Charging with the magic bands?

[shoppie]

At table service restaurants, how do you charge to your room with the magic band? Last time at Disney, we handed the CM our room card. Do we give them our magic band???

 

[Melanie B]

They bring a scanner right to the table. They scan your band and then you put in a passcode.

 

[mom2of2]

Servers carry a device that scans your band right at your table. They scan it, you put in your pin code and then they scan the device at the computer and print out your slip. You fill it out and sign it and then you are done! easy

 

[notaclue]

I've read of a few problems with the bands; not working for room access or for park access so we prefer to stick with the old KTTW cards for now. Is that going to be a problem at restaurants?

 

[RalphinSC]

One thing to be mindful of is the spending caps Disney puts on rooms and how a "nice" (read: expensive) meal can go over that limit with Magicbands and resort room spending caps. I ended up on the hook for a $240 bill on my last trip because I forgot to "clear" my bill at the fron desk before our meal. Fortunately, I had a cash back-up on hand. Some people aren't aware of the spending cap though and if your bill goes over it, your Magicband will be rejected just like an overcharged credit card. I beleive the caps are $500 for value, $1000 for moderate, and $1500 for deluxe resorts.

 

[Mariep26]

One thing to be mindful of is the spending caps Disney puts on rooms and how a "nice" (read: expensive) meal can go over that limit with Magicbands and resort room spending caps. I ended up on the hook for a $240 bill on my last trip because I forgot to "clear" my bill at the fron desk before our meal. Fortunately, I had a cash back-up on hand. Some people aren't aware of the spending cap though and if your bill goes over it, your Magicband will be rejected just like an overcharged credit card. I beleive the caps are $500 for value, $1000 for moderate, and $1500 for deluxe resorts.

You are correct on the amounts. Staying at AoA with 6 people in the suite we hit the $500 limit quickly (charging meals and such).

 

[notaclue]

Doesn't the cap reject your KTTW card if you go over your limit? We will have 3 rooms, staying deluxe, but paying for all the rooms. So would our limit be $1500 per room or $1500 total?

 

[Beer Me]

One thing to be mindful of is the spending caps Disney puts on rooms and how a "nice" (read: expensive) meal can go over that limit with Magicbands and resort room spending caps. I ended up on the hook for a $240 bill on my last trip because I forgot to "clear" my bill at the fron desk before our meal. Fortunately, I had a cash back-up on hand. Some people aren't aware of the spending cap though and if your bill goes over it, your Magicband will be rejected just like an overcharged credit card. I beleive the caps are $500 for value, $1000 for moderate, and $1500 for deluxe resorts.

Is that a daily limit? How often is your magic band balance "cleared"?

No matter what I'll be sure to always have a couple of credit cards and cash on hand.

 

[Mariep26]

Doesn't the cap reject your KTTW card if you go over your limit? We will have 3 rooms, staying deluxe, but paying for all the rooms. So would our limit be $1500 per room or $1500 total?

I could be wrong but each person with charging authority will be associated with one of your three rooms and then when the people assigned to a given room reach $1500 it will be rejected. So $1500 per room but just make sure that all the people charging aren't in the same room or you will hit it quickly (assuming you are charging meals etc..)

Someone correct me if I misspoke but this is how it worked with 2 rooms at AoA. The issue we ran into was trying to divide up the adult chargers but then they didn't have MB access to the correct room. I just made it a habit to go to the desk each morning and clear the account so I didn't have to worry about it.

 

[Mariep26]

Is that a daily limit? How often is your magic band balance "cleared"? No matter what I'll be sure to always have a couple of credit cards and cash on hand.

The last I knew you had to go to the front desk and have them put the charges on a credit card, gift card or your preferred method of payment. The limit is not by day...just however many days it takes you to hit it, then you clear and start at 0 again. Hope that makes sense!!

