New Credit Card Authorization Holds

[afan]

You can do this and then transfer the funds from one gift card to another, using the Gift Card website. Moving the funds to the wrist band sized card after you purchase one. Unless you find a way to buy one beforehand. I haven't ever looked to see if it's possible or not. You may even have a way to ask someone to send you one or something, if you know of someone else down there

Anyone wanting to do this needs to be careful though. You can't transfer partial balances between gift cards. So if you have $1000 on a card but want to move $200 to another you can't. You have to transfer the entire balance. It would be better to load the wrist card with the amount you want from the start and then if there's any leftover you can transfer the balance from the wrist card to a regular card if you wanted.

 

[AngiTN]

Anyone wanting to do this needs to be careful though. You can't transfer partial balances between gift cards. So if you have $1000 on a card but want to move $200 to another you can't. You have to transfer the entire balance. It would be better to load the wrist card with the amount you want from the start and then if there's any leftover you can transfer the balance from the wrist card to a regular card if you wanted.

Right. Only reason would be that you can order the full size card, load it, then buy the wrist band card and move the funds and avoid carrying a large sum of cash with you.
Some people (me included) do NOT carry cash in any significant sum.

 

[GillianP1301]

With the credit card company yes, however Disney didn't reinstate charging privileges for their room.

Thank you for the info. I was getting lost in all the entries on this thread. I'm risk adverse so I always have backup plans for my backup plans. This scenario is a very good example of why.

 

[AngiTN]

With the credit card company yes, however Disney didn't reinstate charging privileges for their room.

Automatically or at all?
In other words, did you ask and they said no?
Or do you mean they didn't automatically turn back on but did or could have had you asked/wanted them to?

 

[ninafeliz]

Automatically or at all?
In other words, did you ask and they said no?
Or do you mean they didn't automatically turn back on but did or could have had you asked/wanted them to?

I think it didn’t go back on automatically, and required some guests to have to go to guest services and have the card reinstated. The one that was already there and never should have been removed. I know it doesn’t seem like a huge deal, but when I’m at Disney with my DH and 4 kids, stopping at GS or the concierge at our resort becomes a huge pain when we are usually on our way to something and don’t want to take the time or don’t have the time. Plus, it’s almost never quick and easy. Nothing is as fast as it should be, there is always a ton of computer screens and keystrokes, no matter how simple I think my request/issue is! When it’s something we need to do, like pay off our balance, etc, it’s annoying but understandable since it needs done. But it gets old fast when it’s fixing their issues, like magic bands not working or charging not working.

 

[marikujawa]

Automatically or at all?
In other words, did you ask and they said no?
Or do you mean they didn't automatically turn back on but did or could have had you asked/wanted them to?

What happened with us is we received a phone message at SSR on day 5 saying that when they ran our credit card it was “declined and then immediately approved” as the result of a “glitch” that was happening frequently for the last couple of months. The phone CM said that when that happens the stored credit card is removed from the account and it reverts to cash until a new form of payment is added. We tried to resolve it over the phone but the CM wasn’t sure it could be done. We sat on hold for a long time, then just went to the front desk and re-added the same credit card. Luckily we were at the hotel and not at a park trying to charge with our MBs.

 

[DisLiss]

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.

Exactly!! I told my DH "Geez, a hundred bucks-----that's like a drink and a pretzel!"

All this work to swipe a MB for added convenience to a trip. How is that convenient?

Man, Disney really screwed up the fun of paying with Magic Bands, didn't they! I don't go on vacation to do math.

No kidding. My kids were totally looking forward to buying stuff with their magic bands. (And trust me Disney, *that* was where all of our family's impulse buying would have come from. ) Yeah, we can get them the gift card bracelets, but they aren't nearly as fun since the kids will need to keep track of their spending. So yeah, math again.

But there's no way I'm messing around with all of this nonsense when I'm on vacation. I'm not checking for emails from my credit card company or worrying about MB charges being denied when I have more than enough available credit. Those things take away from the magic, and I'm not purposely choosing to do something that does that. We've always charged to our rooms and it was fun and easy, but if they've made it annoying, aggravating, time-consuming, and/or embarrassing, then we'll pass. And yeah, I do think our spending will be at least a little less because of it. Which seems to be exactly opposite what Disney would want, but that's the situation they seem to have currently created.

 

[Scoobie]

You can buy Disney gift cards in Canada. They are just in Canadian funds so they convert when used. Superstore sells them for sure.

Carrying a gift card around on a bracelet worth $1000 seems crazy to me. If you lose it or it's stolen you are out $1000. I would just bring out the cash that I anticipated using that day. (so, not my entire vacation's worth of money).

