Credit card for onboard charges

[celticduchess]

My fiancé and myself are trying to book a cruise on the Westerdam. Neither one of us have high enough limits for a charge to cover the $60 per person per day charge. We will be getting some obc and have enough to cover gratuities. I have been on cruises before and hardly charge anything to my room. My question is do they actually charge your card the whole amount or is it like Disney hotels they put a hold, but don't actually charge the amount you spent until you depart? It would just be a real struggle to come up with the $60 per person per day charge amount of I have to have a cash.

Thanks

 

 

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[Mary Ellen]

It's a hold, not a charge.

[runnergirl71]

It's a hold, not a charge.

 

You do still have to have the credit/money available on the account though.

 

Would dividing the charges between two cards be an option? I know on Disney you can attach a separate credit card or cash account to each adult Key To The World card.

[0bnxshs]

<SNIP>

 

Would dividing the charges between two cards be an option? I know on Disney you can attach a separate credit card or cash account to each adult Key To The World card.

 

Yes, when completing HALs online check-in you can specify a different card for each adult.

Edited January 31, 2014 by 0bnxshs

[frankc98376]

They will put a hold on the card for the full amount before you sail. Lat year we were on our honeymoon so had over $1500 in OBC from wedding gifts. HAL still put a hold for $840 on our card day one.

I've heard Celebrity and possibly others only put holds on as needed (supposedly a daily hold once your OBC has been used up). You might check with HAL to see if with sufficient advance OBC a hold could be waived.

Edited January 31, 2014 by frankc98376

[richwmn]

They will put a hold on the card for the full amount before you sail. Lat year we were on our honeymoon so had over $1500 in OBC from wedding gifts. HAL still put a hold for $840 on our card day one.

I've heard Celebrity and possibly others only put holds on as needed (supposedly a daily hold once your OBC has been used up). You might check with HAL to see if with sufficient advance OBC a hold could be waived.

If you have OBC equal to or greater than the "hold" would be, all you need to do is select "cash" as your payment method. When you check in you will be told to check in with the front desk. When I do, they look and see the credit and say thank you. At the end of the cruise, any refundable credit is returned.

[cbr663]

Another option you may wish to consider is to prepay your credit card to cover the entire amount of the hold. For instance, if you are looking at a 7 day cruise for 2, the hold is $840.00. If your credit card has a $600 available, you may wish to credit another $240 to the card so as to have the $840 available. You should check with Holland and your credit card company to ensure that this would work. It may help you from having to have a lot of cash available.

[mamaofami]

I wonder if you can apply to increase the amount of credit you have. Emergencies do happen. What would you do if you needed to fly home, for instance?

[jtl513]

Emergencies do happen. What would you do if you needed to fly home, for instance?

I would also be worried about that. OP - how close is your cruise? Do you have time to apply for the HAL (Barclay) Visa card with a low limit?

 

https://www.barclaycardus.com/apply/Landing.action?campaignId=1865&cellNumber=2&WT.ac=footer_Visa

Edited January 31, 2014 by jtl513

[homeschoolmama]

Most banks have pre paid travel visas. For 4.95 you put the cash on the card and tgen use it as a regular credit card. If possible financially you coukd get one and load it with the required amount to be held. After the cruise you can continue using whatever is left. The card doesn't expire so on future trips you coukd load it the same way. No credit limits, no credit checks, yet fully functioning credit card.

 

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[richwmn]

Most banks have pre paid travel visas. For 4.95 you put the cash on the card and tgen use it as a regular credit card. If possible financially you coukd get one and load it with the required amount to be held. After the cruise you can continue using whatever is left. The card doesn't expire so on future trips you coukd load it the same way. No credit limits, no credit checks, yet fully functioning credit card.

 

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Check with HAL (or any other provider for that matter) and make sure it will work. I seem to remember reading somewhere that HAL doesn't take pre-paid cards.

[homeschoolmama]

Same as cash. They do have problems with taking debit cards so for sure good to check anything out of the norm.

 

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[Typhoon1]

It's a hold, not a charge.

 

The hold is still applied against your credit line until the actual charges post to your account.

[peaches from georgia]

I wonder if you can apply to increase the amount of credit you have. Emergencies do happen. What would you do if you needed to fly home, for instance?

