My Son's money

[Sandiebean]

My son (9)... has his own money. He saved up, got good grades... had a paper route, etc. Now... can he put his cash on his own room card, and have his own spending privileges? Just a reminder.. we're Canadian, so we will convert his money for him. That's why we don't want him using his bank card.

Anyone able to help with this question?

Thanks

Sandie

 

[nativetxn]

I think you will get some excellent information if I move this to our resorts board.

Katholyn

 

[melindaandrob]

We did this when we were in WDW in Jan. My dd's (9 and 7) had saved their own money to spend, so using my credit card I set up their cards (room keys) through the resort. They felt quite important, and were very responsible with their money. Another bonus was not having to worry about them carrying cash. We are also Canadian so with the exchange rate and inflated prices at WDW we actually gave the kids money at 'par'.

 

[corndog]

Exchange rates are better if you use a bankcard vs. converting currency over and then converting it back.

 

[donna in Oz]

We didn't have to convert currency, but the way we handled our daughter's spending money when she was young was to make her own personal checking account. We made a deposit for her at the beginning of the trip using the amount she would be allowed to spend during our entire trip.

I created checks on the computer drawn on the "lst National Bank of Daddy". I made up a check register and perforated the stubs from the checks using the needle on my sewing machine with no thread in it!!

Whenever she wanted to purchase something, we paid for it and she wrote a check to us. It was then her responsibility to subtract the amount she spent to see what she had remaining. It was a great learning experience for her!!

 

[corndog]

That's a really great idea! You don't have the risk her losing the cash and she learns some fiscal responsibility in the process (and gets to practice math!)!! Very clever!

 

[Sandiebean]

Melindaandrob...

*****We did this when we were in WDW in Jan. My dd's (9 and 7) had saved their own money to spend, so using my credit card I set up their cards (room keys) through the resort.*****

So... what did you do with their cash? Sorry.. but I'm a little confused here. Did you just keep it, and put their cards on your credit card?

corndog...

****Exchange rates are better if you use a bankcard vs. converting currency over and then converting it back.*****

Do you mean that if he pays for everything with his Canadian bank card... it's cheaper than if we covert the money for him?

Sandie

 

[corndog]

Yes. Large banks get much better exchange rates than average Joes like you or me. It's simply a matter of volume. The Banks transact so much business they are able to demand much better rates. It's that whole 800 pound gorilla thing. When you or I exchange money more is skimmed off the top. Whenever I go to Canada I always try to put as much on my credit card as possible to maximize the exchange. If you exchange your CAD to USD and then exchange right back to CAD you'll have less than what you started with. A bank will get you close to even. I'm not sure I'm saying this clearly. But I hope this helps.

 

[seashoreCM]

There is only one WDW credit account per resort room. You can orally state how much money each child is permitted to spend using his/her room key and get a copy of the room folio each night to verify the day's spending by everybody.

Another thing you can do is buy Disney Dollars and hand them out to the kids each day.

Many credit cards nowadays impose an exchange rate fee for transactions outside your home country. The advantage of the WDW charge system is that at checkout, all the charges go onto just one of your credit cards as one lump sum transaction, you will waht to choose the card with the lowest (or no) exchange rate fee.

Disney hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/disney.htm