Hi Melissa! Welcome back to the Disney Parks Moms Panel!
Do you realize how close you are to your Walt Disney World Resort vacation now?! Of course you do! If you are anything like me, you have probably been counting down the days. You will absolutely love staying at a
Disney Resort hotel during the
holiday season. The decorations are swoon-worthy and the festive events in the theme parks will make your December extra merry and bright!
As a family that travels without using credit cards, I completely understand your concern! My husband and I use a debit card for incidentals, but it is only there for our peace of mind in case of an emergency and we don't actually use our
MagicBands/hotel account for charges. Instead, we use Disney gift cards and cash to stay on budget during our vacations. Before we started adding our debit card to our hotel accounts, we actually requested that we not have a card on file, and it was perfectly fine! Under the
Payment Card Policy on the Walt Disney World website, it says, "if you
choose to place a payment card on your resort folio account for expenses and incidental charges," and that makes me think that requesting to not have a card on file is still fine!
If you are required to have a card on file, however, the max amount that will be charged as an
authorization hold is currently $100.00 (you will want to verify this amount at the
Front Desk when you arrive) and as long as you don't make any charges to your account, you should not have anymore money held. You can read all the details about the authorization hold at the link I included above.
I hope this helps and that you have the BEST vacation, Melissa! Please let us know if you have any other questions.
Tabitha