Not in 74 Years

[dinosaurdem]

13 days ago we disembarked from a 32 day cruise on the Diamond Princess. It is a common billing practice to place a small hold on a credit card account pending a final bill, at which time the authorization is released. I should have known that something was wrong when 4 separate amounts, on 4 separate days showed up, when I checked on line. Once the final bill appeared one of the holds disappeared. Over the course of the last 10 days I have called Princess at least once a day, as promises have been made to clear the holds and the number of holds has gone up and down between three and one. Last night I called my bank and in less than a minute they cleared the last hold ( Princess said that it takes 24 to 48 hours.) This morning the hold was back. I got a call from Princess accounting and was told that they would take care of it. They didn't. I finally got through to customer relations, and she repeated the "early next week" mantra and stated that Princess couldn't possibly be at fault. The bank must be generating these numbers. I called the bank again and they released the hold again. I checked. Let's see if Princess puts it back on. I now have the name and number of a customer relations supervisor. Let's see if I have to call her and, if so, whether she or he can problem solve any better than the rest of the staff.

[Pam in CA]

Banks have different policies and it's up to them to release the hold. Princess cannot do that no matter what you've been told. It's a bank issue which they were clearly able to resolve quickly. Probably not what you wanted to hear. :( If Princess continued to put a hold on your account after you'd paid your folio, then it would be a Princess problem.

 

Frankly, I wasn't impressed with the Diamond's accounting procedures earlier this month when no one's stockholder OBC wasn't applied for almost a week after boarding. It took 10 days for me to get my FCC OBC applied even after going to the PSD twice with my documentation.

[Potstech]

Tell your bank Princess is not authorized to put any holds on your account. They have to do it by banking regulations. After all it is your money they are tiring up.

[dinosaurdem]

Banks have different policies and it's up to them to release the hold. Princess cannot do that no matter what you've been told. It's a bank issue which they were clearly able to resolve quickly. Probably not what you wanted to hear. :( If Princess continued to put a hold on your account after you'd paid your folio, then it would be a Princess problem.

 

Frankly, I wasn't impressed with the Diamond's accounting procedures earlier this month when no one's stockholder OBC wasn't applied for almost a week after boarding. It took 10 days for me to get my FCC OBC applied even after going to the PSD twice with my documentation.

 

Pam, I realize that my account was hard to follow, but My folio is paid and Princess has reestablished holds which the bank removed. Princess accounting acknowledged that they have the responsibility to inform the bank that the holds are inaccurate. Everyone I spoke with, other than customer relations acknowledged that they should take care of it. The bank resolved the issue and Princess unresolved it. They also placed new holds after the total had cleared. The number of holds has gone up and down. Sorry, "probably not what you wanted to hear."

[dinosaurdem]

I may be confusing people. What I am calling a hold on funds is actually a temporary authorization.

[OttawaCA]

I've come to the conclusion that holds are just a part of travelling: hotels, cruise lines, restaurants, car rentals, etc.

 

As a result, I carry a very high credit limit, and it is never an issue.

 

Eventually, the holds clear, and I only pay attention to the actual charges.

[USNUZULOOSE]

You may not know this but gas stations do a hold also. I hate the hold.

[rkmw]

Tell your bank Princess is not authorized to put any holds on your account. They have to do it by banking regulations. After all it is your money they are tiring up.

 

doesnt princess put a hold on your account to make sure you have funds in your account so you can pay the bill

[cherylandtk]

So, are you saying that these 4 holds/temporary authorizations were placed after you disembarked? Or did they exist as of disembarkation? And you had additional pending charges show up after disembarkation?

 

I know on my own account there was a hold amount placed daily that corresponded approximately to the daily spending. I think a total of three or four in amounts of less than $100 each, which were listed under the 'pending' transactions in my credit card account the day after disembarkation. The final folio amount was about $800. A few days later the $800 amount showed up in the cleared column, and a couple of pending transactions were still showing. Those disappeared a few days later, when no corresponding final charge matched them and they fell off the system.

 

If there is no corresponding final charge it does not really matter if the authorizations are placed unless you are bumping up against your credit limit. It would be normal for up to seven authorizations to be placed on a seven day cruises (depending on your spending patterns)....but it is only the actual final charge that counts. The other six would age out and disappear according to your bank's hold policies.

[dinosaurdem]

One last time, I am aware of holds and I understand them. I also know that they clear once a final bill is charged. The issue is four holds against one charge, the difficulty of getting them cleared, and the fact that they have appeared and disappeared over a 2 week period. Perhaps I am just not able to explain how unusual this sequence is or maybe I shouldn't criticize Princess, even though I have now spent about ten hours trying to resolve this.

[cherylandtk]

The issue is four holds against one charge, the difficulty of getting them cleared.

I can see you are frustrated, so let me say this gently; Four holds is not an issue, it is normal if you had spending on more than one day. ONE hold will disappear when the final folio bill is put through. The OTHER three or five or 27 pending charges age out and disappear. You can safely ignore unmatched pending authorizations. Don't worry or bother calling the bank or Princess unless you get two processed charges put through.

 

If additional holds showed up, that might be a problem, but you would have to give more detail for it to be examined and explained and the frustration you are already experiencing is probably not worth it.

