New Credit Card Authorization Holds

[Castlequeen5]

You could still have used your Gift cards. Did you ask the CM to back out the charges to your CC and then use your Gift card(s) to pay the full balance?

It should only take the CM a few minutes to complete the process but as always it depends on the skills of the individual CM as you indicated the issue you had at the Ice cream cart.

Dave

No I didn't know that was even possible, so I didn't ask.

 

[AngiTN]

I've been checking this thread every so often as we have a trip coming up in August. Like many others, I don't mind a $100 hold at all. I also don't mind through out the trip charging my card what I've spent. Does anyone know if they fixed the frequent $100 holds. I understand the split stays and probably a $100 hold on every check in....but I'm wondering if they are still doing the continued more than one $100 pre authorization holds.

First hand experience is no frequent $100 holds. Nor are there continued reports of them.
I'm always reluctant to say it won't happen to someone else though.

 

[Sorcerer17]

I just returned on Monday from a 6 day stay at Old Key West. I did charge everything back to the room (tips, drinks, etc) and received multiple $100 holds. It's actually quite convenient (if you have instant alerts on your phone from your CC provider) because you kind of have an idea of what you are spending. We were staying half the trip on cash and the other half on points, so we technically had to check out and check back in again. On the first checkout, I was too late to get to the front desk with my Disney Gift Cards to help pay down the balance, however, the front desk did run the gift cards and issue a credit back to my card. I received the credit back to my card in a matter 2-3 days.

 

[DreadBaroness]

Some credit card companies and banks take 10 - 12 days to release a hold. Long stay, use your cards everyday and you could end up with several hundred dollars on hold. lovely.

 

[Sarahslay]

I've been checking this thread every so often as we have a trip coming up in August. Like many others, I don't mind a $100 hold at all. I also don't mind through out the trip charging my card what I've spent. Does anyone know if they fixed the frequent $100 holds. I understand the split stays and probably a $100 hold on every check in....but I'm wondering if they are still doing the continued more than one $100 pre authorization holds.

I had frequent holds in May but then didn't in June so I'm really reluctant to say either way if they've stopped it or not, but I will be there again at the end of this week (Thursday) so I will keep an eye out and see what happens, I will be charging everything back to my room so it will be a good experiment. It almost seems from looking at different reports that every resort does it differently, and different CMs have a different understanding of the new rules, so who knows what will ever happen at this point :/

 

[Bama Mom]

So just to be clear...
I do have a credit card number on file with Disney. Our August trip will just be hubby and I. We will be using gift cards/Cash for our meals. The only charges to our magicbands should if we decide to buy something extra in the parks. If we go by and pay off the charges each day (either at the end of the night or first thing the next morning) then there shouldn't be an additional $100.00 hold after the first one (unless of course we charge more than $100 before paying of the balance) right?

**Edited because I knew mobile ordering was not charged to magicband but had a DUH moment

 

[AngiTN]

So just to be clear...
I do have a credit card number on file with Disney. Our August trip will just be hubby and I. We will be using gift cards/Cash for our meals. The only charges to our magicbands should be mobile ordering or if we decide to buy something extra in the parks. If we go by and pay off the charges each day (either at the end of the night or first thing the next morning) then there shouldn't be an additional $100.00 hold after the first one (unless of course we charge more than $100 before paying of the balance) right?

Mobile ordering does not go on a MB, it is done by the credit card on your account.

 

[AngiTN]

Just checked my accounts
We arrive today (got my room ready text at 8:00 AM) and there is a preauthorization on my card for the room balance +$100
I'll update if there are further authorizations

 

[Bama Mom]

Mobile ordering does not go on a MB, it is done by the credit card on your account.

HaHa, I knew that, just had a brain fart moment. But what about the other? If I pay off any purchase charges each day will there be a second $100.00 charge if we don't go over the initial $100.00 before paying it off each day?

 

[AngiTN]

HaHa, I knew that, just had a brain fart moment. But what about the other? If I pay off any purchase charges each day will there be a second $100.00 charge if we don't go over the initial $100.00 before paying it off each day?

Most likely no, but at worse it would be a preauthorization, not a charge and it would never process as final if you pay off with the gift card.

 

[Bama Mom]

Most likely no, but at worse it would be a preauthorization, not a charge and it would never process as final if you pay off with the gift card.

Awesome, thank you.

 

[SpecEdismyLife]

Ok thanks. I guess the difference for me is that these aren’t really holds that haven’t been released . The other hotels it’s a hold for incidentals. These are the actual restaurant charges, such as $149 after we went to one restaurant, $209 after going to another restaurant etc, so they are the pending charges for those meals. Disney then charged the total amount for all room charges including those restaurants ($1400) but the pending charges for each restaurant/each day (each charge over $100) were not released.

This is the perfect explanation I was looking for. The fact that they are charging you the first time as "pending" but then charging you again on check out when they process the room folio. Thank you, you cleared up what the first 64 pages of this thread could not for me. Then after that is all said and done the "pending charges" are taking awhile to fall off based on the bank/card used. I had originally seen it explained as multiple $100 holds every time you spent $100 meaning that you could pay them every night if you wanted to, but the only thing that would stop was what they charged you when they processed your folio, you'd still have all the multiple $100 holds regardless. It sounds like this is no longer happening?

For those paying off the balance to zero every night with gift cards etc, are you still only seeing the pending charges and waiting for them to fall off rather than the holds and the room folio total that people are seeing when they pay everything off on the day of check out?

