New Credit Card Authorization Holds

[kylieh]

TLDR: According to POFQ, Non-US issued Amex cards will not reauthorise/add further $100 holds and stops at that amount - we're from Australia.

Full story - checked in last week, left a $100 authorisation which showed on our Amex. We've had minimum reason to charge to the room, paying cash or charging to the card directly. Room charges have been $10 here, $20 there. About $140 total. Nothing was charged to our card at all on the 5th day, and today is day 7.

Overnight we had a voicemail from guest services/front desk that they were unable to charge our Amex, so before leaving for AK this morning we went to the front desk and they told us they didn't have a card on file and we needed to pay the amount which we did, and they took another $100 hold. We're ok with that. Today at AK we had quite a few smaller charges around $145 in total, then we went to the Nomad Lounge and was unable to charge roughly $50, the waiter told us we didn't have a card on file. So we were ok, and paid normally with the Amex (the card that we thought we had on file). The notification went to the phone straight away charge was on the Amex.

On returning this evening I went back to the front desk to ask what was happening. They told me Non-US Amex wouldn't do multiple authorisations without the card being physically there, therefore declining and they lose the card on file. I paid the $145 from the Amex and was able to leave a new $100 authorisation, but that probably won't be able to be exceeded and I'll have to pay it off again should we wished to charge more than $100 to the room. I also asked if I could leave more than $100 hold and they wouldn't. So it has been far from a positive experience for us and for the remainder of the trip we'll charge to card rather than the room. We've never really done room charges anywhere we've stayed worldwide so this is the first time we've experienced this issue.

 

[Dean Marino]

Well, we actually had a POSITIVE experience .
Background: DVC owners, probably 30 trips under our belts since 2012....

Our APR 2019 trip, BRV.... yup, saw the $100 hold (US Chase CC)... almost immediately followed by a $100 CREDIT (?). Wait - it gets better ....

Room was VERY SLIGHTLY late. Not ready until about 5:30 PM. We did not think it was that big of a deal... just asked, as we were headed to dinner....

We still feel guilty about "asking" - because that GREAT Front Desk Manager plopped a $135 CREDIT onto our card. To this day, we don't feel like we deserved that kind of stellar treatment .

 

[Searc]

There is so much confusion and misinformation being spread about this asinine policy, especially on the dis facebook page. Ugh.

 

[MinnieMSue]

There is so much confusion and misinformation being spread about this asinine policy, especially on the dis facebook page. Ugh.

I noticed that too. I too am slightly confused but mainly because I don’t know how my credit card will handle it. I just plan to buy our lunch at the waterparks twice on the trip so I don’t have to bring extra cards but I probably will have to bring an alternate payment method anyway in case our charging gets cut off like I saw happen after the 5th day to a few people. At least I know we won’t go over the $100 and maybe I will pay off at the front desk to be safe. I think the misinformation gets mixed up with facts and it is hard to know which end is up after awhile.

 

[Farro]

There is so much confusion and misinformation being spread about this asinine policy, especially on the dis facebook page. Ugh.

I actually find this thread to be confusing. Some people are saying things like they got one hold and no issues. Does that mean one hold altogether? Does that mean they spent no money on their band?

People seem to be explaining the issues they are having well, but I still can't get a full grasp on how it's working when people say they have no problems.

Is it still:

First day $100 hold
You spend $110 on band the first day
Second day you will have a $200 (first hold, second hold) hold plus the pending charge of $110 (when they put it through)? So total of $310?
Second day spend $110
Third day another $100 hold (because of spending another $110 day 2), so now holds are $300 plus your pending charges?

or

First day $100 hold
You spend $500 over a few days on your band
They don't charge your card until 5 days
Day 6 second $100 hold and your charge of $500, so total $600 (or $700 if your first hold hasn't fallen off yet)?

 

[Searc]

I actually find this thread to be confusing. Some people are saying things like they got one hold and no issues. Does that mean one hold altogether? Does that mean they spent no money on their band?

People seem to be explaining the issues they are having well, but I still can't get a full grasp on how it's working when people say they have no problems.

Is it still:

First day $100 hold
You spend $110 on band the first day
Second day you will have a $200 (first hold, second hold) hold plus the pending charge of $110 (when they put it through)? So total of $310?
Second day spend $110
Third day another $100 hold (because of spending another $110 day 2), so now holds are $300 plus your pending charges?

or

First day $100 hold
You spend $500 over a few days on your band
They don't charge your card until 5 days
Day 6 second $100 hold and your charge of $500, so total $600 (or $700 if your first hold hasn't fallen off yet)?

Your first paragraph.

 

[Farro]

Your first paragraph.

That's what I was afraid of. Second paragraph would have been much better.

Thanks!

 

[Iowamomof4]

I actually find this thread to be confusing. Some people are saying things like they got one hold and no issues. Does that mean one hold altogether? Does that mean they spent no money on their band?

