Can we link a different credit card to each magic band?

[Ellasgirls]

My mom, sister and I are arriving at WDW NEXT FRIDAY!!! Can we each link our magicband to our own credit card for purchases while we are there? Our reservation is under my sisters name but she doesn't seem to want all our bands linked to her account...shocker!
Thank you!!!! SO SO SUPER EXCITED!

 

[dprincessmom]

I don't believe that you can do this. What you can do is stop at guest services at your resort and make payments to your account as you go throughout the trip.

 

[disneydude365]

yes you can! upon arrival tell them you want to link a selective debit/credit card to respective band. they will scan it and link it to the band for you. can not be done online must be done upon arrival.

(I've called and asked disney this question personally)

 

[ZoZo]

I tried that in February. I was traveling with a friend, whose name the room was reserved under. We tried setting up each of our magic bands with our own credit card (after being assured by the front-desk staff that this would work).

Well, it didn't work. I stopped by the front desk at AoA at the end of our second day, and found that all of the charges were going to my friend's credit card! Luckily, they could separate out whose charges were whose by our magic band number (which is listed for each transaction), so I had them separate mine out manually. I was assured again by the front desk CM that the charges would stay separate from that point forward.

Stopped by the front desk on Day Three, not trusting that it would be working right. The new charges were still going to my friend's card. Since AoA (a value resort) automatically charges the credit card when a $500 threshold is reached, this was scary!

I didn't want to have to go to the desk every day to get the charges separated out manually, so I gave up using my magic band for charging and just used a combination of cash and pulling out my credit card every time I had a charge for the rest of the week.

So my advice is not to trust them when they say they can keep the charges separate. Maybe they've fixed this problem since February, but I wouldn't count on it. And with three people in the room, it would be even more time-consuming to have the front desk separate the charges out manually every day.

Sorry!

 

[disneydude365]

I tried that in February. I was traveling with a friend, whose name the room was reserved under. We tried setting up each of our magic bands with our own credit card (after being assured by the front-desk staff that this would work).

Well, it didn't work. I stopped by the front desk at AoA at the end of our second day, and found that all of the charges were going to my friend's credit card! Luckily, they could separate out whose charges were whose by our magic band number (which is listed for each transaction), so I had them separate mine out manually. I was assured again by the front desk CM that the charges would stay separate from that point forward.

Stopped by the front desk on Day Three, not trusting that it would be working right. The new charges were still going to my friend's card. Since AoA (a value resort) automatically charges the credit card when a $500 threshold is reached, this was scary!

I didn't want to have to go to the desk every day to get the charges separated out manually, so I gave up using my magic band for charging and just used a combination of cash and pulling out my credit card every time I had a charge for the rest of the week.

So my advice is not to trust them when they say they can keep the charges separate. Maybe they've fixed this problem since February, but I wouldn't count on it. And with three people in the room, it would be even more time-consuming to have the front desk separate the charges out manually every day.

Sorry!

i also know people who's done this its been nearly a year since you've been they fixed a lot of glitches in the magic band systems since then

 

[LadyRayado]

I tried that in February. I was traveling with a friend, whose name the room was reserved under. We tried setting up each of our magic bands with our own credit card (after being assured by the front-desk staff that this would work).

Well, it didn't work. I stopped by the front desk at AoA at the end of our second day, and found that all of the charges were going to my friend's credit card!

We had the same experience in October - tried to link to three different cards and all the charges went to one. It was never fixed, either. We were told it couldn't be done when we first checked in, but found someone willing to do it later that night. Not saying it won't work for you, I'd just make sure to check after the first few charges you make to ensure it is working properly.

 

[MrInfinity]

Awesome! That will totally help on our upcoming trip! Didn't know you can do that. So they track purchases in separate bins then? And then at checkout they bill the respective cards?

 

[han22735]

We were there the week before thanksgiving and had no issues at all linking 3 different credit cards to 6 different magic bands. The front desk completed this at check in.

 

[ZoZo]

Awesome! That will totally help on our upcoming trip! Didn't know you can do that. So they track purchases in separate bins then? And then at checkout they bill the respective cards?

Looks like at least two of us have had the experience where it didn't work (one as recently as October). I had to have the front desk manually change all of my charges over to my own credit card, since they had mistakenly all been put to my friend's card.

You can sure try, but you might want a back-up plan, such as checking at the front desk to see if it's working correctly at the end of Day One of your trip. That's what I did (checked two different days) and found that it never was fixed. If you check right at the beginning of your trip to see if it's working correctly, at least you won't have to try to "untangle" everything to find out who all of the charges are for at the very end!

 

[MakiraMarlena]

Technically you don't link cards to the magic bands. The bands are linked to your room account and you are able to use the bands to charge back to the room.

It's possible to ask when you check into your resort to have your room charge arranged so that each party member charges back to a different credit card. They will try to set it up for you. It's a different question as to whether it will work or not. I would suggest having the front desk run your bill at least once to see if the charges have been set up properly, so you don't get an unpleasant surprise when you check out.

