Paying Onboard Expense Account

[Ha-pealady]

I am British and have a UK Amex Card which I intend to use for settling my onboard credit account at the end of the cruise. Can anybody tell me which box I should tick from the 2 options available which would be the most cost effective:

 

"I choose to pay my onboard charges in the currency of my card (i.e. I choose to use Celebrity Cruises currency conversion program or:

 

"I choose to have my credit card issuer convert my onboard charges to the currency of my card in lieu of participating in the Celebrity Cruises currency conversion program"

 

It also states "If you use a MasterCard or Visa Card issued outside of the US..." Well, I have an Amex Card so not even sure whether I need to tick either of the 2 boxes. I am totally confused and would be grateful if somebody could give me some advice. Apologies if I appear thick!

[simon stingray]

There have been numerous threads regarding this and the advice has always been to have your card charged in USD and let your bank (or AMEX) do the conversion.

 

Apparently the rate that Celebrity uses to calculate the conversion is not good.

[DebbieMacG]

This one :)

 

"I choose to have my credit card issuer convert my onboard charges to the currency of my card in lieu of participating in the Celebrity Cruises currency conversion program"

[Ha-pealady]

This one :)

 

"I choose to have my credit card issuer convert my onboard charges to the currency of my card in lieu of participating in the Celebrity Cruises currency conversion program"

 

Thanks for your advice, I suspected that is the better option and that is what I will do.

[fleckle]

I am British and have a UK Amex Card which I intend to use for settling my onboard credit account at the end of the cruise. Can anybody tell me which box I should tick from the 2 options available which would be the most cost effective:

 

"I choose to pay my onboard charges in the currency of my card (i.e. I choose to use Celebrity Cruises currency conversion program or:

 

"I choose to have my credit card issuer convert my onboard charges to the currency of my card in lieu of participating in the Celebrity Cruises currency conversion program"

 

It also states "If you use a MasterCard or Visa Card issued outside of the US..." Well, I have an Amex Card so not even sure whether I need to tick either of the 2 boxes. I am totally confused and would be grateful if somebody could give me some advice. Apologies if I appear thick!

Just make sure you know whether or not your UK Amex Card charges a fee for currency conversion before deciding whether or not that is the card to use.

 

The standard advice whenever currency conversion is involved is to use a credit card that does not charge a fee for currency conversion and to have the credit card company do the conversion, never the cruise line.

 

[Project_gal]

As others have said, the usual answer is to let your credit card do the conversion but, as also mentioned, you should check if your credit card adds a conversion fee [you need to check both your credit card and Celebrity small print to compare fees].

 

However, as with most things in life, nothing is really that simple! What most people ignore is the exchange rate used. This is likely to vary from day to day and the rate used will vary from organisation to organisation. If you do not believe me, compare the rates offered for exchanging cash by various foreign exchange companies or even the same company in different locations. Credit cards which do not charge a conversion fee still have to make their money and probably use a less advantageous [for you] rate.

 

Celebrity and your credit card company may to be doing the conversion on different days and will almost certainly be using different rates. If you have more than one credit card, their different billing cycles may result in them making the conversion on different days.

 

The conversion fee applied by Celebrity was, when I last checked a percentage rate. Your credit card may use a percentage or flat fee. [Our credit card company has used both at different times over the years.] If a flat rate charge is made, the higher your final account the more advantageous it is to have a flat rate fee.

 

So, as I said, nothing in life is simple. "Commission Free" foreign exchange and "no conversion fee" credit cards are easy to sell but may not be better value. It is still probably better to let your credit card do the conversion but this is because they are in the financial services industry and their overall value is likely to be better than that done by a company in the cruise industry. Where you will get the best deal on one particular transaction is absolutely impossible to say. If your final bill is low and neither your credit card company nor your cruise line uses a flat rate charge, the difference may only be a couple of pounds at the most.

 

The decision whether or not to have a couple of scoops of gelato is probably more important!

 

Just select option B and forget about it.

[swigso]

If you have the Amex charge card you need do

Nothing

Not sure about the Credit Card as that will either be a visa or

MasterCard depending what guise it was issued.

[melsuli]

Just let your credit card people know the details of your cruise, in case the transactions are red flagged by their monitoring department.

