room charging - crazy confused

[1stvisit0909]

First off, I've searched the boards. Thats why I'm starting a thread. I'm more confused than I was before I searched.

I have a gift card that has my spending money on it. I want to add it to the KTTW card for tips and incidentals.

Can I just add that to my room when I check in, as a deposit for our charge back? It seems to be answered both ways on here. If the answers is no, and I have to go down every couple of days to use the gift card that is fine but, if I cant add it to my account as a preset spending limit/deposit then I need to use my debit card to put on file. IF I do that, will there be a hold placed on my debit card for duration of stay? I hear at mods the spending limit is $1000 - is that a HOLD on your card? I dont want a $1000 hold.

So if it IS a hold, can I ask them to only hold a certain amount say $200-300, and come down and settle up with my gc every couple of days?

The only things we will be charging back are tips pretty much, and I have it calculated pretty well as an estimate.

OR should I forget it, have no room charge privledges and use the spending money gift card at the TS restaurants. (can I do that for tip only?)

 

[HM]

My understanding is that you can add your gift card balance to your KTTW when you check in for your charging priveledges. I also think you can't use them for the tips AT the restaurant itself.

 

[aaarcher86]

First off, I've searched the boards. Thats why I'm starting a thread. I'm more confused than I was before I searched.

I have a gift card that has my spending money on it. I want to add it to the KTTW card for tips and incidentals.

Can I just add that to my room when I check in, as a deposit for our charge back? It seems to be answered both ways on here. If the answers is no, and I have to go down every couple of days to use the gift card that is fine but, if I cant add it to my account as a preset spending limit/deposit then I need to use my debit card to put on file. IF I do that, will there be a hold placed on my debit card for duration of stay? I hear at mods the spending limit is $1000 - is that a HOLD on your card? I dont want a $1000 hold.

So if it IS a hold, can I ask them to only hold a certain amount say $200-300, and come down and settle up with my gc every couple of days?

The only things we will be charging back are tips pretty much, and I have it calculated pretty well as an estimate.

OR should I forget it, have no room charge privledges and use the spending money gift card at the TS restaurants. (can I do that for tip only?)

They will not hold the $1,000. I don't think they charged anything at all on mine. If anything, it would be $1 just to validate the card, like dining does.

I believe they will still request a CC on file for charging purposes and incidentals. We charged all of our tips as well at a value (less of a spending limit) and just went down early the morning of check out and paid our charges. There was a bill underneath the door our last night.

If they let you put the GC as the hold card, yay! If not, no worries about the hold. But know that they won't charge your card until check out so if you aren't close to the limit don't worry about going down every few days if you don't want to.

 

[cmwade77]

I don't know exactly how they validate the credit card, but Disney does not put a hold on it like other hotels. Always ask before having them swipe the card though to make sure there isn't a policy change.

That being said, with Disney you do not HAVE to put a credit card on the room, it is completely optional but putting one on allows for express checkout, where all you have to do is call down and say you are leaving, no need to stop at the front desk.

As for the gift card, they can put it on your account at checkin, we did this last time and it worked out great. We had about $100 eft over, so they refunded it to the credit card on the account instead of a gift card (their rules are to do so, we would have been fine with the gift card).

By the way, yes gift cards can be used for the tips at restaurants, we do it all the time at Disneyland and have done so at Disney World as well, if you are on the dining plan, they will bring your receipt, you fill it out and tell them you want the tip charged to the gift card. That being said, this seemed to confuse some servers who would end up charging our tips to the room anyway, so we just ended up applying that gift card to our balance as well and charging our tips to the room. It made it easier, as it meant only one card to carry, instead of two.

If you are not on the dining plan, you use the gift card as your form of payment and there will be a spot for tip, just like there would be for a credit card.

 

[1stvisit0909]

Thanks! I'm going to try add the gc for charging privileges and ask about the hold when I swipe.

I feel better now .

