are planning on charging all things to our MB this trip and paying the balance off daily. I have heard of people paying with Disney gift cards so can we pay off balance with cash or does it have to be a Credit card, debit card?
We will be carrying some cash with us and debit cards just in case while in the parks.

 

[marchingstar]

We charged everything to out MB last trip and just let the totals push through to our credit card, but with where the canadian dollar is right now, it feels like much less of an option. So our plan is the same as yours--charge things onto the MB and pay off the totals before they push through. You can pay the charges off however you want (cash included). The only thing to be mindful of: you need to have a credit card set up on your account to allow charging privileges, and if you don't pay the balance off before a certain point it automatically gets charged to your card. What that limit is depends on the level of resort you're staying at. Someone correct me if I have the numbers wrong, but I think it's 500$ at values, 1000$ at moderates, and 1500$ at deluxes.

 

[macraven]

We charged everything to out MB last trip and just let the totals push through to our credit card, but with where the canadian dollar is right now, it feels like much less of an option. So our plan is the same as yours--charge things onto the MB and pay off the totals before they push through. You can pay the charges off however you want (cash included). The only thing to be mindful of: you need to have a credit card set up on your account to allow charging privileges, and if you don't pay the balance off before a certain point it automatically gets charged to your card. What that limit is depends on the level of resort you're staying at. Someone correct me if I have the numbers wrong, but I think it's 500$ at values, 1000$ at moderates, and 1500$ at deluxes.

your numbers are correct.

what i do is buy disney gift cards with my credit card that gives me points on my purchases.
during my stay, i go to the front desk in the evening and give them one of the gc to apply towards my room charges.

that clears what i owe from the daily charging in the parks and i continues to do so until i check out.
for short visits, i only do this once the before i check out and that covers the largest amount of charges i have.
i do ask in advance at the front desk what time is the latest i can do this before it automatically goes onto my cc.

for the very last full day in the parks, i use gc for any charges there.

on check out day i own nothing.

 

[IrishNYC]

Our plan is to pay the balance down with gift cards every day or two, depending how much we charge.

 

[yeheyprincex2]

ok so wold have to pay off daily balance before midnight? Thanks marchingstar

 

[Kingdome8]

U need to use gift cards on last night before they put charge thru. I never did it. But that's what guy at front desk told me if I wanted to pay with different card or gift card from what I had on file

 

[yeheyprincex2]

your numbers are correct.

what i do is buy disney gift cards with my credit card that gives me points on my purchases.
during my stay, i go to the front desk in the evening and give them one of the gc to apply towards my room charges.

that clears what i owe from the daily charging in the parks and i continues to do so until i check out.
for short visits, i only do this once the before i check out and that covers the largest amount of charges i have.
i do ask in advance at the front desk what time is the latest i can do this before it automatically goes onto my cc.

for the very last full day in the parks, i use gc for any charges there.

on check out day i own nothing.

good idea I'll ask about cut off time before charges to to the CC.

 

[macraven]

ok so wold have to pay off daily balance before midnight? Thanks marchingstar

when i stay at, i always ask at the front desk of the cut off time.
they told me i would need to make a payment/gc by 10 pm.

other times i have been told before midnight.

i guess it changes so i just go with asking on each stay at the resorts what the latest time to make that transaction so it will go through.

 

[wdwjeffc37]

You can pay your room charges with Gift Cards, Credit Cards, Cash. It is simple to stop by the front desk and do this when you return for the night. I would suggest that on your last park day that you not charge to the room and just pay cash in case they put the end of stay charges through early. Not likely, but it can happen.

 

[lauradis]

I was told before midnight in Oct 2013 stay when you hit your resort limit balance.

Sometimes you can get CM that knows what they are doing and pre load you gift cards onto you spending acct at check in sometimes not.

Do not throw away gift cards till after your trip

 

[MermaidMommy]

I was told before midnight in Oct 2013 stay when you hit your resort limit balance.

Sometimes you can get CM that knows what they are doing and pre load you gift cards onto you spending acct at check in sometimes not.

I didn't think they ever pre-loaded gift cards onto your account. Have you been able to do that recently?

 

[lauradis]

I didn't think they ever pre-loaded gift cards onto your account. Have you been able to do that recently?

Oct 2013 took me 2 days and don't remember how many cast members.

They took the left overs of what I didn't spend and put them back on the Gift cards.

So again... Dont ever never throw away gift cards till at home.

And check the balances, too.

 

[Mikie]

Sometimes you can get CM that knows what they are doing and pre load you gift cards onto you spending acct at check in sometimes not.

I didn't think they ever pre-loaded gift cards onto your account. Have you been able to do that recently?

It would be nice to be able to do this! It's what I thought I could do based on gift card threads here on DIS. On my Oct trip, I tried 3 different CMs at the front desk at Pop if I could pre-load my gift cards and they all told me no. When I posted back about it here, it seemed most folks said paying daily after you've made charges is the way it worked for them too, and I had just misunderstood beforehand. Sure would help to be able to pre-load!

 

[lauradis]

It would be nice to be able to do this! It's what I thought I could do based on gift card threads here on DIS. On my Oct trip, I tried 3 different CMs at the front desk at Pop if I could pre-load my gift cards and they all told me no. When I posted back about it here, it seemed most folks said paying daily after you've made charges is the way it worked for them too, and I had just misunderstood beforehand. Sure would help to be able to pre-load!

