credit/debit card

[lolmerry]

when you join the ship and have to give a debit/credit card info do you need to tell the bank that thomsons will be using the card,is it charged at the start of the cruise or after,any info will be good thanks all

[Kamloops50]

when you join the ship and have to give a debit/credit card info do you need to tell the bank that thomsons will be using the card,is it charged at the start of the cruise or after,any info will be good thanks all

 

First I will never use a debit card because the the hold on funds .

I would notify your Credit card that you are traveling . Especially if don't travel a lot. Keep in mind that the credit card will also have a hold put on it as well.

[CRUISIN LINDA]

If you use a credit card you will be charged extra, so use a debit card.

 

We had an interim bill half way through the cruise and Thomson take that amount of money at that time and then they take the rest at the end of the cruise.

 

Not sure what Kamloops means but we have never had any funds withheld and we always pay on a debit card (we don't use credit cards :rolleyes:)

[happy v]

I'm not sure what Kamloops mean either :confused: but we used to use a credit card, before there was a charge, and now use a debit and have never had any problems. Have never notified the bank before hand.

[Kamloops50]

I'm not sure what Kamloops mean either :confused: but we used to use a credit card, before there was a charge, and now use a debit and have never had any problems. Have never notified the bank before hand.

 

All cruise lines put a hold on debit or credit cards to make sure that there is enough money to pay the expected bill at the end.

Most hotels put a pre authorization on your card equivalent to the amount of your room charges.

This hold or pre authorization isn't commonly known by people .

[WeeCountyMan]

when you join the ship and have to give a debit/credit card info do you need to tell the bank that thomsons will be using the card,is it charged at the start of the cruise or after,any info will be good thanks all

 

You also have the option of depositing (a minimum) £200.00 in cash at customer services on boarding the ship, rather than registering a debit/credit card - that is our preferred method.

 

Your interim account statement will tell how close you are to exhausting the £200.00, then you can top up in cash, or (as we do) register your debit/credit card at that point in order to settle any difference due to Thomsons at the end of the cruise.

 

If you underspend the £200.00 (or whatever amount you deposit) Thomsons will refund in cash.

 

We never use a credit card (will not pay a % charge on principle) and have never had any problems.

 

I'm not sure what is meant by the cruise line "holding" issue either.

 

Thomsons action debit card transaction on final day of cruise, and it appears on your bank statement deductions in a day or so.

 

BTW - you should always advise your bank in advance if your card is going to be used outwith the UK, including on a cruise line etc.

Edited November 1, 2014 by WeeCountyMan
info update

[Kamloops50]

I don't know what they do in the UK or Europe.

 

In Canada and the US when you check into a hotel , rent a car or buy gas they pre authorize ( some call it a hold) to make sure that there are sufficient funds(credit) to pay for the minumum bill . This pre authorization covers the room charges( incl tax) for the whole time room is booked.

Cruise lines do something similar to make sure that credit card has sufficent credit to cover the bill. I heard an argument at check in a passenger and agent , when he was told has credit card didn't have enough credit to be used for this cruise.

I used to travel about 120 days a year ( now retired) and every hotel took an imprint of my CC . They then got authorization for the amount of the room charges for the whole stay.

[Cloudyrain]

I asked Mr C (nearly 20 years working in a major High Street bank - sadly not with massive bonuses though!) and he confirmed that they will put a hold on a debit account which sometimes doesnt get removed very quickly and "blocks" people using the card again until the hold is cleared. You often won't notice it's on there - and some people with have a large limit so if for example there was a £200 hold and your limit is £800 then nothing would happen until you tried to spend over £600. I hope I have explained that right!

 

We normally register our credit card, and pay in cash as the week goes on, and then if there is anything outstanding on the last night we leave it on the credit card and pay the % because it is negligible - plus we have a cash back credit card so it evens itself out.

 

Well, that's what we did with P&O and NCL so I would hope Thomson is the same!

 

P.s. We have never told our bank we will be abroad and never had a problem - you watch, we will now :D

[gillhalfpint]

I didn't know anything about the "hold" and we have always used debit card with no problem. Just checked the statements, and our direct debits came out as normal while on the cruise and nothing that caused any worries.

 

I always tell the bank and credit card company we will be abroad as we had a major problem one year and thought we were going to be cashless, and had to ring fraud at great expense from Belgium, so even though they say no need to notify these days, I still do.

[kruzseeka]

I didn't know anything about the "hold" and we have always used debit card with no problem. Just checked the statements, and our direct debits came out as normal while on the cruise and nothing that caused any worries.

 

I always tell the bank and credit card company we will be abroad as we had a major problem one year and thought we were going to be cashless, and had to ring fraud at great expense from Belgium, so even though they say no need to notify these days, I still do.

