Confirm or deny gift cards for payment at restaurants

[TinkerbellTris]

If anyone can please confirm or deny.......I want to prebuy gift cards from sams club at a discount and then use our magic bands to pay food bill at restaurants, but I swear I read you can put the gift cards on your room tab? To basically cover costs accrued at restaurants you pay using magic bands? So instead of it charging your credit card it charges the Disney gift card. Is this true or false? We are staying at Disney’s pop century in October.

 

[WishICouldSpeakWhale]

No, not quite. You take the gift card to the front desk at the hotel and pay down the tab you've accumulated - before it gets charged to the credit card on file. We did this on our last trip and it worked well.

 

[Hopefully]

PP is correct. You can not have a Gift Card as a Credit on file. You have to have a credit card on file. Then you use your Magic Band to charge to your room. You then have to take ther Gift Card tothe Front Desk to pay down the balance before your Credit Card is charged

 

[danielocha30]

Be sure to ask beforehand which is the amount they will reach before charging your credit card. I believe it’s $300 at Value Resorts, if you go above they will charge your credit card and then the gift card would be useless for that purpose. We did it last trip but never charged more than $300

 

[Dug720]

Also, to make life easier for you AND the CM at the front desk, go to disneygiftcard.com and combine those small gift cards onto as few as possible. I think there's a max of $1000 on each card. It is so much easier to give them ONE card rather than a stack.

 

[goodeats]

This has been working well for me this trip. I’ve gone to the front desk every couple of days to keep track of our spending (although I just figured out that you can see the charges in the app). They told me it’s every $1,500 before they charge the cc.

 

[verleniahall]

This has been working well for me this trip. I’ve gone to the front desk every couple of days to keep track of our spending (although I just figured out that you can see the charges in the app). They told me it’s every $1,500 before they charge the cc.

Value resorts have a much lower changing limit before they auto charge your card

 

[Elle23]

Value resorts have a much lower changing limit before they auto charge your card

That seems rather elitist to allow the deluxe resorts a much higher spending limit than values.

I’m the one with lots of extra cash to spend because I saved thousands of dollars by staying at a value!

 

[verleniahall]

That seems rather elitist to allow the deluxe resorts a much higher spending limit than values.

I’m the one with lots of extra cash to spend because I saved thousands of dollars by staying at a value!

It’s how it is

I think it’s $500 at values, $1000 at moderates, and $1500 at deluxe resorts

 

[TinkerbellTris]

That seems rather elitist to allow the deluxe resorts a much higher spending limit than values.

I’m the one with lots of extra cash to spend because I saved thousands of dollars by staying at a value!

I agree, that’s crazy it is like that. At least now I know I can use the gift cards. I’ve never used gift cards before, always had the dining plan, this time we are trying no dining plan. The gift cards give me a sense of my dining being prepaid in a way. Just less cash to carry.

 

[Hopefully]

That seems rather elitist to allow the deluxe resorts a much higher spending limit than values.

I’m the one with lots of extra cash to spend because I saved thousands of dollars by staying at a value!

Not True in my opinion. Just because y ou paid less at a Value does not mean you have more to spend than I. That is biased

 

[WDWFan0813]

Also, on the off chance your credit card does get charged, the front desk will be able to reverse the charge and charge the gift card. On our last night in AoA I didn't stop by and they hit my credit card throughout the night. They were able to reverse the charge, but the credit did hit a day or two later than the actual charge. Didn't impact me, but might for some.

Also, I echo @Dug720 , the front desk clerks seemed very happy when I only had to run 1 or 2 cards because I had combined them before going.

 

[scard192]

be sure you go to the Front Desk the evening before you check as they run any charges to the MBs overnight. We went down about 6PM the night before check out to pay off the balance with GCs or DVisa rewards. We were heading to DS for dinner and had dining credits left to pay for our meals.

 

[bumbershoot]

I wound just pay with the gift cards at the restaurant. I have no interest in stopping at the front desk repeatedly.

That seems rather elitist to allow the deluxe resorts a much higher spending limit than values.

I’m the one with lots of extra cash to spend because I saved thousands of dollars by staying at a value!

If only it worked that way.

Als I think they see it that people book the max that they can afford. That if you can afford deluxe you’ll book deluxe. So if you’ve booked value then that’s what you can afford. And so the charge limits reflect that.



Could also have to do with what’s available at the resort; a food court is less expensive than...Jiko. So if Jiko is AT your hotel you’re likely to go there and need a higher spending limit.


Anyway, it is what it is.

 

[Melanie230]

Not True in my opinion. Just because y ou paid less at a Value does not mean you have more to spend than I. That is biased

I don't think that is what she meant. I think she was saying because she chooses to stay at a Value resort she saves a lot of money. She should have the same spending limit as any other resort not less. It's a valid point. It is the reason we stay at Pop. We always stay at the Hard Rock Hotel at US/IOA because of the FOTL perks. It's all just what works for each family.

 

[Melanie230]

I wound just pay with the gift cards at the restaurant. I have no interest in stopping at the front desk repeatedly.



If only it worked that way.

Als I think they see it that people book the max that they can afford. That if you can afford deluxe you’ll book deluxe. So if you’ve booked value then that’s what you can afford. And so the charge limits reflect that.



Could also have to do with what’s available at the resort; a food court is less expensive than...Jiko. So if Jiko is AT your hotel you’re likely to go there and need a higher spending limit.


Anyway, it is what it is.

We can afford the Deluxe Resorts but we don't see the reasons to book those resorts. Our family are theme park junkies....we love to get up early and stay til closing. For us...staying at a Deluxe or even a moderate would be a waste of money. We sleep and shower in the room...that's it. BUT we always book the Hard Rock Hotel at US/IOA because they offer the FOTL perk, and because they tend to close much earlier than Disney. So we do use the pool there in the evenings.

 

[kniquy]

.I want to prebuy gift cards from sams club at a discount and then use our magic bands to pay food bill

No you can not load gift cards on to the MB. So buying the gift cards is a good idea especially when you can get them at a discount. Then just use them to pay at the restaurants, which seems easier than having to go to the front desk to pay the bill before CC gets charged.

 

[Elle23]

Not True in my opinion. Just because y ou paid less at a Value does not mean you have more to spend than I. That is biased

I was really just pointing out the fallacy in the logic. Hotel choice does not really have anything to do with how much a person can/ will spend during their stay. People pick values or deluxes for many reasons that have nothing to do with finances.

It honestly seems a little odd to place daily limits at all, considering how hard Disney works to take my money!

 

[DisneyFive]

If it were me, I would just bring the gift card with you and use that to pay. That is what we've done. You can also place tips on the gift card so keep that in mind too.

I don't like to think about what might trigger the resort to charge my credit card on file.

Dan

 

[cwis]

That seems rather elitist to allow the deluxe resorts a much higher spending limit than values.

I’m the one with lots of extra cash to spend because I saved thousands of dollars by staying at a value!

They're actually allowing anyone to spend as much as they want. The limits are different because most guests in Deluxe resorts are using upscale credit cards, with higher charge allowance.

Disney will gladly cash your money in, whatever your resort is. You will just end up with more separate charges if you stay in a Value.