I just paid before they pre loaded, when I could. after we got back, early in the am when I was up before my group, etc.

Hopefully one day it can be all pre-loaded if guest wants.

When they send you the end of trip email just put that in the suggestions.

Im positive Disney would be more then happy to have more of your money before you spend it lol

 

[bluezy]

Definitely check with the front desk of your resort as to what time they run the room charges. When we were at AoA in 2013, they would run reports twice a day do check for guests who were close to their charging limits ($500 at AoA). If a guests was over about $450, they would put the charge through right away so that the guest wouldn't find themselves out at the parks with no ability to charge to their rooms. I don't know if every resort runs those reports twice a day, but I had 3 different front desk CMs at AoA tell me that's how AoA was handling it at that time.

I've had no luck getting a CM to front load gift cards on our room account for me. It isn't a big deal as I usually don't have a lot of gift cards to use anyway. I do wish they would change the room charging limits, though. We pay as much for a suite at AoA as we would for a standard room at a Deluxe yet we have a $500 limit at AoA but would have a $1500 limit at the Deluxe. On our last trip we had 6 people in our room (3 adults, 2 Disney Adults (teens), and an 8 year old) and no dining plan -- plus our son and his girlfriend were traveling with us (on their own reservation, though), and we paid for some of their snacks and a few meals. We were going through $500 every day or two. And I actually had a few hundred dollars in gift cards on that trip and it was a challenge to get to the front desk to use them before they pushed the room charges through to the credit card.

 

[macraven]

Definitely check with the front desk of your resort as to what time they run the room charges. When we were at AoA in 2013, they would run reports twice a day do check for guests who were close to their charging limits ($500 at AoA). If a guests was over about $450, they would put the charge through right away so that the guest wouldn't find themselves out at the parks with no ability to charge to their rooms. I don't know if every resort runs those reports twice a day, but I had 3 different front desk CMs at AoA tell me that's how AoA was handling it at that time.

I've had no luck getting a CM to front load gift cards on our room account for me. It isn't a big deal as I usually don't have a lot of gift cards to use anyway. I do wish they would change the room charging limits, though. We pay as much for a suite at AoA as we would for a standard room at a Deluxe yet we have a $500 limit at AoA but would have a $1500 limit at the Deluxe. On our last trip we had 6 people in our room (3 adults, 2 Disney Adults (teens), and an 8 year old) and no dining plan -- plus our son and his girlfriend were traveling with us (on their own reservation, though), and we paid for some of their snacks and a few meals. We were going through $500 every day or two. And I actually had a few hundred dollars in gift cards on that trip and it was a challenge to get to the front desk to use them before they pushed the room charges through to the credit card.

yes, that is very important to know if you are a newbie in making payments at the end of each day on your account.
if you are at a value resort, $500 is the limit of changing back to your room/magic band each day.
anything over that and it goes on your cc and processed so you can continue charging that day.

i went over my limit in 2013 and the CM at the shop called my hotel when my charge back to hotel wouldn't go through.
the hotel CM approved and did an over ride for that store so i could charge back then.
but, they processed $500 on to my cc that afternoon.

 

[georgina]

I've had no luck getting a CM to front load gift cards on our room account for me. It isn't a big deal as I usually don't have a lot of gift cards to use anyway. I do wish they would change the room charging limits, though. We pay as much for a suite at AoA as we would for a standard room at a Deluxe yet we have a $500 limit at AoA but would have a $1500 limit at the Deluxe. On our last trip we had 6 people in our room (3 adults, 2 Disney Adults (teens), and an 8 year old) and no dining plan -- plus our son and his girlfriend were traveling with us (on their own reservation, though), and we paid for some of their snacks and a few meals. We were going through $500 every day or two. And I actually had a few hundred dollars in gift cards on that trip and it was a challenge to get to the front desk to use them before they pushed the room charges through to the credit card.

I think in that situation I would have skipped charging to the room and just used the GC/cash/credit card at the restaurants. I agree about the low limits at values though.

The only time I have had anything pre-loaded was when I prepaid for my room with GCs and the CM applied the excess value of the last card and it was a credit for my room charges.

 

[bluezy]

I think in that situation I would have skipped charging to the room and just used the GC/cash/credit card at the restaurants. I agree about the low limits at values though.

The only time I have had anything pre-loaded was when I prepaid for my room with GCs and the CM applied the excess value of the last card and it was a credit for my room charges.

That's what I ended up doing with some of the GC's. I wasn't overly concerned about using all of them since I knew I could just save them for the next trip -- which is what happened with a few of them. Just applied them to the final payment of our upcoming trip -- except for 2 that had less than $20 each on them. But I plan to put those towards our first purchase when we arrive in June.

 

[dorivonbunneh]

i have not been to disney yet. Just wondering why everyone would rather pay with the gift cards? I see a lot of mention of gift cards but not much of just paying your daily room charges down with cash/credit or debit? sorry new to all this planning ahead.

 

[macraven]

i have not been to disney yet. Just wondering why everyone would rather pay with the gift cards? I see a lot of mention of gift cards but not much of just paying your daily room charges down with cash/credit or debit? sorry new to all this planning ahead.

the reason i use gift cards is so Mr Mac doesn't see what i am paying and buying while on a solo vacation.
this way i avoid the conversations when the cc comes in.