Check In "Payment" Required?

[dvcdisney]

A spinoff from my previous thread.

I was just wondering how many people DO NOT provide any credit card or cash or any forms of payment when they check in. I understand that you would not have charging privileges. But does the resort require you to put something down in case you use the phone (ie long distance etc)?

Thanks.

 

[dianeschlicht]

We didn't put a credit card down last month. We knew we weren't going to charge anything anyway, so the only issue is needing to check out rather than express. We never have charges on it anyway, so the only reason to do it is for express checkout, and that's no big deal either, since we have no charges. We just call when we exit the unit, and no problem.

 

[smep013]

We have never done this (as far as I can rememember).
In fact, we left AKL so early last month, I left to board ME without checking out at all! I called the resort to check-out from the airport!

We have thought about doing it next time, so that we do not have to take our debit cards with us into the parks.

 

[dvcdisney]

We didn't put a credit card down last month. We knew we weren't going to charge anything anyway, so the only issue is needing to check out rather than express. We never have charges on it anyway, so the only reason to do it is for express checkout, and that's no big deal either, since we have no charges. We just call when we exit the unit, and no problem.

So what happens if you don't leave anything and you used the phone for long distance or internet (if it's not free yet)? Do you just clear this up when you check out?

And if you do not have express checkout in this case, do they still provide your statement at the door on the morning of check out so that you can go over it and just call to check out?

With our previous charges problems on last vacation, I would prefer not having to leave anything at check in and just pay everything with travellers cheques. I'm glad a "payment" isn't required at check in, that way it is my choice. To be honest, I don't believe I was given an option. When they take my cc for the DDP, they would ask if I want to use the same cc for my charging privileges. I didn't think of not giving anything at all. And it was never a problem until our last vacation.

Thanks.

 

[dvcdisney]

We have never done this (as far as I can rememember).
In fact, we left AKL so early last month, I left to board ME without checking out at all! I called the resort to check-out from the airport!

We have thought about doing it next time, so that we do not have to take our debit cards with us into the parks.

Thanks. Great to know this is not problem. And that a lot of people are doing it. I wished I thought of it before, I just assume it's standard. I do charge on the key card and I feel it's safer but I do not want that hassle of fixing the resort's mistake.

 

[CarolA]

If you don't the phone won't let you dial out and you can't use the internet. (This is how I found out the idiots at the CSR Front Desk didn't set me up right LOL!) Now charging prividges don't have to be added to the key if you don't want and you can still have phone/internet etc...

 

[dvcdisney]

If you don't the phone won't let you dial out and you can't use the internet. (This is how I found out the idiots at the CSR Front Desk didn't set me up right LOL!) Now charging prividges don't have to be added to the key if you don't want and you can still have phone/internet etc...

We don't usually use the phone unless we call internally to front desk or bell services. But would we still be able to get messages or phone calls from outside the resort? For instance, if family was to call to say hi or my DVC guide wants to leave a message.

Actually the reason why I don't want to leave a cc originally is not because there were incorrect charges from merchants. It was actually incorrect charges from the front desk. They actually charged my cc when I checked in for my DDP and then did it again sometime during our vacation. We didn't check out, we didn't change rooms etc. So I don't really want them to have my cc to make that mistake again. If there is a problem, they would have to call me before any charges has to take place and then I can deal with it before they do it. Unforunately, I could not have fixed this problem at check out, my cc was charged automatically, it did not wait for our check out time.

Sorry, too long. Just wanted to explain why I didn't want to leave anything at check in anymore.

 

[marynvince]

If you don't the phone won't let you dial out and you can't use the internet. (This is how I found out the idiots at the CSR Front Desk didn't set me up right LOL!) Now charging prividges don't have to be added to the key if you don't want and you can still have phone/internet etc...

Honest mistakes happen.

 

[dianeschlicht]

So what happens if you don't leave anything and you used the phone for long distance or internet (if it's not free yet)? Do you just clear this up when you check out?

And if you do not have express checkout in this case, do they still provide your statement at the door on the morning of check out so that you can go over it and just call to check out?

With our previous charges problems on last vacation, I would prefer not having to leave anything at check in and just pay everything with travellers cheques. I'm glad a "payment" isn't required at check in, that way it is my choice. To be honest, I don't believe I was given an option. When they take my cc for the DDP, they would ask if I want to use the same cc for my charging privileges. I didn't think of not giving anything at all. And it was never a problem until our last vacation.

Thanks.

We didn't have any problems, since we didn't use the internet provider OR the phone. There's no need to with an aircard and a cell phone. The only thing I used the phone for was to check the messages that came from the front desk trying to sell us something.

 

[JimC]

We always leave a credit card for charging and express checkout. Do it every time we travel. Any time there has been a billing error, and that is very rare, it has been corrected with very little difficulty.

 

[CarolA]

Honest mistakes happen.

I understand that. It was the amount of SIGHING that went on when I showed up to ask for it to be corrected. First they said "well it's YOUR fault for not giving us a credit card" When I pointed out I had she "sighed" and said "OH... Well, I GUESS we can fix it" SIGH!!!

I have stayed there three or four times. The front desk staff has never been exactly "impressive" LOL!

 

[dvcdisney]

We always leave a credit card for charging and express checkout. Do it every time we travel. Any time there has been a billing error, and that is very rare, it has been corrected with very little difficulty.

We too have always left a cc. And I had always gone the night before to check the statement to make sure everything was correct and ask them to charge my card for the balance and give me a receipt.

However, this time, they had charged for my DDP a second time in the middle of my vacation. And in this case it was not something that can easily be fixed. They had no problem refunding it, although I didn't really receive an apology. I was fine with that and I didn't think much of it until I got home and checked my statements. I realized that the had refunded the amount and not voided the charge (which I should have known they would do, but was not thinking about it). So, when they refunded it, the amount of the refund did not reconcile with the amount charged since there were foreign exchange rates involved. So it turned out that I was out quite a bit. So when I called the resort, they had mentioned that I would have to send my statement to them and then they will look it over and discuss it with my cc company. I just thought that it was utterly insane. I didn't do anything wrong and I had to do all this. So I called my cc and they warned me about things like this and said they would reimburse me for it. And that's fine. But it angers me that because the resort made an error, which I still don't know how they did it without my authorization, my cc company was out that amount. I had asked if they were going to contact the resort to get this amount back and all she said was that they will investigate, which means, no.

Again, sorry if this is long again. I just do not want to leave my cc with the resort again in case this happens again. Now I know they can charge my cc without me knowing about it. And that is really not acceptable. The sheet I signed is for charges that I have made and that I authorized. Someone just added that charge in and although it would have been just easy to refund, in my situation it wasn't because of the exchange rates.

Although it would seem easier for me to leave my cc. I think travelling with travellers checks would be a better option.

 

[dianeschlicht]

When we had the DDP, we paid for it with a CC, but we did NOT leave that CC on the account. That is another way to avoid the double charge. We just don't want our keys connected with charging in case they are lost. We usually stay 10-12 nights, and never have any charges to our room unless we have used the internet, and with our aircard, we don't even have those charges anymore.

 

[dvcdisney]

Thanks. I think that's what we'll do. We do have a cell phone with internet. That way, the only charges from the resort is the one I have seen and authorized. Usually it is just the DDP and only once.

I will however still have go the night before and look over the statement just to be on the safe side.

Lesson Learned!