Don't use your debit card at WDW! This has gotten ridiculous!

[leighe]

I knew this yet I still did it - dumb, dumb, dumb. When we checked into Pop DH had the Visa and he was outside seeing to the luggage so I thought, "The reservation is pre-paid, what could possibly happen?"

DH just called me to tell me that he went to get lunch and his debit card wouldn't work. He went to the bank to check and they informed him that our account was overdrawn - wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy overdrawn. We have a small savings account (usually around $1000) attached to that checking account "just in case" so DH thinks there is no way we can be that overdrawn. Oh but we are. Disney charged us 3 times for our reservation and for our room charges. Apparently all of this went through yesterday and our account was overdrawn. We get charged $29.50 every time something bounces. In addition to the Disney charges we also had checks for two bills go through yesterday and we changed our plane tickets on Sunday and they charged us seperately for each change. So that bounced twice. Yesterday I ran all kinds of errands - grocery, Target, cleaners, gas station - and none of that has hit the bank yet. In addition, DH used his debit card this morning to get b-fast at McDonalds. I also wrote my MIL quite a large check before we left for Disney for a flat screen TV we are getting DH for Christmas.

ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Of course it's even more annoying because I knew better than to use my debit card so it's all my own fault. I've talked to Disney and they are being helpful but having dealt with a refund from Disney before I know that they can somehow take money out of your account much faster than they can put it back in. The bank says they will waive most of the overdraft fees once they have proof that it was Disney's error. I'm betting that our bank account won't be back to normal until at least Friday. I'm such an idiot!

 

[grinningghost]

Oh no! I'm sorry to hear this - I've used my debit card at both WDW and Disneyland with no problems at all.

 

[phorsenuf]

Bummer....sorry to hear about that!

they will waive most of the overdraft fees

Why will they waive most of the fees if they were all caused by Disney?
Shouldn't they be waiving all of them? It wasn't your fault.

 

[scarlett873]

I've always used my debit card at WDW and never had a problem!

Sorry this happened to you guys! Hope it gets straightened out!

 

[christinadei]

Why will they waive most of the fees if they were all caused by Disney?
Shouldn't they be waiving all of them? It wasn't your fault.

It's not the bank's fault either. They shoudl waive them to be nice, but if they don't, I'd have Disney pay them. It was their error.

 

[cardaway]

Great warning for others not to do the same thing.

From what I undrstand, this isn't rare or uncommon. It's how they deal with credit card companies. Don't use your debit card for large pre-orders or travel purchases. Use your credit card and pay the balance off.

Travel purchases and pre-orders put place holders on your account. As the OP cleary showed, not something you want on happening to your checking account.

When this happens with a creidt card, you could go over your limit, but the duplicate holds are removed before you are charged.

 

[phorsenuf]

It's not the bank's fault either. They shoudl waive them to be nice, but if they don't, I'd have Disney pay them. It was their error.

Agree....Disney should pay any charges, however I think 3 charges coming through from the same place for the same amount should raise a flag at the bank, don't you think?

 

[cardaway]

Agree....Disney should pay any charges, however I think 3 charges coming through from the same place for the same amount should raise a flag at the bank, don't you think?

What exactly did Disney do wrong? Sounds like everybody followed normal process givne the number of changes.

 

[phorsenuf]

What exactly did Disney do wrong? Sounds like everybody followed normal process givne the number of changes.

Color me confused! LOL

Didn't the OP say that Disney charged her 3 times for the same thing? Did I misread something? If I did, disregard.....LOL

 

[gradtchr]

What exactly did Disney do wrong? Sounds like everybody followed normal process givne the number of changes.

What they did wrong is they charged her 3 times for her room. I didn't see in the OP that she made any changes.

 

[CinderellaIam]

I too have used my debit card many times at WDW and never have had any problems.

 

[robinb]

You are not an idiot! There was no way that you would know that Disney would make a mistake like that. Do you have any money that you can move into the account to cover your bills until Disney refunds? You may have even more trouble on your hands as checks and other payments bounce . I would make sure that Disney pays for any fees that are not refunded. I would also give it a couple of months and make sure this doesn't show up on your credit report.

