New Credit Card Authorization Holds

[Turksmom]

Wonder if this is ultimately why you are having issues with any card?
Something making your account address reset and that causes a mismatch in billing zip code when they run a preauthorization. When the system reads that mismatch, it deletes the credit card?
I've probably done a horrible job of explaining what's rolling around in my brain but I can see how that could cause a credit card issue.
Granted, that doesn't explain WHY that happens, just what that happening causes.

That's what I thought after that was determined to be the cause the first time. It dropped again, I asked and that wasn't the second problem- that was one of those mystery codes you mentioned. And I did have trips- same primary card with online check in and hold with no issues, so not my MDE. I'm a walking personification of Murphy's Law, so I'm assuming it's that and I'll just always carry an extra card with me! I appreciate your ideas on it, test enough theories and hopefully something will click!

 

[smmco]

Is the problem that a lot of people have low credit limits? Or is another factor? Most of my cards have limits between 10k to 30k . There is no way I'd run into a problem

 

[AngiTN]

Is the problem that a lot of people have low credit limits? Or is another factor? Most of my cards have limits between 10k to 30k . There is no way I'd run into a problem

A lot of people do not have limits with 10's of thousands available

 

[smmco]

A lot of people do not have limits with 10's of thousands available

On the flip side, a lot of people do. Banks are pretty generous these days. I do think Disney should come up with a better policy, but I wonder what the percentage of people affected by this are?

 

[AngiTN]

On the flip side, a lot of people do. Banks are pretty generous these days. I do think Disney should come up with a better policy, but I wonder what the percentage of people affected by this are?

Likely not that many since as already mentioned, a majority are on the dining plan

 

[bluezy]

Is the problem that a lot of people have low credit limits? Or is another factor? Most of my cards have limits between 10k to 30k . There is no way I'd run into a problem

I think there are 2 problems that happen with room charging. One is that not everyone has high credit limits on their cards. That could be because they choose to have low limits or it could be that they're new to credit cards and don't have enough established credit history to have a high limit. My husband and I have several credit cards and they all have limits of 25K-35K. We'd never have a problem at Disney. However, our young adult children have cards that have $2.5-5K limits -- which could be a problem at Disney under the new(ish) "hold" policy. Our son and his wife (and 2yo child) like to do a lot of character meals. If they don't have the dining plan and charged all of their meals back to their room, they could certainly have a problem on a card with a $2500 credit limit. I also know plenty of people with no credit cards at all -- they use their debit card for everything. The new policy is a huge problem for them.

The other (and bigger in my eyes) problem is that people's room charging privileges are randomly being dropped without warning and for no apparent reason. It has nothing to do with their credit card charging limits as I've seen it happen to people with $20K+ limits. This is not a new phenomenon that started when the hold process went into place. It has happened for years. It happened to us last June (several times) with a card that has a $32K limit. For whatever reason, Disney's system kept reverting our card on file to an old card that had been used for previous trips. That card was closed due to a security breach at some store. That old/closed card was *never* attached to our reservation last year but it had been used for trips in 2016 and earlier. For whatever reason, 3 times during our trip, our current credit card was wiped from our room charging account and replaced with the closed card. They kept fixing it, but no one could figure out why it was happening. We always carry our credit card and some cash with us in the parks so it wasn't a huge issue when this happened, but it was still annoying and meant I had to spend time fixing it.

I've already decided that for our trip next June, in addition to carrying our credit card and cash in the parks, I will make sure each of our kids (college age/teens) has a $50 gift card on them just in case this happens when they're off on their own and we're not there to pay with the credit card.

 

[Mrs Grumpy]

The other (and bigger in my eyes) problem is that people's room charging privileges are randomly being dropped without warning and for no apparent reason. It has nothing to do with their credit card charging limits as I've seen it happen to people with $20K+ limits. This is not a new phenomenon that started when the hold process went into place. It has happened for years. It happened to us last June (several times) with a card that has a $32K limit. For whatever reason, Disney's system kept reverting our card on file to an old card that had been used for previous trips. That card was closed due to a security breach at some store. That old/closed card was *never* attached to our reservation last year but it had been used for trips in 2016 and earlier. For whatever reason, 3 times during our trip, our current credit card was wiped from our room charging account and replaced with the closed card. They kept fixing it, but no one could figure out why it was happening. We always carry our credit card and some cash with us in the parks so it wasn't a huge issue when this happened, but it was still annoying and meant I had to spend time fixing it.

OK, this part has me worried. For this trip I did change CC cards on file. Hope it doesn't go back to our old one.

 

[bluezy]

OK, this part has me worried. For this trip I did change CC cards on file. Hope it doesn't go back to our old one.

I wouldn't worry about it. We had a trip in 2016 (I think) where I lost my credit card about a week before our trip. It was the card that I had used for the trip deposit as well as the final payment. Chase closed the account, opened a new one, and Fed Ex'd me a new card. I changed the credit card info on our MDE account. We charged everything to the room and had no problems during that stay.

 

[chelleb1974]

As much as I like the convenience of charging to the room via MB, I'm pretty sure I'm just bringing my card(s) to the parks with me and not charging this time (Dec19). I only have debit cards, and neither bank account will have a balance high enough to accommodate 2x availability of what I'm planning on spending. Unless this all gets worked out better before we leave.

 

[Tess]

For whatever reason, Disney's system kept reverting our card on file to an old card that had been used for previous trips. That card was closed due to a security breach at some store. That old/closed card was *never* attached to our reservation last year but it had been used for trips in 2016 and earlier. For whatever reason, 3 times during our trip, our current credit card was wiped from our room charging account and replaced with the closed card. They kept fixing it, but no one could figure out why it was happening. We always carry our credit card and some cash with us in the parks so it wasn't a huge issue when this happened, but it was still annoying and meant I had to spend time fixing it.

