Credit Card fraud on Oasis, check your statement!!!

[newtampagirl]

It is funny reading all the speculations about our situation. I am not a single traveler. We used my husband's cc for our Seapass onboard charges. I am aware that the grats are for two and, no, we did not book a future cruise. No body at RCI could tell me what those POSTED charges were. All they could see were our charges on our folio. As of this morning the rest of the pendings are gone and RCI has credited the $249.29. One small charge of $13.15 is still there. There were five charges, between posted and pending, that totaled over $400 that weren't ours. Actually it was around $300 on Saturday then grew another $100 on Sunday.

 

Let's put this thread to bed. Whether it was fraud from somebody who had access to our cc number, or a series of several accounting errors, I will never know. I seriously doubt that RCI will contact me about what happened. I would be curious to know how onboard RCI employees pay for their purchases. That's is all I have to say about that speculation. The moral of this story is that RCI is a business, once you turn over your cc number anything can happen. Keep track of your charges and compare with your cc company as soon as you can. We would like to sail on the Allure next time. We are seriously considering paying grats up front and paying our folio with cash and not a credit card.

[bouhunter]

It is funny reading all the speculations about our situation. I am not a single traveler. We used my husband's cc for our Seapass onboard charges. I am aware that the grats are for two and, no, we did not book a future cruise. No body at RCI could tell me what those POSTED charges were. All they could see were our charges on our folio. As of this morning the rest of the pendings are gone and RCI has credited the $249.29. One small charge of $13.15 is still there. There were five charges, between posted and pending, that totaled over $400 that weren't ours. Actually it was around $300 on Saturday then grew another $100 on Sunday.

 

Let's put this thread to bed. Whether it was fraud from somebody who had access to our cc number, or a series of several accounting errors, I will never know. I seriously doubt that RCI will contact me about what happened. I would be curious to know how onboard RCI employees pay for their purchases. That's is all I have to say about that speculation. The moral of this story is that RCI is a business, once you turn over your cc number anything can happen. Keep track of your charges and compare with your cc company as soon as you can. We would like to sail on the Allure next time. We are seriously considering paying grats up front and paying our folio with cash and not a credit card.

 

You want to "put this to bed", but then imply a new conspiracy theory that an RCCL employee charged their expenses to your card? Too funny!:rolleyes::D

Edited May 10, 2016 by bouhunter

[cruisinfanatic]

You want to "put this to bed", but then imply a new conspiracy theory that an RCCL employee charged their expenses to your card? Too funny!:rolleyes::D

Yes it is funny. Still waiting to hear what the "fraud" is from the OP. Charges from someone you never heard of is fraud. Not accounting errors

[cruisenfever]

Let's put this thread to bed. Whether it was fraud from somebody who had access to our cc number, or a series of several accounting errors, I will never know. I seriously doubt that RCI will contact me about what happened. I would be curious to know how onboard RCI employees pay for their purchases. That's is all I have to say about that speculation. The moral of this story is that RCI is a business, once you turn over your cc number anything can happen. Keep track of your charges and compare with your cc company as soon as you can. We would like to sail on the Allure next time. We are seriously considering paying grats up front and paying our folio with cash and not a credit card.

This certainly sounds like an accounting error caused by a glitch with the SeaPass Card. Charges on the ship are made with a SeaPass card and not a credit card. This goes for passengers as well as crew. If there were charges made off the ship with your credit card, then yes, someone somehow got hold of that number.

 

Keeping receipts and checking against your SeaPass account daily will give you a itemized list of all activity. Your credit card will just have one transaction amount that will be the total activity while on board.

 

Even if you set up a cash account, your SeaPass card will still be your charge card for the duration of your cruise while on the ship and you will settle with cash at the end of the cruise.

 

Edit to add: Anything charged (and statements are done after 12AM on debarkation morning) after the final statement has been printed off will appear as a separate transaction on your cc statement.

 

This has happened to us as well and the additional amount is usually an erroneous mini-bar charge which is applied to an account after the room has been vacated on debarkation morning.

Edited May 10, 2016 by cruisenfever

[jtsongas]

I still have seen nothing that would point to the credit card number being "stolen" or any other form of fraud on the card. It sounds like either accounting errors or at best fraud on the SeaPass account. The fraud or theft would be limited to those items purchased/charged on the SeaPass card and would technically not be fraud on the credit card. If, as the thread title suggests, the fraud were on the credit card it would point to an issue of the credit card number somehow being leaked by Royal Caribbean which would be a very different thing. As with any purchase a credit card user has the responsibility to confirm the charges which appear on their card.

 

Ultimately since the other pending charges dropped off, it would sound to me like this is not a case of SeaPass fraud but rather an issue of an accounting error for the charge which did hit the credit card. The $13.15 is still up in the air but I would think anyone committing fraud at that level would have insufficient expertise to pull off the caper in the first place. :)

[jtsongas]

Your credit card will just have one transaction amount that will be the total activity while on board.

 

My personal experience has been that more often than not there are in fact two transactions which hit my credit card. One being the bulk of charges on the trip and then very often there will be a small charge of something which did not make it on the account from the night before disembarking the ship. Again, only personal experience here but that is what I have found to be the most common occurrence. Perhaps I just spend too much on those darn ships. :)

[blackshirt]

Clearly something is wrong but whether it is fraud or just errors on Royal's part no one knows for sure and even the OP now admits that. I just wonder how many responses this thread would have gotten had the word "fraud" not been used. Seems to me that is the term that has most folks riled up.

