Timing to pay off room charges

[cajunfan]

I bought Disney Gift Cards before doing my home work here on the DIS. I realized that I cannot link gift cards to MDE.

Lots of questions:

1. if I use my magic band to purchase things like souvenirs or food at non-mobile order places, can I stop at the hotel front desk and pay off current balances with the gift cards? If I can, what is the cut off time for doing so before they charge my credit card? And if there is a dollar limit for them to run the charges, what is that number?

2. Mobile order places...I read that they automatically charge the card linked to your MDE and not the room. Is this correct?

Depending on the answers here, I may have more questions.

Thanks for the help!

 

[Marionnette]

I bought Disney Gift Cards before doing my home work here on the DIS. I realized that I cannot link gift cards to MDE.

Lots of questions:

1. if I use my magic band to purchase things like souvenirs or food at non-mobile order places, can I stop at the hotel front desk and pay off current balances with the gift cards? If I can, what is the cut off time for doing so before they charge my credit card? And if there is a dollar limit for them to run the charges, what is that number?

2. Mobile order places...I read that they automatically charge the card linked to your MDE and not the room. Is this correct?

Depending on the answers here, I may have more questions.

Thanks for the help!

1. Yes. You can stop at the front desk and use GCs to pay off room charges. Disney places a hold on your credit card when you check in.. IIRC, the initial hold is $100. When your balance due exceeds that $100, another hold is placed on your credit card reflecting the amount due. Your CC holds will never exceed your amount due + $100. You will want to visit the front desk to pay off your balance before day 5 of your stay or before check-out day, whichever comes first.

2. You can enter a GC number when you mobile order but the system will not store it. Some people will paste the GC info into notes on their phone and then copy it each time that they place an order.

 

[afan]

1. Yes. You can stop at the front desk and use GCs to pay off room charges. Disney places a hold on your credit card when you check in.. IIRC, the initial hold is $100. When your balance due exceeds that $100, another hold is placed on your credit card reflecting the amount due. Your CC holds will never exceed your amount due + $100. You will want to visit the front desk to pay off your balance before day 5 of your stay or before check-out day, whichever comes first.

2. You can enter a GC number when you mobile order but the system will not store it. Some people will paste the GC info into notes on their phone and then copy it each time that they place an order.

The hold limit is different for value, mod and delux from what I've read elsewhere.

I normally just watch my spend and then stop when there's little to no line when I'm getting close. But I go solo so not as much urgency generally. Or I'll just pay for a big purchase with the gc to avoid the hassle.

 

[Marionnette]

The hold limit is different for value, mod and delux from what I've read elsewhere

That policy changed a few years back. They used to push the charges thru when your balance hit a certain level. The level was lower for value resorts and highest for deluxe resorts.

Now, they do the CC holds on all stays for guests who wish to have charging privileges.

 

[lsutigers03]

I bought Disney Gift Cards before doing my home work here on the DIS. I realized that I cannot link gift cards to MDE.

Lots of questions:

1. if I use my magic band to purchase things like souvenirs or food at non-mobile order places, can I stop at the hotel front desk and pay off current balances with the gift cards? If I can, what is the cut off time for doing so before they charge my credit card? And if there is a dollar limit for them to run the charges, what is that number?

2. Mobile order places...I read that they automatically charge the card linked to your MDE and not the room. Is this correct?

Depending on the answers here, I may have more questions.

Thanks for the help!

1. You should only need to pay off the balance before you check out. On my last trip I went every two days or so and paid the balance.
2. You can use gift cards for mobile orders but you have to put in the gift card number for each purchase. Not a big deal for me as it only takes a few seconds.

 

[afan]

That policy changed a few years back. They used to push the charges thru when your balance hit a certain level. The level was lower for value resorts and highest for deluxe resorts.

Now, they do the CC holds on all stays for guests who wish to have charging privileges.

I understand that. My underatanding was still that the hold they put on was at the various levels for each level.

 

[Marionnette]

I understand that. My underatanding was still that the hold they put on was at the various levels for each level.

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/faq/hotel-reservations/credit-card-hold/

When in doubt, always go directly to the source.

 

[cajunfan]

THANK YOU SO MUCH !!!

Sorry to yell, but I was concerned I had made a big mistake in buying the gist cards and really excited to find out I am good to go!!

I have not been to my happy place in 6 years...and I so NEED this vacation.

 

[Nickylv]

I always use gift cards, when I don’t use the gift card at the venue, like restaurant, gift shop etc and I charge it to the room, I go down every few days and pay off the balance. Sometime and just a few weeks ago I forgot to pay down the balance and it was check out day, they had already charged my credit card so they backed out the charge on my credit card and recharged it to the Disney Gift Card. No big deal even if they already charge your credit card.

 

[starry_solo]

You should try to go every couple of days to pay off the charges with the Disney Gift card. When you check out, make sure to check the folio

 

[georgina]

I just use the gift cards directly for purchases and don’t bother with room charges. Very easy to use. I input the GC number with mobile order.

 

[bsmcneil]

I will say that I had such a frustrating time with things getting pushed through (staying at AKL) that I just stopped using my MB for payments (because I wanted to use up gift cards and I had to go too often to the front desk). It really, really frustrated me (admittedly, single parent with two kids who weren't super patient to wait in line for the front desk - even after I asked the front desk CMs about whether there was any way to avoid having this issue, I'd get differing feedback about paying with MB/GC). I recognize my experience was likely the 1 out of 100 that ended up going awry more often than not - but I name it just to put it out there that perhaps paying with the GC is more advantageous from the start (and I didn't notice it tremendously slowing me down with LL/ILLS and copy/pasting).