New Credit Card Authorization Holds

[cmwade77]

I have decided we won't use the room charging feature at all. I know with absolute certainty that we will spend less that way. Good on you, Disney! Shot yourselves right in the foot.

I always find it funny when people say they would spend more money by charging to the room, really, we have a budget and once that is hit, we stop spending, doesn't matter how we are charging it.

 

[PolyRob]

I was just on a DVC page on FB. Several people reporting getting denied at point of purchase (mainly as they were trying to charge at a restaurant). The holds plus the amount billed are exceeding their credit limit.

I know some might want to attach a low limit card in case of CC theft. You might want to reconsider that strategy. Ugh. How embarrassing to have your CC declined. Had it happen more than once in Europe this summer because our CC company won’t make travel notes

One poster asked at a restaurant what would have happened if she hadn’t had an alternative method of payment on her at the time and no one had an answer. So make sure you’re carrying one. Kinda defeats the purpose of the band though...

Was the person a DVC member staying on a cash reservation?

I am only wondering because if the guest was staying on points and did not have a final room payment due, a $100 should not have caused their card to be declined UNLESS something weird happened with the DVC stay where a large authorization was held which would be something else very weird and interesting to follow.

 

[PolyRob]

I always find it funny when people say they would spend more money by charging to the room, really, we have a budget and once that is hit, we stop spending, doesn't matter how we are charging it.

I think its similar to how some use cash rather than credit cards. If I have $200 cash in my pocket, once its gone, its gone. If I have a $5,000 credit limit and charge, charge, charge without checking my bank app I could easily spend more than $200. Small charges that don't seem like a lot initially add up!

People vacation very differently. Some budget to the penny and some are on a once in a lifetime trip and buy any/everything they see.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I think its similar to how some use cash rather than credit cards. If I have $200 cash in my pocket, once its gone, its gone. If I have a $5,000 credit limit and charge, charge, charge without checking my bank app I could easily spend more than $200. Small charges that don't seem like a lot initially add up!

But that's when you're treating the card like it has an infinite balance.

The PP is saying, or at least it sounded this way, that they have an amount they spend each trip. Regardless of charge back to the room or at POS.

I do think Disney sees at least a significant enough portion of people charging back to their rooms and perhaps it's for that exact reason they put this whole plan in place. If you treat a device (in this case a Magic Band) like it has an infinite balance you may find yourself unable to pay the balance in the end. I believe the going thought is Disney put this in place because they had at least some number of guests being unable to fulfill their financial obligations of their final balance. If it curtails those kinds of people it worked. Unfortunately it can be like multiple other things that Disney opts to do and it also impacts those who were paying their balance completely in the end.

 

[PolyRob]

But that's when you're treating the card like it has an infinite balance.

The PP is saying, or at least it sounded this way, that they have an amount they spend each trip. Regardless of charge back to the room or at POS.

I do think Disney sees at least a significant enough portion of people charging back to their rooms and perhaps it's for that exact reason they put this whole plan in place. If you treat a device (in this case a Magic Band) like it has an infinite balance you may find yourself unable to pay the balance in the end. I believe the going thought is Disney put this in place because they had at least some number of guests being unable to fulfill their financial obligations of their final balance. If it curtails those kinds of people it worked. Unfortunately it can be like multiple other things that Disney opts to do and it also impacts those who were paying their balance completely in the end.

I wasn't even referencing an infinite balance. I was mentioning that someone could have 10 charges around $5 and not realize how many they have accumulated throughout a day if they aren't tallying receipts or stalking a bank app on vacation and if you budgeted $200 you just blew through 1/4 of it and may not even realize it. With cash, if you're down $50, you're down $50.

Until Disney added the room folio in MDE (I̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶n̶k̶ ̶a̶r̶o̶u̶n̶d̶ ̶O̶c̶t̶o̶b̶e̶r̶ ̶2̶0̶1̶7̶?̶), how many charging back to the room truly knew how much they had spent? I keep all my receipts and when I would go to the desk to use gift cards I'd ask to see it first just so I could check they were all mine because I wasn't adding the receipts up while I was vacationing. I would see a snack cart here, or that mercantile charge there and realize I did in fact make all those purchases.

Edited to correct... it was released in MDE August 2017. I first used it October 2017.

 

[ninafeliz]

I always find it funny when people say they would spend more money by charging to the room, really, we have a budget and once that is hit, we stop spending, doesn't matter how we are charging it.

We don’t travel the way you describe- we don’t have a budget and once we hit it we hit it. So we likely do spend more when we simply tap a magic band instead of having to dig out the cc or find out the gc is empty or we don’t have enough cash on us.

Maybe you are disciplined enough to watch your charging to the room and know exactly where you are and when to stop, but I’d wager a guess that many people aren’t and they spend more when it’s tap and get your item instead of hand over cash, etc... I would assume that’s why they started this whole mess in the first place- people do spend more than they should and them can’t pay at the end. It’s also why people have cc debt they can’t pay off, but as long as their credit limit is high enough for Disney to charge it at the end of your stay Disney doesn’t care if you can pay off your cc or not - they just care if you can’t pay them at the end of your stay.

 

[Madame]

Was the person a DVC member staying on a cash reservation?

I am only wondering because if the guest was staying on points and did not have a final room payment due, a $100 should not have caused their card to be declined UNLESS something weird happened with the DVC stay where a large authorization was held which would be something else very weird and interesting to follow.

