Loading Disney Hotel Room Key with funds

[The Real Cinderella]

Im sure I've read somewhere on here that it is possible at check in at a disney hotel to load your room key/key to the world with funds so you can use it instead of cash at any disney shops, cafe's etc is this true??

Is there a maximum/minimum you can load it with??

 

[wayneg]

Never left cash, we always leave credit card on account, get interbank rate instead of tourist rate you get with cash.
If you want to leave cash I can't see there being any min or max, surely thats upto you. hopefully someone will post who has left cash.

 

[The Real Cinderella]

So if we were to leave a credit card with them, all purchases from any disney store, restaurant etc could be charged to it???


Would we be able to check regularly to see what we have been spending etc?

 

[MEK]

So if we were to leave a credit card with them, all purchases from any disney store, restaurant etc could be charged to it???

Yup! There are a few beverage kiosks in Epcot that take cash only, no room keys, but they are few and far between. Disney is great - you never have to touch cash and you can lock up your credit card in the safe!

Would we be able to check regularly to see what we have been spending etc?

I am sure you could check in to assess the charges on your account regularly. You will receive a statement the morning of checkout. You can continue to charge on your room key up until midnight on the day of your check out. Those charges will show on your credit card bill!

 

[wayneg]

If you do use credit card make sure its a fee free card.
I used to use Nationwide but they now charge 1%, still better than most around 3% but there are still a few with no fees or charges.
Best are Post office and Abbey Zero. If the interbank rate is $1.52 (todays rate) that is what you get.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/news/business/market_data/currency/11/12/intraday.stm

See Martin Lewis info, his overall winner is Abbey Zero, next Post Office(what I use)
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheap-travel-money

 

[Miffy2003]

It always used to be the case that you would be given a "credit limit" that was equal to the resort you stayed at. From memory this was $500 value, $1000 Moderate and $1500 Deluxe / DVC.

It always seemed a bit arbitrary to me especially when I was given $500 at Pop to cover a two weeks stay and $1500 at AKL for just one night

When you reach your limit on the Disney card, WDW take this off the credit card you lodged with them and you start all over again. You can also pay cash off your bill at any time.

 

[Elise79]

You can get a print out of your room charges at any time by going to the lobby conceige deska and just asking

 

[orangetiggs]

we leave cash every year we go for charging to our room. we normally leave between $300 and $500 and just keep an eye on it every other day

 

[UKDEB]

If you only have one credit card, or a small limit, be wary of registering a credit card for charging purposes. Upon check-in the hotel will obtain authorisation from the issuer (as Karen says, $500, $1000 and $1500 respectively in the case of Disney resorts). On check-out, they will charge the actual amount of your bill to your card. The chances of you spending exactly the amount authorised are somewhere south of nil, so the two won't match. The authorisation amount will then remain outstanding, reducing your available credit. It can take up to a month for outstanding authorisations to run off. [When authorisation is sought, the hotel will be given a reference number which they're then supposed to use when charging the actual amount to ensure that the two transactions are linked, but they seldom do.] As Karen points out, once you reach the authorised amount, the whole process starts all over again, so imagine this scenario for a Pop Century stay:

Your credit limit: $2000
You register your card for charging privileges upon check in. Pop obtains authorisation for $500.
You use your room key for charging all your meals and purchases.
At the beginning of day 4, your bill stands at $476.35. You go for breakfast at Boma and charge your bill of $72.75 to your room. Your total is now $549.10, so Pop charges this amount to your credit card and processes a further authorisation. The amount outstanding on your card is now $1549.10 (the original authorisation amount + the amount charged + the second authorisation amount), $1000 more than you've actually spent! I'm sure I don't need to go on.

I can understand the appeal of using your room key for charging privileges, but it's simply a credit card proxy. There aren't any benefits at all and, if you were to lose it, it could be used fraudulently in just the same way that a credit card or cash could.

 

[Dimplenose]

Although we enjoyed using our room key linked to our credit card I was very aware how easy it would be to use someone else's as no ID checks were made when we used them.

We made sure that our teenaged kids didn't have charging rights on their keys (not that I don't trust them with money, I just didn't trust them not to lose their keys) and gave them cash on the few occassions they went off without us.

