New Credit Card Authorization Holds

[AngiTN]

That is illegal.

Huh?

 

[AngiTN]

Most all my credit cards have something on the apps where I can notify them that I'm traveling now.
At least that part is easy
Citi and Amex don't even need me to do that, they notify me based on my purchase of airfare. I get an email about 48 hours from my flight departure with something about "we see you are due to be traveling soon, we've made note on your account, blah, blah"

 

[Searc]

Most all my credit cards have something on the apps where I can notify them that I'm traveling now.
At least that part is easy
Citi and Amex don't even need me to do that, they notify me based on my purchase of airfare. I get an email about 48 hours from my flight departure with something about "we see you are due to be traveling soon, we've made note on your account, blah, blah"

Your credit card company has no idea what your travel dates are when you purchase airfare. They see the vendor, the date of purchase and amount.

 

[Turksmom]

Your credit card company has no idea what your travel dates are when you purchase airfare. They see the vendor, the date of purchase and amount.

I've had that happen too, so some companies definitely have the travel info. Maybe if it's an airline or hotel branded card, the info is shared?

 

[ninafeliz]

Your credit card company has no idea what your travel dates are when you purchase airfare. They see the vendor, the date of purchase and amount.

I have had a cc send me an email saying that they see I have a trip coming up and they will make a note of it, or something to that nature. They got the info somehow, I assumed it was the airfare as well, unless it was the time we took the autotrain. I can't remember the details or even which card it was, I just remember kind of chuckling that they were aware, and debating in my head if it was a good or bad thing that others are so aware of what we do

 

[fla4fun]

Huh?

I got the feeling they were saying doing an actual charge, not a hold, to the guest’s card prior to their arrival date could be illegal. I would assume, from what has been happening, is that the guest is either checking in later that day or the transaction is pending not an actual charge going through. I can’t imagine Disney is going to start running actual charges to guests cards prior to arrival date.

 

[AngiTN]

Your credit card company has no idea what your travel dates are when you purchase airfare. They see the vendor, the date of purchase and amount.

They clearly do, since they send me a notice with the travel info in it. So sorry, you are incorrect

 

[AngiTN]

I got the feeling they were saying doing an actual charge, not a hold, to the guest’s card prior to their arrival date could be illegal. I would assume, from what has been happening, is that the guest is either checking in later that day or the transaction is pending not an actual charge going through. I can’t imagine Disney is going to start running actual charges to guests cards prior to arrival date.

Yeah, I'm 100% positive whatever Disney is doing, as stupid as it is, isn't illegal.

 

[MarkinNM]

Disney is late to the ballgame here, almost every other Hotel will do this and some even charge outright for 1 night before arriving, nothing illegal in that, just verifying the card is active and has room on the card. Once you give them your CC then all bets are off and you are up to how they charge/authorize ones card.......

 

[afan]

Your credit card company has no idea what your travel dates are when you purchase airfare. They see the vendor, the date of purchase and amount.

It all depends on what level data they get from that particular company. Amex knows when you are buying gift cards at office supply stores because level 3 data is shared. Grocery stores don't show that detailed of info.

 

[Scoobie]

I make sure to notify them when we travel.

I do this as well, since I've had problems with Capital One over zealous fraud watch before, even traveling in my own state. You know what they tell me? It's not necessary to notify them if I'm within these 50 states of ours. I always tell them to note it anyways. The fact that my cards get notifications frequently when using them right here in my home town is what makes me do it. They are paranoid now, always saying it's for my benefit. How is constant notifications asking if I made a charge, or freezing one of my cards WITHOUT notifying me to my benefit? It is only to their benefit, since I am not liable for fraudulent charges anyway. They have created more extra hassle for me, that's about it.

 

[AngiTN]

I do this as well, since I've had problems with Capital One over zealous fraud watch before, even traveling in my own state. You know what they tell me? It's not necessary to notify them if I'm within these 50 states of ours. I always tell them to note it anyways. The fact that my cards get notifications frequently when using them right here in my home town is what makes me do it. They are paranoid now, always saying it's for my benefit. How is constant notifications asking if I made a charge, or freezing one of my cards WITHOUT notifying me to my benefit? It is only to their benefit, since I am not liable for fraudulent charges anyway. They have created more extra hassle for me, that's about it.

Yeah, there's no doubt about who's benefit it's for. It's for their benefit. They are the ones left holding the bag with the charges. Or going after trying to collect on the charges, not the card holder. Sure it's us that will have to deal with reporting them but we aren't out the money in the end, they are. So quit trying to claim it's for MY benefit, it's for yours and yours alone, Credit Card Company. Be honest about it.

 

[MarkinNM]

Well I would rather have a over protective CC company then one who could care less until it is time to pay .......I have a Capitol One and had it for years, no reason to change IMHO. Just 2 years ago when I was in Ireland, CO called me to let me know there was charges on my card, mistake on my part not letting them know, now as the PP stated as long as we are in the US no reason to notify them of our travels.......

 

[bluezy]

I do this as well, since I've had problems with Capital One over zealous fraud watch before, even traveling in my own state. You know what they tell me? It's not necessary to notify them if I'm within these 50 states of ours. I always tell them to note it anyways. The fact that my cards get notifications frequently when using them right here in my home town is what makes me do it. They are paranoid now, always saying it's for my benefit. How is constant notifications asking if I made a charge, or freezing one of my cards WITHOUT notifying me to my benefit? It is only to their benefit, since I am not liable for fraudulent charges anyway. They have created more extra hassle for me, that's about it.

