What forms of money should I bring/ easiest to use while there?

[momof1princess]

A debit card with a Visa or MasterCard logo offers you the same protections as a credit card when it comes to fraudulent charges. Unfortunately, any unauthorized charges come right out of your checking account and can take a while to be returned to it. This can wreak havoc on your vacation if you are relying on that money to pay for food and other necessities.

A pre-paid credit card with a Visa, MasterCard or AmEx logo might have some protection against unauthorized charges. You need to read the user agreement to see what is covered. Unfortunately, the same problem exists as with a debit card...you may have to wait for the money to be returned to the card and in the meantime, you have to scramble to figure out how to pay for food and whatnot.

The ideal plan would be to have one backup credit card to cover yourself in the event that your other funding methods get compromised. You can use it at check in to cover any room charges but then pay off the charges with your primary method (cash, GCs, debit card) before the charges are applied to the CC.

thank you! i think DH and i have decided to go to walgreens and get a Disney GC (i read that you can buy them in any amount you want there) to use to pay for our meals.

 

[momof1princess]

okay, so now that i'm back, I have to say the Disney GC from walgreens was a GREAT idea! we loaded it with $500.00, and used it to pay for all of our meals at WDW. we didn't have to worry about using our CCs, and didn't have to fumble around with counting out cash-it was awesome! DH says we'll get a Disney GC for our trips from now on!

 

[chrystalc77]

okay, so now that i'm back, I have to say the Disney GC from walgreens was a GREAT idea! we loaded it with $500.00, and used it to pay for all of our meals at WDW. we didn't have to worry about using our CCs, and didn't have to fumble around with counting out cash-it was awesome! DH says we'll get a Disney GC for our trips from now on!

So glad it worked for you!!! We get our gift cards at CVS (I work there so it's easy to grab them from there!) we used them for spending money....had a lot of $25 ones but just added them to our KTTW card so we didn't have to carry a bunch of cards round. It was fabulous!!!! Once the gift cards ran out it charged our debit card, but I would get a printout daily of what we had spent so we could stay on track with our spending. My DH was very doubtful that it would work but I made a firm believer out of him with the saving of the gift cards. Already started picking some up for 2014 trip!!!