Are there any more updates? I'm going the end of September and wondering if I really need to still worry about this or not. I'd like to use the MB but we will be using our debit card. We will be stopping in Hilton Head for a night on the way home and I don't want any weird Disney problems on my card when checking into the hotel there.

The only thing I'm confused on now is the 5 day thing. If I'm understanding the thread, they no longer do this?

 

[SpecEdismyLife]

I just got back. Every night I went and paid balance to zero. Never had any more then first hold. And it dropped off the morning after checkout. Worked perfect.

did you use your MB every time you paid for something? Thank you!

 

[mom2rtk]

I just got back. Every night I went and paid balance to zero. Never had any more then first hold. And it dropped off the morning after checkout. Worked perfect.

If you're going to have to go to the front desk every night, why not just use your CC for payment in the parks instead of using the MB?

 

[Iowamomof4]

If you're going to have to go to the front desk every night, why not just use your CC for payment in the parks instead of using the MB?

I can't speak for the person you quoted, but we paid our charges off frequently (maybe not nightly, but every other night or so) because we were using gift cards (purchased at a discount). I didn't feel comfortable carrying gift cards around with me in the parks, plus we had multiple people using magic bands to charge back to the room. It was easiest for me to go down with my gift cards (which I kept in the room safe) and pay off all of those charges at once rather than trying to make sure everyone had a gift card with them in the park. Plus, I didn't have to worry about losing the gift cards or having them stolen.

 

[AngiTN]

This is the perfect explanation I was looking for. The fact that they are charging you the first time as "pending" but then charging you again on check out when they process the room folio. Thank you, you cleared up what the first 64 pages of this thread could not for me. Then after that is all said and done the "pending charges" are taking awhile to fall off based on the bank/card used. I had originally seen it explained as multiple $100 holds every time you spent $100 meaning that you could pay them every night if you wanted to, but the only thing that would stop was what they charged you when they processed your folio, you'd still have all the multiple $100 holds regardless. It sounds like this is no longer happening?

For those paying off the balance to zero every night with gift cards etc, are you still only seeing the pending charges and waiting for them to fall off rather than the holds and the room folio total that people are seeing when they pay everything off on the day of check out?

Are there any more updates? I'm going the end of September and wondering if I really need to still worry about this or not. I'd like to use the MB but we will be using our debit card. We will be stopping in Hilton Head for a night on the way home and I don't want any weird Disney problems on my card when checking into the hotel there.

The only thing I'm confused on now is the 5 day thing. If I'm understanding the thread, they no longer do this?

I would never suggest anyone use a debit card for this unless you got a large float in the account. It stands to tie up cash funds for days. At least with a credit card it's never your cash money

We've had 3 or 4 stays since this started and not 2 have been done the same. Despite using the same exact credit card each time. Makes it impossible to guess what they do

The only thing consistent are
Pre-authorization of the total room balance plus $100 on day of check in.
Additional changes after that have been different each time
Not all stays have exceeded 5 days so that is one difference to expect
They also have always ran the total balance on check out day but it doesn't show up for a few days, not even as a pre-approval. I can just see the balance gone of the credit limit. There is something different about the way they code that final payment from the way they code the authorization.

 

[Dug720]

I can report back now on my experience at Music with a resort credit on the account.

I had a little over $150 in resort credit since I changed resorts and there were price drops after I paid the room in full. No, I do not know why it was not just refunded, but there you are. It was nice to know I had most of my food paid for going in.

I was not sure what would happen regarding the CC hold though. I would have preferred to just get the credit on a gift card and remove my card from the room, but by the time I got my not quite ready text and got to the front desk, there was still no charge - pending or otherwise - on my card. The CM said the easiest thing to do would be just charge to the room, and it would come out of the credit. The charge should only happen if/when I go above that amount.

I ended up with 95 cents left which WAS refunded to my credit card. No pending hold was ever put through.

 

[Kingdome8]

did you use your MB every time you paid for something? Thank you!

I did use magic band for everything. I had free dining which made it easy to keep under 100 for extra hold.

 

[Kingdome8]

If you're going to have to go to the front desk every night, why not just use your CC for payment in the parks instead of using the MB?

More fun and convenient. Plus we always walked down for drinks at night too. Also worth it for cash back on buying gift cards plus gas points.

 

[garada3]

Checked into the Beach Club at 9:00am. Funny aside: guard at parking gate could not find the reservation in my name checking in today. He said the system had us checking in in February and checking out next week?! This made me stop by the front desk just to make sure all was good.

Cast member at desk said we did not have charging privileges set up even though I entered my information at home. Gave the cc and set up the pin. The $100 hold was placed.

We had lunch and (many) drinks at Hollywood Brown Derby Lounge and charged the meal, $202, back to the room no problems. After riding TSMM, I purchased something in the shop at the exit. I tried to charge back to the room but was told I did not have charging privileges.

Went to guest services but they could not help except to say go to the front desk.

Spent 45 minutes at front desk sorting things out. Was first told it was our credit card causing the decline and the card to drop off our folio. Called cc, nope- plenty of room on cc and they were aware we were traveling plus their records showed no decline on their end.

Back to desk, spoke with manger on duty who said issue is often caused by addresses between Disney and cc not matching. Not it either, they match. Manager reapplied cc to folio but said no guarantee that it will not drop off again if we charge above the $100 limit. She said she has no preventative measures , just to please some back if it happens again. I told her it was embarrassing to be told that your charging privileges are declined when the problems is theirs and not ours and that to pullout cash or cc for transactions will make us spend way less this week.

Thanks for reading the vent. I knew this might happen but was hopeful it wouldn’t after reading some reports.

Aside from the charging issue, a fun first day!