New Credit Card Authorization Holds

[tgree9369]

Oh, and have you asked her about how the room charges will work? Since she seems to know about other things? Maybe she can shed light on it, more than we've gotten thus far

Worried that I won't be able to use my MB to charge if I don't have a card on file - even though I was told it would still work as long as I have money in my Folio. Disney needs to clear this up - once and for all.

 

[AngiTN]

Honestly, it was super painless for us. I was worried too. But turned out to be nothing. Had I not looked at my credit card activity online and just gone about my trip as I usually did in the past, I'd have never noticed anything changed. I don't know if they've tweaked things in the past couple of months or what but none of the issues that some had early one came up for us. Now, I don't use a debit card but I do use a credit card with a smallish limit. Which is where I was slightly concerned and keeping an eye on things. If they'd doubled up a lot of charges it would be problems. But, none of that happened. No holds, no fraud problems, just a few small holds on our first day then nothing till check out time. And I paid on things with gift cards twice (because I forgot 1 first time)
So hopefully, since fewer problems are being reported now, they have tweaked the process (which I am typing with my fingers crossed) LOL

 

[tgree9369]

Honestly, it was super painless for us. I was worried too. But turned out to be nothing. Had I not looked at my credit card activity online and just gone about my trip as I usually did in the past, I'd have never noticed anything changed. I don't know if they've tweaked things in the past couple of months or what but none of the issues that some had early one came up for us. Now, I don't use a debit card but I do use a credit card with a smallish limit. Which is where I was slightly concerned and keeping an eye on things. If they'd doubled up a lot of charges it would be problems. But, none of that happened. No holds, no fraud problems, just a few small holds on our first day then nothing till check out time. And I paid on things with gift cards twice (because I forgot 1 first time)
So hopefully, since fewer problems are being reported now, they have tweaked the process (which I am typing with my fingers crossed) LOL

Thank you - I am so worried about holds - I sent another email to get a answer straight from my best source. I can not afford them to double up. Every year they would just take off on day 5 and then the last day. I was hoping this would be the case this year too.

 

[pigletto]

This is a really long thread so forgive me if this has been asked, but what about Canadians specifically? When those fees get returned to your cards, are you also refunded the foreign transaction fee? Because it would be really annoying to lose a percentage ( I think ours is 2.5%) several times over. I know many Canadians use gift cards to avoid fees on their cards. So what I am understanding so far is they would need to go to the front desk by day 5 to make sure a gift card was added? Could they use a gift card when they check in to pay any room charges before they hit the credit card? I have friends leaving next Friday and would like to warn them.
Sorry for all the questions.. I'm finding this all a little confusing.

ETA) some quick googling says that no, you don't get the FTF returned with most Canadian cards. So say you owed $2000 at check in for a RO reservation.. you are going to lose $50 just to pay on a credit card. Nevermind the $740 in exchange you are already paying on that.

 

[skuttle]

Honestly, it was super painless for us. I was worried too. But turned out to be nothing. Had I not looked at my credit card activity online and just gone about my trip as I usually did in the past, I'd have never noticed anything changed. I don't know if they've tweaked things in the past couple of months or what but none of the issues that some had early one came up for us. Now, I don't use a debit card but I do use a credit card with a smallish limit. Which is where I was slightly concerned and keeping an eye on things. If they'd doubled up a lot of charges it would be problems. But, none of that happened. No holds, no fraud problems, just a few small holds on our first day then nothing till check out time. And I paid on things with gift cards twice (because I forgot 1 first time)
So hopefully, since fewer problems are being reported now, they have tweaked the process (which I am typing with my fingers crossed) LOL

Same for us! Had I not known about the potential issues, I never would have noticed any difference. I, too, was concerned so I kept an eye on the charges/holds to my card. I was credited back the holds almost immediately after they processed the "real" charges so it never became a problem. I did notify our CC holder (Disney Visa) that we were going out of town, which I never do, but figured it couldn't hurt. This was true at both Port Orleans Riverside (1 night pre-cruise), and then the Polynesian (5 nights post cruise).

 

[dec2009mama]

This is a really long thread so forgive me if this has been asked, but what about Canadians specifically? When those fees get returned to your cards, are you also refunded the foreign transaction fee? Because it would be really annoying to lose a percentage ( I think ours is 2.5%) several times over. I know many Canadians use gift cards to avoid fees on their cards. So what I am understanding so far is they would need to go to the front desk by day 5 to make sure a gift card was added? Could they use a gift card when they check in to pay any room charges before they hit the credit card? I have friends leaving next Friday and would like to warn them.
Sorry for all the questions.. I'm finding this all a little confusing.