You can register the GC on Disney's GC website, and if you lose it you just go into your account and switch the amount to a different card. Or, you can just have $100 on the card, and once spent you hop on your phone and transfer more money to the one you're carrying. Been doing this for years, works great. I have carried mine in a wallet, a lanyard, my purse, etc. and never worried about losing it. Although, I have never left my house without my CC and never worried about losing them, either. If you use cash only, you really are out the money you lost.

 

[Pkltm]

Automatically or at all?
In other words, did you ask and they said no?
Or do you mean they didn't automatically turn back on but did or could have had you asked/wanted them to?

At all, we actually had to go to the front desk and have them speak with our credit card company, once it was settled with them and the card was unfrozen the staff at the front desk of the hotel would not put charging back on the room. In all honesty the service was not up to our usual Disney standards and they told my mother in law that due to the card being "declined" (while it was frozen due to fraud) it was not possible to allow charging again. Over our ten days we as a group with 3 rooms had a few issues at the resort, but she was treated so terribly that I actually don't think that she will stay on property again.

 

[gwynne]

At all, we actually had to go to the front desk and have them speak with our credit card company, once it was settled with them and the card was unfrozen the staff at the front desk of the hotel would not put charging back on the room. In all honesty the service was not up to our usual Disney standards and they told my mother in law that due to the card being "declined" (while it was frozen due to fraud) it was not possible to allow charging again. Over our ten days we as a group with 3 rooms had a few issues at the resort, but she was treated so terribly that I actually don't think that she will stay on property again.

Good grief. Not very magical.
WDW must have a LOT of deadbeat guests for them to casually treat paying guests this way.

 

[ninafeliz]

At all, we actually had to go to the front desk and have them speak with our credit card company, once it was settled with them and the card was unfrozen the staff at the front desk of the hotel would not put charging back on the room. In all honesty the service was not up to our usual Disney standards and they told my mother in law that due to the card being "declined" (while it was frozen due to fraud) it was not possible to allow charging again. Over our ten days we as a group with 3 rooms had a few issues at the resort, but she was treated so terribly that I actually don't think that she will stay on property again.

Oh my goodness, that’s crazy! I would be livid if they wouldn’t put charging back on because my cc was frozen due to something they did! I would be annoyed enough to have to deal with it at all, but that’s beyond crazy.

 

[Pkltm]

Good grief. Not very magical.
WDW must have a LOT of deadbeat guests for them to casually treat paying guests this way.

I guess they must, we (me, DH and DD) go twice a year (annual passholders) and we have never had issues in the past, my MIL hadn't been since 2012. No one in our group had ever not paid or had a credit card declined before. We were all honestly stunned, the cast member's behavior was not good, my MIL was in tears. I believe the only tears on vacation should be those of joy.

 

[Nancyg56]

At all, we actually had to go to the front desk and have them speak with our credit card company, once it was settled with them and the card was unfrozen the staff at the front desk of the hotel would not put charging back on the room. In all honesty the service was not up to our usual Disney standards and they told my mother in law that due to the card being "declined" (while it was frozen due to fraud) it was not possible to allow charging again. Over our ten days we as a group with 3 rooms had a few issues at the resort, but she was treated so terribly that I actually don't think that she will stay on property again.

OMG, that is terrible!

 

[AngiTN]

At all, we actually had to go to the front desk and have them speak with our credit card company, once it was settled with them and the card was unfrozen the staff at the front desk of the hotel would not put charging back on the room. In all honesty the service was not up to our usual Disney standards and they told my mother in law that due to the card being "declined" (while it was frozen due to fraud) it was not possible to allow charging again. Over our ten days we as a group with 3 rooms had a few issues at the resort, but she was treated so terribly that I actually don't think that she will stay on property again.

That is really a shame.
From reports by others, yours has been a one-off instance of their refusing to return the charging privileges once the card issues were straightened out. Or an anomaly at least. Not the standard.
I hope you will consider writing to the resort management about your experience, or having MIL do it, or best yet, both.
This treatment should not happen and the only way to curb it is for management to get involved and retrain staff the proper way to fix these issues as they come up.
Even if the card issues are the fault of the guest (and it was not in this case) there's a right and wrong way to deal with them. And anytime a guest is in tears, it's the wrong way.

 

[sponica]

I guess they must, we (me, DH and DD) go twice a year (annual passholders) and we have never had issues in the past, my MIL hadn't been since 2012. No one in our group had ever not paid or had a credit card declined before. We were all honestly stunned, the cast member's behavior was not good, my MIL was in tears. I believe the only tears on vacation should be those of joy.

Just curious, did you email corporate to complain?
Both about the charging privileges not being reinstated and about the treatment.

I just can't understand from a systems end the benefit of not allowing charging.

 

[AngiTN]

I just can't understand from a systems end the benefit of not allowing charging.

