What method works best for bring spending money?

[tevisco4]

My husband and I are debating on how to bring our spending money...

Do we carry all cash? Do we use a credit card and pay it off when we get home? I would rather not pay with my debit card.

So I was wondering how does your family handle this? Thanks in advance for your responses!!

 

[disneynut11]

We did the following...
we gave the kids a set amount on a gift card.
we carried a minimal amount of cas each day (like 20 bucks)
we charged things to our room and paid it off with our visa debit upon checkout.

 

[lyncecelia]

I was down seeing my parents the month before, which made this possible--

We had their money in Disney dollars which I held, as well as $20 cash each from their mom. It was easier for me to play banker in this sense.

For purchases adults made, Tim, myself, and (to our dismay) his eldest had charging capabilities to the room. (I hate that they did that automatically for a 11 year old). He didn't know well into the trip though.

 

[OurMinnieFamily]

I'm going to put the money my daughter has been saving on a gift card. I wont do it on disney gift cards though, I'm going to do $25 per card and put it on visa/mastercard gift cards.


I will charge everything else to the room key and keep about $20 on me for just in case money.

 

[momfeez]

My husband and I are debating on how to bring our spending money...

Do we carry all cash? Do we use a credit card and pay it off when we get home? I would rather not pay with my debit card.

So I was wondering how does your family handle this? Thanks in advance for your responses!!

We pay cash for CS meals and snacks. Charge TS meals and all gift shop purchases. We stay off property, so can't charge to room. We don't have a debit card, so it's cash or charge. For the 5 of us for lunch and dinner and a snack estimate $200 per day. That's high, but I'd rather have enough cash than not enough.

 

[dhardawa]

I charge everything to the room. I don't take any cash. Too easy to lose.

 

[saffsmom]

I'm going to put the money my daughter has been saving on a gift card. I wont do it on disney gift cards though, I'm going to do $25 per card and put it on visa/mastercard gift cards.


I will charge everything else to the room key and keep about $20 on me for just in case money.

be careful with visa/mastercard gift cards...they can come with alot of "rules" and hidden fees attached to them

 

[kim929]

I'm with pp. I always carry small amount of cash and charge the rest to the room. I have never done it, but I believe you can put the cash down and charge to the room against it. In a value you can only charge up to 500.00 then you have to pay down or the whole amount, I don't know if you can put a large amount of cash down and charge against that. I would put it on my cc then pay that off when I came home.



For purchases adults made, Tim, myself, and (to our dismay) his eldest had charging capabilities to the room. (I hate that they did that automatically for a 11 year old). He didn't know well into the trip though.


I have always been asked if I wanted the kids to have the ability to charge. You could have told them you didn't want him be able to charge to the room and they would of given you a new card.

 

[picatinny]

My husband and I are debating on how to bring our spending money...

Do we carry all cash? Do we use a credit card and pay it off when we get home? I would rather not pay with my debit card.

So I was wondering how does your family handle this? Thanks in advance for your responses!!

Before our trip, I figured how much each kid was getting and how much we wanted to spend on souvenirs and incidentals. I went to my local Disney store and got gift cards for each of the 3 kids ($100 each) and then put the rest on cards for us. ($200/$100) for me and ($200/$100) for my wife so we didn't keep them all in one location in case they got lost or stolen.

For all of our sit down meals we used our Disney charge.

We actually came home with money left over on them which we have used on either Disney stores on line or in person.

 

[bjscheel]

We do cash. Last trip since we didn't have dining plan and would be paying OOP for meals, we brought some Disney gift cards.

DH did think he lost one of his gift cards, and the ladies at the POR gift shop were able to issue him a new one just from the information on a receipt when he had bought something. Even though part of the gift card numbers were X'd out. Turned out the lost card was in his swim trunks pocket.

 

[Karenj2]

We cary only a tiny amount of cash - under $100 for the whole trip (mostly for tips and the one or two carts in the parks that can't take a card.)

We charge everything to the room (we being just my DH and I - 2yo is too young. ), and then either pay for it with our Rewards Dollars or we use our CC. We budget spending money into our vacations, and don't carry a balance on our CCs ever.

When DD gets older, we'll probably have a GC for her to use with a preset amount (we'll probably hold it unless she proves responsible).

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

I never carry more than a few dollars in cash and use credit cards for purchases. No worries about losing money.

 

[OurMinnieFamily]

be careful with visa/mastercard gift cards...they can come with alot of "rules" and hidden fees attached to them

I will get them from my bank directly. No extra charges and if there is a balance I can have it moved over to my account.

 

[ndfi78]

Charge everything to the room and carry a small amount of cash.

 

[lisadisney2003]

We never use credit for vacation. If we can't pay cash, we don't go. While on the trip itself we also use cash. We only take a portion to the park each day and put the rest in the safe. We have found that charging things to the room sometimes causes mindless spending so we try and limit that but, if we run out of cash that day it is always an option.

 

[naf917]

We have some cash with us but everything gets charged to our Disney visa and then pay it off when we get back. We do also have Disney gift card for the kids to spend on whatever they want.

 

[taymaesmom]

I prefer cash as its easier to see what your spending. I buy disney gift cards to cover our TS meals and a few extra for some of our CS meals. I then put $150 in cash in an envelope for each day and keep them in the safe. Then I pull that days envelope out on the way to the parks that day. I do carry a credit card just in case but only have used it once in all of our 7 trips. And that was only because I was able to score a very last minute ADR we had wanted!

 

[PiperPizzaz]

We never use credit for vacation. If we can't pay cash, we don't go. While on the trip itself we also use cash. We only take a portion to the park each day and put the rest in the safe. We have found that charging things to the room sometimes causes mindless spending so we try and limit that but, if we run out of cash that day it is always an option.

We actually have the reverse problem. If we have cash we spend it more readily. We use credit for everything and pay it off automatically.

We never link our cards to our room keys.
We bring cash for tips which we can pre-determine and <$100 for the whole trip. Just for tiny stuff or stuff at places that don't necessarily have a credit machine. We also wait until the last day or two to buy souvenirs so we have all week to think about it and browse.

 

[Celidh]

I used traveller's cheques. I didn't want to use my credit card because the exchange rate and the extra charge on my card is an issue. I didn't want to travel with a bunch of cash either. I got US travellers cheques and kept most of them in the safe. I cashed in a certain amount each day as needed at the resort front desk. Even if I could have gotten them, I wouldn't want the gift cards because if I don't use it, the money is left on a Disney card that i wouldn't know when I would use again (we have no Disney store and their online store charges us an arm and a leg for shipping to Canada). At the end of the trip, I made sure all my travellers cheques had been changed into cash and put the $ back into my US bank account for the next trip.

I felt this was the best option for me due to exchange and the fact that I had some security if they were lost or stolen.

 

[zuzu310]

We carry a minimal amount of cash each day (like $20) and then we charge the rest on our Disney Visa (hey more points, right?) and we just pay it off when we get home. And my son is just a baby so too young to carry his own money.