New Credit Card Authorization Holds

[saskdw]

No idea what you mean by a big deal
People buy gift cards as a way to prepay for the trip. You use the crass to pay off charges

I don't get why I would want to buy gift cards to pay when I can just pay?

 

[PolyRob]

I don't get why I would want to buy gift cards to pay when I can just pay?

Some receive gift cards as presents, use them as a "pre-paid" method, or even purchase them at a discounted rate with different promotions throughout the year and apply them to save additional money.

 

[NickDubs34]

I might be missing something but this doesn't feel like a huge deal for me. I am one of those who charges everything to my magic band because there's a great benefit for it when it comes to credit card points (i.e. I get triple points for traveling and everything I buy at Disney shows up as travel because it comes from a resort charge) but I have never come anywhere near reaching my credit limit on the card I use so even if there's a sizable authorization on there, it wouldn't put me anywhere near my credit limit.

 

[saskdw]

Some receive gift cards as presents, use them as a "pre-paid" method, or even purchase them at a discounted rate with different promotions throughout the year and apply them to save additional money.

Ok, discounted amounts would be cool. I don't think I've ever seen Disney gift cards here in Canada.

 

[saskdw]

I might be missing something but this doesn't feel like a huge deal for me. I am one of those who charges everything to my magic band because there's a great benefit for it when it comes to credit card points (i.e. I get triple points for traveling and everything I buy at Disney shows up as travel because it comes from a resort charge) but I have never come anywhere near reaching my credit limit on the card I use so even if there's a sizable authorization on there, it wouldn't put me anywhere near my credit limit.

As far as I can tell the problem is two things.

1) A hold on the card could be an issue for those with smaller limits on their card.

2) If they are placing charges or holds every $100 that could be a ridiculous amount of transactions on your card for no reason. Which could mean higher fees for some and possibly red flags with some CC companies.

I would have a problem with number 2 if they do it that way. I don't have any CC limit concerns and would rather they just pre-authorize and hold $2000-$3000 and have one transaction at the end of my trip. I like to charge everything to my MB as well. Booking is prepaid, but food and shopping get charged to MB.

 

[angelmav]

This is worrisome to me, because of past issues. The last two trips I’ve had issues with too many holds or incorrect amounts held. The Marriott in Co Spgs was supposed to do a $150 hold and dinged me for $1,500 at the start of a trip. It took several days and multiple calls to get that worked out. Then our last trip, the Holiday Inn in London hit us three times, and the same thing on the way back in Germany. All of those were major headaches and stress that took away from a vacation. I won’t be allowing charges on our MB from the sound of it.

 

[bumbershoot]

No, it will climb in $100 increments. Initial hold is balance due + $100. Let's say you are $0 due, at check-in $100 will be authorized. That day you hit $105 in charges as soon as the $100 is hit another $100 will be authorized. They take into account what they have already authorized. Basically, the authorizations could be up to whatever your "tab" is with Disney + $100.

I don’t read it that way. It says the balance AND the incremental authorizationS. Incremental authorizationS doesn’t mean one $100 authorization.

Disney doesn't allow that because they don't want to have to issue refunds on gift cards.

Disney fully allowed it until a couple years ago. And refunds to GCs was never an issue. Unless someone threw away their card. And then they just refunded by check.

Disney is probably getting wise to people purchasing gift cards at a discount and using during a Disney vacation.

What is there to get wise to? Disney makes the cards. Disney lets you use the cards all over. This is a Disney gift card perk. What is there for them to have a problem with?

Yes, they will do multiple holds (authorizations) but it will never double what you actually owe because of the bolded part. As long as Disney has their charging systems programmed correctly...

You have met Disney computer systems, yes?

The bolded part said the balance and incremental authorizations. If their system doesn’t drop them and if your bank/cc company doesn’t drop them immediately, you absolutely could have double.

No longer charge to the magical bands that don't feel like spending money? What sort of business model is that?!

It’s what they are creating in many people by doing this.

But isn't that assuming the first incremental hold would drop off before they place another one? Most holds stay on for a few days to a week in my experience. Potentially you can have quite a few incremental holds on your account at one time.

