Teen spending with magic bands

[newzandile]

We'll be traveling with our two teens and our one almost teen in late May (12, 15 and 17). We will be staying at AKL and plan to link a credit card to our room but to pay off our charges each night with Disney giftcards purchased ahead of time at a discount.

In the event that we give the kids some freedom to move around on their own I will tell them the limit of what they can spend (we are not doing DDP, it doesn't fit our style of eating). Last year we took a cruise and did that and the kids did well with it. However, on the cruise we had the option to set an external limit on their spending as well (using their key cards) just in case. As it turns out none of them hit it (of course they weren't purchasing food items on the cruise other than the occasional soda, it mostly arcade and candy shop charges).

If the cruise lines can do that it seems that we should be able to do it with the MB's as well? Does anyone know if Disney has offered the ability to set daily spending limits on MB's? I'd appreciate the peace of mind if possible. Thanks!

 

[serene56]

We were not able to do that in December.
the MB is linked to a credit card and the kids will need to remember a 4 digit number in order to use the band.

Would it be easier for them to carry a gift card instead.
(maybe small denomination ones

 

[JillianMarie]

Just FYI, when we were there in November we loaded our gift cards onto the account when we checked in. I don't think that really addresses your issue, but it might save you time in the long run of having to run down to the desk every night.

 

[Sagginit]

i did not hear anything about a spending limit when we put the card on our band. i did however see some younger guests trying to buy things in shops or meal plan and their parents were not aware that due to their age their band was not allowed to charge anything, so you just may want to confirm that their bands will always work without you if they are being set free and may need food.

 

[delmar411]

We'll be traveling with our two teens and our one almost teen in late May (12, 15 and 17). We will be staying at AKL and plan to link a credit card to our room but to pay off our charges each night with Disney giftcards purchased ahead of time at a discount.

In the event that we give the kids some freedom to move around on their own I will tell them the limit of what they can spend (we are not doing DDP, it doesn't fit our style of eating). Last year we took a cruise and did that and the kids did well with it. However, on the cruise we had the option to set an external limit on their spending as well (using their key cards) just in case. As it turns out none of them hit it (of course they weren't purchasing food items on the cruise other than the occasional soda, it mostly arcade and candy shop charges).

If the cruise lines can do that it seems that we should be able to do it with the MB's as well? Does anyone know if Disney has offered the ability to set daily spending limits on MB's? I'd appreciate the peace of mind if possible. Thanks!

You can't set a spending limit. You have a room limit based on your resort type.

$500 values
$1000 mods
$1500 deluxe/DVC

The kids need to have charging activated on their bands and they need to know your room pin code.

 

[Shanna-like-Banana]

When we were there in Nov, I asked about this specifically and we were told that you cant set spending limits per bands, but that you can set different PIN numbers per bands, so that you can clearly see who made the charge.

We didnt set different pins and the charges print out named the person who made the charge anyways.

Such as it would list out $18.00 WIFE $40 HUSBAND etc.

 

[mjkacmom]

Whenever we vacation with spending tied to key cards, I allow charging for the kids, and tell the kids how much they can spend. They know that I have access to their bank accounts, and if they go over, I'll just take the money out of their accounts. Not once has any child even reached the limit. I think teens are old enough to monitor their own spending, especially when they know they are hosed if they go over.

 

[sk!mom]

We will be traveling with DD18 and my 18 year old niece. I will want them to use the bands for the meal plan but will tell them no room charges otherwise. We are paying for the whole trip except spending money.

 

[wiigirl]

Just FYI, when we were there in November we loaded our gift cards onto the account when we checked in. I don't think that really addresses your issue, but it might save you time in the long run of having to run down to the desk every night.

 

[emilik]

So, re: the charging limit on the room - if we're stayig at a mod and charge $1000 to the room, then pay that off, can we charge more at that point? Or is it total for the length of your stay? I had planned to charge all our meals and then pay everything at checkout, is there anything wrong with that plan (if we don't go over the charge limit?)? If you have gift cards loaded to the account does that amount count towards your charge limiy, or does it only starting counting once the gift cards are exhausted?

 

[delmar411]

So, re: the charging limit on the room - if we're stayig at a mod and charge $1000 to the room, then pay that off, can we charge more at that point? Or is it total for the length of your stay? I had planned to charge all our meals and then pay everything at checkout, is there anything wrong with that plan (if we don't go over the charge limit?)? If you have gift cards loaded to the account does that amount count towards your charge limiy, or does it only starting counting once the gift cards are exhausted?