We have experienced this same scenario in the past. Difference being our compromised card had been linked the year before, BUT I changed it as soon as the new card was received. It appeared fine in MDE, but for whatever reason, while there and charging, it kept reverting to the old card from the prior visit. With the help of the Concierge, I had to change the password and PINs on my Disney account and re-enter the information from the new card. Not sure why, but that worked for a couple of days and had to repeat the process later in the week. Didn't have a problem the next year but that was a royal pain. Thankfully, we always carry our credit cards and cash.

 

[Best_Vacation_EVER!]

The 4th one which would change very little in efforts on their part would be to up the dag blame limit above $100. The majority of the problems that happen are from the sheer volume of authorizations they process for a given guest over the course of a trip. $100 is nothing to spend in one sitting at Disney. As a result of such a low amount they have multiple charge authorizations. If they made it $500 think how few they'd have. Or at least greatly reduced. And the rest would be the same, only need authorizations and will process the final charge just like they do now. Heck, if anything, that is fewer processings they have to do, fewer accounting entries to keep up with.

This is it exactly! When we stayed at UO HRH they actually asked us how much we thought we'd spend while we're there and they did the authorization based on that. We maybe spent $40 less than we thought but ultimately we probably have a better idea of what we'll spend.

For WDW $100 is a stupidly low amount for a place where they built a whole system of MB's to facilitate shopping and charging back (well plus park access and FP+.) Sure do a default amount of $100 but if asked by the guest they should be able to up the amount based on the clients request.

For non-US customers many credit cards will flag multiple holds/transactions to the same vendor in a single day and will automatically trigger fraud alerts for many cards.

 

[Madame]

Checked out of BWV yesterday. At midnight my CC was charged $2000 USD (showing as pending). I also have the exact same amount again in pending charges in uneven increments varying from $100 to $300 plus. They have not fallen off yet & I have $4000 in credit tied up.

ETA. This is a Canadian US dollar credit card. I’ll report back when the pending charges drop.

 

[ewalshslp]

I think we are going to use gift cards and our credit card in the park instead of charging to the room. But I did online check-in and my cc info is in there. Can I remove it? Or maybe I should just link a different one? We have a split stay so I’d be looking at $200 worth of holds.

 

[Mrs Grumpy]

So I wonder how many others have changed credit cards on their profiles from a previous trip and run into the same problem or if this is only happening to a few. Any reports of people not having issues?
I don’t want it to charge the previous card we had on file for past trips.

 

[4DisneyWVUfans]

We used Gift Cards for all of our purchases and tips on the DDP this year after reading the stories about the holds. Just as easy as last year when we used Magic Bands.

 

[AngiTN]

So I wonder how many others have changed credit cards on their profiles from a previous trip and run into the same problem or if this is only happening to a few. Any reports of people not having issues?
I don’t want it to charge the previous card we had on file for past trips.

It's not happening to anyone who changed credit cards.
I typically change each trip. I've never had it fall off mid trip. Yet (knocking on wood)

 

[Wood Nymph]

So I wonder how many others have changed credit cards on their profiles from a previous trip and run into the same problem or if this is only happening to a few. Any reports of people not having issues?
I don’t want it to charge the previous card we had on file for past trips.

If you are worried about what credit card is going to be charged then go to the front desk and have them verify it.

We have had the our credit cards in our profile not work when we got to the resort -twice. But once we got to the resort and we handed them a credit card to put on our account, then we didn't have any problems charging to the room.

If you've ever worked with databases then you know that there can be multiple fields that ask for the same information. Those fields need to have identical information or things get messed up. I don't know for sure but I am guessing that Disney doesn't also get the correct information in these fields. That would explain why an old credit card number will come up at the check in desk.

 

[4leobeans]

As much as I like the convenience of charging to the room via MB, I'm pretty sure I'm just bringing my card(s) to the parks with me and not charging this time (Dec19). I only have debit cards, and neither bank account will have a balance high enough to accommodate 2x availability of what I'm planning on spending. Unless this all gets worked out better before we leave.

For guests who don’t have US credit/debit cards, daily charging could result in huge exchange and admin fees. From my perspective, pulling out my debit/credit card at the parks to pay for everything is a terrible idea. Each of those transactions would have fees associated with it. We love the MB charging....and paying off the entire balance when we check out - big cost, but only a single transaction fee.

It sounds though, like as long as we have a cc on file, there shouldn’t be anything other than a hold on the card. Since we’re on a package, it’ll already paid off before we arrive. Only our incidentals, special tours, etc will be subject to a hold.

 

[Searc]

For guests who don’t have US credit/debit cards, daily charging could result in huge exchange and admin fees. From my perspective, pulling out my debit/credit card at the parks to pay for everything is a terrible idea. Each of those transactions would have fees associated with it. We love the MB charging....and paying off the entire balance when we check out - big cost, but only a single transaction fee.

It sounds though, like as long as we have a cc on file, there shouldn’t be anything other than a hold on the card. Since we’re on a package, it’ll already paid off before we arrive. Only our incidentals, special tours, etc will be subject to a hold.

Every $100 you spend is subject to a hold, as of right now.

 

[Madame]

Checked out of BWV yesterday. At midnight my CC was charged $2000 USD (showing as pending). I also have the exact same amount again in pending charges in uneven increments varying from $100 to $300 plus. They have not fallen off yet & I have $4000 in credit tied up.

ETA. This is a Canadian US dollar credit card. I’ll report back when the pending charges drop.

Just updating: the $2000 (lump sum) is now posted. The 8+ totalling another $2000 is still pending and have not yet fallen off.