People seem to be explaining the issues they are having well, but I still can't get a full grasp on how it's working when people say they have no problems.

Is it still:

First day $100 hold
You spend $110 on band the first day
Second day you will have a $200 (first hold, second hold) hold plus the pending charge of $110 (when they put it through)? So total of $310?
Second day spend $110
Third day another $100 hold (because of spending another $110 day 2), so now holds are $300 plus your pending charges?

or

First day $100 hold
You spend $500 over a few days on your band
They don't charge your card until 5 days
Day 6 second $100 hold and your charge of $500, so total $600 (or $700 if your first hold hasn't fallen off yet)?

Your first paragraph.

I took screenshots of my pending charges on my credit card, and the only $100 holds are the initial ones and then new ones after day 5. Every other hold is based on how far over $100 we went. So, I see holds of $110.94, 274.52, and 167.96 from our first full day at Pop (in addition to two, $100 holds for the two reservations we had there - two rooms on one reservation and one room on the other for a total of 3 rooms but only 2, $100 holds). By the morning of May 16 (we checked in on May 12), the initial $100 holds had fallen off but we still had 3 other holds for a total of $553.42 sitting in our pending charges on our card. All of those charges had already been paid off by gift cards at the front desk, so my room charges were either zero or significantly less than that total of pending charges.

 

[Farro]

I took screenshots of my pending charges on my credit card, and the only $100 holds are the initial ones and then new ones after day 5. Every other hold is based on how far over $100 we went. So, I see holds of $110.94, 274.52, and 167.96 from our first full day at Pop (in addition to two, $100 holds for the two reservations we had there - two rooms on one reservation and one room on the other for a total of 3 rooms but only 2, $100 holds). By the morning of May 16 (we checked in on May 12), the initial $100 holds had fallen off but we still had 3 other holds for a total of $553.42 sitting in our pending charges on our card. All of those charges had already been paid off by gift cards at the front desk, so my room charges were either zero or significantly less than that total of pending charges.

So you are using holds/pending charges interchangeably, that's where I'm getting confused.

By hold - I'm saying the $100 hold Disney puts on your card, regardless if you spend or not, which falls off eventually.
Pending charges- that's what you actually spent in the parks, etc.

So what you said are holds of $110, $274, etc. are actually the pending charges of what you spent (based on my thinking)? And then just a new hold ($100 by Disney) after day 5?

So you only had two holds of $100 (that will fall off) by Disney and the rest of the money being held is actually the pending charges of what you spent, correct? I realize you paid off with a gift card, but they will still show as pending charges for a bit. Or in my case they would just eventually be charged to my card.

Math!!!!!!!!

 

[Iowamomof4]

So you are using holds/pending charges interchangeably, that's where I'm getting confused.

By hold - I'm saying the $100 hold Disney puts on your card, regardless if you spend or not, which falls off eventually.
Pending charges- that's what you actually spent in the parks, etc.

So what you said are holds of $110, $274, etc. are actually the pending charges of what you spent (based on my thinking)? And then just a new hold ($100 by Disney) after day 5?
So you only had two holds of $100 (that will fall off) by Disney and the rest of the money being held is actually the pending charges of what you spent, correct? I realize you paid off with a gift card, but they will still show as pending charges for a bit. Or in my case they would just eventually be charged to my card.

Math!!!!!!!!

In my credit card account (Chase Disney Visa), all holds sit in the "pending charges" section of the account. I cannot visually distinguish whether it is a true "pending charge" that will eventually fall over into the charges portion of my account or just a "hold" that will eventually fall off the account. Hope that helps you understand why I used both words. ALL of the amounts I listed were holds, because I did go pay them off with gift cards. They would have turned into actual charges if I had never paid them off. It is confusing, to some extent, but honestly it wasn't as big a deal as I was anticipating.

 

[Farro]

In my credit card account (Chase Disney Visa), all holds sit in the "pending charges" section of the account. I cannot visually distinguish whether it is a true "pending charge" that will eventually fall over into the charges portion of my account or just a "hold" that will eventually fall off the account. Hope that helps you understand why I used both words. ALL of the amounts I listed were holds, because I did go pay them off with gift cards. They would have turned into actual charges if I had never paid them off. It is confusing, to some extent, but honestly it wasn't as big a deal as I was anticipating.

So I guess what I need to ask is Disney only put two holds on your account?
$100 the first day and $100 on day 5? The rest is money you actually spent?

 

[Iowamomof4]

So I guess what I need to ask is Disney only put two holds on your account?
$100 the first day and $100 on day 5? The rest is money you actually spent?

The rest is what we charged to the room via our magicbands, yes. Again, I was paying it off with giftcards every morning or two, but they didn't have to add new holds because what they were already holding was enough to cover our new spending. Does that help?

 

[Farro]

The rest is what we charged to the room via our magicbands, yes. Again, I was paying it off with giftcards every morning or two, but they didn't have to add new holds because what they were already holding was enough to cover our new spending. Does that help?