 

 

I always ring up to notify thebank as they sometimes pick up on unusual use. Twice we've had a phone call asking if we were somewhere out of the country - once to ask if I was buying golf clubs in Ghana! Now that probably did look suspicious since I'd used it on the same day at home but nevertheless when I ring up to say I'm just ringing to tell them the card might be used out of the country, they take it seriously enough to record every country we're visiting (can be quite a list on a cruise - 11 different ones in the Caribbean for example!). They always thank me and say to let them know next time. I can't see that they'd go to all that trouble plus employee time if they didn't want to know or thought it a waste of time.

[CRUISIN LINDA]

I thought the hold was only put on prepay cards. I heard of someone hiring a car at the start of the holiday and a sum of money was held so that when they came to use is for somthing else later, there was no money on it. Apparently this is as a precaution against damage to the car.

 

We have never infomed our bank :o

[kruzseeka]

I thought the hold was only put on prepay cards. I heard of someone hiring a car at the start of the holiday and a sum of money was held so that when they came to use is for somthing else later, there was no money on it. Apparently this is as a precaution against damage to the car.

 

We have never infomed our bank :o

 

 

I can understand the hold on the car hire - that would be to make sure you could cover the excess in the event of an accident or damage to the car.

 

For obs I think it depends on the amounts involved whether they put a hold on the card - it there is a sufficient amount available ie overdraught + funds in a debit card or credit limit on a credit card there's not likely to be a problem. If you were to spend most of your available funds in the first half of your holiday though they may very well put a hold on the money so that you can't overspend.

[WeeCountyMan]

"I asked Mr C (nearly 20 years working in a major High Street bank - sadly not with massive bonuses though!) and he confirmed that they will put a hold on a debit account which sometimes doesnt get removed very quickly and "blocks" people using the card again until the hold is cleared. You often won't notice it's on there - and some people with have a large limit so if for example there was a £200 hold and your limit is £800 then nothing would happen until you tried to spend over £600. I hope I have explained that right!"

 

Thanks Cloudyrain, that makes sense.............. to me at least !!!

 

To the best of my knowledge, the scenario where a hotel or cruise line put a "hold" on a card has been standard operating procedure for many years. It started in North America and soon migrated worldwide.

 

As I understand things, basically the business is "ring fencing" the amount of funds they are entitled to have for your booking.

 

If it's a credit card - you should (?) still have the unused amount (up to your credit limit) available. That will depend on how much of your monthly credit has already been used up, with the amount on "hold" also deducted up front.

 

For a debit card - the amount available should be the funds in credit on that current account, less the amount on "hold" to be deducted.

 

If any of this is inaccurate, happy to be re-educated !!!

 

There is a straightforward solution to such potential dramas - have more than one credit card, opened with different banks.

 

Use one for "held" hotel bookings etc. - and another for unplanned use in stores, businesses and the like.

 

For holidays we have the (now withdrawn) Sainsburys Gold credit card (unbeatable) for primary use, plus the Nationwide Select credit card, and a Halifax Clarity credit card (both great abroad) as backup.

 

I'm a devotee of Martin Lewis's monthly newsletters - great for picking up information and tips on such matters.

 

The banks we use actively encourage customers to advise them of foreign travel plans - it makes sense.

[Sheila49]

I think I've mentioned this before but the first time I tried to tell the bank we were going abroad by telephone a few years ago they said "thank you very much, we'll put a note on your account but the computer won't be able to read it!":confused:

 

Last year I tried to do it online the on the bank's website but it couldn't cope with the concept of a cruise e.g. arriving and leaving a place on the same day or being at sea for a day and therefore not in any country! I gave up!

 

This year I will try going into the branch (if they haven't closed it!)

[kruzseeka]

Thanks WCM for the accolade re 'resident expert' ...... you may be setting me up for a fall though. One day someone will come back and say that the advice was a load of rubbish! :eek: :D But in the meantime - happy to help out. That's the great strength of this forum in particular - there's so much support and help from so many fellow cruisers. Not the case on all forums!!!!

 

But as for resident experts, surely you must be the go-to person for money advice - especially debit/credit cards etc. Always on the ball with excellent info. We take two credit and two debit cards to cover the contingencies you describe but also so that we can leave one of each in the safe in case we lose any and have no funds to access at all! :eek::eek:

 

Thanks for your help too.

[kruzseeka]

I think I've mentioned this before but the first time I tried to tell the bank we were going abroad by telephone a few years ago they said "thank you very much, we'll put a note on your account but the computer won't be able to read it!":confused:

 

Last year I tried to do it online the on the bank's website but it couldn't cope with the concept of a cruise e.g. arriving and leaving a place on the same day or being at sea for a day and therefore not in any country! I gave up!

 

This year I will try going into the branch (if they haven't closed it!)

