GC on room account

[Dznypal]

whenever we’re at Disney I always put a gift card on the account charge against it


Tonight I was looking at the bank charges only to find out all the charges were being charged to the bank account. And not off the gift card

Checking at the front desk they said they no longer hold a gift card to charge against although you can take gift card at anytime to pay off the balance
Just a bit surprised since I’m sure we did it this way last year but the CM they charged it years ago.
Anyways has anyone else noticed this

 

[scrappinginontario]

We have not been able to leave a GC on an account at Pop for 5+year's. (I remember as this was happening pre-Covid). As you say, you can go to the desk and pay off charges using a GC but not leave a balance.

I used to go every few days and pay off the balance with a GC before my cc was charged but these days find it easier just to pay with a gift card and not charge to the room.

 

[CarolynFH]

I’ve read multiple reports of this in recent years. Hopefully the CM reversed the charges on your CC and applied them to your GC when you were there at the front desk. You can go every night or two and pay down as you charge more.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

I wasn’t allowed to apply a gift card to my account as far back as 2015. I don’t think I ever tried to before that. We would just go down every few days and pay the balance. Now I don’t bother with the gift cards and just use my credit card.

 

[Mle8308]

Same. Can't remember how long ago it was since we were able to do this. I put down a CC and then the night before we leave, we stop at the FD and use gift cards to pay all or some of the balance.

 

[lanejudy]

Tonight I was looking at the bank charges only to find out all the charges were being charged to the bank account. And not off the gift card

Did you actually go to the front desk before last night and ask them to put the gift card on the account? or have you simply found the charges going through already? If you had previously taken a gift card down on/near arrival, they should have informed you at that point that they can't hold the balance of the gift card for charging and explained the process.

Two things:
1) as others have said, it has been YEARS since WDW allowed gift cards to be "held" as credit on the account. You are welcome to stop at the front desk every night, every other night, or periodically to pay down the balance.

2) what you see as "charges" -- may actually be "holds" on the account? Several years ago WDW starting this process; the "hold" is roughly equal to current balance + $100. So an initial $100, then another hold when you've charged over $100, etc. This is to protect WDW from guests who do not have enough credit (on CC) or funds (on debit) to pay the balance. If you go to the front desk and pay down the balance with your gift cards, the "holds" still stop (at least until you've charge that much again).

 

[DizneyFamof4]

Like scrappingontario mentioned, we have not been able to leave a GC on file in years and we also payoff the balance using our GCs.
We do not like caring a GC around because of a couple of reasons, I would have to give each family member one or have to go with them to buy stuff (a pain) and if we lose a GC anyone who finds it can use it since they're not protected. Where as charging to MB solves these problems and then I go down and payoff any room charges every 2-3 days. I also have them print me a list of the charges so I can go over them. I have found a couple of wrongly charged issues in the past and had it corrected before checkout I cannot even remember the last trip that any $$ got charged to our CC on file not to mention saving at least 5% with GCs

 

[gottalovepluto]

Haven’t been allowed to do it in years but every time I say that on the DIS someone comes out of the woodwork swearing they do it every trip The policy is Disney no longer allows it. You can pay up to the total room charge on the first day in gift cards and after that you have to apply gift cards after the “credit” has been run off. It gets a little complicated because you pre-pay the hotel at check in but it technically only charges each night as it happens.

I pay on my last night or on the morning of checkout if I forget (although in that case it takes a bit longer because they have to refund your cc/debit and then process your gc payment).

 

[TheSouthernBelle]

Ditto what everyone else shared, I've never been able to successfully have a GC on file for room charges/MB charges and that's since about 2013. I've stopped trying to use GC for lodging and only use them for food/shopping while on property. Most of our stays I never even see the check in desk so it's not really worth my time. Also, many of our stays are pretty short so I have do this every night for a short 1-3 night stay and just more hassle than it's worth it to me.

 

[Lewisc]

I asked. Returning unused funds back to the original gift card was a PITA.

Plus Disney doesn't want any overage in your portfolio. You can pay with cash but you can't leave a cash balance against future charges. Larger amounts can be a potential money laundering issue. Plus Disney isn't set up to process cash refunds and doesn't want guests complaining about waiting for a check being refunded.

Your option, for years, is to put a credit card on file or pay as you go.

 

[elgerber]

Haven’t been allowed to do it in years but every time I say that on the DIS someone comes out of the woodwork swearing they do it every trip The policy is Disney no longer allows it. You can pay up to the total room charge on the first day in gift cards and after that you have to apply gift cards after the “credit” has been run off. It gets a little complicated because you pre-pay the hotel at check in but it technically only charges each night as it happens.

I pay on my last night or on the morning of checkout if I forget (although in that case it takes a bit longer because they have to refund your cc/debit and then process your gc payment).

We have been making trips for 23 years and have never been able to leave a GC on our account. I always go down and pay off the charges every couple of days.