New Credit Card Authorization Policy HELP

HallowedHalls

New Member
Can anyone who has been to WDW since Feb27 explain the new credit card authorization policy? Do I really get a $100 hold every time I spend $100? Leaving in a few weeks and would like to be prepared!
 

DisAl

Well-Known Member
If like me, you get a notice every time your card is used, it can be terribly confusing.
You start off with the $100 hold which will show as a pending charge. Then as you make charges to your magic band you will see a pending charge on your card each time. When the charges go over $100 total then you will see another pending charge for the total up to that point along with ANOTHER $100 pending charge for the next hold. The pending charges will go away over time to show the only "real" charges to your card. But for a while it can be extremely confusing as you will see the $100 hold pending charge, the pending charges for all of your magic band charges, the pending charge for the combined charges, and the pending charge for the next $100 hold ALL AT THE SAME TIME. I couldn't really check all my charges until after we got back home and all the pending charges went away.
Confused now? I certainly was.....
 
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HallowedHalls

New Member
Original Poster
Confused now? I certainly was.....

Yes! All of those charges at once seem overwhelming. I guess my real concern is how much money will be tied up at once. If I have a $100 hold, then we eat for $200 - is the hold now for $300 or for $400 (initial hold, plus the new hold)?

Being thousands of miles away from home (and still needing to fund returning home) I can't afford (pun intended) to have my credit card balance tied up with holds. Ugh!
 
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HallowedHalls

New Member
Original Poster
But this is only because you are charging by using the magic band tied to a credit card, right?

I think so. I'm assuming this can all be avoided by paying directly (Credit, Debit, Cash, Gift Card) in the park as you buy or eat - and NOT linking the card to your account. This is what we will probably do - I just hate missing out on the convenience of the Magic Bands.
 
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DisAl

Well-Known Member
Anything charged to your room goes through this process regardless of how it gets charged.
As for how a "hold" and pending charges affects your credit card available funds I would call the credit card company to ask them. I would assume a pending charge counts as funds encumbered since unless the charging entity rescinds the pending charge it becomes a "real" charge. That's how Disney (and any other company) makes sure you are good for the funds.
 
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DisAl

Well-Known Member
I think so. I'm assuming this can all be avoided by paying directly (Credit, Debit, Cash, Gift Card) in the park as you buy or eat - and NOT linking the card to your account. This is what we will probably do - I just hate missing out on the convenience of the Magic Bands.
I think you are correct. If you just use your credit card at the point of sale it will go directly to your card and would not go through the magic band smoke and mirrors routine. You will still have the $100 initial hold on your card to cover any room charges regardless. If you don't have any room charges then you would get your $100 pending charge for the hold rescinded. Don't forget the parking fees though...… That will probably eat your hold whether you charge anything else at all.
 
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HallowedHalls

New Member
Original Poster
I think you are correct. If you just use your credit card at the point of sale it will go directly to your card and would not go through the magic band smoke and mirrors routine. You will still have the $100 initial hold on your card to cover any room charges regardless. If you don't have any room charges then you would get your $100 pending charge for the hold rescinded. Don't forget the parking fees though...… That will probably eat your hold whether you charge anything else at all.

This is the route we will go to avoid any unexpected surprises. I did forget about the parking charges though. Thanks for the reminder and the feedback!
 
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DisAl

Well-Known Member
Yes! All of those charges at once seem overwhelming. I guess my real concern is how much money will be tied up at once. If I have a $100 hold, then we eat for $200 - is the hold now for $300 or for $400 (initial hold, plus the new hold)?

Being thousands of miles away from home (and still needing to fund returning home) I can't afford (pun intended) to have my credit card balance tied up with holds. Ugh!
As best I understand it here is what would happen in your scenario:
1 - $100 hold on checkin.
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!
 
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wendysue

Well-Known Member
As best I understand it here is what would happen in your scenario:
1 - $100 hold on checkin.
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!
This is completely STUPID! We won't have a car and I don't plan on charging anything to our room. I don't have a problem with just pulling my card out of my pocket and using it at point of sale. Geez....what next?
 
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drizgirl

Well-Known Member
Every hotel on Earth puts a hold on your credit card at check in.

But other hotels don't have a magic band system that keeps adding charges, so keeps adding holds in addition to the charges. Every day.
Or, alternatively, if $100 is going to break you, maybe put the vacation on hold.

Nah, it's not going to break me. It's the annoyance of needing to keep up with all of it to make sure they don't make mistakes. And it's not just $100. It's $100 in charges plus waiting for the daily $100 holds to drop off (daily if you hit the $100 daily which is pretty easy to do if you don't have a dining plan). That can add up over the course of a week.
 
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CaptainAmerica

Premium Member
But other hotels don't have a magic band system that keeps adding charges, so keeps adding holds in addition to the charges. Every day.

Nah, it's not going to break me. It's the annoyance of needing to keep up with all of it to make sure they don't make mistakes. And it's not just $100. It's $100 in charges plus waiting for the daily $100 holds to drop off (daily if you hit the $100 daily which is pretty easy to do if you don't have a dining plan). That can add up over the course of a week.
Except that's not how it works.
 
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DisAl

Well-Known Member
So why don't you explain.
If you will go back up the page you will see my convoluted confusing description of how it works. Their processes make it extremely difficult to keep track of your spending since you can end up with both the individual purchases pending AND the consolidated charges pending at the same time. They hit you with consolidated charges EVERY TIME YOU GO OVER $100 total, not just once at the end of the trip.
 
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drizgirl

Well-Known Member
If you will go back up the page you will see my convoluted confusing description of how it works. Their processes make it extremely difficult to keep track of your spending since you can end up with both the individual purchases pending AND the consolidated charges pending at the same time. They hit you with consolidated charges EVERY TIME YOU GO OVER $100 total, not just once at the end of the trip.
Which is what I said can happen but was told I was wrong. Which is my point. It sounds a lot less complicated to just use the card directly. Unless you just want to assume Disney will be accurate and not try to monitor all of it.
 
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DisAl

Well-Known Member
We were there the first week in March when they started this. I know my description may be confusing but that is the best description of it that I can provide. I finally disabled the alerts on my phone at night because they ran the updates at 2:00 a.m. and that is when the charge card alerts would come in.
As others have suggested the only way you can easily keep up with your charges in real time is to use your credit card directly and don't let the charges go through the magic band. That would also prevent having as much as two or three times the pending charges on your card as what your final charges will be.
 
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