[daisy-mae]

In order to avoid the dilemma, we purchase US currency when the rate is favorable and deposit same against our account when we board.

[ghstudio]

One "gotcha" from the credit card companies that you have to be aware of. Some have "foreign transaction" charges that depend on where the charge is entered....NOT on the currency being entered. If you have one of those cards (and it's not so easy to find out), even if Celebrity helps you by changing the billing to UK pounds (or other), if they do the transaction in Miami (which they will), you may be charged that foreign transaction fee on top of the fee celebrity charges.

 

The safest and generally lowest cost way to charge things abroad is to have the charge made in the local currency....don't let the car rental agency, store or cruise line do the conversion for you.

[Ha-pealady]

As others have said, the usual answer is to let your credit card do the conversion but, as also mentioned, you should check if your credit card adds a conversion fee [you need to check both your credit card and Celebrity small print to compare fees].

 

However, as with most things in life, nothing is really that simple! What most people ignore is the exchange rate used. This is likely to vary from day to day and the rate used will vary from organisation to organisation. If you do not believe me, compare the rates offered for exchanging cash by various foreign exchange companies or even the same company in different locations. Credit cards which do not charge a conversion fee still have to make their money and probably use a less advantageous [for you] rate.

 

Celebrity and your credit card company may to be doing the conversion on different days and will almost certainly be using different rates. If you have more than one credit card, their different billing cycles may result in them making the conversion on different days.

 

The conversion fee applied by Celebrity was, when I last checked a percentage rate. Your credit card may use a percentage or flat fee. [Our credit card company has used both at different times over the years.] If a flat rate charge is made, the higher your final account the more advantageous it is to have a flat rate fee.

 

So, as I said, nothing in life is simple. "Commission Free" foreign exchange and "no conversion fee" credit cards are easy to sell but may not be better value. It is still probably better to let your credit card do the conversion but this is because they are in the financial services industry and their overall value is likely to be better than that done by a company in the cruise industry. Where you will get the best deal on one particular transaction is absolutely impossible to say. If your final bill is low and neither your credit card company nor your cruise line uses a flat rate charge, the difference may only be a couple of pounds at the most.

 

The decision whether or not to have a couple of scoops of gelato is probably more important!

 

Just select option B and forget about it.

Thanks for your help and I think I shall opt for option 2 as I'm not expecting a massive inboard spend as we have a drinks package and also some inboard credit and I agree I shall definitely not go without my ice creams and coffees!

[Fouremco]

As a Canadian resident, I find that the best option is to use a USD VISA card. There are no conversion charges, and I simply pay off my bill in USD. Like daisy-mae, I watch the exchange rates and purchase American funds when the rates are favourable.

 

On the question of Celebrity's exchange rate, I can't comment on the onboard rate, but the website rate is really quite good. When pricing cruises, I'll check both the USD and Canadian dollar rates, converting the USD amount using the most favourable rate available to me. In every case so far, the quoted fares in Canadian dollars have been less than the converted USD fares.

[ReneeFLL]

I would let your cc company do the conversion.

[Sloop-JohnB]

As a Canadian resident, I find that the best option is to use a USD VISA card. There are no conversion charges, and I simply pay off my bill in USD. Like daisy-mae, I watch the exchange rates and purchase American funds when the rates are favourable.

 

On the question of Celebrity's exchange rate, I can't comment on the onboard rate, but the website rate is really quite good. When pricing cruises, I'll check both the USD and Canadian dollar rates, converting the USD amount using the most favourable rate available to me. In every case so far, the quoted fares in Canadian dollars have been less than the converted USD fares.

 

Agree 100% with everything that FOUREMCO said above. As Canadians we do similar (most CDN Banks issue US Funds Credit Cards)

 

Usually putting our booked Cruise in CDN Dollars on our CDN Bank CC (Celebrity Rates being favorable) in this way our largest expense qualifies for CC / Airmiles Points

 

On-board everything is in US Dollars. So we settle up our account with our CDN Bank US Funds CC... No points but easy breezy. We use our US Funds CC whenever we travel to the US & Caribbean where US Currency is king.

 

Before there were US Fund CCs we did as another poster said when traveling to the USA... Buy US Currency when rates were favorable.

 

Hope this helps,

 

Cheers!

[daisy-mae]

"Before there were US Fund CCs we did as another poster said when traveling to the USA... Buy US Currency when rates were favorable."