 

[MrInfinity]

Technically you don't link cards to the magic bands. The bands are linked to your room account and you are able to use the bands to charge back to the room.

It's possible to ask when you check into your resort to have your room charge arranged so that each party member charges back to a different credit card. They will try to set it up for you. It's a different question as to whether it will work or not. I would suggest having the front desk run your bill at least once to see if the charges have been set up properly, so you don't get an unpleasant surprise when you check out.

Interesting. I don't remember this from last time... but when you get your bill, and it's that nice itemized list of everything you charged... does it note which band initiated the charge? If we get that, all would be cool. I just don't want to have to deal with thinking back 5 days ago... "ok, what did I swipe my band for on this day... did I get that ice cream?" If they so much as note each charge by the band that made it, that would be perfectly acceptable.

 

[MakiraMarlena]

I can't tell you whether it registers different cards because I've never had it work. What did happen was that an itemized list was produced noting which person had charged which item. However, in the end, it was all charged to one credit card, even though the front desk had been asked to set up charging on two different cards.

They may have improved on it but after 2 failures I've just stopped asking.

 

[chelseabun76]

We are going to be trying this.... so I really hope it works. LOL! I will definately stop at the desk after the first full day of both of us using seperate cc's on 2 mb's to make sure it's working for sure though!!

 

[seshat0120]

My sister and I were there the week before Thanksgiving at Port Orleans Riverside. When we checked in, we told them that we wanted to use two separate bands and they were able to do it so anytime my sister charged with her MagicBand it went to her credit card and when I used my MagicBand it went to mine. It probably took them about 5 minutes to set it up.

 

[ms tom morrow]

Interesting. I don't remember this from last time... but when you get your bill, and it's that nice itemized list of everything you charged... does it note which band initiated the charge? If we get that, all would be cool. I just don't want to have to deal with thinking back 5 days ago... "ok, what did I swipe my band for on this day... did I get that ice cream?" If they so much as note each charge by the band that made it, that would be perfectly acceptable.

My DH and I traveled with a friend and all stayed in a GF villa under her name. At check in we requested mine and DH's band to charge to 1 card, and friend's band to charge to a different card. All worked perfectly well - only charges DH or I made were on our invoice. I think they were itemized by band on the invoice but my memory is a little fuzzy on that because DH is usually the "lucky" one to tap the Mickey, so most were under his anyway. I hope this works as well for you as it did for us OP!

 

[jennab113]

My friend and I shared a room in November and each had our credit card set up with our band and it worked with no problems. When I went to the desk to get an itemized list at the end of the week, I had the option of getting every charge made to our room (so both of our charges), just my charges, or just her charges. When the cards were charged, our totals were correct.

 

[peoplemover]

A friend of mine was in WDW last week & he stayed at the Contemporary Resort with three friends. They all left separate cards for each MagicBand. At the end of the trip, his debit card was charged for everything that all four people had charged to the room. That was not the first time I had heard of this happening; have read other accounts on the DIS of this. He had a horrible time trying to get it all straightened out. I would suggest, instead of MagicBands, using Disney gift cards. I know it will be less convenient at the time to do it this way, but it would be even worse at the end of your trip if Disney doesn't do your charges correctly.

 

[jimandami]

On our Oct trip, we set up 2 different cards for the 2 families in our room. CM assured us charges would be separated correctly. We stopped by on the second day and even though we had an itemized list of each charge, including who made the charge, everything was still going to our credit card. The CM at BLT fixed the issue and for the rest of the week, the charges were correctly separated. So my recommendation is to set them up at check-in, then stop by the front desk on the 2nd or 3rd day and ask for a list of charges to be sure it is working properly. The good thing is that even if the charges are all going to one person, the list clearly shows who made each charge so it's pretty easy to fix.

 

[Ellasgirls]

Well, it looks like we will have to wait and see . Either way I will have my credit card with me in case it doesn't work. From what a WDW rep told me we could link each band with a different credit card and also set up a limit on how much we could spend. If I try to spend more than my limit it will not let it go through. It all sounds great....if it works. I will still be watching my spending . 1 more week......1 more week!

 

[bumbershoot]

Well, it looks like we will have to wait and see . Either way I will have my credit card with me in case it doesn't work. From what a WDW rep told me we could link each band with a different credit card and also set up a limit on how much we could spend. If I try to spend more than my limit it will not let it go through. It all sounds great....if it works. I will still be watching my spending . 1 more week......1 more week!

Remember (or realize) that the cast members telling you these things don't work at the resorts, are in a call center, and might not even be in FL. They might know how things should be, or might be giving you their understanding of how it should be, but they don't know how things ARE.

People here are telling you what has happened to them, when it's been done (or not) by the people at the resorts.

As far as I have read, the limit on MBs has only been wishful thinking so far, or just down to the limit set on the rooms based on what sort of resort it is. (when the limit is reached they charge the card and the limit is reset)

But I haven't yet read of there being a successful way of limiting the actual charging done. (gift cards work great for that, without linking them to MBs)