Is this normal regarding Disney Hotels and credit cards?

[durangojim]

We just spent a week at the Riviera and used our Disney Visa. Throughout our stay pending charges were placed daily on the card for what we bought with our magic bands. Today we left early around 6am to drive back home. Around 9am I received a notification that I needed to stop by the front desk to check out. That’s never happened to me before. So I called the Riviera number and was placed with some general CM who told me the card had been declined and that I’d need to come back and pay the balance. At this point t we were over 200 miles away so I politely declined and told her I’d call Chase. They told me that Disney had tried to charge the entire amount for what they had already pended as a new transaction. I called Dosney back who got me in touch with some actually at the Riviera who did this was standard policy and that the pending charges would fall away after a couple of days. I said then that they were charging me twice and that someone would need double the limit on their card for the amount they actually wanted to spend on a Disney vacation. She told me she would talk to her manager and call me back but she never did. Does this make any sense to anyone here?

 

[durangojim]

Mods, please delete. Accidental double post. Thank you.

 

[DisAl]

We just spent a week at the Riviera and used our Disney Visa. Throughout our stay pending charges were placed daily on the card for what we bought with our magic bands. Today we left early around 6am to drive back home. Around 9am I received a notification that I needed to stop by the front desk to check out. That’s never happened to me before. So I called the Riviera number and was placed with some general CM who told me the card had been declined and that I’d need to come back and pay the balance. At this point t we were over 200 miles away so I politely declined and told her I’d call Chase. They told me that Disney had tried to charge the entire amount for what they had already pended as a new transaction. I called Dosney back who got me in touch with some actually at the Riviera who did this was standard policy and that the pending charges would fall away after a couple of days. I said then that they were charging me twice and that someone would need double the limit on their card for the amount they actually wanted to spend on a Disney vacation. She told me she would talk to her manager and call me back but she never did. Does this make any sense to anyone here?

They have been doing that for years. You can end up with DOUBLE or even TRIPLE whatever you have spent on your card for a period of time. Seems to me kind of like "reverse" check kiting where they hold on to your money for a few extra days. And since I complained about this about this years ago and nothing has been done about it looks like they plan on continuing to shaft the customer in yet another way.
Here is a copy of my original post on this subject in 2019. It is confusing but I hope you can follow it.

As best I understand it here is what happens:
1 - $100 hold on check in.
2- Spend $200.
3 - That $200 shows up as pending charges.
4 - You now have $300 in pending charges.
5 - Since you have now gone over your $100 hold, the charge for the $200 spent will go to your card.
6 - Since you no longer have $100 on hold, another $100 hold charge will be made.
7 - You now have a total of $600 in pending charges. (Steps 1,2,3,4,5,6)
8 - At this point the charges in steps 1,2,3,4 will go away but that can take a day or two.
9 - You now have your $200 pending charge for what you spent (this will turn into a "real" charge) plus the new $100 hold.
10 - If you spent NOTHING else the second $100 hold pending charge would go away, and you would end up with the $200 spent actually left on your card. Your concern is valid. You could conceivably had $600 in pending charges on your card for some period of time for what was only $200 in spending.
Why in the world they can't remove the group of pending charges at the same time they consolidate them into a single charge is beyond me. Maybe it has something to do with holding on to millions of dollars for an extra day or two....
The whole process is terribly complicated and confusing and even the front desk could not explain it to me. They transferred me to the "back office" and someone there very patiently spent about 30 minutes helping me understand this. At 2:00 a.m.! (When your card has been compromised in the past and you get a notice even at 2:00 a.m. that a $473 charge has been made to your card you check on it right then.)
These processes took place at 2:00 a.m. so my phone would alert me to the charges at that time in the middle of the night!

 

[Atlantix2000]

Why in the world they can't remove the group of pending charges at the same time they consolidate them into a single charge is beyond me. Maybe it has something to do with holding on to millions of dollars for an extra day or two....

It does involve money but not on the part of Disney. Disney (and other businesses like this) submit the cancellations of the multiple holds at the same time they submit the single charge. However, your credit card company does NOT immediately release those holds. They stay in place for a certain amount of time based on their policies. This is to protect the card company in case the merchant (Disney) made a mistake and resubmits the charges within a contractually allowed time period. The card company approved the original charges (holds) as under your credit limit so if they release the holds due to a mistake and you use up your credit limit before the mistake gets corrected, your account will be over your credit limit. In that situation, the card company is on the hook because they approved the charges. This is why they keep the holds for X days after they are released by the merchant. You can complain to Disney but it's actually your card company's policies causing the problem. It's never recommended to use more than half your credit limit on a card (because it will hurt your credit score) so if you follow that recommendation, this shouldn't ever matter.

 

[Ricky Spanish]

This is why we never put a CC on file or use our magic bands for purchases.
We bring GCs, which helps us stick to our budget.

 

[DfromATX]

I know this isn't the same as your situation, but I've had to go down to guest services to settle the bill about halfway through our trip. I wasn't sure why, but it wasn't a big deal I guess. There were 6 of us with MagicBands, which were linked to my credit card that they had the info on. I guess we were really racking up the charges and it was a safety precaution.