ETA) some quick googling says that no, you don't get the FTF returned with most Canadian cards. So say you owed $2000 at check in for a RO reservation.. you are going to lose $50 just to pay on a credit card. Nevermind the $740 in exchange you are already paying on that.

Fellow Canadian here....and this is how I *think* it works......
if you have a RO balance at check in, that balance is charged in full at check-in so on your card it would sit as an pre-authorized transaction at first then drop to posted once processed by credit card because it was an actual charge against the card
for the $100 hold pre-authorization, i would say this is similar to what they do at gas stations when you get gas -- it would sit under pre-authorized transactions but never drop to posted because it was not an actual charge against the card
example --- if you go to a gas station 5 times in one day and each gas station does a pre-authorization of $100 on your credit card you will see 5 pre-authorized transactions (total of $500) and if you fill your tank with only $75 on each of those visits you will see another 5 pre-authorized transactions for $75 (total of $375) but in theory only the $75 transaction will drop to posted on your credit card -- so on that one day you have $875 of pre-authorized transactions sitting on your credit card but $500 should drop/disappear and $375 will be posted as charges
so my thought is if you don't charge to your magic bands then that $100 hold pre-authorization should never get posted as a completed transaction on the card
i might be completely wrong so if someone knows otherwise please correct me

 

[tgree9369]

Ok, after an hour conversation with a DVP and then a CM from OKW, this is what I am being told. You must have a card on file to charge with your MB. OKW used to allow you to add gift cards or cash to your Folio but no longer does. Why? With the new policy, Disney does not refund any money left in said Folio- it was too much of a hassle. So, now to the $100 hold. It works like this; a $100 hold is place on your card when you check in, each time you spend over that $100, another $100 hold is placed. It means the whole time you are on property there is a $100 hold. It doesn’t double, as soon as you reach the $100 or whatever amount you charged to get over the $100, you account is charged. The $100 is essentially put back on your card. So that is why people are seeing a $100 hold then a $100 credit. I was given a lengthy explanation and I tested it with every scenario I could think of and it was always, no more than $100 was held at any one time. He did admit this may have occurred when they launched this new system but it has been fixed and isn’t occurring now. So instead of on the 5th day and last day Disney clearing purchases, they do it daily. I was told that too many people didn’t have the money in their accounts or on their card at the end of their stay. This is why they went to this system. Hope this helps clear this up.

 

[Hopefully]

I have tried to add Gift Cards to my Folio on several trips and been unable to. I have gone to the Concierge Desk to pay a current balance with a Gift Card
For discussions sake let’s say the balance was $323 and my gift card was for $500. I tried to apply the full $500 gift card and was not allowed. They took the $323 off the card and I had to come back another day after accruing a new balance in charges to use the difference.
You can not apply monies in any form in advance.

 

[tgree9369]

I have tried to add Gift Cards to my Folio on several trips and been unable to. I have gone to the Concierge Desk to pay a current balance with a Gift Card
For discussions sake let’s say the balance was $323 and my gift card was for $500. I tried to apply the full $500 gift card and was not allowed. They took the $323 off the card and I had to come back another day after accruing a new balance in charges to use the difference.
You can not apply monies in any form in advance.

I was told this too.

 

[TinkOhio]

Am I understanding this right? We will be staying one night at CSR and then five nights at ASMo. It's a room-only reservation that is already paid off. We don't put credit cards on file for charging or use our magic bands for charging. Will there be a $100 hold for the CSR stay and another $100 hold for the ASMo stay? And will both just be holds (not charges) that drop off in a week or so?

Thanks for the help! This is a l-o-n-g thread, so I didn't read it all.

 

[AngiTN]

Am I understanding this right? We will be staying one night at CSR and then five nights at ASMo. It's a room-only reservation that is already paid off. We don't put credit cards on file for charging or use our magic bands for charging. Will there be a $100 hold for the CSR stay and another $100 hold for the ASMo stay? And will both just be holds (not charges) that drop off in a week or so?

Thanks for the help! This is a l-o-n-g thread, so I didn't read it all.

If you don't put a credit card on the account then there won't be any holds at all.

 

[TinkOhio]

Thanks for the quick reply. We usually pay ahead and don’t charge to our room/folio, but they always ask for a credit card to put on file for incidentals. We just never checked if they applied a temporary hold.

 

[dansdad]

Thanks for the quick reply. We usually pay ahead and don’t charge to our room/folio, but they always ask for a credit card to put on file for incidentals. We just never checked if they applied a temporary hold.

WDW resorts do not ask for nor require a credit card for incidentals like just about every other hotel/resort in the world. They only require one if you want to be able to use your Magic Bands to pay for stuff.

