Charging using magic band and Disney gift cards

[Glee1973]

Is there a way to charge on your magic band, and use Disney gift cards? I thought I had read about a way to do this, but can't remember how it's done.

 

[CAS239]

You can only pay via mb when you're staying on site as it charges your hotel room when it reaches certain increments. Whenever you want head to the lobby and give them your Disney gift card to pay off whatever balance you want.

 

[thepicklebee]

You can't charge to the gift card directly, but you can go to the front desk and pay off your balance using the gift card.

 

[HopperFan]

They will need a credit card on file to guarantee the charges.
You have to go by the front desk to pay off the charges before they put on your CC.
If it were me, the hassle of the back and forth are just not worth it, use your Gift Card to pay to begin with.

 

[Queen of the WDW Scene]

They will need a credit card on file to guarantee the charges.
You have to go by the front desk to pay off the charges before they put on your CC.
If it were me, the hassle of the back and forth are just not worth it, use your Gift Card to pay to begin with.

This exactly.

 

[wendow]

We just got back yesterday from a 10-day stay that I paid 100% entirely with Disney GC's. You can no longer 'load' GC's to your resort account like you could in the past. You have to use the MB to pay for your purchases and then stop by the front desk every 3'ish days to pay the balance before it reaches their limit where they charge your credit card on file. It is not convenient when your room is no where near the lobby. I agree that just paying with a GC upfront is probably the best option now.

 

[Glee1973]

Thanks for all your feed back! I guess I'll stick to just using gcs. I was thinking magic bands might be easier during food and wine. I guess not!

 

[mikedoyleblogger]

Thanks for all your feed back! I guess I'll stick to just using gcs. I was thinking magic bands might be easier during food and wine. I guess not!

No, you're right. MagicBands are far easier and more convenient than carrying gift cards everywhere. The process is far less stressful--as in, not at all--than PPs are describing, and it's been this way for at least the past three years. The process didn't suddenly change. Until our most recent WDW trip last month, this is how we paid down our folio on all our DLR and WDW trips. You're required to have a credit card on file with the front desk--no big deal. If you're doing online check-in, you already have one on file anyway because it's required. Then all you need to do is walk to the front desk every couple of days and hand them a gift card or two, depending on how much you want to pay down. Again--no big deal at all. Even from the back of Ranchos at CSR, making it to the front desk once every two days is not exactly a treck across the continent requiring a wagon train and a month of supplies.

The only issues to beware of:

• If you plan on paying your entire folio including your accomodation balance via gift cards, don't do online check-in or your card on file will be charged for your accomodation balance overnight before you arrive at your resort; and
• You don't want to forget and then charge so much back to your room that you meet the monetary threshold at which your card on file gets automatically charged before you've visited the front desk to pay your folio down with the gift cards (although the threshold is kind of high.)

But just pay heed to the above two issues and you'll be fine. Visiting the front desk for five minutes once every 48 hours will be far easier than juggling gift cards back and forth across Epcot every day you're there.

 

[emonade8]

The only issues to beware of:

• If you plan on paying your entire folio including your accomodation balance via gift cards, don't do online check-in or your card on file will be charged for your accomodation balance overnight before you arrive at your resort

Is this true? Last year we did online check in and we paid our hotel balance with gift cards when we checked in. I believe we did the same the year before. Have they changed their policy? I already did online check in for our October trip and I don't want my credit card to be charged.

 

[wendow]

Visiting the front desk for five minutes once every 48 hours will be far easier than juggling gift cards back and forth across Epcot every day you're there.

Our room was about 10-15 min walk from the front desk and lines were long every single time we showed up. Stopping by to pay our balance with GC easily ate up 30 mins. Sorry, but simply paying with a GC at each place was much easier. There was no 'juggling' involved.

 

[Accident]

Is this true? Last year we did online check in and we paid our hotel balance with gift cards when we checked in. I believe we did the same the year before. Have they changed their policy? I already did online check in for our October trip and I don't want my credit card to be charged.

If your a room only reservation, which you are allowed to pay off at checkin, then yes online checkin will charge you the remainder of the balance before you arrive. I do not know of any other case where disney will charge you like that, and I'm not sure skipping online check in will stop it...

Again this is room only reservations with a balance before you arrive.

