Hold on Credit cards at Check in?

[MOM POPPINS]

If my resort is paid for with DVC membership will WDW put a hold on our Ccard. I want to put down a Ccard at check in for charging priviledges. Will WDW put a hold against my Ccard to do so? Thanks,

 

[keishashadow]

It's more of a 'soft hold' to the tune of $1,500...to see if the availability is there.

DS on honeymoon trip was going to depost cash instead, but decided against it when he found out @ checkin the $ amount; just used a card instead.

They only actually charge the card in the amount you spend @ checkout.

 

[MOM POPPINS]

So do I need to have a Ccard that has 1,500 available or can it be less?

 

[keishashadow]

So do I need to have a Ccard that has 1,500 available or can it be less?

I'd check w/MS or call desk directly; but @ checkin they did request $1,500 for deposit from DS for charging privledges- which is why he just handed them his card.

Know @ the values it's less (thinking $600?) when we ran through it (not too difficult to do @ Disney World); shop handed me the phone & had me call resort & authorize another hold.

 

[Dean]

They also will usually go ahead and charge any DDP amount to the card at that time. The hold amount varies from resort type. I believe it's $1500 for DVC and deluxe, $1000 for moderates and $500 for value. If you cross over, they usually will ask for another hold for the original amount, so another $1500.

 

[CDSTapisRouge]

The CM at check in obvioulsy did not explain this properly or there was a misunderstanding...

The front desk does not apply a hold to the credit card. They will do a $1 pre-authorization just to make sure that the card is valid (ie: not stolen, over the credit limit, etc.). The "resort credit limit" is $1500...what that means is that you can charge up to $1500 to your room account before your reservation is flagged, at which time they will take a payment, if you are on express check out they will take that payment automatically if you are not on express check out they should call you prior to taking the payment to find out how you want to pay for the charges. Once you reach the resort credit limit and it is paid down you will start at zero again and be able to charge up to $1500 again. Values have a resort credit limit of $500, moderates have a $1000, DVC and Deluxe have a $1500. This has nothing to do with a hold or pre-auth on your card it is just the limit the resort has set before they require a payment, it is a way to keep track. If you want to put cash down you can, the resort credit limit has nothing to do with a cash account, they will leave your limit at zero as the cash will leave a credit and as you charge it will eat out of the credit amount, once you reach a positive .01 it will flag the back office and your charging will be stopped until more cash or a CC is applied.

**you do need to watch out when renting a car though, they WILL put a hold on the CC, people show up at the hotel front desk all the time with a declined CC because the rental car company at the airport has a hold***

 

[CanadianGuy]

I posted this in another thread about this..

But on a recent trip.. I handed them a card with 32$ credit available at check-in for room charging purposes. Why would I do that? Because I had made a very large payment on it the day before.. and it hadn't cleared yet... and I wanted to see if they pre-authorized the credit limit.

Clearly they did not. Because I had a 500$ resort limit on my room key.. and off I went.

I paid my room charges with the same card on check-out -- after my payment made before my departure had cleared.

Now mind you - I had another card in my pocket just in case they DID pre-authorize and that card was declined. But I really wanted to use THAT card because it didn't penalize me 2.5% for foreign currency transactions and my backup card did.

You can request a lower limit than the resort minimum too if I remember correctly.. is that right CDS-Tapis?

Knox

 

[CDSTapisRouge]

You can request a lower limit than the resort minimum too if I remember correctly.. is that right CDS-Tapis?

Yes you can, they can not raise the credit limit, but if you are at say Wilderness Lodge and you want to have a $500 Credit limit rather than a $1500 they can adjust it for you. All that means is that once you have reached $500 in your charging around the parks they will notify you that you are at your credit limit. If you do this make sure the CM puts a note in the comments that says it was per your request. The back office has a report that is run nightly that prints out irregular credit limits, if there is nothing noted as to why it is set that way, they will set it back to the resorts designated limit.

 

[Maistre Gracey]

There is one thing that really bugs me, only because the policy seems to be different depending on which way the wind is blowing...

Sometime they will charge your card when it's at the limit and start again, and sometime they will just deny charges.

We have been at dinner, and paid the bill with our room key only to find out that put us over the $1500 limit.
The restaurant staff took care of it with the resort, so all was well in the end.

I would advise keeping track of your balance, and as the limit approaches go to the front desk, run the card, and ask for a fresh limit.

MG

 

[CDSTapisRouge]

There is one thing that really bugs me, only because the policy seems to be different depending on which way the wind is blowing...