[cruisenfever]

My personal experience has been that more often than not there are in fact two transactions which hit my credit card. One being the bulk of charges on the trip and then very often there will be a small charge of something which did not make it on the account from the night before disembarking the ship. Again, only personal experience here but that is what I have found to be the most common occurrence. Perhaps I just spend too much on those darn ships. :)

Oops, thanks for posting that. I went back and added that to my original response above.

 

Anything charged (and statements are done after 12AM on debarkation morning) after the final statement has been printed off will appear as a separate transaction on your cc statement.

 

This has happened to us as well and the additional amount is usually an erroneous mini-bar charge which is applied to an account after the room has been vacated on debarkation morning.

Edited May 10, 2016 by cruisenfever

[Thetrail]

OMG, the drama and such a misleading thread name!! You wasted two hours on the phone regarding PENDING charges?

 

###

Read the OP's post and it deserved an eye roll.......:rolleyes:

[Thetrail]

I could be wrong but it sounded from the OP's post these were RCCL charges, not some unauthorized third/unknown party that people are jumping to the conclusion to. Maybe because OP used the term FRAUD.......:rolleyes: OP might come back to verify, but I think the point of their post was to watch your ROYAL CARIBBEAN charges. If that's the case good reminder and thank you:)

 

We recently had several hundred dollars charged to one of our cards to some off the wall airline I never heard of. Not our charge. No big deal - call VISA, they reverse it. And I could care less where/how the number was "stolen". It can happen anywhere anytime, it's a waste of time and energy worrying about whether it was on RCCL or at the local gas station or at Walmart......... Sad but true this stuff happens millions of times every year.

That about covers it in a nutshell.....K.O.:)

[Thetrail]

It is funny reading all the speculations about our situation. I am not a single traveler. We used my husband's cc for our Seapass onboard charges. I am aware that the grats are for two and, no, we did not book a future cruise. No body at RCI could tell me what those POSTED charges were. All they could see were our charges on our folio. As of this morning the rest of the pendings are gone and RCI has credited the $249.29. One small charge of $13.15 is still there. There were five charges, between posted and pending, that totaled over $400 that weren't ours. Actually it was around $300 on Saturday then grew another $100 on Sunday.

 

Let's put this thread to bed. Whether it was fraud from somebody who had access to our cc number, or a series of several accounting errors, I will never know. I seriously doubt that RCI will contact me about what happened. I would be curious to know how onboard RCI employees pay for their purchases. That's is all I have to say about that speculation. The moral of this story is that RCI is a business, once you turn over your cc number anything can happen. Keep track of your charges and compare with your cc company as soon as you can. We would like to sail on the Allure next time. We are seriously considering paying grats up front and paying our folio with cash and not a credit card.

Next time when you title a thread maybe you can use a title that is not sooooo drama filled and misleading.....:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

[mollyeilis]

Seems to me that is the term that has most folks riled up.

 

The OP was riled up.

 

 

Common sense with cruising is that sometimes they authorize, and depending on the bank or cc company those authorizations sometimes show up and sometimes don't. Sometimes they pend and drop off quickly and sometimes it's slowly. Sometimes you don't see it at all. (this actually goes for normal travel, too. I am on Disney and Universal forums, and some people with their bank/cc company will see authorizations as pending charges and they take AGES to drop off...with my CC company at the same hotel they drop within 2 days and cause me no worries) So having some pending charges is normal. Having some fully charge is normal. Having the same amount pend and then *separately* charge is normal, and you can expect that pending one to drop off. Normal.

 

Later charges, like was mentioned after midnight, will charge separately from the total folio. That's normal.

 

 

Seeing all of this and freaking out is almost always unnecessary. Just wait.

 

 

When I've done disputes on my CC bill (not with Royal), there's big important lettering asking me if I've tried to resolve this with the charging company first? If I haven't, it TELLS me to WAIT. To try to resolve this. AFTER I've tried and it has been unsucessful, then I am allowed to dispute it. I've never had to dispute it, because each time I have been quickly successful.

 

 

The OP should have posted a question *asking* about this, being specific. Then waited for answers from those who know a bit about cruising and charging and how it looks.

 

And then the OP wouldn't have had to be riled up and freaking out and spending all sorts of totally and completely unnecessary time on the phone with people.

 

 

CAN there be fraud? Sure. Someone might have gotten your CC info 3 months ago and it can be used. Generally you'll see a low charge that you often don't even notice, and once that goes through then you'll see the big ticket purchases.

 

Fraudulent use of a CC is very unlikely to be *for* the same cruise you were on. So there's just no need to go to level 11 on the 1-10 scale until those charges don't drop off and are charged. But even then, contact RCI and get a copy of all the charges they made, and see what's up.

 

Also, check with spouses (and children). Those are the biggest causes of random charging!

[brenderlou]

EXCUSE ME!!! Cannot you not read? I said $250 POSTED charges and there are still pending charges. I did not use a CC on board, only our seapass cards. I had gratuities and one spa tip and some OBC for a total of $131.30 on our folio. Several charges were made onto our card on several days, the highest one for $111. RCI actually called our CC to verify that these were not our charges. We had a three way conversation. I am not the "drama queen" you seem to think I am.

 

 

I think the problem with your post is using the word "fraud". You say you didn't use a credit card just your sea pass card. Your sea pass card is tied to a credit card that you presented at check in unless you had a cash account established.

Sounds like an accounting problem to me and by the very off chance it is fraud, your credit card will cover the fraudulent charges.

No reason to be upset. It will be straightened out and quickly (I work at a financial institution and have worked in reimbursing for fraud use).

I also agree with another post that if others were tied to your credit card/sea pass card, there could have been spending without your knowledge.

The "beware/fraud" title is over the top especially when the outcome hasn't been made.

Edited May 10, 2016 by brenderlou