They will either run charges overnight and clear the room balance or you can go down to the front desk and apply gift cards that night to clear it or ask that they run the charges to your card to clear it right away. You will have to put a CC on the room to gain charging privledges, they won't accept a GC to get charging added. Also they auto run charges when there is a CC on the room so make sure to pay off the charges before that last night because it will hit your card before check out day.

Once charges are cleared from your room, you can start over. I believe to have to make a charge to the room before you can add gift cards to the account but I'm not 100% on that so ask when you arrive.

 

[MSSANDRA]

Does anyone know the age that they allow charging on the magic band? I know that they did not add it to DS7 and the CM said that they do not allow charging on children's bands but I'm not sure what is considered a child (under 10?). I know when our older DS was little, his card could do charging and we allowed him to "pay" for dinner each night. Of course we always carried the card so loosing was not the issue that a magic band might be.

 

[JillianMarie]

They will either run charges overnight and clear the room balance or you can go down to the front desk and apply gift cards that night to clear it or ask that they run the charges to your card to clear it right away. You will have to put a CC on the room to gain charging privledges, they won't accept a GC to get charging added. Also they auto run charges when there is a CC on the room so make sure to pay off the charges before that last night because it will hit your card before check out day.

Once charges are cleared from your room, you can start over. I believe to have to make a charge to the room before you can add gift cards to the account but I'm not 100% on that so ask when you arrive.

We added all our gift cards when we checked in and added a credit card because we knew we'd go over the gift card amount. I think this is a relatively new feature because the CM who checked us in was explaining how it worked to her co-worker. She made it sound like we didn't have to add a credit card as long as we had a positive gift card account balance. And it definitely depleted our gift card money before it charged a penny to our credit card. So I suppose someone could do it the old fashioned way of paying off a day's charges every night and the desk, but I honestly don't know why anyone would. Seems much much easier to just load them all on ahead of time.

 

[laughinplace199]

Whenever we vacation with spending tied to key cards, I allow charging for the kids, and tell the kids how much they can spend. They know that I have access to their bank accounts, and if they go over, I'll just take the money out of their accounts. Not once has any child even reached the limit. I think teens are old enough to monitor their own spending, especially when they know they are hosed if they go over.

I agree. If they are old/mature enough to go off on their own, then they should be able to keep track of their own spending.

 

[tmarquez]

I think you can request it be added.

DD was 10 the first time we went with Magic Bands and it was on hers automatically, which I didn't know. IWhen we checked in I asked them to add it to hers and they looked at the computer and it was already there.

Does anyone know the age that they allow charging on the magic band? I know that they did not add it to DS7 and the CM said that they do not allow charging on children's bands but I'm not sure what is considered a child (under 10?). I know when our older DS was little, his card could do charging and we allowed him to "pay" for dinner each night. Of course we always carried the card so loosing was not the issue that a magic band might be.

 

[serene56]

So, re: the charging limit on the room - if we're stayig at a mod and charge $1000 to the room, then pay that off, can we charge more at that point? Or is it total for the length of your stay? I had planned to charge all our meals and then pay everything at checkout, is there anything wrong with that plan (if we don't go over the charge limit?)? If you have gift cards loaded to the account does that amount count towards your charge limiy, or does it only starting counting once the gift cards are exhausted?

the resort will charge your card at the limit? Pop Century is $500. once we got to that limit it charged the card. I had the charges reversed and used gift cards the rest of the week. I visited guest services every night at the close of my day.

Make sure you let your CC company know where you are- and lift any limits off that card

 

[lucyem]

Does anyone know the age that they allow charging on the magic band? I know that they did not add it to DS7 and the CM said that they do not allow charging on children's bands but I'm not sure what is considered a child (under 10?). I know when our older DS was little, his card could do charging and we allowed him to "pay" for dinner each night. Of course we always carried the card so loosing was not the issue that a magic band might be.

If I were to guess they probably start giving charging privileges at age 10. This is based on my kids who are now 8 & 11. The last three trips (since he turned 10) my older DS has automatically been given charging and my younger DS has not. But obviously there is an exception to every rule at WDW so I would always double check.