Planning to add a card to my Magic Band...

[Shooby doo]

Bozza well done you but not everyone has those sorts of limits, it's also very easy to spend $100/day in disney especially if you don't have free dining, on a 2 week holiday it would be very easy to have $500-$1000 in holds that are then unavailable for spending. Now imagine if you are a family that only has $2000 set aside for a 2 week stay & now a big chunk of that is tied up ...
Like I said not a system designed for longer stays
SD

[Nimbus]

Originally Posted by Shooby doo

Bozza well done you but not everyone has those sorts of limits, it's also very easy to spend $100/day in disney especially if you don't have free dining, on a 2 week holiday it would be very easy to have $500-$1000 in holds that are then unavailable for spending. Now imagine if you are a family that only has $2000 set aside for a 2 week stay & now a big chunk of that is tied up ...
Like I said not a system designed for longer stays
SD

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The hold will only ever be $100 more than you've actually spent though. So if you've got $1000 in holds, it means you've spent around $900. As long as you don't go within $100 of your card's limit then you should be fine.

And if you are going to within $100 of your card limit before paying off the room charges, then I recommend you don't do that and instead use some other method of paying for things. In your example, as soon as you've bought $1900 worth of things at Disney, you need to switch to using some other means of paying for stuff.

[Excited83]

Just to confuse the matter - we’ve just done 13 nights at the Beach Club (28/6-11/7) and our cards weren’t charged at all until check out. I didn’t see any holds appearing (not sure if I would) but we definitely were not charged every 5 days.

[chmurf]

Originally Posted by Bozza

Is that really a problem for many people?

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a problem, no
a change of habits, yes

before the change many among us used to go to front desk the night before check out to settle part or all of their room charge

some would use their gift card (if any remained), traveller cheques, leftover cash, spread charges over several cards, and so on

what people need to be aware now, is the 5 days rolling hold and billing cycle

and as the other poster said, it makes a difference for the longer stays

Americans typically stay for 5 nights, so for them, nothing has changed.

for the longer stays, like UK and european guests do, this changes, at least as far as habits go, because not all guests want all the charges to hit the card they have on file.

It may have to do with the fees associated to a card, or the limits, or even personnal preference.

before, room charge was not processed unless you hit $1500 at values and moderates, and $2000 at deluxes and dvcs, or on checkout night.
Now, it's every 5 days

and, yes, this could make some difference for some guests, so I think it's useful to repeat and stress that point, like it's the case anytime a policy changes.

[sha9]

I would say the main issue with the new charging system is if you want to use a means other than the credit card to pay the room bill. Normally we would charge to the room and at some point when it was convenient towards the end of the trip pay off part of it with the gift card. Now we’re going to have to either use the gift card to pay for things or pop to reception before the 5 days. We’ll more than likely spend more than the $300 we have in gift cards so it’s easier to allow the charges to build and then pay $300 with the gift card and the remaining balance with the credit card. It’s not a major issue but it is a bit of a pain.

[Rescuer]

We are here now and have done 13 nights at Pofq.

No charges have gone in our card yet at all. There are a fair few pending charges (holds) in line with what we’ve been spending. They’ve appeared and disappeared after a few days but absolutely no charges yet.

I was a bit concerned about the new system but other than the holds we haven’t noticed any change for us anyway.

[boo2]

I’ve been dubious about adding my credit card to my account, I’m totally on the fence know! We usually have a Halifax card linked to the account and use that to pay for everything while we are away. I only take about $100 cash for tips. I think the main concern is that the holds definitely come off the credit card and don’t show as real charges. Are people finding this?

[Picklepuppy]

Originally Posted by Shooby doo

Just to make you aware, the current system is really designed for US guests or guests that do not do extended holidays, like UK guests do. So your balance will be taken every 5 days or when you hit the Hotel limit (whichever comes first) alternatively you can pay off using cash in between. The current main "sticking" point is the Holds, every time you "hit" $100, they take another $100 Hold, these Holds are released when the bill is cleared & a further Hold is taken. Now whilst Holds are not charges they are effectively money that you can't spend & some of these holds, particularly for UK banks, are taking 7-10 days to be free- Obviously not a problem if you don't "need" that money
SD

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We attached our monzo debit card and they never put and hold on our card, we stayed for 14 days and only cleared our balance at the end (it was about $1000) no problems or anything

[Rescuer]

Originally Posted by boo2

I’ve been dubious about adding my credit card to my account, I’m totally on the fence know! We usually have a Halifax card linked to the account and use that to pay for everything while we are away. I only take about $100 cash for tips. I think the main concern is that the holds definitely come off the credit card and don’t show as real charges. Are people finding this?

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That’s what we are using. The holds definitely come off. If you use the app you can keep track of the pending charges