Currency Conversion--Canadians take note

[remydiva]

Just back from a TA/Europe cruise on Emerald.

 

Precruise, when filling in the cruise personalizer info and credit card info, I noted the tiny box to check about did you want Princess to do the currency conversion (as Princess charges in US$) OR did you wish to DECLINE THE CURRENCY CONVERSION.

 

On CC I learned that Princess changes its % it tacks onto the US$ to change from US to CDN dollars and that this 'year' (2011?) it is 5%. Apparently it has been as high as 10% some years.

 

Given that my bank's Visa charges 2.5%, and our CDN dollar was about $1.05 to the US when we sailed, it obviously made sense to have Visa do the conversion and NOT Princess. Thus I checked off 'DECLINE CURRENCY CONVERSION'.

 

I also printed up the sheet to show I declined it and took it with me for 'proof'.

 

Upon advice again here on CC, I checked in at the Purser's desk about 5 days into the cruise. The staff told me there was 'no guarantee' this would happen (computer defaults to Convert as most customers are US residents). He advised me to periodically come and have the folio paid off physically using my actual Visa card in order to guarantee it would be Visa converting the US funds and not Princess.

 

This seemed goofy so I waited another few days and went to a different person who showed me in the computer that it was marked on my account 'DCC' which stands for 'Declined Currency Conversion'.

 

Sure enough, once home the Visa card converted the US charges and I came out 'ahead' as in I paid LESS in Canadian funds than the US charges.

 

My advice is to for Canadians to ask specifically to see on the Purser's computer screen that it says 'DCC' to make sure that their charges are not converted (if that is their wish).

 

Never say never but it worked for me. :)

[paigee1981]

Thanks for the tip!

[sabookkeeper]

We have a US funds Visa on a Canadian Bank and after reading suggestions on this site we wrote in red ink on the boarding pass "Do Not Convert". This has worked fine for us and never had any problems.

[RickT]

This can be done at the end of the cruise, even corrected after you've arrived home if there is no time on departure day. I noticed that this is now an electronic part of the pre-cruise checklist on-line so perhaps it will be even less of a problem.

[jdavid]

On each cruise, I always make sure I have enough American currency travellers cheques and the night before dis-embarkation I pay my onboard account in full this way.

 

On our first cruise years ago I noticed the Visa charges were higher than I thought they should be so the travellers cheques work for me. In a few weeks we are doing the Med cruise and with our favorable dollar we are able to make up for all those years our currency vwas below US.

[Cruise Junky]

On each cruise, I always make sure I have enough American currency travellers cheques and the night before dis-embarkation I pay my onboard account in full this way.

 

On our first cruise years ago I noticed the Visa charges were higher than I thought they should be so the travellers cheques work for me. In a few weeks we are doing the Med cruise and with our favorable dollar we are able to make up for all those years our currency vwas below US.

 

You're able to buy your TCs at a better conversion rate than your credit card? That's pretty surprising.

[cdnguy]

We have a US funds Visa on a Canadian Bank and after reading suggestions on this site we wrote in red ink on the boarding pass "Do Not Convert". This has worked fine for us and never had any problems.

We also have a US dollar Visa card and have never had a problem. We get charged in US dollars and we pay the Visa in US dollars. Writing "Do not Convert" is not necessary. Just don't check any of the boxes.

[DanJ]

We also have a US dollar Visa card and have never had a problem. We get charged in US dollars and we pay the Visa in US dollars. Writing "Do not Convert" is not necessary. Just don't check any of the boxes.

 

The problem is that they might assume you, being Canadian, want your charges converted to Canadian. So, they convert it, bill it to your Visa, which then converts them back to US because it's a USD Visa. I've read several reports of that happening on here.