 

We actually do both -- we have a US$CC and a US$ account where we deposit US funds periodically, whenever our dollar is strong. The account that I have with BMO allows me to transfer funds directly to the CC account online, so there is no need to visit the local bank branch.

 

We got into the habit of depositing US cash to our onboard account rather than use our card because of some confusion with another cruise line (not Celebrity) that was automatically assuming that Canadian passengers held Canadian fund CCs, and would bill CDN accounts accordingly (regardless of what box was ticked). This required close monitoring in order to avoid double conversion (to CDN by the cruise line, then back to US by the CC company).

[kyli]

Ha-pealady

Please forgive this misplaced post. I have not yet figured out how to to post appropriately.

I am newly choosing this cruise and am wondering if your scheduled tours are full. Thanking you for your response in advance.

 

(I assume I will find your answer at the end of this post -- I can also check roll call. With much appreciation)

 

The information on this site is invaluable.

[Ha-pealady]

Ha-pealady

Please forgive this misplaced post. I have not yet figured out how to to post appropriately.

I am newly choosing this cruise and am wondering if your scheduled tours are full. Thanking you for your response in advance.

 

(I assume I will find your answer at the end of this post -- I can also check roll call. With much appreciation)

 

The information on this site is invaluable.

 

Our tours to Ephesus and the Amalfi Coast are actually full but I may be able to add you on if you are interested. How many are in your party? If you want further information email me shirley@tlwilkins.com and I will give you further details, cost etc :)

[Project_gal]

Ha-pealady

Please forgive this misplaced post. I have not yet figured out how to to post appropriately.

I am newly choosing this cruise and am wondering if your scheduled tours are full. Thanking you for your response in advance.

 

(I assume I will find your answer at the end of this post -- I can also check roll call. With much appreciation)

 

The information on this site is invaluable.

 

kyli

 

If you scroll up to the top of almost any Cruise Critic page [while you are logged in], you will see a "User CP" button. Click on it and you will be taken to a list of all the posts you have either subscribed to or posted to.

 

Hope thaty helps.

[Ha-pealady]

Ha-pealady

Please forgive this misplaced post. I have not yet figured out how to to post appropriately.

I am newly choosing this cruise and am wondering if your scheduled tours are full. Thanking you for your response in advance.

 

(I assume I will find your answer at the end of this post -- I can also check roll call. With much appreciation)

 

The information on this site is invaluable.

 

Hi, I have just realised that you are not posing your questions to me on my roll call for the cruise I am doing but on the onboard expenses thread!! Follow the advice in the post above and when you have found the roll call for your cruise you should be able to go from there. Hope this helps

[cl.klink]

Just let your credit card people know the details of your cruise, in case the transactions are red flagged by their monitoring department.

 

Is this still advised? Last few times I did his they said they no longer needed us to do it.

 

- Joel

[Project_gal]

Is this still advised? Last few times I did his they said they no longer needed us to do it.

 

- Joel

 

Many UK credit card companies progressed beyond requiring you to notify them before you travelled some years ago. If you think about it, the most likely place for fraud to happen on your card is where you are using it. The card companies now have extremely sophisticated fraud detection systems. I check my statement online daily but, on the occasions we have had fraud on our card, the systems have detected it long before I can see any evidence of it.

 

However, we have remained with the same company for since about 1977 and They have a great deal of knowledge of our spending patterns to base their fraud detection on. It would take a lot for us to consider switching credit card company.

Edited August 3, 2014 by Project_gal

[melsuli]

Is this still advised? Last few times I did his they said they no longer needed us to do it.

 

- Joel

 

Depends what and where your spending patterns are, credit companies are constantly updating their methods on preventing and detecting fraud.

 

I too was told I no longer needed to inform about large overseas transactions and then.....Bam! "Transaction not authorised," later protracted phone calls facilitated by passwords and security questions led to an explanation revealing random stops are also carried out as added protection?

 

Needless to say it is far easier to make that short call prior to your cruise for peace of mind if nothing else. :o

Edited August 3, 2014 by melsuli
missin word

[Ha-pealady]

My credit card companies both require advanced notification

[cruisestitch]

Have received e-mail from my credit card company that they no longer require this. But other companies still do. So when in doubt, give your company a call.