 

[Iowamomof4]

Ok, after an hour conversation with a DVP and then a CM from OKW, this is what I am being told. You must have a card on file to charge with your MB. OKW used to allow you to add gift cards or cash to your Folio but no longer does. Why? With the new policy, Disney does not refund any money left in said Folio- it was too much of a hassle. So, now to the $100 hold. It works like this; a $100 hold is place on your card when you check in, each time you spend over that $100, another $100 hold is placed. It means the whole time you are on property there is a $100 hold. It doesn’t double, as soon as you reach the $100 or whatever amount you charged to get over the $100, you account is charged. The $100 is essentially put back on your card. So that is why people are seeing a $100 hold then a $100 credit. I was given a lengthy explanation and I tested it with every scenario I could think of and it was always, no more than $100 was held at any one time. He did admit this may have occurred when they launched this new system but it has been fixed and isn’t occurring now. So instead of on the 5th day and last day Disney clearing purchases, they do it daily. I was told that too many people didn’t have the money in their accounts or on their card at the end of their stay. This is why they went to this system. Hope this helps clear this up.

In the middle of May, at Pop Century, the only $100 hold was the one at check in and the new one on day 6. Every other hold was based on the amount we had charged to the room via MB.

 

[AngiTN]

Thanks for the quick reply. We usually pay ahead and don’t charge to our room/folio, but they always ask for a credit card to put on file for incidentals. We just never checked if they applied a temporary hold.

You are never required to place a card on your account at Disney. You won't be able to use your MB for room charging but if you are OK with not doing that then they are OK with no card on file.

 

[Dsny4fun]

Ok, after an hour conversation with a DVP and then a CM from OKW, this is what I am being told. You must have a card on file to charge with your MB. OKW used to allow you to add gift cards or cash to your Folio but no longer does. Why? With the new policy, Disney does not refund any money left in said Folio- it was too much of a hassle. So, now to the $100 hold. It works like this; a $100 hold is place on your card when you check in, each time you spend over that $100, another $100 hold is placed. It means the whole time you are on property there is a $100 hold. It doesn’t double, as soon as you reach the $100 or whatever amount you charged to get over the $100, you account is charged. The $100 is essentially put back on your card. So that is why people are seeing a $100 hold then a $100 credit. I was given a lengthy explanation and I tested it with every scenario I could think of and it was always, no more than $100 was held at any one time. He did admit this may have occurred when they launched this new system but it has been fixed and isn’t occurring now. So instead of on the 5th day and last day Disney clearing purchases, they do it daily. I was told that too many people didn’t have the money in their accounts or on their card at the end of their stay. This is why they went to this system. Hope this helps clear this up.

So if I want to use the MB and pay it off with Gift cards, I will need to pay it off each night or they will charge my credit card?

 

[AngiTN]

So if I want to use the MB and pay it off with Gift cards, I will need to pay it off each night or they will charge my credit card?

No, that is not what I found on my trip 2 weeks ago
I gave full details of my charges and using gift cards very recently. Can't be too far back

 

[Iowamomof4]

So if I want to use the MB and pay it off with Gift cards, I will need to pay it off each night or they will charge my credit card?

In the MDE app, you'll be able to see your room charges on your account. They will NOT put that through to the card (other than the holds we've been discussing) until Day 5 or the day you check out, whichever comes first (and then again at day 10 or check out day, etc...). Check at the front desk to verify if they plan to put those charges through after midnight on day 4 (early morning day 5) or after midnight on day 5 (early morning day 6). I was told both, and used my gift card to pay off the balance on day 4 just to be safe, but then charged a small thing to see if they would run the card that night or not and they did NOT. So it turned out they were going to run the charges through after midnight on day 5 (early morning day 6), but I could see that not always being consistent from one resort to another just because it could be interpreted differently by each GM or whatever. Anyway, as long as you're okay with mounting holds on your credit card, you don't have to pay off your balance each night.

 

[4evryoung]

Then I'm pretty shocked at her answer to you. Because no one has ever been able to put cash or gift cards down in advance on their room folios. Maybe those who work in reservations THINK guests can but those CM who actually checking the guests in won't do it. And the 2 simply never talk to tell either other how it actually works?

Not sure about now, but in May 2018 I put cash into my folio at AKL front-desk so that I could charge on MB at the resort after it went cashless.

 

[dansdad]

Not sure about now, but in May 2018 I put cash into my folio at AKL front-desk so that I could charge on MB at the resort after it went cashless.

Yes, during that specific cashless test at AKL you were able to put cash or gift cards into your folio. But that has ended and they went back to not allowing it.