New Credit Card Authorization Holds

[EACarlson]

I was at DW 3/24-3/30 and I never saw the hold. I checked each night. I did use a gift card for the entire trip but I did have to use my magic band a few times because the parks were having trouble with payment options.

I always have charging privileges, I thought with the charging ability I would see the hold regardless.

Are you willing to share what bank issued the card you were using? I believe there are still some banks that don't show holds or have it count against your available balance.

 

[MermaidMommy]

Sounds about right, as they way I understood it as long as you do not go over that pre auth it should be good, please keep us UTD with what you find as you can......thanks....

But, isn't the PP saying that the opposite happened? They had a pre authorization for $100, spent $24, and then had a hold for $124. They didn't go over the initial hold, but their amount was still increased. Is this how it's supposed to work? Or, am I missing something?

We just checked in today to PORFQ and they very quickly mentioned they would be putting a 100.00 hold on our account if we elected to put charging to the room. We agreed because we like the convenience of having the ability to use the bands but came with cash knowing we would just use that for most of our purchases because we are using a debit card. So.... we checked in, ran to the store and grabbed two things our daughter needed which totaled 24.00. We now have a funds on hold amount of 124.00. On our way to dinner we will pay off the 24.00. I will see what happens to the hold amount tomorrow or Monday. I knew from reading the thread it was going to be an issue Bc we were using a debit card but we budget everything for our trips and figured if we did minimal charges under 100.00 and then paid it off before the threshold was hit, we wouldn’t have multiple amounts. Live and learn!

 

[msmith1026]

But, isn't the PP saying that the opposite happened? They had a pre authorization for $100, spent $24, and then had a hold for $124. They didn't go over the initial hold, but their amount was still increased. Is this how it's supposed to work? Or, am I missing something?

OP here. Yes you’re right. They put a 124.00 hold down after saying it was 100.00. They also held the 24.00 we charged, even though it was under the 100.00 threshold.

We went back to the desk that night and paid the 24.00 room charge off. We no longer have a hold at all on our account. Friday we tested it and charged 40.00 back to the room and that amount didn’t show up as a hold, nor did it cause a 100.00 hold to show up again. As of right now — there is no hold on our account at all. We already paid off the 40.00 and are sticking with paying cash when we need to buy something.

I will say it’s probably helped us spend less than we have budgeted Bc I don’t bring a lot of cash with us to the parks. I know what we can spend each day to stay on budget and at this point we are way under.

 

[MarkinNM]

OP here. Yes you’re right. They put a 124.00 hold down after saying it was 100.00. They also held the 24.00 we charged, even though it was under the 100.00 threshold.

We went back to the desk that night and paid the 24.00 room charge off. We no longer have a hold at all on our account. Friday we tested it and charged 40.00 back to the room and that amount didn’t show up as a hold, nor did it cause a 100.00 hold to show up again. As of right now — there is no hold on our account at all. We already paid off the 40.00 and are sticking with paying cash when we need to buy something.

I will say it’s probably helped us spend less than we have budgeted Bc I don’t bring a lot of cash with us to the parks. I know what we can spend each day to stay on budget and at this point we are way under.

Hmmmm, so when charging to the room, say $150, the authorization is $250, correct? And if paying by gift card, paying when we get back to the resort it should come off, if I am reading this VERY long thread........?????

 

[sponica]

Hmmmm, so when charging to the room, say $150, the authorization is $250, correct? And if paying by gift card, paying when we get back to the resort it should come off, if I am reading this VERY long thread........?????

I think logic would say it's 200 hundred dollars, if the pre-auths are done in hundred dollar increments....then the pre-auth would stay there until day 5 or checkout?
But that's logic and Disney logic isn't the same...

 

[Turksmom]

Hmmmm, so when charging to the room, say $150, the authorization is $250, correct? And if paying by gift card, paying when we get back to the resort it should come off, if I am reading this VERY long thread........?????

I think you have the authorization part correct. However, even if you pay the balance, the authorization stays until it is released by your bank/ cc. If you pay the balance and still have the $250 hold, no further authorizations should be made unless you go over $250.

It appears the holds/ authorizations are done for $100 + actual charges when they exceed the original $100, not in $100 increments

 

[MarkinNM]

I think you have the authorization part correct. However, even if you pay the balance, the authorization stays until it is released by your bank/ cc. If you pay the balance and still have the $250 hold, no further authorizations should be made unless you go over $250.

It appears the holds/ authorizations are done for $100 + actual charges when they exceed the original $100, not in $100 increments

That is the way I am reading it, works, sounds like a fair way to do it if charging to the room, just so many mixed experiences, guess it is depending on ones CC company......

