New Credit Card Authorization Holds

MainMom · May 6, 2019

LVSWL said:
Pretty much done with this! In our 9 nights we have had to visit guest relations at our resort 5 different times to try to get our magic bands to charge. Just this morning we had breakfast at the Ale & Compass Lounge and our MB worked, then went to the Mercantile on the Boardwalk and it was declined. Thank goodness I had a Visa with me. Earlier in the trip this happened several times along with sometimes my MB not opening our room door. Not sure why Disney has implemented this policy, but not a fan at all. To us it feels like we are being penalized because evidently some people skip out on their bill? don't have enough credit limit? Yes, I can carry a credit card, but to me the point is that we have had to deal with this at all. We never had any issues prior to this trip. At our visit to Guest Services this morning the cast member said "It's not Disney's fault, this is a problem with your bank" ummm, and her next sentence was "I understand, a LOT of guests are having this same problem". Soooo, that means that it is NOT my bank's problem, it is Disney's problem if lots of other guests are having this same issue. Really not happy about the fact that we have spent all this time trying to get this straight. Our room charge print out looks crazy with all the $100 holds. No wonder the banks are denying charges. So now we have to spend time in our room going through these charges, calling our bank to verify. Not even going to bother discussing with the bank to not deny MB charges by Disney. We will use our cards for the rest of our trip.

Make sure you let Disney know about your issues when you get home. I’m sorry you have had to deal with it. I’ve talked to my family and we have all decided to skip charging and just use our cc’s or GC. Less hassle for us.

PrincessArlena'sDad · May 6, 2019

gwynne said:
Yup. I also decided to stop by the desk at check in to request two key cards. At least that gives me a fighting chance if/when the MB's quit working. Sheesh. This should not be part of my vacation planning.

Key card and MB are essentially the same thing in a different shape. If one doesn't work, the other won't either.

PrincessArlena'sDad · May 6, 2019

sponica said:
Didn't we all think this was going to be a disaster? With any luck they'll do something more commonsense, like a per night hold at check in. Like other hotels. Sure the dollar amount might hurt at check in for long stays over 5 nights, but you can at least plan around that.

Or even better, let the guest pick a pre-authorization amount. And, let the guest put money on the portfolio in advance.

Iowamomof4 · May 6, 2019

PrincessArlena'sDad said:
Or even better, let the guest pick a pre-authorization amount. And, let the guest put money on the portfolio in advance.

You make it sound so simple! :teacher:

Scoobie · May 7, 2019

Mrs Grumpy said:
I will be using our Chase -Disney or Capital One. Also looking for any reports for these cards.

Capital One is notorious for hyper vigilance on fraud. Not sure how often you use that card, but I can tell you that if you use it too often, they'll send messages, "did you make this purchase?" like crazy. Next thing you know it's getting denied, randomly. Then you have to call them and explain. They say you don't need to report travel if it's in the US, but I can have problems within my state! I always let them know I'm traveling (doesn't always help, but seems to cut down on the frantic messages). We have more than one Capital One card, so we'll just pull out a different one and move on. Hope it's not like that for you!

AngiTN · May 7, 2019

LVSWL said:
The bank has a problem with the methods Disney is using because the method is ridiculous. Blaming the bank is just Disney's way of telling the guests that they just have to deal with it and spend their time trying to resolve it. Not cool. We won't be using MB for charging in the future. Might not even use them to open or door or FP since that doesn't always work.

I've had lots of issues with charging well before this new policy change and I can confirm that charging issues and using the MB for room access and FP are not related.
Now, that doesn't mean that a MB never has issues with room access or FP just that the 2 are not connected.
Having issues with charging or not having charging privileges available on your MB will not impact room access. or FP access.

AngiTN · May 7, 2019

The easiest, quickest fix would be to up the amount over $100. That should solve most all the problems since it would greatly reduce the number of preauthorizations that are being run through. That would cut out most all the fraud issues.
They've got to see by now that $100 was to low. Surely they have seen a drastic increase in the number of transactions being processed. I have to guess it's an increase of at least 3 times what it was before. I'm sure they are not having anywhere near the denials/loss that they were so dollar wise they are coming out ahead but wow I had got to be a heck of a list of transactions to reconcile. Even if it's done electronically.

