credit card, pre paid or cash advice please

[Mrs Stonfiesta]

We are off to all stars sports in oct and will have a 5 year old and an 11 month old. This is the first time in a few years that we won't have the dinning plan so trying to decide what's the easiest thing to do in terms of paying for things. I like the idea of putting a credit card on the room so we can charge that way as it physically seems easier than routing for my purses, dealing with change and money etc. it I guess it's just as easy to use a pre paid credit card - now I don't know much about either as we normally have the dining plan and cash for sundries etc... So could someone explain to me please?
Prepaid - I assume I add money in sterling or do I do it in dollars? So is the rate I get known before I go or is it dependant on the dialysis rate as I am spending on the card?
Credit card - I have looked at the post office one, so I assume every time something is paid for I get the current daily rate? But the post office card doesn't charge me an transaction fee? So if I went this option I could put the card down on the room and charge everything using my magic band? The hotel reception then clear the balance every time I reach 500 dollars? Or when I ask them to if I wanted to reset it everyday?

Basically think your explaining to a child and it will make sense to me!!!!

 

[wilma-bride]

You seem to pretty much have grasped the idea. Definitely it is worth getting the Post Office Credit Card - you can usually get a pretty good cashback deal through Quidco on that one too. Another good one for overseas spending is Halifax Clarity.

With a credit card, you would register the card against your room when you check in (or during online check in) and charge to your room using your Magic Bands. Like you say, when the balance reaches $500 your card would be charged (and you would get the interbank rate at that time) and you would start again - or you could opt to pay the balance each day. The outstanding balance is charged to your card at midnight on your last night, unless you have settled in full prior to that. Then any purchase you make on your last day would be charged again at the end of that day.

I would not recommend getting a prepaid currency card just to use to pay your room charges. Firstly, you will never get as good a rate doing that as using a credit card (unless the rate dropped significantly between you loading your card and you actually travelling). Secondly, you would be just as well off saving the money to pay the credit card off on your return. Better in your pocket (or bank account) than somebody else's

Having said that, we use a combination of three things. We charge smaller items to the room using Magic Bands and I have a Post Office card which I use to pay the room charges. We have a pre-paid currency card (Fairfx - also ordered through Quidco for a small cashback amount), which we load throughout the year (you load in sterling but add $$$ to the card balance the same as if you were buying currency) and use to pay for larger purchases and meals out (not onsite) and we also take a small amount of cash ($100 or so) for small off-site purchases, tolls and other incidentals.

 

[scoobydooby]

I am confused about some of the above advice? If you use a pre paid currency card then it has $s on it, so you are paying for $s with $s. The exchange rate is only applicable at the time you load your card. What am I missing?

 

[wilma-bride]

I am confused about some of the above advice? If you use a pre paid currency card then it has $s on it, so you are paying for $s with $s. The exchange rate is only applicable at the time you load your card. What am I missing?

Which bit is confusing you precisely?

 

[Mrs Stonfiesta]

Fab, thank you . So I think I am best to go for the post office credit card (or similar) and then cash for the smaller things or last days so I can keep track of the spending. I am also assuming I can request that only 1 magic band has charging privileges as my dd could have a whale of a time when she realises how we pay <~~~ her. <~~~ me

 

[wilma-bride]

Fab, thank you . So I think I am best to go for the post office credit card (or similar) and then cash for the smaller things or last days so I can keep track of the spending. I am also assuming I can request that only 1 magic band has charging privileges as my dd could have a whale of a time when she realises how we pay <~~~ her. <~~~ me

You can request that she doesn't have charging privileges. I don't know how old she is but my son is now 11 and has had charging privileges for the last couple of trips. He understands that we have to pay for whatever he charges and if he buys anything I haven't (or would not) approve, then he will have to pay me the money back. But he loves the responsibility of being able to pay for things using his own room key (and now Magic Band). Also, know that everything is itemised on the account so you can tell which Magic Band has been used to pay for it

ETA: Just re-read your OP and realised you are talking about a 5 year old. She would need to be able to remember the PIN in order to use the Magic Band to charge so no worries there anyway. But, yes, you can request that her privileges be removed.

