Magic band holds on credit card

[Shooby doo]

Nimbus you seem to have a good "handle" on this, my question though & this is how I'm understanding it in your $500 example, whilst the $500 isn't a charge isn't it still the case though that that $500 isn't available as it's held? My concern is that an earlier post stated that "Holds" were taking 7-10 days to be released as available funds, as we all know it's very easy to spend $100/day in Disney so could in theory have $700-$1000 unavailable due to those Holds ?
I think we have resigned ourselves to go "old style" & just pay for everything!
SD

[Nimbus]

Originally Posted by Shooby doo

Nimbus you seem to have a good "handle" on this, my question though & this is how I'm understanding it in your $500 example, whilst the $500 isn't a charge isn't it still the case though that that $500 isn't available as it's held? My concern is that an earlier post stated that "Holds" were taking 7-10 days to be released as available funds, as we all know it's very easy to spend $100/day in Disney so could in theory have $700-$1000 unavailable due to those Holds ?
I think we have resigned ourselves to go "old style" & just pay for everything!
SD

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In my example, there was never a total of $500. My example was if you had bought $200 worth of things at Disney and so the total hold would be $300 (your spends plus $100):

"For example, with a total of $300 hold on the card it will mean that you'll have spent $200 onsite."

The total hold on your card is $300 - not $500. The $200 hasn't been taken from your card - it's just on your room account. Your room account is not your CC account.

Once the $200 room account is paid off - either automatically by Disney or by the guest paying it off at reception - then it should remove $200 worth of holds.

Again, how it should work is that the amount unavailable on your card should always be how much you've spent plus $100.

(I say "should" because it sounds like Disney isn't always doing this and sometimes some resorts seem to be making up their own rules).

[Rescuer]

Originally Posted by Shooby doo

Nimbus you seem to have a good "handle" on this, my question though & this is how I'm understanding it in your $500 example, whilst the $500 isn't a charge isn't it still the case though that that $500 isn't available as it's held? My concern is that an earlier post stated that "Holds" were taking 7-10 days to be released as available funds, as we all know it's very easy to spend $100/day in Disney so could in theory have $700-$1000 unavailable due to those Holds ?
I think we have resigned ourselves to go "old style" & just pay for everything!
SD

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I don’t think my holds took that long to drop off and as I said I didn’t actually get any payments going through until after we got home and our bill was $1700 over the 15 nights.

I found it really handy to have my credit card app on my phone so that I could keep a close eye on things.

I’d set up Apple Pay on my phone as well just in case I ran into any problems but everything was very straightforward.

Just to add to what nimbus posted I never at any later point in the holiday had all my spends plus $100, they went on and came off again after a few days.

[esterbond]

Thank you, nimbus. Does anyone else have an idea on when you can pay off the amount in cash instead of credit. Some saying daily, some every 4 days. Thanks for clarifying.

[Dr.JumbaJookiba]

I was told they take a payment during the day of your fourth day, check in day being day 1.

This is a screen shot of my credit card I took as I was going to call them - my holds took much longer to clear and I was going to call them and complain but they cleared a few hours later after 8 and 9 days respectively. No one at the front desk was able to explain the £192 hold to me - I had cleared my bill (to zero) at reception with a gift card after dinner at FF at 10pm but woke in the morning to find this hold.

My main issue with the system is, as usual for Disney, the policy isn't consistent and the IT behind it is flaky.

[SiandAm]

Does anyone know how long it takes for the hold charge to drop off? We checked out on July 27 and the hold is still there on my card.

[Dr.JumbaJookiba]

Originally Posted by SiandAm

Does anyone know how long it takes for the hold charge to drop off? We checked out on July 27 and the hold is still there on my card.

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Mine took 8/9 days after the hold was placed.

[Nimbus]

Originally Posted by Dr.JumbaJookiba

My main issue with the system is, as usual for Disney, the policy isn't consistent and the IT behind it is flaky.

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Yeah. Again, to reiterate what I said earlier, I'm describing how it should work, not how it does work. How it actually works in practice seems a bit random from what I can tell.

One thing that's just occurred to me though. I suspect Disney sometimes does not correctly "settle" the transaction and thus does not clear the hold. When someone pays off their room bill, I suspect some CMs are putting this through as a separate transaction. This won't clear down the existing hold. This will result in both a hold and a charge on the card - effectively reducing the credit limit by twice the expected amount. An unsettled hold can then take several days or even weeks to fall off.

[Nimbus]

Originally Posted by SiandAm

Does anyone know how long it takes for the hold charge to drop off? We checked out on July 27 and the hold is still there on my card.

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If the hold is not settled than it can be several days before it drops off. In some cases, it might even be as long as a month.

However, the hold should really be settled when you pay of the balance on your room. In this case, the hold will be cleared when the money comes out of your account (that can sometimes take a day or two).

The Wikipedia page is a useful read:

en.wikipedia/wiki/Authorization_hold

Regarding my previous comments, there's a bit on the wiki page that says, "Some services, like hotels and rental cars, have the card as authorized at the beginning of service, but the settlement will not be placed until the completion of the service. Many times, there are additional deposits required ... to cover any additional charges for ... room service. The settled charges will be deducted from the authorized funds and are not in addition to the authorized funds." That last sentence was the point I was trying to make.

[Joshie1]

It’s our first time onsite next year. Have to ask, is it a pain to have to go to reception to settle your bill every few days in order to avoid so many holds being put on cards?
Staying at other hotels we’ve only ever settled our bill when checking out.