Can you refuse "Magic Bands" ?

[danlb_2000]

My first trip after Fastpass+ went into effect I stayed at the Dolphin so I just used the card. On my last trip we stayed at a Disney hotel and decided to give the Magic Bands a try and I have to say I really liked them. I really liked the convince of them. I was concerned about them being uncomfortable but that wasn't an issue at all.

 

[Eckert]

Why can't passholders link their credit card onto a MagicBand?

I'd also love for one of you techies out there to create a stylish Magic Band that serves more as a wristwatch. Then I'd wear it all the time!

 

[donsullivan]

Why can't passholders link their credit card onto a MagicBand?

I'd also love for one of you techies out there to create a stylish Magic Band that serves more as a wristwatch. Then I'd wear it all the time!

The MagicBand can only be used as a method of payment for resort guests. As part of checking into your hotel, you typically assign a credit card to cover 'incidentals' which Disney will preauthorize and then apply a charge limit to your room portfolio. Your band is linked to your room portfolio account via the My Disney Experience database and the room payment authorization is what is used for payments. If you are not on an active resort reservation, there is no account set up to bill that transaction against and therefore the band cannot be used for payments.

 

[Eckert]

The MagicBand can only be used as a method of payment for resort guests. As part of checking into your hotel, you typically assign a credit card to cover 'incidentals' which Disney will preauthorize and then apply a charge limit to your room portfolio. Your band is linked to your room portfolio account via the My Disney Experience database and the room payment authorization is what is used for payments. If you are not on an active resort reservation, there is no account set up to bill that transaction against and therefore the band cannot be used for payments.

I'm sure Disney could very easily find a way to link a MagicBand with personal card information. When I first heard of the MagicBand, I imagined that it was going to be the ultimate one-stop shopping utility and I wouldn't have to ever take my wallet out of my pockets when I was in the parks. My biggest disappointment with the bands is how relatively useless they are for non-hotel guests. I don't even wear mine anymore, I just pat my wallet on the touchpoints and it works just fine.

 

[dovetail65]

I believe the only thing that cannot be done with the card is the automatic connection of on-ride photos or video to your MDX account. An example of that is the on-ride video for SDMT. The long range BluetoothLE is used for those services and if you only have the card with you that will not work. I never use the band, only my AP card and that is absolutely the only thing that doesn't work.

Well that is right and wrong. If you have no Magicband and are using a fast pass then the pictures are taken even without the Magicband, if you have an Annual Pass anyhow. If you are standing in a regular line then they are not(of course you can tap your picture at the end of some rides with your card).

I had an annual pass card for my trip and every auto picture ride where there was no place to tap our pictures after the ride pictures surprisingly showed up in our account(again as long as we used fast pass)!

At first my wife and I could not figure out how they did it. Once we tapped our AP cards to get into the Fastpass line they must use their time data to approximate when we were on the ride as my card was deep in my wallet shielded so no way that card activated anything(and they definitely dont appear to be RFID type cards anyhow). Sometimes those pictures were off by one or two so some of the pics in our account were random people, but there was always a second or even third shot that showed us. On the rides where we tapped once to get in the fast pass line and tapped again right before getting on the ride(I guess this stops people from jumping into the fast pass line after the initial entry point) the pictures were 100% on point and accurate with no randoms at all. They were uploaded to our account within 5 minute using NO magic band(We didn't even get our bands until we arrived home after the initial trip)..

Now if I am wrong and this isn't done with timing I just dont get how they were getting our pictures as we had no bands and again our cards were in shielded wallets

 

[Minthorne]

Now if I am wrong and this isn't done with timing I just dont get how they were getting our pictures as we had no bands and again our cards were in shielded wallets

The upcharge on Mickey premium
Bars included a tiny GPS tracker you eat.

 

[dovetail65]

The upcharge on Mickey premium
Bars included a tiny GPS tracker you eat.

Probably wouldn't bother me if it were the case in the future either! I hated pulling out that darn card over and over..

 

[MickeyMomV]

Why can't passholders link their credit card onto a MagicBand?

Actually nobody can have a direct link of their credit card to their magic band. I believe there are legal requirements where the card must be scanned or inserted to a chip reader to be used and a signature must be captured at the same time. Onsite guests, both pass holder and non-pass holder, can have purchases billed to their room. From there they have already scanned your card and had you signed for potential charges when you checked in for room billing.

 

[flynnibus]

Actually nobody can have a direct link of their credit card to their magic band. I believe there are legal requirements where the card must be scanned or inserted to a chip reader to be used and a signature must be captured at the same time

It's not a legal requirement.. it's about banking compliance and costs. By making the charging to a 'house account', Disney reduces it's credit card fees, chargebacks, fraud, and controls the validation/compliance needs. The credit card transaction for settling your house account is between you and your resort.. where Disney can then follow the compliance rules required by the banks/credit cards. Disney could still possibly setup some sort of house account for MDE profiles and treat it similar to the resort accounts - what Disney would want to avoid is making each MagicBand purchase a direct credit card transaction.. as the lack of swipe/chip/sign and other verification would give them much greater liability on the fraud side.... and the compliance burdens of course.

Credit Card fees are huge expenses for businesses... that's why you see all kinds of creative ways to get people to pay with 'in house' systems to try to reduce fees through consolidation, using their bank vs another, etc.

 

[dovetail65]

That not true at all. I process cards as part of my business. Right now there are no laws against it. There are new rules from some credit card companies that will force the vendor to pay .05 to 2.5% per transaction if they(the vender) refuses to go to the chips. But someone as large as Disney could easily get that waived if they pressed the issue. They haven as yet because Disney likes the chips for security, but wants them to process faster(as told to me by a manager at Disney).. It definitely not a state or federal law at all unless something happen Jan 1 2017.I haven't checked my updates agreement.

There are many ways around this. Someday I am betting annual pass holders will be able to link their cards first, then possibly everyone. Think about it we use our phones with no chips or strips at all. Disney could hook up with paypal, chase quick pay or a multitude of others companies or make a Disney Pay and take it on themselves.

I was told this was more logistical with the software than anything else at this point. Dealing with out of country users, exchange rates and opening up to tens of thousands of new users over night, their current system just cant do it.

I am betting 5 years or less AP users will be able to link accounts, with checking, debit or credit cards, followed by magic band users of all types.

Another method could be to make the magic-band part of an app on the phone that allows us to channel what ever pay method we choose, taking the actual processing away from Disney and using the Magicband as nothing more than an extension of the cell phone, think Starbucks when we hold up the phone, then think ear bud or other hardware we connect to the phone. All the tech is there, its the software that needs tweaking.