 

[Turksmom]

That is the way I am reading it, works, sounds like a fair way to do it if charging to the room, just so many mixed experiences, guess it is depending on ones CC company......

I think the problems that arise are when people are charging to their rooms and not paying the charges with gift cards. Because of the way holds are placed, people end up with a lot of holds, triggering fraud alerts. Also, because they aren't converted to actual charges, it essentially doubles the amount of credit that is used. You can no longer lay down a card with a $5000 limit, thinking you can spend $5000.

 

[Patches Lee]

I think the problems that arise are when people are charging to their rooms and not paying the charges with gift cards. Because of the way holds are placed, people end up with a lot of holds, triggering fraud alerts. Also, because they aren't converted to actual charges, it essentially doubles the amount of credit that is used. You can no longer lay down a card with a $5000 limit, thinking you can spend $5000.

That was my understanding as well. So the $5000 limit example, someone can spend $2400 but it will max their CC if they don't pay any off before checkout.

 

[Pkltm]

We are currently at WDW and having issues with the holds on our Amex, they have charged the card but the holds still exists so essentially losing double the available credit. DML MasterCard has flagged the incremental holds as fraud.

 

[Mrs Grumpy]

We are currently at WDW and having issues with the holds on our Amex, they have charged the card but the holds still exists so essentially losing double the available credit. DML MasterCard has flagged the incremental holds as fraud.

This is my biggest worry - flagging for fraud. We do notify our CC every time but I can still see this happening.

 

[chippydale33]

Thank goodness fanny packs are back in style, much easier to bring cash.

 

[Patches Lee]

This is my biggest worry - flagging for fraud. We do notify our CC every time but I can still see this happening.

My local bank for CC flags after 5 transactions a day or $800 in charges in a day. It's my biggest worry as well.

 

[ninafeliz]

My local bank for CC flags after 5 transactions a day or $800 in charges in a day. It's my biggest worry as well.

Holy cow, with that 5 a day I would be flagged all the time- not Disney, just when I go shopping! Plus the $800. That wouldn’t be like every day, but it’s not that uncommon for us to charge over $800. I would hate to have to call them for every large
purchase we wanted to make!

 

[Iowamomof4]

I really hoped they would change their procedures as soon as people started having issues. We go in less than a month.

 

[bluezy]

Holy cow, with that 5 a day I would be flagged all the time- not Disney, just when I go shopping! Plus the $800. That wouldn’t be like every day, but it’s not that uncommon for us to charge over $800. I would hate to have to call them for every large
purchase we wanted to make!

I was thinking the same thing. I just looked at my account online and between my husband and I, we used our card 7 times today...and that's nothing out of the ordinary. It looks like we have 5 or more charges at least 3 or 4 days a week. I'd never be able to have a credit card through that bank.

 

[Patches Lee]

Holy cow, with that 5 a day I would be flagged all the time- not Disney, just when I go shopping! Plus the $800. That wouldn’t be like every day, but it’s not that uncommon for us to charge over $800. I would hate to have to call them for every large
purchase we wanted to make!

Yeah it's what will be forcing us to use a debit card or cash instead. I tried explaining we would be on vacation but the manager said no guarantee it won't lock our CC. It's not one I use a ton mainly gas a restaurants since it's high cash back for them but still a pain. Planned $1500 budget over 10 days and it would put us over limit by a measly $100 with the way holds have worked.

 

[Patches Lee]

I was thinking the same thing. I just looked at my account online and between my husband and I, we used our card 7 times today...and that's nothing out of the ordinary. It looks like we have 5 or more charges at least 3 or 4 days a week. I'd never be able to have a credit card through that bank.

Local credit union pain to deal with.

 

[Dug720]

I’m definitely going to stop at the desk and turn off charging. I don’t mind carrying my gift card and using that.

BUT I have a room credit of just over $100 (from changing resorts after I had paid my room only in full - not sure why it was done that way but it was), so I don’t know how it would work to use that. I wonder if they would put that on a gift card for me to use since by turning off charging I would not be able to use it that way.

 

[Scoobie]

I’m definitely going to stop at the desk and turn off charging. I don’t mind carrying my gift card and using that.

This is what I did last trip, really wasn't that much of a pain. We even used them at restaurants for appetizers and such (had the dining plan). I buy a large amount on discount with cc, then consolidate as needed. It's nice since I can access the GC website on the trip, too. We did also have charging privileges to the room in case we got separated and one of my DS needed something, but that never happened. And we were there 17 days. Sooo, I'm going all GC again, this time NO charging to my room. We can each carry a GC anyways.