Magic band charging: Two people with same name

tbssenterprises

DIS Veteran
Joined
Oct 3, 2008
Hello. My adult daughter and I have the same name. We have two separate MDE accounts. Without giving my real name, let's just say it's Patricia, and we call her Patty. Last year when we vacationed together, her magic band charges ended up on my account. Now, being the good Mom, I didn't ask her to pay me back. Please note that she had NO IDEA that the charges were going onto my account. We shared the room together at a deluxe. What I am afraid of is that with this upcoming trip where she will be with me for a few days, she will be moving on to another hotel after I return home to meet up with friends and spend a few days with them at the park. How can I ensure that her charges won't hit my account again? I've had numerous trips with her since she was a toddler and we always meet up at least once a year at WDW. The charges really weren't from her buying merchandise, but instead from sitting in a lounge after a long day for a cocktail and a bite, while I returned to the room.
 
For the reservation that you are both on, you need to stop at the front desk and have them set it up so that each persons room charges go to their own credit card.

For her next reservation, her credit card should be the one on file for room charges. If any of her friends are staying in the room with her, they all should stop at the front desk to have each persons room charges go to their own credit cards.
 
When you check in, stop at the front desk and ask them to set up your individual bands with separate credit cards. You'll set up a pin number (although I rarely actually had to use my pin when I made a purchase). But setting up separate cards breaks the charges up. I travel with my parents and we do this every trip. We turn it into a game of 'who paid more' at the end of our trip because we can all see our individual charges this way. LOL
 
For the reservation that you are both on, you need to stop at the front desk and have them set it up so that each persons room charges go to their own credit card.

For her next reservation, her credit card should be the one on file for room charges. If any of her friends are staying in the room with her, they all should stop at the front desk to have each persons room charges go to their own credit cards.

Jinx. :)
 


What I am afraid of is that with this upcoming trip where she will be with me for a few days, she will be moving on to another hotel after I return home to meet up with friends and spend a few days with them at the park. How can I ensure that her charges won't hit my account again?
If your credit card is on file for your MDE account, and the room reservation for your resort stay with your daughter is your MDE account, then you will have to keep an eye on the charges to make sure they didn't accidently charge your credit card when she used her MB. You can keep track of the charges in the MDE app on a daily basis. They will stop charging your credit card at the end of your check out day.

If her credit card is on file for her MDE account and her second reservation with friends is not on your MDE account, your credit card will not be charged.
 
The name part has nothing to do with it. As mentioned above, there is some front desk maneuvering required. We traveled with friends in a 2 bedroom and their charges ended up on my card. None of us have the same first or last name. I think of it as "charging to the room" rather than "charging to the band."
But apparently there is a way around this (see above posts). I've not figured it out.
 


Our room charges were broken out by guest name even though they all went to the same credit card. It will be easy enough to determine which charges belong to each of you even if you don’t get the credit card thing worked out. Have a great trip!
 
I would like to add to go back to the front desk at least twice after they have made the necessary changes to ensure that this no longer happens. Unfortunately, not every CM gets this process correct, at least in my family's experience.


I would recommend stopping by the hotel desk at night when you are finished for the evening to check after the change has been made to ensure that things are going on the correct card.

If there is a while before purchases/charges are made by your daughter, they may be delayed when being posted by Disney, hence my 2-day rule.

~NM
 
After checking in with the front desk go to the store and each buy a water bottle. Check back in with the front desk and see if the charges posted, and if they were broken out correctly. If they haven’t posted yet go about your day and check back in with them when you return to the hotel. Worst that happens is it’s all okay and you each have an ice cold water bottle to start your day with!

If you don’t want to tell your daughter about last time just say “I heard Disney has been having some issues with breaking out charges lately so we should double check it all”
 
I don't get the appeal of charging to the room. I have an Apple Watch and use it for most of my daily purchases outside of WDW and didn't see the point of complicating things by introducing another mechanism in the middle. Just don't use room charges for anything but the actual hotel folio. Pretty much all places in WDW take Apple Pay or Google Pay. I liked being able to see the charges as they were occurring rather than waiting till the end and getting a big hotel bill.
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There are a few reasons people may use room charging not everyone has an apple watch, wanting to pay with gift cards they've bought at a discount, magic band can't die etc. The original magic bands came out before the apple watch and apple pay, so at that time I think it was maybe more of a convenience than it is now when there are other ways to tap and pay people may have access to.
 
I don't get the appeal of charging to the room. I have an Apple Watch and use it for most of my daily purchases outside of WDW and didn't see the point of complicating things by introducing another mechanism in the middle. Just don't use room charges for anything but the actual hotel folio. Pretty much all places in WDW take Apple Pay or Google Pay. I liked being able to see the charges as they were occurring rather than waiting till the end and getting a big hotel bill.
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I'm glad that works for you but people have many reasons for charging to the room. Our 2 tops are:
- we pay off room charges with gift cards without needing to carry the cards to the parks
- being an international visitor (as many are at Disney), each time we charge to our cc we are charged a transaction fee. Those can quickly add up.

I'm glad you've found something that works for you but please realize others can choose differently.
 

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