New Credit Card Authorization Holds

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

All this talk of hotels and "industry standard" practices is so foreign to me. I never charge things to my room at hotels. If we eat in the hotel restaurant (which has possibly happened once in the last 20 years), we pay at the point of sale using our credit card. We don't purchase movies or anything over the tv (do they even still do that or am I dating myself? Honestly, I hardly ever watch the tv when we're at a hotel) and we never use any minibar services.

Disney is just a whole different animal for us. We charge lots of little things back to the room via Magicbands. I do carry a credit card with me, but I prefer not to carry gift cards because I would worry about losing them. We just use the gift cards to pay off the charges as we go, probably stopping by the front desk every other day or so. Tbh, we'll be charging a lot more this time because we won't be on a dining plan. It'll be interesting to see how it goes because we'll be spending a LOT more money during our trip than we usually do.

We don't often charge back to our room but every now and then we have. Largely it depends on if it's lesiure/pleasure travel or business travel. Business travel it's just a lot easier to charge to the room for things because of how it ultimately gets paid.

We charged back something like $65 earlier this month in Anaheim actually. We were there on business and snuck in a DLR trip (we were not staying in one of the DLR hotels though lol).

Conversely with WDW we never charged anything back to the room. It was just easier for us to keep track of for personal expenses to do it with our card. When we go into the parks we have our IDs, some cash usually, a debit card and a credit card no matter what.

I also think that for at least what we've run into is most hotels charge the balance when you check out. A hold could be placed when you check in but the balance owed is charged (typically) when you check out. With Disney it's charged when you arrive at the resort. For us it was easier to account for our items when we paid with them individually at POS because the room was already paid for and balance was zeroed out. On our last trip we did pay for all our souvenirs with physical gift cards though (which weren't a hardship to carry in our opinions) and then food was paid with our personal CC

 

[DisLiss]

My only issue with this is, as others have stated, that $100 is a ridiculously low amount given what you can spend for just one meal at WDW. Depending on the drop off rate, I could easily have a ridiculous number of holds on my card at any one time, which seems unnecessary at best, and possibly problematic for some at worst. :-/

I tend to call my credit card company to give them a heads up before we go on vacation, and before our next trip, I may mention this policy as well----if it is still in place in it's current way of operating, that is.

 

[Turksmom]

I did online check in to expedite check in process for today. I was just notified Disney charged (charged, not a hold) $100 to my account. I am still at home.

Just to clarify- is today also the day you arrive on property?

 

[AngiTN]

All I know about online check in and the $100 charge and or pre authorization is they haven't done it on our cards. I did one today too. And another last week. Not either one
I have had a 1.00 pre authorization run to make sure the card was valid when entered

 

[Searc]

Just to clarify- is today also the day you arrive on property?

Yes.

 

[cisco911]

From what I'm reading people think that'd Disney is going to do multiple holds of 100 dollars but I don't think that's the case. I think there is a 100 hold and once you exceed that, they process the charge and the 100 hold stays. So the 100 is a constant hold and is the threshold for when they actually charge the card. For example, let's say you arrive on day 1 and they put the 100 hold. on day 2 you buy an item for 60. nothing happens. the next day you eat somewhere and charge 90 to your magic band. At the end of that day you have 160 in actual charges. Disney will now charge your card for 160 and keep that 100 hold for the rest of your trip. Please let me know if I am wrong in this assumption.

 

[Iowamomof4]

From what I'm reading people think that'd Disney is going to do multiple holds of 100 dollars but I don't think that's the case. I think there is a 100 hold and once you exceed that, they process the charge and the 100 hold stays. So the 100 is a constant hold and is the threshold for when they actually charge the card. For example, let's say you arrive on day 1 and they put the 100 hold. on day 2 you buy an item for 60. nothing happens. the next day you eat somewhere and charge 90 to your magic band. At the end of that day you have 160 in actual charges. Disney will now charge your card for 160 and keep that 100 hold for the rest of your trip. Please let me know if I am wrong in this assumption.

No. They don't actually charge the card until day 5 or the day you check out, whichever comes first.

 

[PJofNB]

No. They don't actually charge the card until day 5 or the day you check out, whichever comes first.

That is correct. Additional holds are placed when new room charges exceed $100. In our experience, the additional holds were in the amounts of the room charges, so that the sum of all holds was the total amount charged against the room plus $100.

 

[Iowamomof4]

That is correct. Additional holds are placed when new room charges exceed $100. In our experience, the additional holds were in the amounts of the room charges, so that the sum of all holds was the total amount charged against the room plus $100.

That is definitely how I expected it to work and I hope that is what we experience when we go in May.

 

[AngiTN]

Yes.

