Magic band holds on credit card

[Nells77]

Hi,
I’m just wondering if it’s usual for every time you use your magic band to have holds put on your credit card? Tuesday we spent $25 and it’s pending as £80! I’ve spoke to front desk and they said it’s what happens to make sure we have funds on the card!
But how do you figure out what you have spent and doesn’t this use credit limit that you haven’t used? We’ll be spending more than our credit limit so planned to pay off so can keep using!
Hope that makes sense thanks

[BevS97]

They take $100 on the first day which is £80. So far I can see that initial £80 plus two more charges equal to what I have actually spent. I’m keeping an eye on it as I had heard it could be an issue. But so far so good.

[sprocket]

Your credit card isnt charged but a daily hold fee is sometimes placed. I think Disney let you go to about $400 in debt before they want you to pay it off. I often make a trip to front desk every few days to get a statement of spend and pay off the balance. Allows me to keep track of who spent what.

[BevS97]

Originally Posted by sprocket

Your credit card isnt charged but a daily hold fee is sometimes placed. I think Disney let you go to about $400 in debt before they want you to pay it off. I often make a trip to front desk every few days to get a statement of spend and pay off the balance. Allows me to keep track of who spent what.

See more...

It used to be the case but mine have been charged to my card daily,. So Monday’s charges hit on Tuesday night.

[Nimbus]

Originally Posted by BevS97

It used to be the case but mine have been charged to my card daily,. So Monday’s charges hit on Tuesday night.

See more...

Hmm, if they are immediately paying off your room charges and charging your credit card each day then there's no need to take out a $100 hold (actually, room account total + $100 hold).

The point of the hold was to allow you to keep charging things to your room without paying off the total. The hold would ensure you had enough money in your CC account without actually charging that account. This also allowed someone to come along later and pay off the room account using some other means of payment (cash, gift card, prepaid card, etc).

[Nimbus]

Originally Posted by Nells77

I’m just wondering if it’s usual for every time you use your magic band to have holds put on your credit card? Tuesday we spent $25 and it’s pending as £80!

See more...

First, the $25 you will have spent won't have been taken from your credit card. It's be put on your room account. Supposedly, this allows you to pay off your room charges later. The £80 hold (not a charge) is the $100 hold that Disney will automatically apply as soon as you agree to open a room account. This isn't a charge; it's merely done to ensure you have at least $100 available on your credit card.

Originally Posted by Nells77

But how do you figure out what you have spent and doesn’t this use credit limit that you haven’t used? We’ll be spending more than our credit limit so planned to pay off so can keep using!

See more...

Next, the system (supposedly) works like this:

When you check in at a Disney hotel you can agree to have things you buy charged to your room (i.e. you can "pay" for things using your MagicBand). At this point, Disney takes your credit card details and immediately puts a $100 hold on that card. The hold ring-fences $100 from your credit card, ensuring that you have at least $100 left on your CC that you can use to buy things with. It does not take $100 out of your CC account.

When you buy something using your MagicBand at Disney, the cost of the item gets added to the pending charges on your room account. You can continue to buy things and each time the cost is added to your pending room account charges.

When your pending room charges go beyond the first $100, Disney will take out another $100 hold on your CC. At this point nothing will have been charged to your CC; it simply means there will now be a $200 hold on your CC account.

If your pending room account charges are ever more than the current hold on your CC then the hold is increased by $100. Therefore, as I rule of thumb, I would suggest thinking it like this:

Total hold on CC = Current pending room charges + $100

...where "current pending room charges" is the amount you have spent using your MagicBand in Disney and haven't yet paid off. Once you have paid them off, then they are no longer pending room charges.

You are supposed to be able to pay off your pending room charges whenever you want. You can pay off these room charges using whatever means you want (cash, gift card, prepaid card, etc). However, if you haven't paid of the pending room charges after 5 days then Disney will automatically pay them off using your credit card.

You need to make sure that:

Total charges on CC + Total hold on CC < Your CC limit

or, to put it another way:

Total charges on CC + current pending room charges + $100 < Your CC limit

Here, the "Total charges on CC" is how much you've spent directly using your credit card, whether onsite or offsite. If you've used your CC to pay for offsite meals, or for event tickets, or taxis (etc) then these charges will need to be included in your "Total charges on CC".

If you've paid off your pending room charges using your CC then include this in your "total charges on CC" but no longer in "current pending room charges".

If you are planning to use a different method to pay off the room charges to ensure you don't exceed your credit card limit then you will need to ensure you pay off your room account using that other method every few days. I would have said to pay off your room account at least every 4 days but, based on Bev's experience, it sounds like you'll need to do it at the end of every day.

If you are only planning to use a credit card and no other method then you can't spend more than your credit card limit. That's why it's a limit.

[BevS97]

My pending charges look like $100 for the first day plus the actual charges on the following days.


To answer the question you can see what you have spent in your my Disney experience app. In the hotel room section.

[disneypars]

From a friend's experience the problem was (and might still be) Disney were taking $100 per day from his cc which was of course reducing his limit to spend. Although only being a hold it's was still shown on his account. He was also back in the UK for a couple of weeks before all the holds disappeared from his account. He did raise the issue with BLT front desk and received some form of compensation. He also emailed guest relations on his return.
The system is designed for US guests who's stay are a lot shorter than overseas guests and holds can be removed overnight.
Personally I have earmarked the relevant Disney page and will discuss with the front desk when I check in.

[BevS97]

However saying that my room charge isn’t showing any payments as being made. So I will see what happens when it does show a payment as if we have the Payment and the pending charges on the card I will stop using the magic band and just use my credit card.

We arrived on Sunday so today should be the day they are charged.

[Rescuer]

We got back on Tuesday and were at POFQ for 15 nights. We had lots of holds placed on the credit card but were never actually charged anything until yesterday and we spent $1700. At no point did I have a full $1700 hold on my card, they kept putting g holds on but they would come off again after a few days.
I was expecting pending payments and actual payments to be going through right left and center but they didn’t.
When our charges went through today we had a £97 hold still showing but I expect that will disappear in the next day or so.