Money

[greene]

What is the best way to manage your money at WDW? ( Travelers checks, credit, cash) We really don't want to carry cash but w/ credit it can get out of hand.... Any suggestions?

[pixiegoose]

We tend to carry a certain amount of cash with us each day and leave the rest in the room safe. To save spending money prior to the trip, we take a certain amount in cash out of the bank each week and keep it in an envelope in a safe place. Thus, when we get to the World, we have quite a bit of cash and we'd rather just use it and know exactly how much we're spending instead of just "putting it on the card" and not thinking about it and overspending. We do have cards with us but they only get used if there is something that is rather expensive and after much discussion we decide to buy.

That's just what works best for us- everyone is different and has different ways of managing money.

[faline]

We tend to carry very little cash with us. We do take travelvers checks and also use our credit card (or room key attached to our credit card) as needed.

[goofiecrazy]

we have done all 3 on trips.We usually take a certain amount every day with us and keep ther rest in the safe in the room.

[SBETigg]

I think the best bet is to carry a little cash (about $20) and put the rest on the room key- charge it to the room. Then, you can request print outs from the front desk that show you everything you have spent and where you spent it. Great for budgeting, keeping track, and journaling later (it provides a nice reminder of where you were at what time). There is not much that you need cash for in the parks, with the exception of small snack foods or parade toy types of things.

[berri_boo]

We use cash for food and only take about 40 each to the parks. Anything else we put on credit. I'm not too fond of carrying around too much cash in the parks.

[snifflesmcg]

I think the best bet is to carry a little cash (about $20) and put the rest on the room key- charge it to the room. Then, you can request print outs from the front desk that show you everything you have spent and where you spent it. Great for budgeting, keeping track, and journaling later (it provides a nice reminder of where you were at what time). There is not much that you need cash for in the parks, with the exception of small snack foods or parade toy types of things.

That was exactly, almost word for word, what I was going to say, lol. I only carry about $20, my DL and my room key in my pocket (or in my camera case). Much easier to keep track of. I also send all of my purchases back to the hotel so I don't have to carry them around.

[mindyd2006]

I had a question about charging to your room Do you pay your bill at the end of the trip or do you have to go and pay it every day?

[CleveRocks]

I had a question about charging to your room Do you pay your bill at the end of the trip or do you have to go and pay it every day?

Here's a pretty comprehensive tutorial on room charges at WDW.

First off, Disney is one of the few hoteliers in the country that DO NOT REQUIRE A CREDIT CARD when you check in. They simply don't require a credit card for "expenses" or "incidentals."

When you check in at your resort, they will ask if you want to set up a room charge. You can set up a room charge with a credit card, debit card (with VISA or MC logo), travelers checks, cash, even Disney Dollars. If you present plastic, they will swipe the card just to make sure the card is from an open account. They DO NOT place a "hold" on the card, and they do not charge any amount on the card. At all. Period. Repeat: they do not place ANY hold on a credit card account or on a bank account linked to a debit card. In other words, if you have $4,000 in your checking account, and you sign up for a $500 room charge at the front desk using your debit card, you will still have $4,000 available balance in your checking account.

If you back up the room charge with cash/travelers checks/Disney Dollars, you need to give them to the front desk up-front.

Your credit/debit card is charged ONLY after one of the two following conditions occurs: you meet or exceed your room charge limit; or it's check-out time. Before either of those things happen, not one penny will be charged to your card. They specifically DO NOT charge your account every few days. Very specifically, your account is only charged if you meet/exceed your room charge limit, or you check-out of the hotel (or check-out time occurs, if you're using express check-out).

If for some reason you wish to pay your room charge account with a different form of payment from the form you set it up with, you MUST do this before the account is charged (i.e., before you hit the limit and/or before check-out time).

Each level of resort has a maximum room charge amount. For Value reosrts, it's $500; for Moderates, it's $1K; and for Deluxes it's $1.5K. You can elect to set up your room charge for ANY AMOUNT UP TO AND INCLUDING THAT LIMIT. In other words, if you're staying at a Deluxe resort but want to build-in a safety feature so you don't spend too much, you can choose to have your room charge limit at $832.75 if you really want to.

