How much credit card hold for S&S?

[kwagmyre]

7-day, western carib cruise... I used a credit card to setup the S&S account - how much of a hold do they place on the card at the start of the cruise? Trying to make sure I have enough on the available limit.

[klfrodo]

Completely up to the financial institution who issued you your credit card. If you have a low limit,,say $500,, you could have issues.

 

Let us recommend that you open your account with $500 cash,, then at the end of the cruise or when the $500 cash runs out,,, you apply your credit card.

 

Here's a worst case scenario on how it could work.

 

$500 credit limit

Show up to ship hand over card, they run a $200 authorization (pending or hold)

 

Tuesday your S&S bill is up to $150

Carnival runs another authorization for $100

 

You now have only $200 available because $300 is tied up in "holds or pendings"

 

Your total bill at end of cruise is $225,,, your overdrawn,,,,

 

99 people out of 100 will say 'no Problem" "never happened"

however,,, it CAN and DOES happen.

All dependant upon your bank or credit card issuer.

[kwagmyre]

Completely up to the financial institution who issued you your credit card. If you have a low limit,,say $500,, you could have issues.

 

Let us recommend that you open your account with $500 cash,, then at the end of the cruise or when the $500 cash runs out,,, you apply your credit card.

 

Here's a worst case scenario on how it could work.

 

$500 credit limit

Show up to ship hand over card, they run a $200 authorization (pending or hold)

 

Tuesday your S&S bill is up to $150

Carnival runs another authorization for $100

 

You now have only $200 available because $300 is tied up in "holds or pendings"

 

Your total bill at end of cruise is $225,,, your overdrawn,,,,

 

99 people out of 100 will say 'no Problem" "never happened"

however,,, it CAN and DOES happen.

All dependant upon your bank or credit card issuer.

 

Ok. I think I may need to ask the question differently.

 

I understand what you are saying about the institution, holds, etc. What I am asking is, in a nutshell, "What is the amount of the initial hold?" That's an amount that Carnival picks - I'm just trying to figure out what it is. I had heard/read somewhere that some cruise lines will do $100/day for every day of the cruise (so, $700 right up front, on a 7-day cruise). True? Not true?

[mephistoles]

I have been curious about this also. However, we decided to do a cash account while on board. The only thing that I plan to buy wile on board is probably a couple of t-shirts.

[Distilled1]

initial seems to be 200 on 2 cruises but both 4 day

[debbie418]

I was just on the phone with carnival and they said $200 hold for a 8 day cruise...

[keystonemama]

Here is a link to the CCL faq's page:

http://www.carnival.com/Core/FAQ.aspx?faq=online+checkin#q-1046701

 

http://www.carnival.com/CMS/Static_Templates/EMB_sail_and_sign_boardingcard.aspx

 

 

Happy Sailing,

[jsmac3]

I believe they process holds on a daily basis.

 

This is a confusing issue. I had difficulty on a 15 day Panama Canal Cruise during March of 2009. I went to use my S & S card and it wouldn't work. I went to the purser's desk and they told me my credit card company had denied my charges. I called the credit card company and they said they had denied no charges - that in fact Carnival had in fact been billing my account daily. Evidently, it was poorly trained personnel at the purser desk that caused my problem. I wasted several hours of my vacation and some cell phone charges to find out there was no problem with my credit card company.

 

So, what I'm thinking is they process holds on a daily basis and the processed hold is whatever your charges for the day were.

 

I believe the proper term is "reserving credit". In any event, the credit card I use has no limit - you just have to pay it all in 30 days.

[mlzangel78]

carnival posted a $100 a day hold on my credit card EVERY day of the cruise... i never ever again used a credit card on a cruise as it ate up my whole available balance and then got denied it was a $500 limit.. now i just put cash on and i dont worry about it.

 

NEVER do this with a DEBIT card.... my BFF learned that the hard way on our first cruise... same thing $100 a day hold , she bounced 4 checks that were out and didnt even know until we came back from the cruise.

[mlzangel78]

please also keep in mind these HOLDS do NOT drop off at the end of the cruise they actually take 5-7 days to unpost from your pending credit card

[CRUISE4JANE]

I have never heard anything like this. Whenever I travel, I use my Am. Express. I have never had any problems. I only cruised twice so far, put my Am. Express down on my S&S, and that was that. If they held something, I didn't know. The card I have is considered a charge card, not a CC (so they told me, no limit), but has to be paid at the end of the billing month. It is a gold Am. Expresss.

[marshhawk]

When I did use a card, they asked me how much I wanted to put on it when the S & S card was set up. Now I use cash, and just go to the pursers office to put the cash on when we get on board. This time I have an OBC, and I don't drink, and I don't gamble, I do drink the water in the cabin. So I should be good for a few days with the OBC, and we do buy smokes so we will put 150.00 on top of the OBC and that should cover us for the week.:)

 

Oh, I've already paid my tips.

[Aramis]

I only use cash for S&S now, I also had problems in 2009 with Celebrity, they did a 6 cent transaction on my CC (I had bought 6 x 1cent postcards that day), they denied it but it seemed really odd given the amount and my CC card company had all the evidence, problem was I was at sea got an sms on my mobile that my card had been cancelled. Had to phone Australia from the Meditteranean costing over 50 USD, they knew I was overseas but due to the odd nature of the transaction thought something was wrong, thankfully got it sorted. At the time Celebrity re-imbursed the amount for the phone calls, but when I got home it had been taken out again, and not worth the cost of ringing when overseas and trying to fix again. Still angry now about it.