Yeah, that would be annoying. That would make me want to turn off all notifications or simply switch to another card.

 

[Spridell]

Disney is late to the ballgame here, almost every other Hotel will do this and some even charge outright for 1 night before arriving, nothing illegal in that, just verifying the card is active and has room on the card. Once you give them your CC then all bets are off and you are up to how they charge/authorize ones card.......

While this is true, Disney is doing multiple holds on purchases throughout the day. Most hotel only do the one. This is where the problem is coming in. And, they are holds instead of charges which is a big difference. Disney would be better off just doing the charge right away. Would be less confusion.

 

[Iowamomof4]

While this is true, Disney is doing multiple holds on purchases throughout the day. Most hotel only do the one. This is where the problem is coming in. And, they are holds instead of charges which is a big difference. Disney would be better off just doing the charge right away. Would be less confusion.

That would solve one problem but create another. The only reason we charge back to the room at all is to be able to pay it all off later with a gift card. We don't like carrying those around in the parks because they are much like cash, with no reliable way to get the money back if the card is lost or stolen (yes, you can have them stored online at Disneygiftcard.com, but that only helps if you realize immediately that you've lost it - otherwise someone else could immediately spend it and you'd be sunk). Anyway, credit cards are safer for that reason so I carry a credit card, my ID, and some cash just in case MB's and credit processing isn't working in the parks. If they put charges through right away, I might as well just use my credit card at the POS and forget the 5% savings I gain from using gift cards. I just wish they would increase the authorized hold or, better yet, allow us to put the gift cards on our account ahead of time.

 

[Spridell]

That would solve one problem but create another. The only reason we charge back to the room at all is to be able to pay it all off later with a gift card. We don't like carrying those around in the parks because they are much like cash, with no reliable way to get the money back if the card is lost or stolen (yes, you can have them stored online at Disneygiftcard.com, but that only helps if you realize immediately that you've lost it - otherwise someone else could immediately spend it and you'd be sunk). Anyway, credit cards are safer for that reason so I carry a credit card, my ID, and some cash just in case MB's and credit processing isn't working in the parks. If they put charges through right away, I might as well just use my credit card at the POS and forget the 5% savings I gain from using gift cards. I just wish they would increase the authorized hold or, better yet, allow us to put the gift cards on our account ahead of time.

That is good point didnt think of the gift cards. They really need to find away to tweek this new policy and make it work for everyone.

 

[AngiTN]

The easiest is to just increase the preauthorization/hold amount. $100 is simply too little at Disney. A family of 4 will run through that at a meal. Even QS can exceed $100. It's going to be an extremely low percentage of guests who do not exceed $100 each day. So they are running this silly hold/charge cycle with almost everyone who uses room charges. That seems like a ridiculous amount of unnecessary accounting work.
Universal uses $200. That's really not enough either. I'd be happy with $500 personally. I'd say this would be enough to cover the vast majority for a day. That way, guests would be able to use their bands for a day, go by to pay off their room charges using their gift cards if they'd like and start over with a $0 balance the next morning, probably never needing to run another $500 preauthorization in that case.
Those that do want to let it stay on the card, will have their charges ran way less often but Disney still not left with a huge unpaid balance.
Nothing will ever work for everyone of course, but something is bound to work for the majority. $100 is NOT it

 

[gwynne]

The easiest is to just increase the preauthorization/hold amount. $100 is simply too little at Disney. A family of 4 will run through that at a meal. Even QS can exceed $100. It's going to be an extremely low percentage of guests who do not exceed $100 each day. So they are running this silly hold/charge cycle with almost everyone why uses room charges. That seems like a ridiculous amount of unnecessary accounting work.
Universal uses $200. That's really not enough either. I'd be happy with $500 personally. I'd say this would be enough to cover the vast majority for a day. That way, guests would be able to use their bands for a day, go by to pay off their room charges using their gift cards if they'd like and start over with a $0 balance the next morning, probably never needing to run another $500 preauthorization in that case.
Those that do, will have their charges ran way less often but Disney still not left with a huge unpaid balance.
Nothing will ever work for everyone of course, but something is bound to work for the majority. $100 is NOT it

ITA. 100.00 is way too low. 400.00-500.00 would be a much better preauthorization/hold amount.

 

[Krandor]

I just came back from a trip. I have a separate debit account for my trips which is what is linked to disney. I had $1.8k in that account. My bill (including hotel and magicband charges) was $1100. However my account showed at negative $600. So somehow they had temp auths at $1.5k which was more then my total bill. Waiting to see how things settle out.

I understanding needed auth for purchases but to be doing temp auths for more then my bill even is is just crazy.

I like charging on magicband just so I don't have to carry a CC with me but based on this, I'm going to carry a CC and use that vs these insane auth charges.

EDIT: Just looked and my available balance is now $1500 in my trip account so finally got removed. It was $200 this morning.. again.. my total bill was $1100 so they temp authed all of my bill plus some. If I have 2K in an account and a bill of $1.2K I should not have a negative $600 balance.