The hold is a hold, the actual charge for the amount you spend will go through and the hold will also still be there until it falls off. That's how I'm coming up with these large amounts.

I think it's the wording about adding supplemental incremental holds that's throwing me off.

Yeppers.

Ah. So if they charge you plus the holds don't go away. That could be disastrous for people.

Absolutely.

Everyone is going to gave different issues with this.

Yes, all banks are different.

I hope Disney doesn't screw this up like other hotels (I've had that sort of authorization happen to me as well at hotels, I hate it)

I can assure you that Disney computers will screw this up.

I think I was more baffled by the fact that at 7 days past check out, no one from Disney had made any attempt to contact me to collect their $800 from me. It felt like if *I* hadn't made an effort to take care of it, they wouldn't have come after me for it (

Their systems are messed up.

During one trip I cancelled on time at bibbidi, but we were charged a no show fee.

Same day we ate at CRT, prepaid. Showed the TIW card and got the discount refunded. AND they refunded the whole rest of it several hours later.

The CM said that each night the manager goes over the list of people who were no shows and refund prepaid and charge the no show fee. So the manager seemed to have thought we had not shown up. Despite the TIW refund. And she didn’t charge us the no show.

I called to get the BBB charge refunded and to get the CRT bonafide charge recharged.

The refund for the no show was easy.

They were UNable to charge for CRT. Entirely impossible. I tried more than once. Couldn’t do it.

Everyone up in arms over the new policy can direct their anger and annoyance at those idiots.

1. Nope. I’ll be angry at Disney for not knowing how to throw the bath water out without throwing away the baby. They do not know how to be moderate. They swing wildly from one side to the other.

2. Even if I felt like that, is it going to increase my credit score quicker as I recover from my surprise divorce? Is it going to bring more credit to all those in the same or worse boat I am in? No. It won’t. So I won’t be angry at them. Because if Disney had a clue what they were doing, they wouldn’t have to do this.

They can’t even figure out how to let non residents have a payment plan for APs. Universal does it. Why can’t disney? Because they can’t come up with proper rules *and then follow them*.

Not in a couple years. I used to but the pluses began to slip away ..... (1) rarely got room number text, and sometimes not until days in to our trip (2) stopped paying any attention to room requests and (3) removed room requests from check-in. So I no longer found value in it. I prefer to go to desk and make my requests in person even if it means I wait.

Here’s what’s funny. I never have room requests. I have never once, not once, gotten a room ready text from online checkin. I always stop I’m at the front desk.

And I always do online checkin. It’s something to do. It’s fun. It lets them know what time I’ll be there.

It’s there so I do it.

This change doesn’t quite hit my princess stay if I recall the dates correctly, so they’ll likely have a whole year to mess up everyone else before I get a turn. So we’ll see if I do online checkin for next year.

My main concern is the number of "authorizations" I will have on my card. I have a high enough limit to allow for what I will charge, but if I spend say $400 a day between meals and souvenirs, will I have 28 different $100 holds on my CC at the end of the trip? If gift cards cannot be used the same as now and then I have a $2,800 charge on top of the 28 $100 authorizations, will $5,600 of my credit line be tied up? I'm also worried that my card issuer will think there is some type of possible fraud with 28 different $100 authorizations.

Mine sure would.

The bank will understand what is happening and won’t bat an eye (and will have lots of customers doing this).

Oh my. That’s not always how things work. Florida is a massive area for fraud. They know perfectly well that charges at Disney might be fraud. And I’d they see umpteen coming in, they’ll be on alert.

I did two authorizations at a gas station once near Disneyland. Pulled in the wrong way and the hose wouldn’t reach, and it took my then husband ages to turn the car the right way, so the first had timed out. The second was declined.

Multiple authorizations means fraud in most cases.

Simple solution. If this makes you uncomfortable, don't charge back to your room.

Or do online checkin. People keep forgetting that.

Or have a problem at the hotel and have them issue a credit to the room. Because getting a credit means setting up room charging!

And they won’t just give money. If anyone could get it to happen it would have been my now ex. He’s an expert. But they would not budge.

This could lead to the computer algorithms putting a fraud alert or lock on accounts as Florida is one of the top areas for fraudulent credit card use.

Yep.