HopperFan · May 7, 2019

LVSWL said:
Pretty much done with this! In our 9 nights we have had to visit guest relations at our resort 5 different times to try to get our magic bands to charge. Just this morning we had breakfast at the Ale & Compass Lounge and our MB worked, then went to the Mercantile on the Boardwalk and it was declined. Thank goodness I had a Visa with me. Earlier in the trip this happened several times along with sometimes my MB not opening our room door. Not sure why Disney has implemented this policy, but not a fan at all. To us it feels like we are being penalized because evidently some people skip out on their bill? don't have enough credit limit? Yes, I can carry a credit card, but to me the point is that we have had to deal with this at all. We never had any issues prior to this trip. At our visit to Guest Services this morning the cast member said "It's not Disney's fault, this is a problem with your bank" ummm, and her next sentence was "I understand, a LOT of guests are having this same problem". Soooo, that means that it is NOT my bank's problem, it is Disney's problem if lots of other guests are having this same issue. Really not happy about the fact that we have spent all this time trying to get this straight. Our room charge print out looks crazy with all the $100 holds. No wonder the banks are denying charges. So now we have to spend time in our room going through these charges, calling our bank to verify. Not even going to bother discussing with the bank to not deny MB charges by Disney. We will use our cards for the rest of our trip.

pooh'smate said:
Your post is the one that made me decide for sure not to use our MB to charge to the room. It just isn't worth it.

We stopped charging to the room a couple years ago. It's not like most hotels where everything goes through the front desk. It's simply too big of a resort with too many locations to have to battle with your hotel CMs about charges that might be wrong or duplicated. Everyone wants to pass the buck. I can just as easily pull out my credit card as I can my MB ........ have never had issues with charges and if I did I know one call to credit card company means they will begin the work. I won't be chasing all over Disney for help.

PrincessArlena'sDad said:
Or even better, let the guest pick a pre-authorization amount. And, let the guest put money on the portfolio in advance.

They won't do either because both would be like self imposed budgets. The whole point to their MB and charging is for you to forget how much you are spending and hopefully will over spend. It has been working quite well for them.

Best bet for self imposed is bring gift cards with your maximum budget.

Searc · May 7, 2019

HopperFan said:
We stopped charging to the room a couple years ago. It's not like most hotels where everything goes through the front desk. It's simply too big of a resort with too many locations to have to battle with your hotel CMs about charges that might be wrong or duplicated. Everyone wants to pass the buck. I can just as easily pull out my credit card as I can my MB ........ have never had issues with charges and if I did I know one call to credit card company means they will begin the work. I won't be chasing all over Disney for help.

They won't do either because both would be like self imposed budgets. The whole point to their MB and charging is for you to forget how much you are spending and hopefully will over spend. It has been working quite well for them.

Best bet for self imposed is bring gift cards with your maximum budget.

HopperFan, I've missed you. Glad to see you posting again.

mom2rtk · May 7, 2019

Searc said:
HopperFan, I've missed you. Glad to see you posting again.

That's really observant from someone so new here.

Nancyg56 · May 7, 2019

HopperFan said:
We stopped charging to the room a couple years ago. It's not like most hotels where everything goes through the front desk. It's simply too big of a resort with too many locations to have to battle with your hotel CMs about charges that might be wrong or duplicated. Everyone wants to pass the buck. I can just as easily pull out my credit card as I can my MB ........ have never had issues with charges and if I did I know one call to credit card company means they will begin the work. I won't be chasing all over Disney for help.

They won't do either because both would be like self imposed budgets. The whole point to their MB and charging is for you to forget how much you are spending and hopefully will over spend. It has been working quite well for them.

Best bet for self imposed is bring gift cards with your maximum budget.

I think that the spending has increased with the use of MB, however there was an unintended consequence regarding declined credit or debit cards. It may have seemed like it was working, but there is a downside, so Disney tossed the baby out with the bathwater and has now implemented this archaic policy.