I once had American Airlines charge me almost 10 times for the same airline tickets. The agent kept on having problems with the reservation and she ended up charging my CC on each attempt. I didn't find out I tried to use my card for groceries and I was told my CC was denied because I was over my credit limit.

 

[cardaway]

What they did wrong is they charged her 3 times for her room. I didn't see in the OP that she made any changes.

If there were no changes to the package they received from Disney then I read it wrong, my mistake.

Still a bad idea IMO to use a debit card for travel charges when a credit card is available. Much easier to deal with errors on a credit card.

 

[leighe]

What they did wrong is they charged her 3 times for her room. I didn't see in the OP that she made any changes.

That's what happened. They also charged us 3 times for the amount we had charged to our rooms with our room keys. I have no idea why three was the magic number but it seemed to be. I am currently working on getting the situtation resolved. We can move some money out of another savings account if we have to. Disney is saying they will be able to credit back the amount by Thursday.

I'm not being a smart-alec - this is an honest question. Do any banking people know why a debit can be made in 24 hours but it takes them 2-3 days to process a credit? Does it have something to do with refunding money or something?

 

[Tink&SquirtsMom]

I'm sorry that happened. We've had severe debit card problems at DL back in 2002. Learned my lesson though and now its only cc for those travel expenses.

 

[nativetxn]

Debit cards are dangerous things. You can place charges on them even if you don't have the money in the bank. Unlike ATM cards that won't allow you to withdraw money if there is no money in the bank.

Then you are hit with overdraft charges.


Disney made the mistake and they should cover the overdraft charges.

Sorry this happened to you.

Katholyn

 

[TomB'sWidow]

Wow, sorry you have to endure such a hassle. I have used mine on two trips and never had any problems.Lets hope the situation gets resolved quickly

 

[LMC]

There is absolutely no reason they can not have a correction made to your account today! They can verify with their credit card processor that the error (3 postings) was made and correct it immediately. However, as I posted in another message yesterday, companies are very quick to get their money and can do it with no problem but when it comes to your money, they take their time.

I personally would be on the phone with the most senior person I could speak with and make sure they put the two extra charges (for room and incidentals) back in TODAY. Then get that persons name and direct number so you can call them back and send them a fax or letter or email detailing how many service charges they owe you. You will also have fees from any company that your checks were returned to. They should refund those fees as well as you had the money but their mistake caused the insufficient funds. This is the step that will take days as you will have to get documentation from your bank and then provide that to Disney. BUT, the immediate error of triple charging can be corrected rather quickly and should be.

 

[brerrabbit]

Clarification, hopefully. It's okay to use your debit card to buy something at WDW, the key is to not present it for check in to your resort. Whenever you check in even with a prepaid reservation they ask if you would like to charge to your room via your room key card. If you say yes they ask for a credit, or debit card to pay for the charges. They run the card and do not charge it but rather reserve the amount against your credit limit. If you look at your on line statement for your card you will see "Pending Charges" this is where the reserve is made. If you present a debit card that pulls from your checking account the same thing will happen. Mt checking account has two balance, the bank balance that updates every night based on cleared items, and the available balance which is the bank balance less any requests made since the bank balance was updated. If Disney reserves $1,000 against your balance and does it two or three times then you could have a lot of reserve against your account. These charges don't clear for some time. I notice this a lot when I use my debit card when we go out to eat. If the bill is $30.00 then when the waiter runs my card he may put in $40.00 reserve against my account, not knowing what the tip will be. The $40 reserve does not clear until the actual charge comes through. Bottom line, when checking in use a credit card even if you want to pay with a debit card. At checkout just ask them to put any room charges on your debit card rather than the credit card you left when you checked in.

 

[always quiet]

Only one time when I was making payments on my ressies did I have a charge duplicate. I always check my balance on line and noticed when the additional payment to Disney Resorts appeared. I called the bank first and they told me that no, it was not their error. Disney had submitted the charge more than once. A quick phone call to Disney straightened the whole thing out and they were quite apologetic to me.

I was debating on using my Visa checkcard for charing privledges but promptly thought twice...this could be way too dangerous!! Do you think I could leave a specific amount in cash to use on the room key for charging?