I don't quite get how this is different from the current practice? When we were there last month, we paid the remaining balance and then they put a $2K hold on our card for charges.

Others have covered it, but again...they didn’t do that.

It may impact someone who relies on a prepaid debit card where the holds don't drop off as quickly a a normal credit card.

Or a normal debit card. Or a credit card with a lower limit that happens to be with a company where the holds don’t drop off quickly. Or a higher limit card and someone is carrying a balance, or has been to Universal and legokand and savannah on that trip and and and...

A vast majority of guests will never notice a difference. But those who use debit cards, gift cards, cast, or traveler's/bank checks could run into issues, depends on which process they use

I personally think that the vast majority are using those things, and don’t have the amazing high credit limit credit card where holds will drop off. I also don’t think people have perfectly clear credit cards. They have other things being charged while on vacation.

Multiple charges by Disney World owned hotels? Highly doubt that will raise any red flags at all.

Our card was declined after we’d put it down at AKV once the $5 charge hit from SSR during a split stay. $5. At a Disney resort.

And that was the Chase Disney debit card, too.

They didn’t alert us. Note: they once picked out a wrong charge made at amazon when we bought all the time AND our paychecks were (are)from there, and called us immediately.

But they didn’t alert us then.

I found out about it while toodling on the Dvc site while waiting for via Napoli. In a bizarre circumstance, on the front page of the site it had all these charges being posted to our *Dvc account* showing in bold red. Each little thing we had charged to the room that afternoon after moving over were showing up there.

$5.

And it was only $5 because we’d had massive mold/mildew problems and after we switched to a new SSR room they wanted to credit us. Can’t credit without room charging set up. It took over an hour to do that. They added onto our credit bc it took so long. So we found things to charge to the room. And went $5 over.

And it caused chase to ding it for fraud.

Besides that, tell your card you are traveling to FL and they won't even bat an eye at it.

I’m very glad you’ve had these experiences, but it’s not universal.

What if you're on a completely cash basis, will they still require a credit card at check in?

They haven’t yet. Who knows what’s going to happen?

I don't know if (assuming your room is paid for) if you can decline to give them a credit card at all.

You always have been able to do so, as long as you didn’t do online checkin in the last maybe two years since they’ve required a card doing online checkin.

Except Disney doesn't control when the holds drop off, the issuing card company does.

Exactly.

Count me as someone who won't be charging back to the room anymore. What a pain. I liked buying gift cards and then paying off my room balance. Now I will give them my card in order to do on line check in, but that is all I will use it for.

Online checkin with the card authorizes you for room charging. So you’re going to get hit with at least one authorization.

So I guess the same can be said for those who don't want authorizations on their cards, don't use MB.

And don’t do online checkin. Or need a credit for something lousy happening.

We went to HardRock last trip and I had a minuscule 20 hold on check in which dropped of my cc a week after I got back

How did you do that? HR and RP have always been 150/night for us. Portofino is 200.

Is there an advantage to online check in that I don't get from a face to face?

Who knows? Can’t compare the exact circumstance to the exact circumstance.

I might be missing something but this doesn't feel like a huge deal for me. I am one of those who charges everything to my magic band because there's a great benefit for it when it comes to credit card points (i.e. I get triple points for traveling and everything I buy at Disney shows up as travel because it comes from a resort charge) but I have never come anywhere near reaching my credit limit on the card I use so even if there's a sizable authorization on there, it wouldn't put me anywhere near my credit limit.

Super glad for you. Can I be an authorized user on your cc?

And what you’re missing is about half the responses that lay out exactly what parts will be a big deal for many of us.

 

[Nancyg56]

I don't get why I would want to buy gift cards to pay when I can just pay?

Gift cards are used in several ways by folks traveling in WDW. A lot of people will buy them as part of their vacation savings plan, others get them as gifts, and still others use them so they do not need to carry as much cash or use their credit or debit card on vacation.

Some people buy gift cards specifically for dining and will load their cards in lieu of a dining plan, with this money allocated towards their meals, much like a prepaid all inclusive trip.

GIft cards fill a need that many people have in terms of vacation spending and can be a safe method of traveling with "cash" sort of like people who used to buy travelers checks.