We just dont use CCs and I dont want a $1000 hold on my debit card.

 

[bumbershoot]

It's NOT a hold.

 

[alyssa810]

We were not able to add a gift card on our room last week. I was paying our balance with gift cards when I checked in, and asked if I could "add" some to our account, and they said no, HOWEVER, I could come down and make payments with the gift card during the course of my stay if I used my KTTW card.

Honestly, I find it's sometimes (always) just easier to use the gift card itself rather attach it to your KTTW card. We have TIW so tips are already included at most places. We ate at T-Rex and I believe I was able to add the tip to our gift card there.

 

[rwdavis2]

When we stayed at AK a few weeks ago they applied our Rewards Card balance to the room charges with no problem. In fact the reward balance was more than the pending room charges but we had them put all the reward $$ on the account knowing we would use the room key to charge things.

 

[DisneyHardin]

In Oct when we were at POFQ, we had to put a CC on the account in order to have room charging privlidges. They DID NOT put any sort of hold on our CC. Before we checked out, I went to the desk and paid off the entire balance with gift cards before we left and nothing was then ever charged to my CC.

 

[TXGRMAMA]

First of all, some of the posters are confusing gift cards with Disney Reward cards. Big difference. Rewards cards have a number similar to credit cards and can be applied to room account easily. Gift cards are completely different. Gift cards cannot be applied to a room account before charges are made. But they can be applied to account after their are enough charges. For example, if the gift card is for $200.00, you could apply one it to your room once you have charged $200 or more to your room.

Yes, if you want charging priviledges, you must put a credit card or debit card on your room at the time of check in. $1.00 will be held when the card is verfified. No other HOLD is placed on that card then. The card will then be charged when you reach your resort limit or at check out. So you must know your resort limit. If you are staying at a moderate, it is $1,000. So if you know you are nearing, $1,000 go to your Front Desk and pay off the balance with gift cards. Then you can continue charging. If you do not reach your limit during your stay, go to the front desk the night BEFORE you check out. Pay off your charges with the gift card. If you do not go the night before, the total will be charged to your debit or credit card at 3:00 am on the morning of check out. It could be returned to your card later and another form of payment used. But that is more trouble for you and the front desk, than if you just paid it the night before.

 

[TXGRMAMA]

As for the gift card, they can put it on your account at checkin, we did this last time and it worked out great. We had about $100 eft over, so they refunded it to the credit card on the account instead of a gift card (their rules are to do so, we would have been fine with the gift card).

This is wrong. If a cashier really did this, it was against Disney policy. You cannot take cash/credit from a gift card and place it on a credit card. The disney business office would be all over that cashier. It is like making a payment on a credit card with a gift card and that it NOT allowed.

 

[aaarcher86]

First of all, some of the posters are confusing gift cards with Disney Reward cards. Big difference. Rewards cards have a number similar to credit cards and can be applied to room account easily. Gift cards are completely different. Gift cards cannot be applied to a room account before charges are made. But they can be applied to account after their are enough charges. For example, if the gift card is for $200.00, you could apply one it to your room once you have charged $200 or more to your room.

Yes, if you want charging priviledges, you must put a credit card or debit card on your room at the time of check in. $1.00 will be held when the card is verfified. No other HOLD is placed on that card then. The card will then be charged when you reach your resort limit or at check out. So you must know your resort limit. If you are staying at a moderate, it is $1,000. So if you know you are nearing, $1,000 go to your Front Desk and pay off the balance with gift cards. Then you can continue charging. If you do not reach your limit during your stay, go to the front desk the night BEFORE you check out. Pay off your charges with the gift card. If you do not go the night before, the total will be charged to your debit or credit card at 3:00 am on the morning of check out. It could be returned to your card later and another form of payment used. But that is more trouble for you and the front desk, than if you just paid it the night before.

We went down the morning of and paid off our charges with no problem. Charging someone's card before the actual check out time doesn't make any sense, and certainly didn't happen to us. I imagine people could still charge their tips for breakfast before checkout time as well.