[dinosaurdem]

I can see you are frustrated, so let me say this gently; Four holds is not an issue, it is normal if you had spending on more than one day. ONE hold will disappear when the final folio bill is put through. The OTHER three or five or 27 pending charges age out and disappear. You can safely ignore unmatched pending authorizations. Don't worry or bother calling the bank or Princess unless you get two processed charges put through.

 

If additional holds showed up, that might be a problem, but you would have to give more detail for it to be examined and explained and the frustration you are already experiencing is probably not worth it.

 

Additional holds have shown up. If more than 1 or 2 holds is normal why hasn't it occurred on 20 previous cruises, and why have previous holds cleared expeditiously. For those of you who think that I am worried, I'm not. I am fairly OCD, love closure, and find Princess' inefficiency irritating. My primary point is that I have experienced nothing like this in 74 years in my personal life or in business; nor am asking anything of Princess except closure. I have the account cleared. My hope is that Princess leaves it alone.

[cherylandtk]

What sort of amounts, and how long after disembarkation was the last one? Did it correspond to one that you asked the bank to remove? Are you nearing your credit limit? If not, you can safely ignore the hold authorization and it will age off. You only need to react if there is a subsequent processed charge that gets put through OR if you see additional hold amounts that exceed the age-out rate.

[lovevacadays]

Pam, I realize that my account was hard to follow, but My folio is paid and Princess has reestablished holds which the bank removed. Princess accounting acknowledged that they have the responsibility to inform the bank that the holds are inaccurate. Everyone I spoke with, other than customer relations acknowledged that they should take care of it. The bank resolved the issue and Princess unresolved it. They also placed new holds after the total had cleared. The number of holds has gone up and down. Sorry, "probably not what you wanted to hear."

 

Aaahh! I don't think Pam was trying to be rude. I know her and she just tries to be helpful. No need to respond like you did.:eek:

 

I do hope it gets taken care of for you as I can imagine it is very frustrating.

[Pam in CA]

Pam, I realize that my account was hard to follow, but My folio is paid and Princess has reestablished holds which the bank removed. Princess accounting acknowledged that they have the responsibility to inform the bank that the holds are inaccurate. Everyone I spoke with, other than customer relations acknowledged that they should take care of it. The bank resolved the issue and Princess unresolved it. They also placed new holds after the total had cleared. The number of holds has gone up and down. Sorry, "probably not what you wanted to hear."

It is confusing. Multiple holds are not unusual while you're on the cruise as every night, a hold is placed for the amount due on your folio. It's up to your bank to remove the hold when a new one is created or payment is made.

 

Princess policy is to place a nightly hold for the amount due to make sure the charge will clear. It's your bank's policy to automatically clear holds after a certain period of time (which depends on the bank but is usually 24 hours) or clear previous holds when the final charge is made.

 

If I understand your situation, holds were continued to be placed in the days after you disembarked and your final folio bill was charged to your credit card. They were not leftover holds that hadn't been cleared by your bank prior to disembarkation. Do I have this right?

[dinosaurdem]

What sort of amounts, and how long after disembarkation was the last one? Did it correspond to one that you asked the bank to remove? Are you nearing your credit limit? If not, you can safely ignore the hold authorization and it will age off. You only need to react if there is a subsequent processed charge that gets put through OR if you see additional hold amounts that exceed the age-out rate.

Cheryl,

 

You are trying very hard to be thoughtful and I appreciate it, but you are missing my point. One more time.

The amounts are small.

The same amounts keep appearing and disappearing.

My margin on my account is five digits, and I'm not worried.

I have never seen a hold authorization last 10 days after a charge is processed, before aging out.

I am irritated not worried. My bank has removed the authorizations. It appears highly unlikely that they would have reinstated them without Princess' initiation.

As I said above, I like closure.

I have worked at a bank and been a CEO of two fairly large organizations and this is new to me.

 

P.S. I've met Pam and she is a nice person, but sometimes nice people, like me, are unintentionally rude.

[cherylandtk]

I am not quite sure how to respond to several of your points, so I shall quietly bow out of this discussion and wish you good luck on solving your irritations by yourself.

[dinosaurdem]

I am not quite sure how to respond to several of your points, so I shall quietly bow out of this discussion and wish you good luck on solving your irritations by yourself.

 

Me too. Thanks for trying. I think that we have a failure to communicate.

[Host Jazzbeau]

I have had a similar experience in the recent past with another cruise line.

 

I can't figure out the logic of it all, but the holds eventually aged out all by themselves.

 

My advice is to be a little more patient, keep checking your credit card online every day to make sure none of these holds turns into a charge [that would require immediate intervention], and eventually you will see that they disappear.

[Dudleydog73]

On my last cruise I also had questions about the holds as I had approximately 4 that were placed on my account during the course of the 7 day cruise, but the amounts seemed very random and did not match AT ALL the spend amounts per day that my folio showed. In fact the final transaction did not show up on my credit card for several days after we disembarked which seemed odd as well since I can check online immediately after a transaction and see it pending.

 

Not sure how they ran the card and printed me a final zero balance folio without it showing up for days. Eventually the weird holds fell off and the final bill posted as expected.

[Keith1010]

I am sure this will sort itself out.

 

Keith