Mackenzie Click-Mickelson · May 7, 2019

LVSWL said:
Pretty much done with this! In our 9 nights we have had to visit guest relations at our resort 5 different times to try to get our magic bands to charge. Just this morning we had breakfast at the Ale & Compass Lounge and our MB worked, then went to the Mercantile on the Boardwalk and it was declined. Thank goodness I had a Visa with me. Earlier in the trip this happened several times along with sometimes my MB not opening our room door. Not sure why Disney has implemented this policy, but not a fan at all. To us it feels like we are being penalized because evidently some people skip out on their bill? don't have enough credit limit? Yes, I can carry a credit card, but to me the point is that we have had to deal with this at all. We never had any issues prior to this trip. At our visit to Guest Services this morning the cast member said "It's not Disney's fault, this is a problem with your bank" ummm, and her next sentence was "I understand, a LOT of guests are having this same problem". Soooo, that means that it is NOT my bank's problem, it is Disney's problem if lots of other guests are having this same issue. Really not happy about the fact that we have spent all this time trying to get this straight. Our room charge print out looks crazy with all the $100 holds. No wonder the banks are denying charges. So now we have to spend time in our room going through these charges, calling our bank to verify. Not even going to bother discussing with the bank to not deny MB charges by Disney. We will use our cards for the rest of our trip.

First that obviously is an issue to have to deal with that unfortunate side effect of their new policy and that sucks.

It is more like a shared issue. Disney's hold policy is over zealous but banks/financial institutions all function differently.

The holds created can hit everyone in different ways which makes it hard to predict. It does become a bank/financial institution issue after Disney applies the hold even if it creates a problem for a measureable portion of guests it's still hard to predict what happens with everyone. This thread is proof that not everyone's bank/financial institution deals with holds in general and Disney's holds specifically the same way so you can imagine how that experience could play out on a day to day basis with the people utilizing a card on their MDE account. Disney doesn't know what each financial institution will do though surely they could have anticipated increased issues cropping up with having the $100 hold and how they are implementing it. That's the part IMO that is puzzling as to why they opted to go this route vs another route.

sponica · May 7, 2019

@Mackenzie Click-Mickelson I do wonder where they got the $100 figure from. Part of me wonders if they just took the average daily spending and *forgot* to drop $0 values. Hopefully guests with issues contact someone in corporate to complain about how this is being implemented. I don't think most guests have an issue with the principle of holds, but implementation here sure leaves a lot to be desired.

Nancyg56 · May 7, 2019

Mackenzie Click-Mickelson said:
First that obviously is an issue to have to deal with that unfortunate side effect of their new policy and that sucks.

It is more like a shared issue. Disney's hold policy is over zealous but banks/financial institutions all function differently.

The holds created can hit everyone in different ways which makes it hard to predict. It does become a bank/financial institution issue after Disney applies the hold even if it creates a problem for a measureable portion of guests it's still hard to predict what happens with everyone. This thread is proof that not everyone's bank/financial institution deals with holds in general and Disney's holds specifically the same way so you can imagine how that experience could play out on a day to day basis with the people utilizing a card on their MDE account. Disney doesn't know what each financial institution will do though surely they could have anticipated increased issues cropping up with having the $100 hold and how they are implementing it. That's the part IMO that is puzzling as to why they opted to go this route vs another route.

I am also puzzled by the 100 marker. My goodness, a jacket can exceed that, never mind one purse. Add dinner, snacks, a few souvenirs, etc and there can be a problem. I honestly do not think credit limits are the real problem, it is the multiple authorizations that trigger the accounts to be frozen. I don't care what my limit is, it is of no use to me if I cannot access it. The ease of having the use of a band to pay for meals is a huge concern if I cannot use it to pay for the dinner we just ate.

We can all agree that individual banks have their individual policies, but that does not negate Disney's role in implementing a policy that wreaks such havoc.

Searc · May 7, 2019

Nancyg56 said:
I am also puzzled by the 100 marker. My goodness, a jacket can exceed that, never mind one purse. Add dinner, snacks, a few souvenirs, etc and there can be a problem. I honestly do not think credit limits are the real problem, it is the multiple authorizations that trigger the accounts to be frozen. I don't care what my limit is, it is of no use to me if I cannot access it. The ease of having the use of a band to pay for meals is a huge concern if I cannot use it to pay for the dinner we just ate.

