Charging on Magic Band and Keeping Expenses Separate...How Do I Do This at Pop?

[Little E]

I am headed to WDW next week on a girls' trip to Pop Century. This will be the first time I share a room with a friend. In all prior trips, I've either had my own room for girls' trips or I've vacationed with my family and shared a room with DH and my kiddos. Since I'm sharing my room with a friend, I'm not sure how to navigate charges to the room?

My normal method of paying for things on property is to charge everything to my magic band during the day, and then pay off the day's charges at the front desk with Disney gift cards in the evening when I return to the hotel. My friend plans to do the same. How do I make sure our charges do not get intertwined? I want to pay for only my expenses each day, and my friend wants to pay for only her expenses each day. If we're both charging back to the room on our magic bands, how do we each get our own room report with our separate charges?

What do we need to do or say to CMs when we check in so that our charges and accounts are separate?

Any advice would be terrific! Thank you!

 

[gottalovepluto]

Just tell the CMs what you want to do when you check in. Then go test it, buy two water bottles at the Pop QS or something, one on each band and then check with the front desk to see that it divided out right on the folio (idk if you can see it in the app divided out by person but if you can it would save you another check in with the front desk).

 

[loves to dive]

It's doable in theory, it doesn't always work, thus the test mentioned above. We just buy the wrist gift cards and use those and refill them if necessary. You could also just get a visa or MC gift card and use that instead of charging to your MB.

 

[Little E]

@loves to dive I'm curious...what are "wrist gift cards". I always come with plenty of Disney gift cards (that I purchase with my RedCard from Target for the 5% off). I charge everything to my room with my magic band during the day, and then pay off my folio each night using the gift cards.

@gottalovepluto I like the idea of the test purchase. Thank you! We'll try that. If things become a hot mess, I know I can just pay for everything with my Disney gift cards, and skip the magic band step, but I just like the ease of paying for things with the magic bands in parks and restaurants.

 

[loves to dive]

@loves to dive I'm curious...what are "wrist gift cards". I always come with plenty of Disney gift cards (that I purchase with my RedCard from Target for the 5% off). I charge everything to my room with my magic band during the day, and then pay off my folio each night using the gift cards.

@gottalovepluto I like the idea of the test purchase. Thank you! We'll try that. If things become a hot mess, I know I can just pay for everything with my Disney gift cards, and skip the magic band step, but I just like the ease of paying for things with the magic bands in parks and restaurants.

There are gift cards that are sold at every festival at Epcot that come attached to little bungie type things that you just slip over your wrist. No pulling the card out of a wallet every time you want to use it, you just wear it on your wrist and hold up your arm for them to scan it. They are just regular Disney gift cards, just more convenient to use.

 

[Little E]

@loves to dive Got it!! I've never seen these before...thank you!!!

 

[ak517]

You can also track charges via the app. They’re pretty instantaneous, but I would need someone to refresh my memory if they say who made the purchase. I know on the folio at the end of stay everything is divided by who purchased what and I’ve never had an issue with it being inaccurate, at least in recent memory.

 

[Goofy4]

We assigned pin codes to our bands. Charges are then listed with associated person's name on the statement.

 

[Mle8308]

It’s easy. The front desk can set it up in a matter of minutes. Both people will have to leave a credit card on file. I recommend checking your folios the night before you leave to make sure all is good. They can transfer any incorrect charges between the accounts, and you can pay your balance with cash/gift card instead, if you choose.

 

[R&RsMom]

Be sure to check after you get it set up. Ours was messed up and everything got put on my card. Not an issue, but we had to go get it all straightened out.

 

[MarkleB]

Third time at attempting an answer for this.

If you're paying things off every day like you've stated, you don't have to do anything special. Our line items in the folio had our names next to everything we paid for with our own MagicBands. You can specify in reception which items you want to pay off.