 

[2Tiggies]

I never do it. I don't see how it is any more convenient than using your actual cc for purchases, or travellers cheques or a pre loaded card. My point of view is the same as Deb's. In addition, my cards are insured, but a lost room key is going to be more hassle to check if someone else uses it.

 

[jtlover]

I can tell you now they never hold the limit on your card. We have stayed 3 times at different DW hotels and they just take an imprint of your card.

We have stayed at deluxe hotels and the most they hold is $1

I usually then check my account regularly to see what is being held on it.


It is a good way of checking your spending and then you only have one bill at the end of your holiday.

Incidentially I always leave a debit card with them and never have a problem.

 

[UKDEB]

Not my experience at all, Rachel. We've stayed at WDW resorts numerous times and they always obtain authorisation for charging privileges. They're not going to let you loose without some guarantee that they'll be reimbursed.

 

[howlongtillsummer?]

I have never stayed onsite so please excuse me if these are obvious questions.

1. Do I have to leave a credit card imprint for damages or anything?

2. If I don't want charging is this ok? Just tell them at check - in?

Thanks

 

[Shazzie B]

Can only answer question two-sorry, no you don't have to have charging on any of your cards-they ask if you want charging when you check in. You can say no, if you say yes they put on which cards you want it on.

 

[2Tiggies]

I have never stayed onsite so please excuse me if these are obvious questions.

1. Do I have to leave a credit card imprint for damages or anything?

2. If I don't want charging is this ok? Just tell them at check - in?

Thanks

I have never been asked for a cc imprint on check in. They ask if I wanted charging on my room key and I say no. They never even have to know that I have a card! Since with Disney you have paid in full for your hotel before you check in you don't have a cc hold like you do when you reserve a room and only pay on check out. Hope that helps

 

[Tinks1984]

We charged to our room keys in 2008.

We left our credit card details with front desk and we charged happily away. Really handy when on Disney property, but be aware, not all areas in DTD will let you charge, so you'll need to take cash along to shop in certain places.

We charged each day and then each morning (or every other morning depending what we'd spent) I wandered down to the desk and paid off the balance from the day before using my travellers cheques. That way I knew were we were up too give or take a days money.

One point I did note though, I didn't go to the front desk the evening before check out, so on the morning they'd charged my credit card with the balance that remained on there. No big deal to me, but others may wish to pay off the balance the evening before check out.

As regards print outs, when I paid each time I visited, they gave me a full print out of were we'd been spending with times and dates etc.

Another thing I noticed was that any purchases under $50 (I think it was that amount!) wasn't signed for when the card was swiped. Anything over requires the signature of the card holder.

 

[Frances999]

I can tell you now they never hold the limit on your card.

We never had an authorization hold placed on our credit card this past Christmas, either. I'm not sure about before as I never usually bother checking, but I know for certain we didn't this Christmas as I checked the account online during our trip.

 

[fuse04]

If you only have one credit card, or a small limit, be wary of registering a credit card for charging purposes. Upon check-in the hotel will obtain authorisation from the issuer (as Karen says, $500, $1000 and $1500 respectively in the case of Disney resorts). On check-out, they will charge the actual amount of your bill to your card. The chances of you spending exactly the amount authorised are somewhere south of nil, so the two won't match. The authorisation amount will then remain outstanding, reducing your available credit.

Interesting thread as we usually charge to our room, will have to think about this now. However did have a bad experince with HRH for our last stay, the room credit unbeknown to me had been 'charged' (assume awaiting authorisation) against out Citibank dollar account. When my account had appeared to run out of funds I was alarmed as it had a $900 debit on it I knew nothing about. HRH said it had nothing to do with them I assumed it had been fraudulently used, despite many frantic calls back to the UK at 3am (thanks Andrea for the phone card) I was unable to assess what the $900 was, all Citiback could tell me was that it was awaiting authorisation and that until it had been processed there was no way of identifying who it was.

Whilst not undertsanding the systems I guessed it was the room credit but had to wait until we checked out 3 days later to find out it was HRH after all.
thanks Debs it all makes sense now

 

[UKDEB]

We never had an authorization hold placed on our credit card this past Christmas, either. I'm not sure about before as I never usually bother checking, but I know for certain we didn't this Christmas as I checked the account online during our trip.

Maybe I'm doing Disney a disservice and the procedure has changed. It is a few years since we bothered with charging privileges.