Money $$$$$

[luvabargain]

I'm curious about how you all handle money while at DW. Do you mostly purchase travelers checks or bring all cash? Maybe you use credit cards for the convenience. I'm always at a loss on vacations as to how to handle the $. I like to bring travelers checks for the security but a lot of places now post that they don't accept them, I guess they are easy to counterfeit. How about Disney? I'd like to bring all cash but of course that makes me nervous and where do you put it all? Probably the easiest for me is to just use my cc and pay it when I get home.
I'd like to know your opinions and what you do to keep track of your $ while at DW.


Thanks!

 

[wdwgoofeeee]

If you are staying at a Disney resort it is real easy to go "cashless", for the most part anyway. At check in they give you the option of charging your purchases to your room. They will take any major credit card from you and place that info into their computer system. Then you just use your room card (which is also your park entrance card if you have an ultimate park hopper) to charge all your purchases and food to your room.
The only exceptions are some of the cart vendors in the parks. I understand that they are getting telephone connections for them so they can accept your room card. So you can on some but not on others right now.
We do this and only carry a small amount of cash to the parks.
You can get a print out of your daily charges from the front desk of your resort. At check out they will give you a complete print out of all the charges during your stay.

 

[Amirah95]

Carry a couple hundred dollars and your debit card with the Visa or Mastercard logo. If money doesn't grow on trees for you then you know you will not lose anything.

My DH carries the the cash and the debit card and I carry some of the cash and the Amex. I think that if you seperate the funds and one of you loses your half then you're saved because you have the other half.

 

[Barbday62]

We too only carry a couple hundred dollars and use credit card (Pay it off when we get home)

Barb

 

[disneysteve]

We use credit card for virtually everything. That way we earn reward points on our Marriott card and pay it in full when we get home. I'll carry a couple hundred cash for incidentals.

Always use a good rewards card if you can.

 

[trracers]

I use the room charge method and charge it all to my DISNEY VISA then pay it off when I return home.

Easy to track it and keep up with it that way

 

[disneyjunkie]

I use TC and cash. The credit card is only used if something unexpected pops up.

I keep the TC and money in the safe. Each day I take out the amount we'll need for the day.

I've never had any problems using the TC.

 

[FOV]

We charge everything we can back to our room and then put the whole thing on our LL Bean credit card.

The day I get home I log on to the credit card website - check the charges and schedule payment in full 4 days before it is actually due (just in case there is a problem.)

I find it is a great way to get lots of rewards points and I never have to worry about getting my payment mailed in time. Just make sure you can pay in full!

We usually only have a few hundered in cash - there are ATM's everywhere so getting cash for incidentals is never a problem.

 

[Amirah95]

If you feel comfortable without having any cash then taking your credit card should be efficient enough. Not saying that it's possible in Disney World or the resorts, but one night we went to NYC for dinner/theater and all the ATMs were down and credit card machines. We learned our lesson that night and we felt helpless. We carry a couple hundred which is nothing and two credit cards. We also give our DD Disney dollars so she can buy her own things. Swiping is cool when we purchase gifts and dinner at a full service restaurants. If we were staying on Disney, I'd do like the others and have everything charged on the room key.

 

[Kellye]

We take a couple hundred in cash for small things. Everything else is charged and paid off when we get home. The kids have Disney Dollars and some cash that they have saved.

I never use TCs anymore. It seems like most clerks do not know what to do with them when you hand one over to pay for a purchase.

 

[StuartMI]

Does anyone know what the room charge limit for BWI is?

 

[FOV]

I always thought it had to do with your personal credit limit on your credit card. When we check in they usually tell us how much credit we have.

 

[StuartMI]

Newp... The deluxes have a limit, same with the Moderates and Values...

Our limit at WL was like $1200 but I had way more space than that on my card.. I just dont know if the other deluxes are $1200 too.

 

[MommyBoo!]

The CR was 1500 for us. My inlaws stayed at All Stars and had a 500 limit.

 

[disneysteve]

It doesn't affect me at all since I don't stay onsite but I'm curious. Is that charge limit per day or per stay? Why would they limit someone like that? Seems to me they should want you to spend money.

 

[StuartMI]

per..umm..max-out? If you hit your limit, they let you know, dump it to your credit card and reset you to a 0 credit limit on your disney KTTW card.

 

[luvabargain]

Thanks everyone for your responses. I am not staying onsite so don't have the advantage of charging to my room. That would be great if I could, I guess it works like it does on cruise ships.

Almost everything is already paid for that can be, travel, hotel, park tickets, dinner shows. We just have to pay for our food and incidentals or extras that we decide to get once there and I do prefer to use my card and I'm glad to see that most other do too, it's just so much more convenient and safe I think. I will bring some cash too but not a lot, you're right I can go to the atm if need be or just use my debit card.

 

[disneysteve]

Originally posted by StuartMI
per..umm..max-out? If you hit your limit, they let you know, dump it to your credit card and reset you to a 0 credit limit on your disney KTTW card.

So it isn't actually a spending "limit." When you reach that amount, they just charge your card and then you can start charging again. That makes sense. I didnt think they would actually limit your spending to an amount below your card limit.

 

[BevS97]

once you hit the limit, then they actually apply the charge to your credit card and you start again.

We travel from the UK, and bring US $ travellers checks and you can use them EVERYWHERE just like cash - I have never had a problem using one, from the largest department store to a tiny gift store, everyone in Orlando is used to them and knows what to do. My only comment would be to bring smaller denominations, as if you carry $100 travellers checks then some places don't like to give large amounts of change. (I imagine this is the same if you have a $100 bill, but I tend not to have $100 bills in my wallet).

We are always on a budget, so we bring a mix of travellers checks and cash, Make sure you have some TC in each persons name, otherwise you are continually asking DH for cash and that's no fun.... I put our daily budget amount into seperate envelopes - write the date and any known expenses on the front (character meals etc), and then we put them in the safe - we take out on envelope each day, and then we know that we are on budget. if we don't spend it all on a given day, we get to keep it so we can maybe have a bigger treat later in the week if we have saved some up.

Bev

 

[Jaklackus]

We use credit cards and debit cards and always have enough cash on hand for snacks and drinks. We were in Epcot once and the ATM machines were not working and we didn't have cash for 'snacky' things. Stopped using T-checks a long time ago...too much of a hassle...went through a third degree to spend $20 at a small Hallmark store near my mom's house..not worth it for a beanie baby.