 

[wabbott]

paper receipts of purchases might be helpful

 

[elvispursley]

My mom always stops by the front desk when we first arrive and makes sure that her credit card is attached to her MB. They get it set up quickly and we've never had a problem with her charging her purchases with her MB and me charging with my MB. Just wish we could get this set up ahead of time so we truly could check-in remotely and skip the front desk.

 

[Miffy]

It’s easy. The front desk can set it up in a matter of minutes. Both people will have to leave a credit card on file. I recommend checking your folios the night before you leave to make sure all is good. They can transfer any incorrect charges between the accounts, and you can pay your balance with cash/gift card instead, if you choose.

This seems like it should work, however, the only time I've ever done this, on a trip with my sister, except for the first day when the charges on my MB ended up on my cc, everything else I charged using my MB and my own PIN were charged to my sister's cc. We didn't realize it until checkout.

So beware if you go this route. It doesn't always work as it should. The resort (AKL) was unable to tell us why this happened. Because it was my sister, we were able to easily work things out, but I would absolutely not recommend this method to anyone. These days I use my cc. Sure, it takes a couple more minutes than scanning my MB, but it's not all that difficult.

 

[Dave006]

Just wish we could get this set up ahead of time so we truly could check-in remotely and skip the front desk.

That is not an option currently setup in Online Check-in. Only 1 Credit/Debit card per account folio. You don't have to do first thing on arrival.

You could stop by after your after first day adventures at the Front desk and have the CM setup the 2 Credit/Debit cards on your room Folio and assign the MBs. The CM can also print a list of your first day charges if you insist in using your MB before setting up multiple Credit/Debit cards.

Dave

 

[Dave006]

This seems like it should work, however, the only time I've ever done this, on a trip with my sister, except for the first day when the charges on my MB ended up on my cc, everything else I charged using my MB and my own PIN were charged to my sister's cc. We didn't realize it until checkout.

Yes it really depends on the individual CM at the Front desk. That's why it is always advisable to make an initial quick check by making a QS purchase and to double check your charges daily and again on the morning your Check-out if you have multiple Cards on your resort folio.

Your situation does happen from time to time the resort IT system blips out overnight. It gets reset and defaults to the Primary Guest's Credit/Debit card. Your Charges are listed by your Name (from MB) since you used a individual PIN. Just have the CM print the folio, mark the items you want moved and they can assign those charges to your Credit/Debit card or you can always pay using cash or Gift Cards at any time during your resort stay.

Note: Yes the Front desk CM can also fix issues after check-out. It just takes longer so it is best to check before the final morning.

Dave

 

[KNovacovschi]

Is it possible to each have your own MDE account and then set each other up as family & Friends that way your reservations can remain the same for Genie + and ILL. This way her MB would be on hers and yours on yours.

 

[evilqueenmindy]

I’ve done this many times, and the best advice is to have it done at the front desk, go make a purchase in the gift shop, and go check again to make sure it is charging correctly.
if things do go sideways, (because let’s be honest, it’s still Disney IT) you CAN fix it at checkout, the MB charges are grouped by name. the folio isn’t finalized and charged until midnight of check out day.

 

[Dave006]

Is it possible to each have your own MDE account and then set each other up as family & Friends that way your reservations can remain the same for Genie + and ILL. This way her MB would be on hers and yours on yours.

The use of a single MDE account or Friends and Family linking with multiple MDE accounts don't matter for purchases. There is one resort folio per room and charges for all MB purchase go back to your linked resort folio so that is where the Credit/Debit Card setup magic needs to be done.

Dave

 

[lanejudy]

Is it possible to each have your own MDE account and then set each other up as family & Friends that way your reservations can remain the same for Genie + and ILL. This way her MB would be on hers and yours on yours.

That doesn’t make any difference. When using a MB to pay, it is essentially charging to the room, not to the MDE account. With 1 room reservation everyone’s charges go to that same resort folio.

Oops, posting at the same time a Dave.