Credit Card Hold?

Just got back from a great cruise on the Grand Princess. We really had a very nice cruise, service was quite good in all areas, entertainment good, nothing to complain about. While doing a check on my credit card I see a $500.00 charge from Princess before we left. I take it this is a hold on my card. I have sailed 14 times on Princess and never had this happen. Is this a new thing for Princess? Kind of bugs me that they don't tell you about it. We have been back since Saturday if someone else has had this happen how long does it take to have it reversed? I used an American Express card if that matters.

Just got back from a great cruise on the Grand Princess. We really had a very nice cruise, service was quite good in all areas, entertainment good, nothing to complain about. While doing a check on my credit card I see a $500.00 charge from Princess before we left. I take it this is a hold on my card. I have sailed 14 times on Princess and never had this happen. Is this a new thing for Princess? Kind of bugs me that they don't tell you about it. We have been back since Saturday if someone else has had this happen how long does it take to have it reversed? I used an American Express card if that matters.

Did you use a credit card or was it actually a debit card? If you use your debit (ATM) card they will put a hold on a certain amount of money.

We got back from the Crown 2 weeks ago...there was a charge of $100 "in progress" when we got back. It took about 1 week for it to drop off.

Just make sure you use a card that has a nice cushion.:D

I have had that happen several times. It usually comes off a couple of days after the cruise ends. Big hotels do the same thing.

Thanks, I used a credit card not a debit card and I thought $500.00 was a little much. I always use my American Express card with large credit amount. I always carry that just in case I need to get home!!! Well I will keep an eye on it and it better come off in a few days!

I believe it is a hold not a charge. Also believe most if not all cruise lines do this even though you might not be aware.

Did you use a credit card or was it actually a debit card? If you use your debit (ATM) card they will put a hold on a certain amount of money.

They put a hold on both credit and debit cards for cruise, hotels, car rentals, gas station, etc.

I am a retired software engineer and project manager for a major financial institution. We just got off the Star Princess on Jan 13. While on the cruise I received daily email alerts for authorizations (holds) for the $24 gratuity each day on my AMEX card. When we departed the ship there was an additional $100 authorization that acts like a hold against your available credit. Two days later Princess put through the actual sales draft for our shipboard account balance. I just checked right now and the ten $24 gratuity authorizations and the $100 authorization have dropped off and don't show as pending anymore on my AMEX card.

As others have posted, it is common for hotels and cruise ships to authorize and hold amounts against your credit availability. It is only the final sales draft that you must pay for and not the authorizations (holds).

As others have posted, it is common for hotels and cruise ships to authorize and hold amounts against your credit availability. It is only the final sales draft that you must pay for and not the authorizations (holds).

The daily authorizations are made to be sure you have enough credit to cover the charges. Princess (and all businesses) make such authorizations so that you do not use up all your credit with other businesses and not have enough left for the charge at the end of your voyage.

How long the authorizations stay with your card is up to the bank involved, not Princess.

Just got back from a great cruise on the Grand Princess. We really had a very nice cruise, service was quite good in all areas, entertainment good, nothing to complain about. While doing a check on my credit card I see a $500.00 charge from Princess before we left. I take it this is a hold on my card. I have sailed 14 times on Princess and never had this happen. Is this a new thing for Princess? Kind of bugs me that they don't tell you about it. We have been back since Saturday if someone else has had this happen how long does it take to have it reversed? I used an American Express card if that matters.

Question? Did you purchase any Princess tours that would be charged to your on board account on the day you boarded? Maybe that's what the hold is.

When we finish our cruise, there is always some "pending" charges on our credit card for some of the daily amounts charged. Our card has a large credit limit, so we have never been concerned about the "pending" daily charges. We never carry a balance from month to month, so we are never in danger of having charges more than our credit limit. Within a few days of returning home the pending daily charges drop off and the total net amount due of onboard charges appears.

How long the authorizations stay with your card is up to the bank involved, not Princess.

While you are likely correct that it is up to the bank, my bank (Citi) typically has authorizations on my account for over three weeks past the end of the cruise.

After one particularly long and expensive cruise, I needed to get those authorizations removed. Citi blamed Princess and insisted on calling them to get permission to remove the authorizations. I personally think they just wanted to be sure the authorizations would not turn into actual charges.

Mostly the "hold" system works but you can see the potential for trouble.

For example, one cruise line says "Please note, some banks hold pre-authorisation funds for up to 30 days and this may appear as a double charge to your credit or debit card until your bank releases the hold. We strongly recommend you check your bank's authorisation process prior to embarkation."

I've had a three thousand dollar hold on a card from a hotel recently and when they did the final charge that showed separately and the bank didn't release the hold for about a week. So the hotel wasn't accessing the held funds but new ones. Potentially there might not have been enough new funds available because of their own hold. Another hotel, same brand, actually did a charge for potential incidentals, and then reversed it on departure so the released funds became available almost straight away - that worked well. They explained the process first. Next time I have a biggish hotel charge coming I'll get them to actually take the funds on check in and avoid the problem.

