Question about Charging to the Room

[bweagle]

I would like to charge to our room and then pay off charges with gift cards I've been accumulating throughout the year. I'm curious how this works if I have a credit card # on file through the hotel. Do the charges not automatically get charged to your credit card? Does that occur at check out?

 

[Mac4life30]

yes they are automatically charged. I would tell them at check in what you plan to do and then come the night before you check out.

 

[grimley1968]

You have a limit set up for how much you can charge to your room. You can alter that limit if you like. Once that limit is reached the card on file is automatically charged and your WDW balance resets to zero (and can accept more charging).

I was surprised once by this because my WDW balance at time of checkout was something like $190, after a week of normal shopping, dining, etc. I then looked at the list of charges and my balance had indeed reached its limit, my card on file had been charged, and the WDW balance reset to zero before reaching that $190 balance at time of checkout.

You can always go to the front desk before your purchases hit the limit and pay them off with whatever other payment medium you have.

 

[JustCallMeMommy]

They do get automatically charged when you reach a certain dollar amount (this varies by resort level), but you can go to the desk and pay on your balance at any time. You could pay it off periodically to keep your card from being charged.

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

I went to the front desk every evening and used the gift cards to pay off what we'd charged to the room that day.

We were always close to and even over the low minimum that Disney gave for value resorts on this trip since we did several big meals (Sci Fi diner Galactic breakfast for one - the most expensive breakfast I've ever had in my life!) and I wanted to make sure I caught the charges before they were run through the credit card.

I'd requested a higher minimum for charging but was told 500.00 was the limit and couldn't be altered.

That's another thing I loved about staying onsite at Universal - when I asked for a 1000.00 charging limit (they were going to do only 200.00 which wouldn't have covered our Mythos dinner), the Cast Member said sure and did it.

 

[china mom]

I am sure that you can also pre-pay with the gift cards. I didn't want charges to hit my card so I put down cash before going out and spending and then settled up with cash to balance out where I had gone over. Just don't use all of your gift cards at once because if you overpay, I think they have to refund you by check.

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

I am sure that you can also pre-pay with the gift cards. I didn't want charges to hit my card so I put down cash before going out and spending and then settled up with cash to balance out where I had gone over. Just don't use all of your gift cards at once because if you overpay, I think they have to refund you by check.

I was told at AoA over Memorial Weekend 2014, they couldn't accept gift cards to pre-pay. They could only take them if you had charges on your room (either for the cost of the room, or cost of souveniers or dining).

This was just my experience though so others may have a different one.

 

[MacDalt]

I am sure that you can also pre-pay with the gift cards. I didn't want charges to hit my card so I put down cash before going out and spending and then settled up with cash to balance out where I had gone over. Just don't use all of your gift cards at once because if you overpay, I think they have to refund you by check.

I don't understand. You gave cash to the front desk, then charged meals and purchases to your room?

 

[JanaDee]

I would like to charge to our room and then pay off charges with gift cards I've been accumulating throughout the year. I'm curious how this works if I have a credit card # on file through the hotel. Do the charges not automatically get charged to your credit card? Does that occur at check out?

Or you could just pay with gift cards at the point of purchase instead of charging to the room, saving yourself the time and hassle of going to the front desk.

 

[bweagle]

Or you could just pay with gift cards at the point of purchase instead of charging to the room, saving yourself the time and hassle of going to the front desk.

I had thought about this, but thought it may be invonvenient to have to carry around numerous $50 cards throughout the park and remember what the balance is on each.

Also thinking about paying for larger, character meals, giving 2-3 gift cards and hoping I get the right one with the balance back.

Paying at the resort just seemed more convenient.

 

[Pirate4Ever]

We always use all of our gift cards the night before checkout to pay the balance on the room. That way, we can charge using our Magicbands and don't have to carry 10+ gift cards to the park with us. It's very simple and only takes a few minutes of your time.