I think so. I think I will try and spend less than $100 on my band total. Pay for dinner with my credit card.

 

[Pkltm]

TLDR: According to POFQ, Non-US issued Amex cards will not reauthorise/add further $100 holds and stops at that amount - we're from Australia.

Full story - checked in last week, left a $100 authorisation which showed on our Amex. We've had minimum reason to charge to the room, paying cash or charging to the card directly. Room charges have been $10 here, $20 there. About $140 total. Nothing was charged to our card at all on the 5th day, and today is day 7.

Overnight we had a voicemail from guest services/front desk that they were unable to charge our Amex, so before leaving for AK this morning we went to the front desk and they told us they didn't have a card on file and we needed to pay the amount which we did, and they took another $100 hold. We're ok with that. Today at AK we had quite a few smaller charges around $145 in total, then we went to the Nomad Lounge and was unable to charge roughly $50, the waiter told us we didn't have a card on file. So we were ok, and paid normally with the Amex (the card that we thought we had on file). The notification went to the phone straight away charge was on the Amex.

On returning this evening I went back to the front desk to ask what was happening. They told me Non-US Amex wouldn't do multiple authorisations without the card being physically there, therefore declining and they lose the card on file. I paid the $145 from the Amex and was able to leave a new $100 authorisation, but that probably won't be able to be exceeded and I'll have to pay it off again should we wished to charge more than $100 to the room. I also asked if I could leave more than $100 hold and they wouldn't. So it has been far from a positive experience for us and for the remainder of the trip we'll charge to card rather than the room. We've never really done room charges anywhere we've stayed worldwide so this is the first time we've experienced this issue.

Se are from Canada so we have a Canadian Amex and they absolutely do incremental holds on Canadian Amex cards, maybe the cast member meant North America. When they cahraged our card on Day 5 it was separate from the hold and the hold didn't drop off until after we were home. So it took up double the amount on our card for a time period.

 

[RealBlast3]

Can you simply opt out of having a credit card on file for your stay on Disney property? I, too, am someone who uses my debit card always as my card on file, and I am afraid of going over as well as there being too many authorizations going on (I have Capital One, and I think they are strict, when it comes to this)

So, anyway, can I still stay on Disney property and use the dining plan and simply not give them a credit card on file? Because I have decided I simply won't use the magic band to pay for anything. I mean, aside from the convenience of it, it's really not a big deal to pay another way. I was thinking of simply taking my allotted spending money and buying Disney Gift cards in advance of my trip and then using them each time I had extras on my meals or bought something in a gift shop.

I mean, I pay for my magic your way package at least a month before all my vacations, so I see no reason for me to have to put a card on file if I don't plan on charging anything back to my room or using the magic band that way.

 

[maxiesmom]

you can't do on line check in without putting a card on file

 

[Imamom2]

This is just stupid confusing now. I am not worried about the charges or what my card will hold but the fact that people have these concerns when planning their vacations is not a great reflection of Disney.

 

[AngiTN]

Can you simply opt out of having a credit card on file for your stay on Disney property? I, too, am someone who uses my debit card always as my card on file, and I am afraid of going over as well as there being too many authorizations going on (I have Capital One, and I think they are strict, when it comes to this)

So, anyway, can I still stay on Disney property and use the dining plan and simply not give them a credit card on file? Because I have decided I simply won't use the magic band to pay for anything. I mean, aside from the convenience of it, it's really not a big deal to pay another way. I was thinking of simply taking my allotted spending money and buying Disney Gift cards in advance of my trip and then using them each time I had extras on my meals or bought something in a gift shop.

I mean, I pay for my magic your way package at least a month before all my vacations, so I see no reason for me to have to put a card on file if I don't plan on charging anything back to my room or using the magic band that way.

Yes. A credit card on file is not required you stay at Disney

 

[Tiggerlover91]

This is just stupid confusing now. I am not worried about the charges or what my card will hold but the fact that people have these concerns when planning their vacations is not a great reflection of Disney.

Yes. A credit card on file is not required you stay at Disney

It makes my head hurt, and I don't think I get it.

$100 hold on my card. I then go and spend $40 in the parks. So now the total is $140? Next day I spend $35, hold is now $175. That's all I put on my card. On day 5 Disney only charges the $75 and the hold goes away? Is this correct? Or I decide to go to the bank and take out $75 to pay it off. Hold goes back to $100 and I start over? Day 5 hits and I decide to not pay off the balance. Now it's $120. Disney only charges me that $20 and the $100 is now gone? Am I understanding this correctly?

 

[dreamer17555]

Something interesting from our trip- checked in May 16th and checking out today. We were actually warned about the new policy by the front desk at Boardwalk. We were told to always have a card with us in the parks because room charges would suddenly stop working and people had been in the parks at meals unable to pay.

Every time I went to pay down the balance with gift card (every day or so) at least one guest was up there struggling with the room charges. The staff was well aware of the issues.