Magic band reuse

So we're thinking of going to Florida later this year (because if it was earlier this year we would have gone already.) We're not staying on Disney property since half our time will be at other places, and frankly since the economy has gotten better it just isn't even close to making sense financially. Thanks, Obama.

Anywho, we have friends with MagicBands (which is sort-of like friends with benefits but not nearly as entertaining), and I was wondering if they lent them to us if we could use them for our trip, or if they're forever linked to the people that bought them, leaving us to live our lives as second class Disney citizens, albeit ones that don't look like dorks with rubber bracelets.

Anyone have experience with this?

Disney's FAQ says they cannot be transferred.

Once a MagicBand or card is linked to your Disney account, it cannot be transferred to another person.

I think you still get the plastic cards when you buy your tickets, which you see lots of people use in the parks. The only thing I can think of that it affects is you have to tell PhotoPass which pictures you were in instead of them automatically adding to your account. You don't need magic bands to book your fast passes, just any form of ticket tied to your Disney account.

If someone in the family feels the vacation just isn't legit without them, you can also just buy a set of magic bands, and go down that rabbit hole of customization. They are available online at the Disney store starting at $13.

Ken P is correct. I tried to do the exact same thing back in January with trying to re-assign some of my dozen or so Magic Bands to my family members who didn't have any. I called and Disney wouldn't budge. Once the band is assigned, it can't be re-assigned it to another person. And even if you book a resort reservation (which includes new bands), the new bands you get have to be assigned to the person(s) listed on the reservation; you can't even initially assign them or gift them to someone else off of the reservation.

The good news is you can purchase new bands on-line or at the parks; depending on the style of the band, some are more expensive than others. The only drawback if you are staying off Disney property is that you can't use the band for charging purposes; which is a nice convenience when staying on property.

Unless your kids really want the band, the RFID admissions card (ticket) does the same thing, you just have to pull it out of your pocket every time you need it; which isn't the end of the world.

Yeah, the bands are linked to the biometrics at the gate, and both are tied to people records. You can't just unwind all of that linkage. If you could, I suspect the resale market for bands would be ridiculous. We've got at least a dozen of them sitting around. Presumably, the older ones have dead batteries, so the long-range RFID (used at the rides for photos, and in Be Our Guest) probably don't work anymore.

Gotcha. Thanks.

Correction to myself... the biometrics are actually tied to the people records, not the bands. You can have any number of bands and or cards linked to the people record. I is good at data.