Attaching a debit card to a Disney room key...

disneyworld07

Active Member
Original Poster
Hi everyone. We are form the UK and were wondering, is it possible to attach a DEBIT card to your Disney room key. We are aware that you can attach credit cards to the card which then enables you to use the room key to pay for items around the parks. We would much rather prefer not to get a credit card and therefore were wondering if it is possible to attach a debit card??? The people at Disney didnt seem to know what a debit card was.....

Anyway any help would be greatly appreciated thanks all!!!
 

wild01ride

Well-Known Member
As long as your debit card has the VISA or Master Card logo, you can use it just the same as a credit card to charge to your room key.

Enjoy your trip!
 

righttrack

Well-Known Member
The only gotcha I can think of with a debit (logoed visa/mastercard) debit card would be that there are daily limits set with the bank for the maximum a withdrawal could be. This can be a daily max, or a per-transaction max. I'm sure Disney knows how to handle this. Likely they can process up to the limit one day, and get the rest the next day. I'd consult your bank to see if there are daily max or per-transaction max on your card, before you plan on using it. Standard in the US is 200/transaction, 400-500/max per day. These are in place for your safety and can be waived temporarily or permanently.
 
The only gotcha I can think of with a debit (logoed visa/mastercard) debit card would be that there are daily limits set with the bank for the maximum a withdrawal could be. This can be a daily max, or a per-transaction max. I'm sure Disney knows how to handle this. Likely they can process up to the limit one day, and get the rest the next day. I'd consult your bank to see if there are daily max or per-transaction max on your card, before you plan on using it. Standard in the US is 200/transaction, 400-500/max per day. These are in place for your safety and can be waived temporarily or permanently.

I think that those limits are usually for ATM cash withdrawals (at least at the bank that I worked for that was the case)...the limit for purchases is usually higher....otherwise you would never be albe to pay for a large purchase (like maybe a Disney vacation) on a debit card :D :wave:
 

DisneyMusician2

Well-Known Member
You might condiser a Disney Gift Card if you can't attach the debit the way you want to. It keeps you from carrying cash, and you can reload it as many times as you want to. I've done it before and I find that it really works well.
 

3fordisney

New Member
If your debit card has a Visa or Mastercard logo on it, you are able to use it anywhere Visa and Mastercard is accepted. At the bank I used to work, there wasn't a limit on the number of transactions done on the card. There was a limit on the purchase amount, but it was a very large number. If you are planning on making a large purchase on it, you may want to check with your bank on any limits your debit card has.
 

Courtman

Well-Known Member
If I remember correctly we used our UK (Nationwide) Visa/Delta card when we stayed in a Disney resort a couple of years ago. Not sure about the limits that are mentioned above - if you have enough cash in the account it'll go through.

The only problem I have in the USA is using a Debit Card to hire a car - they just won't do it for some reason. Same over here, when I used to get hire cars for work they had to CREDIT CHECK me before letting me rent a car with a debit card. A right pain in the...
 

RonAnnArbor

Well-Known Member
You won't have any problems with the debit card.

There are automatic limits on the card that the park puts on your card -- I believe that they will not put more than 1000.00 on your roomkey no matter what card or credit you have.
 

MM Princess

New Member
Disney runs Debit and Credit on the same system... meaning in their system, it's not even distinguished. That is left up to the card companies themselves.
 

disneyworld07

Active Member
Original Poster
Ok well heres the thing.....we have $4200 in spending money (we've been scraping money together from every concievable place!) so if we have all of that money available in our bank will Disney allow us to attach that much money to our room key?? It is a debit card and therefore the money will physically be there.... if not can you keep putting money on to your room key or is there an overall limit (yeh ryt)? Do you think we should go to the bank before we go on holiday and tell them that we will be spending so much money?? Thanks so much for your replies so far! :)
 

rcapolete

Active Member
Remember that Disney does not actual charge the card until you check out unless you go over a certain amount on the room key. My dad had that last May. He charge over i think 500 on the room key and they called his room to let him know that if he still wanted to charge using the key that they need to charge his credit card first.
On the other hand me and my wife only charge around 250 for the whole week and they settled it when we checked out.
 

eroyee

Active Member
:wave: I thought there was a limit of $500 at the values and $1500 at the moderates. Maybe thats a credit card, though. I think Disney considers them one and the same. 3 days till our next magical vacation at the world. woo hoo!!!!!!:xmas: :sohappy:
 

bluejayx

Member
Well one thing you should do, is make sure that your bank Know that you are traviling over seas i had to when i went to Europe.
 

RonAnnArbor

Well-Known Member
The short answer is NO they will not put 4200.00 on a room key -- but they can make special arrangements for you, such as you charge up 1000.00 and they make you pay it, then they put another 1000.00 back on your card and you pay it when you reach that amount, etc....

Disney will NEVER turn away your money, but they sometimes put safety protection in place to assure that you don't lose your key, someone else run up your bill, etc.

Just for the record - I never put anything on my room key -- the last thing I want is any financial information hanging around on a room key that can be stolen, lost, or misplaced. I grew up in NYC, I trust nobody, and I have never had a problem that way.
 

CleveRocks

Active Member
Ok, here are the FACTS...

Credit card, debit card (with VISA or MC logo), cash, travelers checks, Disney Dollars -- you can use any of these to create a room charge.

WDW sets upper limits for room charges based upon level of resort -- $500 for Values, $1K for Moderates, $1.5K for Deluxes. Like I said, these are UPPER limits. You can request a smaller amount.

NO HOLD is placed on credit or debit cards. They will run the card to make sure it is from an active account, but NO HOLD is placed.

Your personal financial info is NOT on the room key. It just tells Disney to charge the purchase to your room account; your credit card number isn't encoded on the room key. The name of your financial institution isn't even on your room key. If you lose your key, no one has access to your financial information, and that's the same whether you're from Manhattan, NY or Manhattan, KS.

There is no cumulative limit on room charges. When you reach your limit, you can just set up another one, it's that simple. Let's say you set up a $500 room charge. If your next purchase attempt puts you over the limit, that charge will be declined. At that point, you can simply call your resort and authorize another room charge to be started -- they are TOTALLY set up to do this by phone. They did this by design, to make it as easy as possible, especially nowadays when every self-respecting 4-year-old seems to have a cellphone.

When you reach your limit, THEN your credit card or debit card is automatically charged. And like I said, you can set up another charge and keep going. AGAIN, they only limit how much "charge" you have at any moment, but they have no want to limit how much you can room charge over time. SOmeone mentioned having $4200 spending money. You could spend 100% of this on room charges, even if you're at a Value with a $500 limit. Let's say in the first hour of your first day you charge $500 on Mickey bars for 250 of your closest friends. Just get on the horn to your resort and set up another room charge. It's really that simple.

As often as you like, you can go to your resort's front desk and get an up-to-the-minute printout of your account. If you see you are near your limit, you can decide to have them charge that amount to your credit/debit card at that time, and then set up a brand spankin' new room charge account so you won't be sidelined for a few minutes on the phone later that day or the next day to set up another room charge account.

Any other questions? Bring 'em on!
 

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