Lots of people don't know you can just leave without visiting the front desk to check out - us included, and those folks would be heading down the same way we did (at check out time) to settle up.

 

[cmwade77]

First of all, some of the posters are confusing gift cards with Disney Reward cards. Big difference. Rewards cards have a number similar to credit cards and can be applied to room account easily. Gift cards are completely different. Gift cards cannot be applied to a room account before charges are made. But they can be applied to account after their are enough charges. For example, if the gift card is for $200.00, you could apply one it to your room once you have charged $200 or more to your room.

Yes, if you want charging priviledges, you must put a credit card or debit card on your room at the time of check in. $1.00 will be held when the card is verfified. No other HOLD is placed on that card then. The card will then be charged when you reach your resort limit or at check out. So you must know your resort limit. If you are staying at a moderate, it is $1,000. So if you know you are nearing, $1,000 go to your Front Desk and pay off the balance with gift cards. Then you can continue charging. If you do not reach your limit during your stay, go to the front desk the night BEFORE you check out. Pay off your charges with the gift card. If you do not go the night before, the total will be charged to your debit or credit card at 3:00 am on the morning of check out. It could be returned to your card later and another form of payment used. But that is more trouble for you and the front desk, than if you just paid it the night before.

This is NOT correct, we had gift cards, purchased from Vons for the gas rewards they offered for doing so at the time. Yes, we did put a credit card on the account, but only so that we wouldn't have to go to the front desk at check out. They tell you that if you out a credit card on the account that you will not need to do so, so I fail to understand how anyone can't know that they wouldn't have to. They were very clear about it when we checked in, we could add the gift cards to the account at checkin; however, if anything was left over it would be refunded to the credit card on file and not to one or more of the gift cards and that it would take 3-5 days to do so. The cash refund could be because we love in California and that's where the gift cards were purchased since California has some interesting laws regarding gift cards. For example if a gift card has less than $10 on it, they have to cash it out upon request under California law, since we used so many gift cards, if they refunded it equally, each would have had less than $10 on them. Additionally, Disneyland takes it one step further and will cash out a Disney gift card upon request at any gift shop, with. Any dollar amount on it. In our case, we really wanted the left over refunded to the gift cards (or to one of them) as we were heading to Disneyland when we got back and didn't want to wait the 3-5 days, but were told that they couldn't do that. So, we just used cash that we were going to use later and had the money replace it, so it worked out. I am simply pointing out that they were GIFT CARDS and were able to be added to the account BEFORE charging anything to the room.

 

[serene56]

My understanding is that you can add your gift card balance to your KTTW when you check in for your charging priveledges. I also think you can't use them for the tips AT the restaurant itself.

I used a ratatoilli disney gift card when we had free dining. We used that card for tips only.

Did this change.

 

[aaarcher86]

I used a ratatoilli disney gift card when we had free dining. We used that card for tips only.

Did this change.

No, you can still use GC for tips and/or the whole meal if you like

 

[creativeamanda]

Just to reiterate what others have stated. I have used a debit card several times as my check in card on file. In 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011. In all of those cases only a $1.00 hold was placed on the card. Hope this helps. In 2012, I used my cash rewards credit card. Same deal. Only a $1.00 hold was put on my card. This is different than say, Marriott, which will put a $40 incidental charge on a card.

 

[1stvisit0909]

Just to reiterate what others have stated. I have used a debit card several times as my check in card on file. In 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011. In all of those cases only a $1.00 hold was placed on the card. Hope this helps. In 2012, I used my cash rewards credit card. Same deal. Only a $1.00 hold was put on my card. This is different than say, Marriott, which will put a $40 incidental charge on a card.

Yes, that helps. thanks!

 

[AmberHeartsDisney]

They can add the gift card after you make the charges. I personally wouldn't trust a big credit on my account before hand.