I think that while this may seem like a good way for Disney to stop folks from skipping out on bolls they cannot pay, I also wonde what impact it will have on discretionary impulse spending that they worked so hard to increase via the ease of Magic Bands. WHile that ease did not work on me, I bet you a buck that the Magic Band impulses charging is behind the need to now place holds on guest credit cards.

 

[Disneylover99]

Ok, discounted amounts would be cool. I don't think I've ever seen Disney gift cards here in Canada.

You can buy them at the Disney Stores in Canada and some grocery stores, (in Canadian funds) but as far as I know, there are no deals on cards up here. You pay the current exchange rate when you use it in the States. It's more of a hassle for us cause you're never quite sure how much your card is worth, and then when you see what your $50 Canadian gift card will buy you in DW, you become downright depressed. Lol.

 

[Kingdome8]

Imagine, if you will, people who choose to not use credit cards, and those holds are hitting their checking accounts. Imagine how difficult that makes things, if/WHEN the authorizations don't come off immediately.

Imagine, if you will, a person who has been out of the workforce for 16 years, who had no credit cards of her own, who has a secured credit card of $500, who owns DVC and wants to take a trip, but now Disney is going to take up all that room during her stay. Imagine the PITA that's going to be

 

[Kingdome8]

Imagine, if you will, people who choose to not use credit cards, and those holds are hitting their checking accounts. Imagine how difficult that makes things, if/WHEN the authorizations don't come off immediately.

Imagine, if you will, a person who has been out of the workforce for 16 years, who had no credit cards of her own, who has a secured credit card of $500, who owns DVC and wants to take a trip, but now Disney is going to take up all that room during her stay. Imagine the PITA that's going to be.



Never happened for me on Disney or Royal.



Do you do online checkin? If you do, you have to enter a card now. So when you enter that card, it's going to assume you want room-charging, and it's going to charge you.



And when Disney and/or the bank you use doesn't release those funds immediately after charging but before authorizing more, it's going to be very very ugly.


We took nice, long vacations b/c I homeschool and my now-ex could take 2 weeks off without his work blinking. We tended to do split stays. The ONE problem with Universal hotels is that they have a hold per day if you do room charging, and it would never fall off quickly, and it did actually impact us if we'd had a larger bill at Disney then moved over to Uni.



What a pain this is. Disney is just going along with industry standard, and is forgetting the fact that they used to SET the standard. Sigh.

Imagine, if you will, you own a business and give people the opportunity to charge things all week and when time to pay, they don’t have it. Hmmmm

 

[Kingdome8]

No, it will climb in $100 increments. Initial hold is balance due + $100. Let's say you are $0 due, at check-in $100 will be authorized. That day you hit $105 in charges as soon as the $100 is hit another $100 will be authorized. They take into account what they have already authorized. Basically, the authorizations could be up to whatever your "tab" is with Disney + $100.

Seems fair to me. Just an additional hundred on what I’m spending. No big deal.

 

[hdrolfe]

Ok, discounted amounts would be cool. I don't think I've ever seen Disney gift cards here in Canada.

You can actually at many places that sell giftcards. I prefer to use them because it is the straight exchange rate rather than adding the forex fees. I don't have a credit card that doesn't charge that.

I always liked that disney didn't put a hold like other hotels because we don't usually charge to the room. I will have to plan differently now because I did always do online check in even though I had to stop to get magic bands.

 

[Farro]

Seems fair to me. Just an additional hundred on what I’m spending. No big deal.

It's not just an additional $100, it's an additional $100 hold every time your spending reaches $100. Depending on when all those holds fall off you may have over $1000 in holds taken from your available balance, along with what you've actually charged. We can say other hotels do this until we are blue in the face, but I can't remember one hotel where I charged everything back to the room as I do in Disney via a Magic Band.

It isn't a big deal if you are prepared. I just feel for people who didn't know and are using a bank or credit card they use daily and they see all this money being held from their available balance!

We won't know until they start how this will all actually work.

 

[samsonjs]

I’m not seeing this answer, sorry if it’s a repeat. I’m staying room only in May. I have about $300 in gift cards and still have a balance to pay on our room. Looks like the easiest thing would be to apply the $300 to my room before arrival. Can I pay that with a gift card over the phone just like I’ve done with CC?

