Charging Purchases to Room

[Bringonthemouse!]

Ok, I have a few questions on how this works:

1)Can cash be used for room charging priviledges or is it strictly done through credit cards?
AND
2)If my DD15 has charging priviledges on her Key, will she have to show ID to use it in the parks or will she just sign it like it's a credit card?
She has a lot of spending money saved for this trip and there is no way I'm going to let her cart it all through the parks, I thought this would be the easiest solution but I do have many other back-up ideas.
AND
3)If she will need ID to use the Key for purchasing, will a high school student card with picture be sufficient of will it have to be government issued?
Thanx!!
:mickey:

[PAYROLL PRINCESS]

If I remember correctly, they usually put a certain amount on hold for credit cards, so I'm not sure if you would have to put a certain amount of cash down. For example, they may authorize your credit card for $500 and if you hit that, they would authorize your card for more. However I would think that if you reach your (cash) limit, you just wouldn't be able to charge any more.
I've never had to show an ID to use my Key to the Kingdom to charge so I wouldn't think she will have to either. But it wouldn't hurt to have the school ID just in case.
And how smart of her to save money to go to WDW for her shopping.

[TheRustyScupper]

1)Can cash be used for room charging privileges or is it strictly done through credit cards?
. . . yes, you can put down cash instead of credit card
. . . credit cards do not have holds put on limits

2)If my DD15 has charging privileges on her Key, will she have to show ID to use it in the parks or will she just sign it like it's a credit card?
. . . they do not ask for ID to charge on the key
. . . they just compare signatures (or are supposed to)

3)If she will need ID to use the Key for purchasing, will a high school student card with picture be sufficient of will it have to be government issued?
. . . no need to carry any other items or ID

NOTE: WDW used to place a hold or "authorization" on credit cards and debit cards. This is no longer done. They run a Zero-Dollar charge through only to verify the account is active.

[medic9016]

In the past we have told the CM we are going to pay cash at the end of our trip and they just run our credit card through to make sure it is an active account. It has worked fine for us.

[vamaggie]

You could also have her get a Disney gift card for the cash before you leave home. This way she can either put the card on the room account or use the gift card for purchases and won't have to worry about carrying cash from home. One thing: I don't believe they can "separate" charging privleges based on the person the card is issued to--it is tied to the room. So if DD and you and DH and DS are all in the same room, in theory (as I understand it) anyone with privleges on their Key to the Kingdom card could charge to the room. It may be easier to keep track of if DD uses the gift card rather than cahrging back to the room. Just an idea.

[brownie]

I'd go with a WDW gift card for your daughter.

[Clotho]

I'd go with a WDW gift card for your daughter.

^^ I agree with this!

As far as charging on the KTTK card, when we went in 2004, they did put a certain limit on it. I think it was $400-$500. They said when we reached that limit, we could go to the front desk and authorize another chunk to the card.

I remember sometimes being asked for ID to verify signatures, and sometimes not. Better to have that ID handy for anyone in your party who mights use the charging privileges.

[Bringonthemouse!]

I'd go with a WDW gift card for your daughter.

These are not available for purchase in Canada. I actually drove for an hour to our closest Disney store so I could get her one and was told they aren't available to Canadians, that I have to buy them in the U.S. I'm not sure why. That is the reason I thought the Key would be the least hassle.
Thanx for all the replies!

[bubbarox]

I really like the idea of the Disney gift cards, I have 2 pre-teens that like to have their own spending money. Is there anywhere at WDW where you can purchase the gift cards once you are there?

[Clotho]

These are not available for purchase in Canada. I actually drove for an hour to our closest Disney store so I could get her one and was told they aren't available to Canadians, that I have to buy them in the U.S. I'm not sure why. That is the reason I thought the Key would be the least hassle.
Thanx for all the replies!

I'm not sure what the hassle would be. Deposit your daughter's money into your bank account in Canada, so nobody is carrying the cash on the plane (or into her bank account if she has one--she should by this age, I would think). When you get to the parks, go to any store and buy one for her in the amount of the money she gave you (or is in her account now ;). Voila!

[tinksmom02]

Can you order the gift cards from the disneydirect.com website? I'm pretty sure that I ordered DD a gift card at Christmastime for our WDW trip.

[CleveRocks]

A room charge can be backed up with a credit card, debit card with VISA/MC logo, travelers checks, cash, and even DIsney Dollars.

Each level of resort has set UPPER limits. AT a Value resort, your ceiling for the room charge is $500, at Moderates it's $1k, and at Deluxes it's $1.5K. You can set your room charge limit for any amount up to that limit.

When you reach or exceed that limit, you can authorize a new charge by phone or in-person at your resort's front desk.

A single room can only have one room charge account, and anyone with room charging privileges can charge up to that full amount ... there's no possibility of limiting a particular card to a particular amount.

As TheRustyScupper said, there is no hold of any kind placed on credit or debit cards. NONE AT ALL. They run your card to make sure it's linked to an active account, but there is absolutely no hold placed on it, and they absolutely don't even check to make sure you have that much available credit (or bank balance).

[Clotho]

As TheRustyScupper said, there is no hold of any kind placed on credit or debit cards. NONE AT ALL. They run your card to make sure it's linked to an active account, but there is absolutely no hold placed on it, and they absolutely don't even check to make sure you have that much available credit (or bank balance).

Well, except for any limit your bank may already impose on daily limits.

In any case, I think you're right, CleveRocks. I think they gave us an OPTION to put a limit on it (we were are a Deluxe), which we decided to do, so that if we had our card lost or stolen, there would be a limit on what anyone could do with the card. Sorry for any confusion!

[KylesMom]

I was shocked this past June when we reached our $1,500 limit and were not asked to sign off on the charges to start a new balance.

This has never been Disney's policy - you used to have to go down to the front desk and sign off on the $1,500 worth of charges (or whatever your resort limit was) to reset your spending limit.

Although we signed for a $1,500 spending limit, once we hit it they processed the charges without notifying us so that we could continue to charge to the room. Even though we were aware we were close to our max. room charge, I would have liked to know when we hit it.

Not sure I like the automatic renewal of funds . . .

To answer the original poster's question, we've never had to show ID when we use our card for charging purposes.

[jusandnew]

I was there last week and to charge to your room key the debt/cedit card will be ran at check in to see if it is active. My children 11/13could of had used their keys for charges if i ok it when they received their keys.
When you use your room key they will compare the sign on the card. You will receive the charges on your check out bill.I used it at the parks and hotel for food and other things.

There is NO HOLD OR LIMIT . placed on your account.