That must be the difference. I don't arrive for 3+ weeks (depending on which stay we are talking about, I have 5 different ones right now)
I've never completed online check-in as close as day of arrival. It's always been done well in advance, usually same day I complete the reservation, or whenever I think about it.

 

[Scoobie]

Is there anyone that puts a gift card on hold instead of a a cc? Is that even possible? Wondering what would happen if someone does not have a cc, but came in with gc since the vacation package had already been paid. Not many people that don't have cc, but there is still probably some.

 

[Searc]

That must be the difference. I don't arrive for 3+ weeks (depending on which stay we are talking about, I have 5 different ones right now)
I've never completed online check-in as close as day of arrival. It's always been done well in advance, usually same day I complete the reservation, or whenever I think about it.

I completed online check in two weeks ago. I arrive today (am in DME line right now).

 

[AngiTN]

I completed online check in two weeks ago. I arrive today (am in DME line right now).

Ah. OK. That isn't completely unexpected then. Hadn't really thought about it but it does makes some sense

 

[AngiTN]

Is there anyone that puts a gift card on hold instead of a a cc? Is that even possible? Wondering what would happen if someone does not have a cc, but came in with gc since the vacation package had already been paid. Not many people that don't have cc, but there is still probably some.

To my knowledge, it isn't possible. At least it hasn't been possible in the past. Don't know if it is now
If you don't have a cc, then you don't get room charging benefits.
It's not a requirement

 

[Scoobie]

To my knowledge, it isn't possible. At least it hasn't been possible in the past. Don't know if it is now
If you don't have a cc, then you don't get room charging benefits.
It's not a requirement

That was fast, thanks! So is it possible to refuse having a CC on file, even if you have one? For people who won't be charging back to the room. I was under the impression Disney was going to start requiring it from every one. Damages to the room, etc. Like a deposit on an apt. as well as charges back to the room.

 

[mamapenguin]

I completed online check in two weeks ago. I arrive today (am in DME line right now).

Jealous. We have a couple more days (at work now...)

 

[dansdad]

That was fast, thanks! So is it possible to refuse having a CC on file, even if you have one? For people who won't be charging back to the room. I was under the impression Disney was going to start requiring it from every one. Damages to the room, etc. Like a deposit on an apt. as well as charges back to the room.

Nope. If you don't want to be able to charge back to the room then you absolutely do not need a CC on file.

 

[Samantha Morgan]

From what I'm reading people think that'd Disney is going to do multiple holds of 100 dollars but I don't think that's the case. I think there is a 100 hold and once you exceed that, they process the charge and the 100 hold stays. So the 100 is a constant hold and is the threshold for when they actually charge the card. For example, let's say you arrive on day 1 and they put the 100 hold. on day 2 you buy an item for 60. nothing happens. the next day you eat somewhere and charge 90 to your magic band. At the end of that day you have 160 in actual charges. Disney will now charge your card for 160 and keep that 100 hold for the rest of your trip. Please let me know if I am wrong in this assumption.

Disney **is** doing multiple holds. Pretty much every time you spend $100 you get another $100 hold. People are leaving with several hundred dollars in holds. It’s essentially holding just about as much as you are spending.

 

[tramps’lady]

our experience with two recent stays
first at fort wilderness for 3 nights and second at CR for 2 nights.
both stays i paid the first night upfront when reserving so had balance due for the room upon arrival
with both stays there was a pending charge placed on our Visa card for the room balance and $100.

FW: we didn't spend much the first stay so no more holds were placed . on check out day i had a pending charge for room balance and our charges. the first hold was still on my card so my limit was reduced by twice what i owed. the first charge dropped off with 2 days of departure.

on the CR stay i had a hold placed first for the room balance and $100, then a second hold for charges the 2nd day. on departure day my card was charged for the total balance due. the first two holds were still pending. So basically, my credit limit was reduced by 2 times what i owed. $600 hold, $200 hold, $700 charge.
no big deal for me but i can see this being a problem for some people.

i have to contact Disney about some other issues and will be bringing this up as it is just another thing reducing the "magic" for us making us rethink being APs and staying onsite. I hate to think what will happen when we have a much longer stay.

 

[Scoobie]

Somewhat related to this thread - Many people are looking to use gift cards instead of charging to the room. We were at the parks last week. Twice we pulled out our gift card to make ice cream purchases to be old that the "wifi" was down, and all that they could take was a credit card or charge to the room.. The restaurants likely have better connectivity and won't have this issue as frequently. I just wanted to share our experience from last week where we were unable to use the gift card and had to pay by credit card or do a room charge.

That is strange, since CC companies are moving to chip cards and those also work on wifi, don't they? Why would wifi prevent use of scanning a GC? This is concerning.