What do they do if you cannot pay your final bill

[TxKroozer]

If you can't pay your resturant bill they make you wash dishes....so I guess they march you to the galley to start scrubbing.

[Firefighterhoop]

What do you think all those announcements for people are before we debark on the last day. It is for those who haven't setteled your account yet

 

THe question was asked during the welcome back party once, and the hotel director said that they preauthorise 250.00pp at a block, when you spend 250.00 on board, they do 250.00 more, etc etc, but always stay ahead of the game. if the credit card won't authorize it, you get a personal invetation to the purser's office.

 

At the end of the cruise if you haven't settled up yet, they put a freeze on your card so they will catch up with you at the gangway, and escort you to the purser's office before you can leave the ship, and "work out a plan". (as in you have to sign that you will pay it off with in a certain period of time)

[cruisinisforme]

I always call my cc ahead of time, on my first cruise I made a purchase in a port and when I went to use the card again they put a stop on it, it happened in jamaica, the store was good enough to help me call, but it took a long time before we got them on the phone so I always call in advance of a cruise now.

 

That being said, on the Explorer two years ago, my sister used her visa card which is off of her bank acct, and as has been explained they do call and get an authorization number, problem was she used it in the last port so the day we went to get off the boat her company put a hold on it because it was a suspicious charge and since it was a weekend there was no way to get in touch with them, you would think in this day and age that was impossible, but she lives out in the country and it was a very small local bank that could not be reached on weekends. We ended up paying her bill for her and she gave it to us when she got home, but it was all a real pain in the neck.

[OceanCruise]

How do you think they get those carved watermelon heads?

[kryos]

I wonder if this has ever happened to anyone. If your credit card goes over its limit, the charge is denied, etc. Your debit card gets limited.

 

I wanted to know seriously what happens.

I've heard that as soon as you board, an approval is sought by the purser's office for so many dollars a day on your card. The card is not actually charged ... just a "reserve" is put on for that amount. So, say the amount is $50 per day and you're on a seven-day cruise, the purser's desk would "reserve" a charge of $350 at the outset of the cruise. If your charges were clearly going to go over this amount, their software would alert them to this fact, and they would secure an additional amount further into the cruise. I would imagine if the "reserve" amount were denied by your credit card company, you would be getting a call in your cabin from the purser's desk and you would have to go down there and either give them a new card or get the matter straightened out with the original one.

 

If you simply couldn't get the charges approved, I would imagine you would either have to post some cash to your account, or you would be denied any charges onboard. Believe me, though, the cruiseline is not gonna let themselves get beat out of any onboard charges. They're too smart for that.

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita

[steve20832]

On another note, they can "hold" or "authorize" a lesser amount than your available credit and still bill the greater amount to your credit card. An everyday example of this is pay at the pumps for gasoline. The merchant determines the amount, many still just "authorize" 1.00 to make sure the card is good. If you fill up with 50.00, that amount is still billed to your credit card and accepted. Just wanted to make sure folks didn't think they were still under their limit if they didn't get contacted during the cruise...

 

This is true with cruise lines but they do a pre-authorization which checks to see if an amount is available on the card. (This is not charged to the card.) It checks your card to if your card has the available funds. For cruise lines, my guess is it is a couple hundred dollars since people usually put drinks, excursions, gifts, etc. on thier seapass card. Your credit card is charged the amount you spend at the end of the cruise. I'm sure the cruise lines have a limit you can put on the seapass card or they do a second pre-authorization to make sure your card has funds when you reach that limit. The bottom line is the cruise line isn't going to get screwed out of any money you owe them. Make sure you bring a credit card that has at least $500 of available credit so you don't have any problems. The cruise line can also issue a seapass card which will not allow you to charge anything to it if your credit card doesn't have available credit. (They do this with kids so they don't run up daddy's bill.)

[ducklite]

I had friends years ago who cruised with another line (not sure which one anymore) and at teh end of the cruise tried to pay with a American Express which was the only card they had with them. The line didn't accept AmEx. Not sure how they got a line of credit to begin with, but that's another story.

 

At any rate, they had to sign a promissary note and call the cruise line as soon as they got home with their Visa number. They were told that if they didn't pay it off within one week it would go to collections and be persued aggressively.

 

Anne

[steve20832]

I had friends years ago who cruised with another line (not sure which one anymore) and at teh end of the cruise tried to pay with a American Express which was the only card they had with them. The line didn't accept AmEx. Not sure how they got a line of credit to begin with, but that's another story.

 

At any rate, they had to sign a promissary note and call the cruise line as soon as they got home with their Visa number. They were told that if they didn't pay it off within one week it would go to collections and be persued aggressively.

 

Anne

When I was on Celebrity in 1993, I was young and didn't have any credit cards or established credit so I gave them $200 so they set my card limit at $200 and they gave me back unused money that was leftover on the card on the last day. I'm really shocked the cruise line gave them a line of credit. Although, I doubt they do that now. I have a Mastercard now which every cruise line will be more than happy to run up the bill. :(