 

 

Yes I remember you saying that Sheila. Not very customer friendly is it? I always do it through armchair banking - but use the 'Say No to 0845... numbers' to find a land line number as I object to spending ages on the phone on a premium line when I'm the customer! You'd think we owe them something to be allowed to do business with them! :(

[happy v]

I always ring up to notify thebank as they sometimes pick up on unusual use. Twice we've had a phone call asking if we were somewhere out of the country - once to ask if I was buying golf clubs in Ghana! Now that probably did look suspicious since I'd used it on the same day at home but nevertheless when I ring up to say I'm just ringing to tell them the card might be used out of the country, they take it seriously enough to record every country we're visiting (can be quite a list on a cruise - 11 different ones in the Caribbean for example!). They always thank me and say to let them know next time. I can't see that they'd go to all that trouble plus employee time if they didn't want to know or thought it a waste of time.

 

Our bank does pick up on unusual use also, usually when I decide to do all my Christmas shopping on one day :eek:. The first year I was mortified, absolutely sure everyone thought I was dodgy :o now I just take it in my stride. Perhaps I should inform the bank when I'm about to go :rolleyes:.

 

When we're on holiday I just use the card on the ship and our bill is never really excessive. I use cash in the shops as I am ultra careful and worry about fraud.

[Cloudyrain]

There is no need to tell your bank you are using your card abroad - not with any of the (several major) banks we use (or that Mr C has worked at/with.) One of our accounts has a clause that they have a limit to what you can spend abroad, but we wouldn't go over that anyway.

 

Some banks will do random checks at anything out of the ordinary, or stop anything they think is "dodgy" but the big banks have no way of recording you are going abroad so the staff just politely thank you for letting them know because they don't want you to feel like you have wasted a call. If you use a card to try and buy a £5000 diamond ring in York, and only normally use it to pay for petrol once a month in Crewe then it may trigger an alarm. If it's a card you use all the time it's unlikely to trigger an alert however large the bill and regardless of the location.

 

The only exception is sometimes with accounts that have a concierge type package attached where you may call to let them know because of certain extra premium banking services you are using.

 

With regards to the hold - it doesn't show on your printed account at any point because they don't take the money like they might with a refundable deposit, it's just a "potential" withdrawal which is held in cyberspace.

[kruzseeka]

Quotes not working again.....................:rolleyes:

 

the staff just politely thank you for letting them know because they don't want you to feel like you have wasted a call.

 

Perhaps it depends on your bank. This is pretty clear - as I said they actually ask me for every country we're visiting not just a blanket 'Greek Islands' or 'Caribbean'. They could get rid of me much quicker by just saying thank you.

 

http://www.halifax.co.uk/travel/help-guidance/

Edited November 2, 2014 by kruzseeka

[Sheila49]

Our bank has a specific on their page on their website to record where you are going on holiday and dates etc. but as I said it couldn't cope with a cruise itinerary.

Edited November 3, 2014 by Sheila49

[kruzseeka]

Our bank has a specific on their page on their website to record where you are going on holiday and dates etc. but as I said it couldn't cope with a cruise itinerary.

 

 

Technology.............:rolleyes: you have to smile!!!!!

[Malch_uk]

when you join the ship and have to give a debit/credit card info do you need to tell the bank that thomsons will be using the card,is it charged at the start of the cruise or after,any info will be good thanks all

 

 

If you are on a two week cruise there are ususlly two intermediate statements, following which the outstanding balances are taken from your account, and then one final statement on the last day. Any remaining balance (including spend on the departure day) is then taken.

 

The outstanding sums are debited in the UK, not in the ships location, so there is no need to advise your bank with regard to the Thomson on-board spend.

[kruzseeka]

If you are on a two week cruise there are ususlly two intermediate statements, following which the outstanding balances are taken from your account, and then one final statement on the last day. Any remaining balance (including spend on the departure day) is then taken.

 

The outstanding sums are debited in the UK, not in the ships location, so there is no need to advise your bank with regard to the Thomson on-board spend.

 

Correct .....it is debited from the UK. We notify them about the credit card we use off the ship. For obvious reasons, we wouldn't use a CC for on board spending. :rolleyes:

[lyndatimberlake1]

You get statements posted under your door after the first 7 days showing you what you have spent on each of the cards assigned to your credit/debit card. Its always good to let your bank know you are going to be using your cards while you are abroad. hope you enjoy your cruise!! :)

[Cloudyrain]

Quotes not working again.....................:rolleyes:

 

the staff just politely thank you for letting them know because they don't want you to feel like you have wasted a call.

 

Perhaps it depends on your bank. This is pretty clear - as I said they actually ask me for every country we're visiting not just a blanket 'Greek Islands' or 'Caribbean'. They could get rid of me much quicker by just saying thank you.

 

http://www.halifax.co.uk/travel/help-guidance/

 

Definately depends on your bank then: http://www.barclays.co.uk/Travel/Usingyourdebitcardabroad/P1242558115100

 

In our defence, Mr C hasn't ever worked for Halifax and I cancelled my account with them when they acted like a bunch of eijits! :)