This would be my biggest concern traveling with a low credit limit. Accidents do happen and people at home get sick, etc. etc. Chances slim that one would have to purchase expensive airline tickets suddenly or have hotel/hospital expenses in a foreign country, but I'd never travel without knowing I could cover any eventuality if the need arose. I know some people are comfortable having no credit cards, but you have to wonder how much cash they travel with and what they would do in an emergency. Not all travel insurance pays on the spot when you need the money to get home in an emergency :D

[celticduchess]

Thanks for the replies. We unfortunately can't apply for another card or increase our limit on current cards. I was just mainly asking because at Disney they will put a standard $500 hold on most rooms, but if I only have $200 available they would still let my card go through. I just wouldn't charge much to the room. I didn't know if Holland did something similar. I didn't want to be at the pier checking in and find out there's an issue. I have been on Holland before, but it's been awhile. The only on board charges we will have is gratuities and maybe a drink or two. If something catastrophic did happen we could get home so I am not worried about being able to fly home using one of our cards. We are also driving so don't have to worry about airfare altogether. We are running on a tight budget, but it's our only shot for a honeymoon. We are trying to make it work.

Thanks

 

 

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[RJ2002]

This would be my biggest concern traveling with a low credit limit. Accidents do happen and people at home get sick, etc. etc. Chances slim that one would have to purchase expensive airline tickets suddenly or have hotel/hospital expenses in a foreign country, but I'd never travel without knowing I could cover any eventuality if the need arose. I know some people are comfortable having no credit cards, but you have to wonder how much cash they travel with and what they would do in an emergency. Not all travel insurance pays on the spot when you need the money to get home in an emergency :D

 

Does any travel insurance pay on the spot? With the exception of medical evacuation, I thought you had to pay the expenses yourself and then seek reimbursement from the travel insurance company.

[peaches from georgia]

Does any travel insurance pay on the spot? With the exception of medical evacuation, I thought you had to pay the expenses yourself and then seek reimbursement from the travel insurance company.

I'm sure you're right and I assume none pay expenses on the spot. But as soon as I said NO travel insurance would pay upfront for plane tickets someone would come on and say XYZ company would. Saying ALL or NONE on here can be dangerous. :D

[sherilyn70]

Thanks for the replies. We unfortunately can't apply for another card or increase our limit on current cards. I was just mainly asking because at Disney they will put a standard $500 hold on most rooms, but if I only have $200 available they would still let my card go through. I just wouldn't charge much to the room. I didn't know if Holland did something similar. I didn't want to be at the pier checking in and find out there's an issue. I have been on Holland before, but it's been awhile. The only on board charges we will have is gratuities and maybe a drink or two. If something catastrophic did happen we could get home so I am not worried about being able to fly home using one of our cards. We are also driving so don't have to worry about airfare altogether. We are running on a tight budget, but it's our only shot for a honeymoon. We are trying to make it work.

Thanks

I'd be extremely worried about traveling without a credit card that could cover emergency expenses, let alone not enough for the hotel charges. You may not think you won't need to fly but what happens if you have to part with the ship unexpectedly. I'm afraid that you've also probably opted out on insurance since you're on such a tight budget. I'm assuming you must have bad credit and are hopefully rebuilding it since you have such low limit cards and say you cannot get more. Since you do have at least one good card I would suggest attempting to get a new one, capital one usually gives credit to people rebuilding or staying out fresh.

[Mary Ellen]

The hold is still applied against your credit line until the actual charges post to your account.

Isn't that the definition of a 'hold'? Since the OP used the term 'hold' it seemed logical that the understood what the term means and senseless to give them the definition.

[runnergirl71]

Isn't that the definition of a 'hold'? Since the OP used the term 'hold' it seemed logical that the understood what the term means and senseless to give them the definition.

 

 

The clarification was needed because the second poster said "it's a hold, not a charge".

 

 

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[catl331]

I've read here on CC of cases where people who said they would use a cash deposit did not have to put down the full $60/p/day, but maybe half that amount. Then if the on board charges are approaching that amount the Front Desk calls and asks for more cash. If they can't come up with more cash or credit at that point then they are not allowed to do any more on board charging.

[AlohaPride]

While we are discussing on board spending, I'd like to know if I have to have $60 per day for my young children. They won't be spending any money (we dont allow them to drink soda) without us there. Honestly, with the signature drink card, I doubt DH and I will spend any money either... lol

 

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[catl331]

While we are discussing on board spending, I'd like to know if I have to have $60 per day for my young children. They won't be spending any money (we dont allow them to drink soda) without us there. Honestly, with the signature drink card, I doubt DH and I will spend any money either... lol

 

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If you can, say that you will be using a cash deposit for them ... then at check-in you may be able to put down just the HSC for each by specifying that you don't want them to have any spending privileges. Edited February 1, 2014 by catl331

[AlohaPride]

If you can, say that you will be using a cash deposit for them ... then at check-in you may be able to put down just the HSC for each by specifying that you don't want them to have any spending privileges.

 

I hope this will work!