Once you reach your limit, if your vacation is on-going and you still want room charge privileges, you simply set up a new room charge account. WDW has made it so that you can do this by telephone. This is good for when you are in a park and you just got your room charge declined because your hoped-for purchase put you over the limit. You use your cellphone to call your resort's front desk, and you verbally authorize another room charge in any amount you want up to the limit (you DON'T have to set it up for the same amount you set up the last room charge for).

At any time, you can go to your resort's front desk and request an up-to-the-minute printout of your room charge activity. It's a VERY specific print-out, telling you the total charged in each transaction, the time/place/date of the transaction, and a running remaining balance. It also denotes which card was used to do the room charge. In other words, let's say you're traveling with a friend ... only one room charge can be set up per room. But if you get a printout, you'll be able to go transaction-by-transaction and see who made which charges, and then settle up with each other that way.

Room charge is accepted everywhere at WDW parks and WDW owned-and-operated resorts. The only places inside the parks that can't take room charges are roving vendors, like the folks who walk in front of and behind the parades, selling knick-knacks. Many stores and restaurants at Downtown Disney accept room charges, and many do not. Be prepared.

Any further questions, please ask!

[kakn7294]

If you don't want to carry cash but don't want to go crazy on credit or don't have a credit card, you can get a pre-paid VISA traveler's check card that works like a credit card, is not attached to your personal info and bank account, is reloadable if you need to add more money to it, and is replaceable if it's lost or stolen. There is usually a small fee involved in getting one.

[krorx]

I usually carry a fanny pack in which I have room keys, advil and a little cash for those places where we might be picking up a quick drink or snack. Everything else is charged to our room. I keep all the receipts in the fanny pack and at the end of the day, sit down and talley the damage. We utilize the room safe for all cash, wallets, etc. This time I had my son and his girlfriend along and we dolled out a certain amount of cash for them to eat on. They carried that and dispersed it throughout the day however they saw fit--which was a big hit by the way.

[Checkers]

We usually do a combination of all three (cash, traveler's checks, room charge), using the room charge only on "unexpected" purchases. We carry a limited amount of cash to the parks and keep the rest in the room safe.

[DizneyRox]

Credit Card branded ATM cards are a good way to go. They are accepted anywhere the brand on the card is accepted, and the oney comes right out of your account. That's a good way to manage your manoey as you will know that it's coming out of your account NOW.

We tend to bring some money, but more and more we are just charging to our room card when we can. Makes things easier, and the money is all coming from the same place (my paycheck) so the form of payment really doesn't matter as the register.

If you tend to lose control when using a credit card, then try a set amount of cash ($35-40pp) and also the DDP (I can't beleive I'm recommending the DDP). $35-40pp is a little much, but that's what we did a few years and it worked out great. That's all we could spend so we were able to budget our money. Money not spent one day would roll over to the next, or the end of the vacation and we could splurge on some souveniers at the end if we wanted.

Lately however we've been coming back from vacation with money, just nothing worth buying, so it turns out to be just food, and in the summer, you tend to not get very hungry.

[mindyd2006]

CleveRocks- Thank you so much for the informatijon

[BronxTigger]

I used mostly credit card. We were staying at SOG and therefore did not have room charging privileges. We carried some cash, about $20/day or so, for snack purchases, even though they usually do take credit cards.

The key for us to not overspend was to write down everything we were spending money on. We had a little memo pad that we tracked our purchases on. Even if it was something small, we wrote it down. It's those small things that add up to a lot.

[ctennis]

The only places inside the parks that can't take room charges are roving vendors, like the folks who walk in front of and behind the parades, selling knick-knacks.

One place I found where my room key was not accepted as payment was from a coffee stand immediately outside the gate of the AK. That stand only took cash or credit card, but not room keys.

[Willowwind]

Though I'm sure that I'll have some cash on me ($50 a day or so) most of my vacation savings has been done in either Disney Dollars or Disney Gift Card, so that's what we'll be using at the parks.

[tinkerbell615]

Wow! This is great information. Thank's so much for being so specific about the way the room charge works. We have always used traveler's checks, disney dollars and a little cash. I will, however, say that we are going to try the room charge this year. We have never done this before and it seems so EASY. Traveler's checks, although nice to have in case they are lost or stolen, are so hard to actually use because the person who originally signed them has to use them and that is not always convenient. Thanks again for the info!