Sometime they will charge your card when it's at the limit and start again, and sometime they will just deny charges.

We have been at dinner, and paid the bill with our room key only to find out that put us over the $1500 limit.
The restaurant staff took care of it with the resort, so all was well in the end.

I would advise keeping track of your balance, and as the limit approaches go to the front desk, run the card, and ask for a fresh limit.

MG

I understand the frustration, let me explain why this happens... It is not the computer that is charging you, it is the back office CM. The report is usually run around 7am, noon, 8pm and just after midnight. The CM runs an over the credit limit report and will go through and take a payment on the rooms that are on Express check out and leave voice mails for the guest to stop by the desk and make a payment if they are not. They are only getting the reservations that are over the credit limit, so if your at $1470 and you try and charge something for $50 it will decline because it will then be over the limit. If you hit the limit at 745pm at a store and the report is run and reconciled at 8pm then you go to dinner and the charge comes through at 9pm it will clear because they would have already seen your over credit limit and taken a payment.

Does that make sense. I know it doesn't help the situation, or make it any less frustrating, but does it help to understand why sometimes it happens and sometimes it doesn't.

 

[Maistre Gracey]

Does that make sense. I know it doesn't help the situation, or make it any less frustrating, but does it help to understand why sometimes it happens and sometimes it doesn't.

I did have to read it through a few times (due to my own densness ), but yes, that sure does help me understand.

I do think it should be built into the system to automatically "charge and refresh" your account when at the limit.
Of course, the guest would need to sign an acknowledgment of that at check in, as to avoid an ugly situation at check out.

Anyway, we now keep tabs on our account and refresh it as needed.

Thanx for the explanation! (Are you a CM??)

MG

 

[CDSTapisRouge]

Thanx for the explanation! (Are you a CM??)

 

[KKCannon]

I always thought you had to leave a credit card on check-in (I always do just for the convenience of having charging privileges should I need to use them and have always let my DD age 18 have signing privileges for an emergency only) She was going to WDW in January with 10 friends - 4 of them stayed at VWL and the rest stayed at All Star Sports. I was at BWV. They all paid me in advance for the trip and when I checked them into All Star Sprots, I paid the balance of the reservation by check. They asked me if I wanted to have charging privileges for the 2 rooms and I said no and that was that. No need for a credit card to be left. Just say No!

 

[DVCconvert]

Just confirming that everything CDSTapisRouge said is exactly correct!

 

[kristenrice]

A little OT here, but there are some wise ones on this thread who I am sure have the answer I need...

I have about 15 different GC's in varying amounts as well as 2 Disney Visa rewards cards. Our souvenir and incidental expenses will be paid for with the funds available on these cards. I do not want to carry my plastic collection along with me everywhere I go, so I was thinking....can I just use my room key and charge to my room and then reconcile at the front desk with my GC's and Rewards cards? How often during my stay can I pay up? If I went to the front desk nightly, would that day's charges be there or is there a delay? I know what my TOTAL budget is, but it would be such a hassle keeping track of all the remaining balances on all those GC's They range from $10-$100, not to mention trying to keep track of the Visa Rewards!

 

[CDSTapisRouge]

A little OT here, but there are some wise ones on this thread who I am sure have the answer I need...

I have about 15 different GC's in varying amounts as well as 2 Disney Visa rewards cards. Our souvenir and incidental expenses will be paid for with the funds available on these cards. I do not want to carry my plastic collection along with me everywhere I go, so I was thinking....can I just use my room key and charge to my room and then reconcile at the front desk with my GC's and Rewards cards? How often during my stay can I pay up? If I went to the front desk nightly, would that day's charges be there or is there a delay? I know what my TOTAL budget is, but it would be such a hassle keeping track of all the remaining balances on all those GC's They range from $10-$100, not to mention trying to keep track of the Visa Rewards!

You would have to put a CC on the reservation to "open the account for charging". Like I said they will only run an authorization for $1, it is basically just holding the account for you and then you can pay however you want. Just make sure you tell them you don't want express check out, that way they won't charge the card on file.

The room charges post almost instantly so, for the most part, they would be on your account before you could even get to the front desk. You can go to the front desk whenever you want to make a payment to the account, so if you choose to go nightly you can. Just something to keep in mind, in case you are an early riser or a night owl, the computers close out at midnight on Tuesday's and 2am all other nights. The CM's will not have access to any of the reservations from that time until sometime between 4 and 6am.

 

[kristenrice]

Thanks! That's what I wanted to know! I love you guys!