 

[Beer Me]

The last I knew you had to go to the front desk and have them put the charges on a credit card, gift card or your preferred method of payment. The limit is not by day...just however many days it takes you to hit it, then you clear and start at 0 again. Hope that makes sense!!

Yeah, I appreciate the info. It sounds like a pain. I don't want to make any extra trips to the front desk (especially staying at CBR - it would definitely be out of the way).

I'm glad I heard about this before my trip so I won't be caught by surprise. I'll just use the magic band for small stuff and a regular cc for meals and and other larger expenses.

 

[Granfan]

I would always have an alternate form of payment besides the magic band. At least once each trip recently I have had problems with magic band not working to pay. Even if you provide a card number and pin at online check-in, confirm it in person at check-in. The CM at Pop in April didn't mention it at all. We went straight to BOG thinking we had charging on it and were informed that we did not. After having it added back at Pop, I was told that the "computers" just drop it off if it's not reconfirmed.
It worked after that except when I tried to buy hats at HW Studios. CM told me I had to go to guest services. I said NO. And used my actual credit card from then on. Last September I tried to use my magic band to pay for dinner. Mine didn't work but granddaughters did even though I was lead person who booked the trip so I wasn't really surprised there were issues. So if you can, I advise having backup payment. Guest services can sort it out but it's time consuming and could be embarrassing.

 

[Goofyuk]

Is there any way to increase your spending cap? Maybe depositing a few thousand into your MB account at the start?

 

[jerseygal]

First time using magic bands this coming Dec...

I guess if you are on the DDP, the server also "swipes" the magic band?
Thanks!

 

[RalphinSC]

Is there any way to increase your spending cap? Maybe depositing a few thousand into your MB account at the start?

I'm not sure if this increases the limit, but I do know that if you establish a cash backed limit at the front desk, you can basically set it to whatever you are willing to deposit.

As for the clearing, it's cumulative and has to be done through the front desk each time. Basically, when you charge something to your room with a magicband, it goes into a hold and isn't really charged to your card until you either direct the front desk to do so (thus resetting your limit) , or you check out.

I wasn't aware of this until this trip, proof that you are always learning something new. And agree with the poster above, ALWAYS carry alternate forms of payment with you. Really glad we did, because that would of been a LOT of dishes to wash.

And being unaware, we were first angrily calling our credit card company thinking they had frozen our account since we were hundreds of miles from home and spending like only a Disney vacation can spend. We didn't realize about the limit and clearing until we went to the front desk to make sure we weren't being erroneously charged or that our bands hadn't messed up. It was there that the spending caps were explained and our card was billed the $400+ needed to clear our cap and reset our limit to zero.

 

[OurBigTrip]

Doesn't the cap reject your KTTW card if you go over your limit? We will have 3 rooms, staying deluxe, but paying for all the rooms. So would our limit be $1500 per room or $1500 total?

I've never heard of a room charge being rejected. It's always been explained to us at check-in that when the cap is hit, the charge goes to the credit card, and you start over with zero balance on the card.

 

[Itinkso]

I've never heard of a room charge being rejected. It's always been explained to us at check-in that when the cap is hit, the charge goes to the credit card, and you start over with zero balance on the card.

We were rejected on our first day at AoA while attempting our first purchase of $9 worth of gelato. We had linked our Premier Disney Visa to our MDE and the AoA CMs did not preset our charging limit. Fortunately, I had my wallet with me and pulled out our credit card. We then had to walk back to check-in to have the CM add on a Iimit for us.

 

[kiford]

We just linked our MBs to a credit card last December and never had to manually do anything or talk to anyone again. We charged up a storm, including a VERY large bill at V&A's and there was never any problem. I think you only have to "clear" your account by going down to front desk if you are using cash or gift cards. If you have a credit card, they put a hold on it of a certain amount and then charge it when you hit the cap and then reset the charging limit to zero again. You would only then have a problem if they try to put another hold on your credit card and you are over your card limit with that.