I stay in hotels enough that I would say it isn't and in many states is illegal to operate the other way.I would say both are common practice.
I stay in hotels enough that I would say it isn't and in many states is illegal to operate the other way.I would say both are common practice.
Actually your best bet would be to use a prepaid debit card or debit card with no overdraft fees with no more than you are willing to spend loaded on it, but definitely check the policies of the card you are planning to use to confirm they allow it. The one that I will be using actually doesn't hold the funds for hotel authorizations, only the final charge. And if somehow the hold does get placed multiple times and holds up the money, I can call them (or chat) and explain and they will fix it via temporary credits that automatically remove once the hold is removed (in other words what the hotel is supposed to do automatically).I always find it amusing how new posters always seem to find these sorts of threads.
You are asking for trouble if you use a debit card with this system in place for sure. A CC is no guarantee it still wont bite you, but many people that use their Visa Debit as a CC will find they are locked out of money they planned to spend. Holds also seem to take a lot longer to drop off with bank cards. Though my Cap1 takes several days too. YMMV.
You did not specify if credit or debit card. If you used a debit card (you said overdrawn), the hold process would be different than with credit cards. This thread stated earlier that resorts, restaurants, car rental companies, etc. regularly notify customers to be aware of their personal bank’s policies for holds. It appears as if customers who have used credit cards for charging have had holds placed and lifted efficiently as expected. Specifically see detailed summary from @PJofNB. Now if you did use a credit card, that could be concerning for people with low limits.
No apologies necessary, especially since end use is often similar for the cardholder whether debit or credit card. As debit cards are funded in a completely different way than credit card purchases, I don’t know that your experience last week is much different than it would be at any company who protects itself financially with authorization holds. I cannot speak for certain as I don’t use a debit card when traveling. I do think your experience serves as a warning for those who choose to attach a debit card to a WDW room going forward. Debit card users will need to be prepared for extensive and/or multiple holds, or pay as they go with no room charging.We switched to debit I apologize. We usually keep our credit card (Chase Disney) on file during our trips. My card expired and I didn’t realize it so we had to switch to our bank, which is also Chase.
I have one with American Airlines and if I purchase my flights with it, they send an email telling me I don't have to notify them of my travel plans. They can see where and when I'm traveling. I do notify Chase, but I don't know if it would cause problems if I didn't. My opinion is, it's easy, so why take chances?Now I'm wondering if Disney is a trigger for at least some people lol.
Our SWA CC is the card on file for Disney. We actually just got back from Disneyland and used it--no issues never notified them either. Used it at Disney World back in 2017 no issues either. Wonder if it's because ours is through SWA?? IDK
It's something to keep in mind though that domestic travel notifications aren't necessarily a thing of the past; not having cell service for sure makes it harder to notify you (would make the more immediate notifications nearly useless lol).
Am I understanding correctly that if I do online check in a credit card is required to be on file?
I won’t be charging anything back to the room with this new system in place but I will have to pay the parking fee at the resort.
In my case would that mean they put a hold of the parking fee plus another $100 on top of that?
No, the trigger was the fact that we made a charge very late in California just before our flight and another charge in Florida just after landing and the second one was a large charge (not to Disney) and they felt is was too close together to not ask.
And yeah, the cell service was an issue, btw, this was the end of January, so before the new hold stuff started as well, always best to notify them anyway, since you can do it online, it takes just a few seconds.
Since we only use a debit card attached to our bank account to pay off our room (and that’s currently what’s on file with Disney and what we’ve always used in the past for room charging), I think this year I will not do online check-in and when we arrive (though our trip will already be paid off) i’ll ask the front desk to remove the debit card from our file and we will not be charging anything with our magic bands. If you could put a large Disney gift card instead of a CC or debit card I would do that but since you cannot i’ll just carry the GC with me and use it for my purchases that won’t be a problem.
Why don't they? I can't figure this one out. DCL lets guests put OBC on their folio. What's the difference?This is exactly what we did, and will continue to do! I really wish Disney would let you attach GCs but understand why they don’t.
Just guessing, but maybe because the charges don't post immediately. I don't know that it's possible to hold funds on a GC. When I've used them to pay online at ShopDisney, they hold the funds on my credit card until they process the GC payment.Why don't they? I can't figure this one out. DCL lets guests put OBC on their folio. What's the difference?
I wonder if that's the same for pre-paid Visa or Mastercards? Can you tie one of those to your account? They run through like Credit pretty much but they have a finite amount on it and it will decline when the amount is used up. It's not like your personal account that may just overdraft on the banking side but still run through on the merchant side.Just guessing, but maybe because the charges don't post immediately. I don't know that it's possible to hold funds on a GC. When I've used them to pay online at ShopDisney, they hold the funds on my credit card until they process the GC payment.
Why don't they? I can't figure this one out. DCL lets guests put OBC on their folio. What's the difference?
But the same would apply to DCL.I was told that they stopped doing it because people would load up their "account" with $1000 worth of Gift Cards, only use $500 and had tossed the original gift card. Any $$ refunded HAD to go on the original Gift Card. There was a work around but it took hours and multiple layers of WDW management to get it done. Most people couldn't stick around and wait due to catching ME, flights, etc and were none too happy to have to wait for a new Gift Card to be mailed to them. Then some people would complain they never got the Gift Card and once they got confirmation another was on the way they would quickly spend the $$ on the original refunded card. So they said screw it, it's not worth the hassle.
But the same would apply to DCL.
Also, there really is no reason the money has to go to the same gift card. I don't think any other company has that policy.
Disney, home of 21st century ideas run on 1990s tech? (or something to that effect, MDE in theory is glorious but in reality is buggier than may fly season)It was explained to me that the archaic system used at WDW, and only WDW, makes it so that it has to go back on the original Gift Card.