DVC member on pts I believe. $1500 in charges & $1500 in holds.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I wasn't even referencing an infinite balance. I was mentioning that someone could have 10 charges around $5 and not realize how many they have accumulated throughout a day if they aren't tallying receipts or stalking a bank app on vacation and if you budgeted $200 you just blew through 1/4 of it and may not even realize it. With cash, if you're down $50, you're down $50.

That's still the same thing as treating something like it has a infinite balance. I do understand what you are talking about I'm just making the case that when you have that issue it's a problem with something different.

I totally agree it can be like people who use cards (especially credit cards) irresponsibly. But that's exactly the type of people Disney is trying to target.

I totally agree how they are doing these holds are way weird. It's like they took the idea and went way overboard on it.

If you're out charging back to your room you wouldn't want to just blindly charge everything anymore than you would want to just blindly buy everything with cash and then find yourself without enough money leftover. That goes for everything not just being on vacation. It's why sometimes people do find themselves in a bind because they spent without thinking. That's not a 'charging back to your room' issue. That's an entirely different matter and to my understanding that different matter is what prompted Disney to do the holds in the first place (though yes again they went overboard).

I'm not sure it takes someone stalking a bank app on vacation to figure out they bought 10 items worth $5 each though.

 

[PolyRob]

DVC member on pts I believe. $1500 in charges & $1500 in holds.

Ahh so it was more than just the initial $100 hold. Upwards of $1,500 so $3,000 combined between authorizations and and actual charges. Thank you!!

I have some DVC friends I would have warned to watch closely if an authorization was thrown out there when staying on points.

 

[cmwade77]

Since your folio is now viewable on the MDE app, it is easy enough to monitor how much you have spent and know if you are spending too much or not.

 

[Patches Lee]

Since your folio is now viewable on the MDE app, it is easy enough to monitor how much you have spent and know if you are spending too much or not.

This the disclaimer on the folio of "some transactions may take several hours to post" it may not be as reliable for up to date info. I haven't been since that option was added though.

 

[Farro]

DVC member on pts I believe. $1500 in charges & $1500 in holds.

See, that's just insanity. There is no reason for Disney to be inflicting on someone $1500 IN HOLDS!!! Ridiculous.

 

[AngiTN]

That depends on their merchant account. For example, Square offers an "unlimited" account that charges one flat fee for up to a certain dollar amount (varies based on how much you pay per month) with no per transaction charge. There are others that charge say 1% of the transaction as long as it is over a certain dollar amount ($100 would always meet this), again no per transaction fee. These deals are only available to larger companies that do a certain minimum volume of charges and I can't imagine a business as large as Disney doesn't hit that minimum to qualify for these deals nor can I imagine that they are paying a per transaction fee.

So, I seriously doubt the extra charges would cost Disney anything and if somehow they are getting charged per transaction fees, every $100 would be better than people using the cards in the parks for every $5 charge and such.

Also, if they changed to charging every night (at 2 AM local time) or every $100, whichever comes first, it would bring their system even more in line with how the Disneyland Resort Hotels handle room charges and have a unifying system where no matter which coast you were on you would know how room charges work.

I handle credit card processing costs for my company
This is something totally dependant on volume
Disney's volume is such that they'll have an extremely low processing charge.

 

[AngiTN]

This the disclaimer on the folio of "some transactions may take several hours to post" it may not be as reliable for up to date info. I haven't been since that option was added though.

I realize it says that. We've had over 100 transactions, likely more like 1000 and yet to have one not show up instantly. I'm sure they can but it's an exception rather than the rule. In my experience they show as soon as charged

 

[cmwade77]

This the disclaimer on the folio of "some transactions may take several hours to post" it may not be as reliable for up to date info. I haven't been since that option was added though.

I found everything appears within about 5 minutes or so, my guess is this is just a CYA thing.

 

[cmwade77]

I handle credit card processing costs for my company
This is something totally dependant on volume
Disney's volume is such that they'll have an extremely low processing charge.

As I said, there are various methods for handling it and yes given their volume, they would have minimal costs.

 

[msjprincess]

Since your folio is now viewable on the MDE app, it is easy enough to monitor how much you have spent and know if you are spending too much or not.

Last month at AKL none of my charges showed up in the app. We were only there for 2 days so it wasn't a big deal.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

I always find it funny when people say they would spend more money by charging to the room, really, we have a budget and once that is hit, we stop spending, doesn't matter how we are charging it.

My point is, we will spend less than we would have since they have made it inconvenient to use the Magic Band. We have absolutely no idea how much will be locked up on the credit card as a result of room charging, because at the moment it seems like experiences are widely variable. I didn't say we have no budget, and I didn't say we OVERSPEND with room charging. I said we will spend less. Because we will.

 

[KM82]

*fixed it below

 

[KM82]

Just trying to figure this out before we head down in a couple weeks. If you accumulate $800 in holds on your card in 5 days and then the actual $800 is charged to your credit card, does that mean you now basically have $1600 credit limit reduced until the holds come off in a few days or does Disney do something to cancel out those holds when they do the actual charge. I wonder this because what if you use a card that has a $2000 limit and you charge $1200 worth of holds. Does that mean it will decline when they try to do the real charge of $1200 since there is only $800 available credit left or do they instantly wipe those holds so they can make the charge?

This was our experience a few weeks ago, too. We basically had a $2300 pending charge on our card that took a few days of being home to fall off. It was more than just a little inconvenient. It also has me really thinking about how we want to go forward with our August trip (whether it's worth it to keep the on property stay). I understand a slight hold for incidentals, or even completing the charge at a certain amount, but holding that much of someone's money is ridiculous.