 

[wendow]

Is this true? Last year we did online check in and we paid our hotel balance with gift cards when we checked in. I believe we did the same the year before. Have they changed their policy? I already did online check in for our October trip and I don't want my credit card to be charged.

Not true. We did online check-in for both resorts we stayed at (had a split-stay) and paid both rooms, in full, with GC's. We paid for the rooms prior to arrival

 

[Disney_Alli]

Not true. We did online check-in for both resorts we stayed at (had a split-stay) and paid both rooms, in full, with GC's. We paid for the rooms prior to arrival

That doesn't make what was said untrue - it just means you'd already paid your balance before Disney would have charged your card.

 

[mikedoyleblogger]

Our room was about 10-15 min walk from the front desk and lines were long every single time we showed up. Stopping by to pay our balance with GC easily ate up 30 mins. Sorry, but simply paying with a GC at each place was much easier. There was no 'juggling' involved.

Then you were choosing to visit the front desk at peak times. There are plenty of times, especially in the evening, when resort front desks are empty. Moreover, you could have easily piggybacked your front desk visits onto visits to whatever other food or merchandise amenties were available adjacent to the lobby at your resort. If it took you half an hour every time you tried to visit the front desk, you were doing it wrong.

 

[emonade8]

Ok, we had room only reservations the past two years, definitely did online check in last year, and paid the balance with gift cards at check in. Is this a new policy?

 

[mikedoyleblogger]

Is this true? Last year we did online check in and we paid our hotel balance with gift cards when we checked in. I believe we did the same the year before. Have they changed their policy? I already did online check in for our October trip and I don't want my credit card to be charged.

Not true. We did online check-in for both resorts we stayed at (had a split-stay) and paid both rooms, in full, with GC's. We paid for the rooms prior to arrival

If you have a package, you can pay in full prior to arrival. If you have a room-only reservation, you cannot pay in full with gift cards prior to arrival and run the risk of your credit/debit card on file being charged overnight prior to arrival if you choose online check-in and intend to pay your room balance with gift cards. This has happened to us and others on the boards and it's a mess that takes a while for the front desk CMs to fix.

 

[emonade8]

If you have a package, you can pay in full prior to arrival. If you have a room-only reservation, you cannot pay in full with gift cards prior to arrival if you choose online check-in and intend to pay your room balance with gift cards. This has happened to us and others on the boards and it's a mess that takes a while for the front desk CMs to fix.

Hold on, are you saying that you can't pay the balance of your room in full with gift cards ahead of time? That makes no sense. Or am I misunderstanding?

 

[emonade8]

On a split stay, you would only run the risk of being charged for the balance of the first reservation, right?

 

[karensi]

I have been buying $25 Disney GCs for our November trip.
If we go to a restaurant can I give the waiter a $25 GC and then put the remaining balance on my MB?
This was my plan....now I'm getting confused.
Our room will be paid off before we arrive.

 

[PerfessorZ]

I have been buying $25 Disney GCs for our November trip.
If we go to a restaurant can I give the waiter a $25 GC and then put the remaining balance on my MB?
This was my plan....now I'm getting confused.
Our room will be paid off before we arrive.

Probably.

However, you can combine your gift cards onto 1 (or more) cards before you even leave home through Disney's gift card website. Instead of trying to keep track of 10 $25 cards, you could combine them all into one $250 card! Makes life much easier.

Disney has a maximum value of $1,000 per card, so if you want to bring more than that, you'll need to carry more than one card with you. If you're nervous about carrying that much "cash" around with you, obviously, you can combine to smaller quantities.

You can also have up to 5 cards (at a time) saved in your account to quickly transfer from one card to another. One of the more clever tricks I've picked up here is to keep "backup" cards with balances saved on your Disney gift card account as well as a couple cards with 0 balance on them. Each night you can 'recharge' you walking around card as needed with the other cards with balances. If you lose your "walking around" gift card, you can immediately grab your smart phone, log into your account, and transfer the balance to one of backup cards (i.e. one of your 0 balance cards that you brought with you). Since gift cards are essentially the same as cash (at Disney), you do need to be very careful with them.

I'm not sure if I'm explaining this all that clearly as it's 3 in the morning and I have a head full of allergy meds. If it's unclear, ask again in the daytime.

ETA:
disneygiftcard.com