We can all agree that individual banks have their individual policies, but that does not negate Disney's role in implementing a policy that wreaks such havoc.

At Disney, a $100 hold is much too low. It may be an industry standard, but common sense tells you the amount needs to be raised at Disney.

Nancyg56 · May 7, 2019

Searc said:
At Disney, a $100 hold is much too low. It may be an industry standard, but common sense tells you the amount needs to be raised at Disney.

I know, right? I seem to fall back on my read issue: the people who create policy do not actually live it to see if it is feasible. From making a looooong walkway with not a drop of shade out of DHS that magnifies heat in the middle of summer to creating a ridiculously low hold policy, these folks never ty it out themselves.

Mackenzie Click-Mickelson · May 7, 2019

Nancyg56 said:
I am also puzzled by the 100 marker. My goodness, a jacket can exceed that, never mind one purse. Add dinner, snacks, a few souvenirs, etc and there can be a problem. I honestly do not think credit limits are the real problem, it is the multiple authorizations that trigger the accounts to be frozen. I don't care what my limit is, it is of no use to me if I cannot access it. The ease of having the use of a band to pay for meals is a huge concern if I cannot use it to pay for the dinner we just ate.

We can all agree that individual banks have their individual policies, but that does not negate Disney's role in implementing a policy that wreaks such havoc.

Right which is why I said it's a shared issue...

I'm not saying the credit limits are the issue. I have a healthy CC limit on my CC, my husband has it on his Delta SkyMiles and SWA CC but we could still have issues caused by the holds be it too many holds in a short time, be it fraud alerts, be it daily charging limits applied by the bank/financial insitution, etc.

AngiTN · May 7, 2019

Nancyg56 said:
I think that the spending has increased with the use of MB, however there was an unintended consequence regarding declined credit or debit cards. It may have seemed like it was working, but there is a downside, so Disney tossed the baby out with the bathwater and has now implemented this archaic policy.

If they are anything, they are experts at this

sponica said:
@Mackenzie Click-Mickelson I do wonder where they got the $100 figure from. Part of me wonders if they just took the average daily spending and *forgot* to drop $0 values. Hopefully guests with issues contact someone in corporate to complain about how this is being implemented. I don't think most guests have an issue with the principle of holds, but implementation here sure leaves a lot to be desired.

My theory is this figure is somehow related to Dining Plan users.
If someone is using the dining plan I suspect $100 a day is something you can work with, depending on how much merchandise you buy on a given day. But if you were to go and avg out, yeah, $100 for tips and incidentals for a family of 4 probably not so out of line.
Those who don't use the dining plan, totally and completely out of line. $100 is barely enough for a single meal, much less a single day.
But anyway, I think someone looked at the amount spent and did an avg and came up with $100 and that figure shows just how huge a percentage of guests are using the dining plan on a given day. It's those that aren't using it that are really seeing the bigger problems.
Again, all just my W.A.G (if you wonder what that stands for it's wild a$$ guess, LOL)

LVSWL · May 7, 2019

We met again this morning with one of the managers at our resort about what has gone on. She has been wonderful through this whole process( but was off yesterday when our MB purchase was denied...again.) She freely admitted that this policy was put in place because Disney was losing so much money because people couldn't pay their bill. Our feelings are that we are being penalized...charging denied/embarrassed having to spend time calling our bank even though we have never once had any kind of issue paying our bill with Disney or anyone. We will not be charging on MB in the future. In my experience, human nature is such that I might purchase more when I can just click my MB, whereas if I have to pull out a CC or cash I may think about whether I want to spend that $ more. Disney's loss. I know that nothing is perfect, but I do not want to spend one moment on my vacation standing at GS or calling my bank. We have missed FP and plans with our kids, so not happy with Disney right now.

LVSWL · May 7, 2019

Everyone should be very careful to check their bills with Guest Services. Not only are they putting multiple $100 holds on the account, but they also had what they call "incremental holds" on our account for the total so far, one in the $200 range, one in the $180 range, so when we reached the $500 range they hit the CC with that, but as of this morning the $100 holds and the two other holds for incremental totals are still pending. I don't know about y'all but we do not want to be trying to figure out this stuff on our vacation.

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