My only guess is they figure they aren't left with a bunch of chargebacks by these companies that mark them as fraud without running proper investigations.
Now, I have no idea how often that happens. If ever.
I've only had (knocking on wood here) 2 erroneous charges on my credit cards in all my adult years and that was nearly 20 years ago, so in the real infancy of online purchasing.
I filled out forms at my bank and they put the money back on my card within 24 hours. I have no idea how hard or how much effort they put into going after the business that ran the bad charge or who ended up being out the money.
But if the credit card company immediately looks to the business as the one left holding the bag when there's suspected fraud, and doesn't give them even a chance to explain, then I can see where Disney may say, nope, not going to deal with you. But I'd also like to think there are no credit card companies/banks that are like that. But with so many, maybe some of the smaller ones are? Or maybe International rules are different (PP was from Canada I think)
Anyway, I can see where they don't automatically put charging back on but I don't see where they won't once the account is cleared up if the guest requests it.

 

[ninafeliz]

My only guess is they figure they aren't left with a bunch of chargebacks by these companies that mark them as fraud without running proper investigations.
Now, I have no idea how often that happens. If ever.
I've only had (knocking on wood here) 2 erroneous charges on my credit cards in all my adult years and that was nearly 20 years ago, so in the real infancy of online purchasing.
I filled out forms at my bank and they put the money back on my card within 24 hours. I have no idea how hard or how much effort they put into going after the business that ran the bad charge or who ended up being out the money.
But if the credit card company immediately looks to the business as the one left holding the bag when there's suspected fraud, and doesn't give them even a chance to explain, then I can see where Disney may say, nope, not going to deal with you. But I'd also like to think there are no credit card companies/banks that are like that. But with so many, maybe some of the smaller ones are? Or maybe International rules are different (PP was from Canada I think)
Anyway, I can see where they don't automatically put charging back on but I don't see where they won't once the account is cleared up if the guest requests it.

We have had periodic fraudulent charges over the years, sometimes more than one time a year. It has happened on multiple credit cards, but actually the most frequent has been my Disney Chase card. I have never had to do anything except tell them over the phone which charges weren't mine, and they took them off immediately and mailed a new cc with a new number. They have never been able (or willing) to even speculate as to why it happens to us a fair amt, all we can figure is that we do a TON of online shopping and lots of spending, but I guess I can't see how the online use makes our number necessarily vulnerable. I have no idea who loses out on these charges, and if the cc company tries to catch the people doing it or not. I'm assuming not, but it makes me mad they presumably get away with it.

 

[Pkltm]

That is really a shame.
From reports by others, yours has been a one-off instance of their refusing to return the charging privileges once the card issues were straightened out. Or an anomaly at least. Not the standard.
I hope you will consider writing to the resort management about your experience, or having MIL do it, or best yet, both.
This treatment should not happen and the only way to curb it is for management to get involved and retrain staff the proper way to fix these issues as they come up.
Even if the card issues are the fault of the guest (and it was not in this case) there's a right and wrong way to deal with them. And anytime a guest is in tears, it's the wrong way.

My MIL emailed the resort manager, I let her handle it as I was in a different room and we had no issues with our charges. The manger offered her two quick services meals, they did not deliver them until 10 pm the night before our check out. I personally don't think that I would of affected the offer, especially as we had the dining plan and did not need the meals.

Just curious, did you email corporate to complain?
Both about the charging privileges not being reinstated and about the treatment.

I just can't understand from a systems end the benefit of not allowing charging.

I was in the room next door, I have however encouraged my MIL to do so, she is very stubborn and doesn't like anything that resembles confrontation. Her experience at the hotel wasn't the best, on the up hand I will have less travelling with my MIL lol

 

[Scoobie]

My MIL emailed the resort manager, I let her handle it as I was in a different room and we had no issues with our charges. The manger offered her two quick services meals, they did not deliver them until 10 pm the night before our check out. I personally don't think that I would of affected the offer, especially as we had the dining plan and did not need the meals.



I was in the room next door, I have however encouraged my MIL to do so, she is very stubborn and doesn't like anything that resembles confrontation. Her experience at the hotel wasn't the best, on the up hand I will have less travelling with my MIL lol

I'm so sorry your family had to deal with this. Unacceptable! Not sure which resort you were at (if you mentioned it, I apologize I missed it) but the handling from beginning to end was botched. Including the fix! I guess if they want to treat their valued guests like fraudulent criminals, there will be a new era of consumer backlash. Not sure how many people are willing to spend thousands at a place that treats them this way, my guess is not many. I hope they do something about this new policy - too many unintended consequences.

 

[Scoobie]

Got a strange email from capital one - it says they "found your personal information somewhere on the dark web". I called and it was actually from capital one, had to change our password because apparently they monitor the "dark web" and my email address was found there. Been changing all my passwords just in case, they said to change any "associated" with my email. Any one heard of this?