I was saving money for food in gift cards but looks like I should switch it to the room balance.

 

[PolyRob]

It's not just an additional $100, it's an additional $100 hold every time your spending reaches $100. Depending on when all those holds fall off you may have over $1000 in holds taken from your available balance, along with what you've actually charged. We can say other hotels do this until we are blue in the face, but I can't remember one hotel where I charged everything back to the room as I do in Disney via a Magic Band.

It isn't a big deal if you are prepared. I just feel for people who didn't know and are using a bank or credit card they use daily and they see all this money being held from their available balance!

We won't know until they start how this will all actually work.

I completely agree! In the "real world" I would not be at the same resort, charging hundreds to thousands over a week long stay including multiple meals a day and merchandise. Disney is unique since everything is within the "bubble" and pretty much allows charging.

I wonder if Disney will "officially" announce this change, or let guests know upon arrival or when filling out online check-i.

I know plenty of people who have cards with small credit limits whether they are new to credit or opt to lower credit limits. It will definitely be interesting to see what happens!

 

[sponica]

I completely agree! In the "real world" I would not be at the same resort, charging hundreds to thousands over a week long stay including multiple meals a day and merchandise. Disney is unique since everything is within the "bubble" and pretty much allows charging.

I wonder if Disney will "officially" announce this change, or let guests know upon arrival or when filling out online check-i.

I know plenty of people who have cards with small credit limits whether they are new to credit or opt to lower credit limits. It will definitely be interesting to see what happens!

Or people who pay their bills in cash/gift cards and just leave a debit card on file....

 

[AngiTN]

I don't get why I would want to buy gift cards to pay when I can just pay?

Because some buy them over the course of a year, or more. Add $50 each time you go to the Grocery store for example. $50 a week saved towards your trip vs. paying it all out at once. Simply a manner of budgeting/saving, that's it.

 

[PolyRob]

I’m not seeing this answer, sorry if it’s a repeat. I’m staying room only in May. I have about $300 in gift cards and still have a balance to pay on our room. Looks like the easiest thing would be to apply the $300 to my room before arrival. Can I pay that with a gift card over the phone just like I’ve done with CC?

I was saving money for food in gift cards but looks like I should switch it to the room balance.

You can use gift cards to pay off your room prior to arrival or even to make the initial deposit. I do it all the time!

If you call and say "make a payment," you probably won't even get a live person. You will make the payment through the automated system and it will confirm the gift card balance, what you want to apply, and tell you that your reservation number is your payment confirmation. If you've started online check-in, you can see the payments in MDE under the guest folio.

I would recommend you start a disneygiftcard.com account if you do not already have one and keep track of the card you used for the payment here. Also, do not throw that physical card away until you are done with your trip. If something is cancelled or modified, it will want to go back to the original gift card.

 

[AngiTN]

People are really taking this announcement to the nth degree here and generating scenarios that are just inaccurate, not going to happen. Typical around here though. As is finding someone post that every possible bad thing has happened to them. Sorry folks, I don't believe half of what folks post. Because 1 person simply can't have that much bad luck. Not at one location. People exaggerate things, especially online.
Disney isn't doing this to screw guests out of money. They aren't going to charge you and not refund you. Heck, an authorization isn't a charge for gosh sakes. It won't cause you to have extra interest. Preauthorizations are just that. When the final charge goes through, that's what "counts". The rest doesn't. It's basically a ghost. It's what almost 100% of other hotels do. And as bad as Disney's computer IT is, this is not going to be an issue that some are making it out to be.
Heck, maybe wait to see exactly what is going on before you go off the handle. It wouldn't be the first time bloggers, Dis included, post something and don't have all the facts and in doing so, cause folks to get riled up over nothing. Impossible for some posters to use the wait and see facts for yourself, I guess.

I’m not seeing this answer, sorry if it’s a repeat. I’m staying room only in May. I have about $300 in gift cards and still have a balance to pay on our room. Looks like the easiest thing would be to apply the $300 to my room before arrival. Can I pay that with a gift card over the phone just like I’ve done with CC?

I was saving money for food in gift cards but looks like I should switch it to the room balance.

You can and you can still do it at the resort just like you always have.