 

[Mrs Stonfiesta]

Fab, thank you so much. She is only 4 (will be just turned 5 when we travel) and still thinks money "comes from the hole in the wall" no concept of earning it only of spending it! So even better than you need a PIN for it. Thanks again for you help

 

[thebadger]

I'm going to jump in here and ask a question! Not for the first time I hear you say! I do hope once I've been i'll be able to answer questions on here for other folk in the future

Anyway, I already have the PO credit card and its the one linked to MDE and my ADR's etc. We should have about £2000 sterling in hand to be put towards spending money by the time October comes around.

In the forums humble opinion would this be better done on £1500 on a pre paid currency card and the remaining £500 for tips, small purchases, locker hire etc etc.

We are on the DDP so will need $$ for tips etc.

Thoughts?

 

[wilma-bride]

I'm going to jump in here and ask a question! Not for the first time I hear you say! I do hope once I've been i'll be able to answer questions on here for other folk in the future

Anyway, I already have the PO credit card and its the one linked to MDE and my ADR's etc. We should have about £2000 sterling in hand to be put towards spending money by the time October comes around.

In the forums humble opinion would this be better done on £1500 on a pre paid currency card and the remaining £500 for tips, small purchases, locker hire etc etc.

We are on the DDP so will need $$ for tips etc.

Thoughts?

If you are on the dining plan, you will presumably be eating on site for the most part, in which case you can choose to add the tip to the check and use your Magic band, thereby charging the total amount to your room. This would be covered off by the credit card. Personally, I would just pay everything on the credit card (i.e. room charge) and then settle the credit card bill when you return home. The only reason we don't do this is because I prefer to use the pre-paid currency card so I have more chance of staying within my set budget. However, if you know that you have the money set aside, it is really down to personal preference.

 

[Elise79]

ETA: Just re-read your OP and realised you are talking about a 5 year old. She would need to be able to remember the PIN in order to use the Magic Band to charge so no worries there anyway. But, yes, you can request that her privileges be removed.

wouldn't have stopped my 5 year old - how do you think she unlocks my iPhone

I'm going to jump in here and ask a question! Not for the first time I hear you say! I do hope once I've been i'll be able to answer questions on here for other folk in the future

Anyway, I already have the PO credit card and its the one linked to MDE and my ADR's etc. We should have about £2000 sterling in hand to be put towards spending money by the time October comes around.

In the forums humble opinion would this be better done on £1500 on a pre paid currency card and the remaining £500 for tips, small purchases, locker hire etc etc.

We are on the DDP so will need $$ for tips etc.

Thoughts?

If that was me - I would change about £200 in dollars for stuff that can only be paid cash such as tolls.

Everything else onsite I would put on my MB including tips and pay off with my PO card.

Offsite I would just use the PO Card.

FYI Locker rental at Disney water parks can be charged to your room and the deposit comes back as cash

I haven't ever had a pre-paid card and haven't used travellers checks since about 2006

 

[chmurf]

In the forums humble opinion would this be better done on £1500 on a pre paid currency card and the remaining £500 for tips, small purchases, locker hire etc etc.

there is no absolute thruth when it comes to spending preferences. There is not a "best" way, there is YOUR way.

DISers can only tell about their own preferences, and it will be up to you to choose what suits you best.

Here's how we do it :
we're on the DDP, so we charge tips and extras on the Magic Band, as well as any purchase made on Disney property.
Our MDX account has a debit card (ING/Barclays Direct) linked, and all the room charges are processed on that card, which means we pay the exchange rate at the time the transaction comes through. So it may be more expensive, or cheaper, than putting money in USD on a prepaid card, depending on how good the € or £ do vs. the $

we carry $200pp in cash for the trip, we want to avoid carrying large amounts of money at any given time.

as soon as we arrive in Florida, we set aside $200 just in case (lost credit card for example, that saves us enough cash to last until a replacement is issued by our bank, which can take up to 4 days if over a weekend)
We use the remaining cash for offsite spends, tolls, gas and so on, and withdraw at an ATM when we need.
we never use our credit card (debit actually) for amounts smaller than $50 and we only use cash at small stores (paranoid me doesn't want to get the card cloned at some shifty store)
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we use the last of our cash on our last full day to cover part of our room charge (you need to do that before your last night, as room charge is processed the night before your check out day.) and we keep a small amount of cash (less than $100) for the skycap (for example) and to get a quick bite at the airport (we fly indirect, so a McD is always better than airline food )

This is our way, it might not be the best way, but it suits our needs and we like it like that.