Same happened with Princess, the holds were still there after the final charge so they too were accessing new funds. Could have been a fun conversation. Sorry sir, your card has declined. Yes I say, that's because of your holds, just use those funds you have already reserved. To which they reply; security to the front desk please we have a deadbeat.

The holds always go away for us.

Never been an issue and not worried about it, fraudulent charges are covered regardless. ;)

The holds always go away for us.

Never been an issue and not worried about it, fraudulent charges are covered regardless. ;)

Our experience as well.

The only time I would be concerned would be if they were actual charges.

Mike:)

Holds are a good reason to use credit cards and not debit cards when dealing with car rentals, gasoline purchase, hotels, cruise lines, etc.

I have never used a debit card and always pay off all credit cards every month. Been doing this for over 50 years.

I do understand that there some people that don't trust themselves with credit cards.

We have become used to the hold. If it does not come off within a week, we call.

On a side note, HAL puts a large hold on a CC at the beginning of a cruise. I think it is $80 per day per person. I may be exaggerating a bit, but I do know it has been troublesome for some folk who budget to the bone.

A slightly different situation: my daughter made a payment on the web site for a 2016 cruise, and the charge came through on her credit card as double. She called Princess and the rep told her that was a "hold" and that it was done by the bank. She called the bank and they said they did no such thing. The cruise balance reflects only one payment, not the two Princess is claiming on the bank card. I told her to call back and get a different rep since reps change their tune so often. This is not an onboard money issue. This is a payment for a future cruise. This situation has not happened with any other cruise where she made payments and eventually paid in full. Any insight?

I had the same thing happen when i prepaid for my excursions two weeks ago. The double charge stayed pending for about four days, then the correct amount was charge, and the duplicate pending disappeared.

Shredie, the same thing happened to me when I did my final payment on my cruise. It showed up as two authorizations and drew down a big chunk of my available credit. The charge came through in a few days at which time the authorization dropped off.

This is one reason why I want to prepay everything (excursions and all) and put cash down as a deposit when I board.

One idea would be to get a separate credit card that you only use for travel, not day-to-day stuff. That way, if credit availability is an issue, it won't matter in your daily life.

I'm carefully costing as much known souvenir, gifts and Cocktail purchases as I can, and intending to purchase On Board Credit to cover most of the estimated costs with additional funds taken as Casino Credit, as I learned from a kind poster, that I can actually redeem this for cash, so if I've underestimated, or found additional souvenir purchases, I have a back up of cash to put on the account. I pre-book and pre-pay as much as possible to minimise nasty surprises, and Cruise Critic posters generously sharing their knowledge has been a wonderful help! I learn something new every single time I come on here, and have been able to help a former work colleague who is sailing on the same cruise with plenty of useful information already!

Whenever you use a credit card the systems go out and check with the credit card company to see if the card is good and if there is sufficient credit available. It then shows up on your account as pending (a hold). Once the actual charge comes in (2-3 days later), if they match the hold, it is removed when the charge is processed. Thus you usually don't see anything.

When you have a hold placed (hotels, cruise lines, etc) that are intended to make sure that you have sufficient credit and they don't know the actual amount that will be charged, then you may have a longer delay in them dropping off. This is because when the actual charge comes it, it does not match the hold amount. In those cases the credit card company does not know that the new charge actually includes the hold amount. Since they don't know, they keep the hold in place until it times out according to their policy.

So basically both the bank is correct, the hold came from Princess and they cannot clear it without approval from Princess (until the banks timeout policy is reached). Princess is right in that the hold is there until the banks timeout policy period is reached.

So basically in a way it is the fault of both parties or neither party because that is how the system works.

There might be a way to link the final transactions to the previously held charges. If there is such a way it apparently is not implemented between Princess and the CC company in use here.

Our credit card calls them temporary authorizations and everyone does it including cruise lines, hotels, airlines, rental car companies etc. Any business that takes you card as collateral for services or goods to be provided will "run the card" through your issuer to see if funds are available for the estimated expense and put a hold on that amount. Sometimes it takes awhile before the hold is released. They have been doing this for decades. It is now a known situation when in the past the credit card issuers did not report to you the hold. I first found out about it in the late 70's when I started traveling in my job and had hotel, airline and car rental reservations.

Our credit card calls them temporary authorizations and everyone does it including cruise lines, hotels, airlines, rental car companies etc. Any business that takes you card as collateral for services or goods to be provided will "run the card" through your issuer to see if funds are available for the estimated expense and put a hold on that amount.

This includes gas stations when you pay at the pump. A $150 hold may be put on the card before you start pumping gas.