Room charges to Magic Band

[Lumpy1106]

Wait. What? No. I mean, we buy gift cards at target for months in advance, then add them to one or two or three cards on the Disney Gift Card website. So we only have 1,2 or 3 cards, each with max $1000. But how do you go to the front desk "the day before you check out" to check your balance and pay with gift cards? They don't let you set up MB charges on a gift card, you have to use a bank account or CC. And you can't wait until the night before you leave to get your balance to pay off. I guess... if you are only doing a one or two night stay, that might work. But anything more than 3 nights, they will charge the CC attached to the res unless you show up and pay off the balance before it processes. We were there for 10 days and did well the 3rd day, 6th day.. but then forgot to visit the front desk and the charges went to the CC rather than on the GC. No big deal, but I'm pretty sure you can't wait until the night before you leave to pay with a gift card(s).

That sounds about right, but if you have the credit card on file, why do you care if they charge to it? They credit you as soon as you give them the alternate payment, don't they? The charge won't be on the card long enough to incur any sort of interest. I mean, I'll be honest, the Target gift card is charged to a CC too. You just have to pay it off in full and don't carry a balance. That's what we'd do anyway. My point was, you don't need to carry around a gift card with a large balance either.

 

[joyjoy]

That sounds about right, but if you have the credit card on file, why do you care if they charge to it? They credit you as soon as you give them the alternate payment, don't they? The charge won't be on the card long enough to incur any sort of interest. I mean, I'll be honest, the Target gift card is charged to a CC too. You just have to pay it off in full and don't carry a balance. That's what we'd do anyway. My point was, you don't need to carry around a gift card with a large balance either.

Hmmmm. Unless you know something I don't know.... I don't care that the card is on file, that's why I give it to them. The thing is, when you use your MB to purchase anything, yes - the charge is temporarily in limbo between the resorts system and your Credit Card. BUT if you don't show up with your Gift Card to pay the balance within the magic window of time-- 2 or 3 days, depending on when you arrive, it will be taken off the "these guys are gonna pay with a GC" list and is charged to your Credit Card with no takes back. You have to do this EVERY 2-3 days of your stay because the account updating system charges the credit card on file UNLESS you show up to circumvent the system. If you miss the window, too bad. No huge deal because we have other trips planned, but I like to zero out the Gift Card(s) before we leave so I don't have to keep up with that for however many months until we return. So your really DO have to carry around a gift card with a large balance. Or keep it in the safe where I will most definitely forget it. If I have it with me and return from a park, I am much more likely to think "Oh! Front desk! Pay our charges with this big ol' fat Gift Card!". I hope this makes sense. Maybe I'm missing something.

 

[gracielou]

Hmmmm. Unless you know something I don't know.... I don't care that the card is on file, that's why I give it to them. The thing is, when you use your MB to purchase anything, yes - the charge is temporarily in limbo between the resorts system and your Credit Card. BUT if you don't show up with your Gift Card to pay the balance within the magic window of time-- 2 or 3 days, depending on when you arrive, it will be taken off the "these guys are gonna pay with a GC" list and is charged to your Credit Card with no takes back. You have to do this EVERY 2-3 days of your stay because the account updating system charges the credit card on file UNLESS you show up to circumvent the system. If you miss the window, too bad. No huge deal because we have other trips planned, but I like to zero out the Gift Card(s) before we leave so I don't have to keep up with that for however many months until we return. So your really DO have to carry around a gift card with a large balance. Or keep it in the safe where I will most definitely forget it. If I have it with me and return from a park, I am much more likely to think "Oh! Front desk! Pay our charges with this big ol' fat Gift Card!". I hope this makes sense. Maybe I'm missing something.

You don't have to carry around a gift card with any money on it if you're using the DGC site. DH had an empty card in his wallet (that's always on him) that is saved on the site. We also have 4 other loaded cards on the site and keep those cards in the room safe at all times. Then whenever we need or want to pay off the room charges, I transfer the balance of one of the loaded cards to the empty one that we carry. As soon as the money comes off the card, any remaining funds get transferred back to the one of the other cards, consolidating balances as we go. Because our trips are between 2 and 3 weeks, we usually have in excess of $4000, so we'll have 1 or 2 cards with money on them in the safe that we have to add to the DGC site after we use up other cards. I keep those loaded on a separate DCG account so I can always access the funds if something were to happen to the physical card.

 

[brockash]

Yes, I forgot to go to the front desk the night before check out to pay the room charges with our Disney Rewards. I believe you must do it the night before because Night Auditors transfer the charges to the credit card the next morning. Now I make sure to that if we have Disney Rewards that we want to use!

Just wanted to say if you forget; they can refund your cc and you can with gift card on your checkout day. I and 2 other rooms in my party just did this last Sun. at the Polynesian...I've also done it at ASMo.

Eta: This past trip was 9 nights and nothing was charged until night before checkout, but then refunded on checkout day when I asked to pay with gift card.

Trip at ASMo was 5 nights a few years ago when I also forgot and was able to get refunded to pay with gc.

 

[joyjoy]

Just wanted to say if you forget; they can refund your cc and you can with gift card on your checkout day. I and 2 other rooms in my party just did this last Sun. at the Polynesian...I've also done it at ASMo.

Eta: This past trip was 9 nights and nothing was charged until night before checkout, but then refunded on checkout day when I asked to pay with gift card.

Trip at ASMo was 5 nights a few years ago when I also forgot and was able to get refunded to pay with gc.

Wow. Well, okay. That's much better than what I experienced, but obviously I was doing it wrong. I paid off days 1-3 on day 3. Days 4 -5 I paid off on day 5. Then I forgot to go by the front desk and when I went to pay day 6 -9 on day 9 we had a zero balance. I was told it had been charged to the CC because I didn't show up in time. I didn't know to ask to refund and charge to the GC and they didn't offer. So thanks. I'll remember your advice for next time.