Unused Cruise Credits become "Unclaimed Property"

[mikjr]

Did anyone else receive a letter from a company called "Unclaimed Property Solutions"??

We've had CRUISE CREDITS on file with Holland America for several years, and instead of just returning those credit to us, they have started a process to turn them over to the State of California, if we don't complete and return this letter to Unclaimed Property Solutions.

WHAT a bunch of BS!!  I've been at the same address for 35 years, and had the same phone and email address for years!  All they needed to do was just MAIL IT BACK!  That's what Princess does after two years, if they are not used... they just mail you a check!   I called HAL and they said that 30,000 letters were sent out.

The issue is, that now it's going to take FOUR MONTHS to get the money returned!  That's the most inefficient process I've ever heard of!!

[RDC1]

4 minutes ago, mikjr said:

Did anyone else receive a letter from a company called "Unclaimed Property Solutions"??

We've had CRUISE CREDITS on file with Holland America for several years, and instead of just returning those credit to us, they have started a process to turn them over to the State of California, if we don't complete and return this letter to Unclaimed Property Solutions.

WHAT a bunch of BS!!  I've been at the same address for 35 years, and had the same phone and email address for years!  All they needed to do was just MAIL IT BACK!  That's what Princess does after two years, if they are not used... they just mail you a check!   I called HAL and they said that 30,000 letters were sent out.

The issue is, that now it's going to take FOUR MONTHS to get the money returned!  That's the most inefficient process I've ever heard of!!

As I understand it they are normally returned to the same credit card used to purchase them. So did they try and refund them to that CC and have the refund rejected?

[mikjr]

9 minutes ago, RDC1 said:

As I understand it they are normally returned to the same credit card used to purchase them. So did they try and refund them to that CC and have the refund rejected?

 

the problem is, who has the same CC after 3 or 4 years...   They could have easily sent me a letter themselves without passing the issue on to a 3rd party.  

[Krazy Kruizers]

1 hour ago, mikjr said:

 

the problem is, who has the same CC after 3 or 4 years...   They could have easily sent me a letter themselves without passing the issue on to a 3rd party.  

 

Yes I understand that some people keep switching credit cards to get the best deal.

 

But we still have the same American Express credit cards (we each have our own) -- 46 years now.

[taxmantoo]

2 hours ago, mikjr said:

The issue is, that now it's going to take FOUR MONTHS to get the money returned!  That's the most inefficient process I've ever heard of!!

Let me get this straight if I can.  YOU are getting mad at them because YOU, in four years time, did not advise them of what YOU wanted them to do with YOUR money ❔❔ ❔ How dare they...

[SetAnOpenCourse]

It seems weird for the 3rd party to be involved, especially with you having the same mailing address so long.

[DeeniEncinitas]

52 minutes ago, Krazy Kruizers said:

 

Yes I understand that some people keep switching credit cards to get the best deal.

 

But we still have the same American Express credit cards (we each have our own) -- 46 years now.

Hi KK!!

Same here. We have our American Express over 15 years and also over 20 with my Explorer Card with United. Both give us our hotels and air travel.

Denise😊

[rkacruiser]

3 hours ago, RDC1 said:

As I understand it they are normally returned to the same credit card used to purchase them. So did they try and refund them to that CC and have the refund rejected?

 

Most of my CC are the same ones that I have had for several years.  But, if a card is not actively used or the date of expiration on the card has past, I can understand why a CC company might reject any attempt to post activity on the card until the user of the card updates his/her information.

 

I  had a situation recently where a card that I have used for years to pay a regularly occurring charge had a charge rejected because the Company required up-dated information from me.  Once I supplied the needed information:  no problem.

[mikjr]

55 minutes ago, rkacruiser said:

 

Most of my CC are the same ones that I have had for several years.  But, if a card is not actively used or the date of expiration on the card has past, I can understand why a CC company might reject any attempt to post activity on the card until the user of the card updates his/her information.

 

I  had a situation recently where a card that I have used for years to pay a regularly occurring charge had a charge rejected because the Company required up-dated information from me.  Once I supplied the needed information:  no problem.

 

[ScottC4746]

4 hours ago, mikjr said:

Did anyone else receive a letter from a company called "Unclaimed Property Solutions"??

We've had CRUISE CREDITS on file with Holland America for several years, and instead of just returning those credit to us, they have started a process to turn them over to the State of California, if we don't complete and return this letter to Unclaimed Property Solutions.

WHAT a bunch of BS!!  I've been at the same address for 35 years, and had the same phone and email address for years!  All they needed to do was just MAIL IT BACK!  That's what Princess does after two years, if they are not used... they just mail you a check!   I called HAL and they said that 30,000 letters were sent out.

The issue is, that now it's going to take FOUR MONTHS to get the money returned!  That's the most inefficient process I've ever heard of!!

Sounds scammy to me.  This is the only official website to search for unclaimed property in the State of California. https://www.sco.ca.gov/upd_msg.html  If your letter shows a different address it is probably a scam.

 

[mikjr]

We use Costco CCs... so when they changed from American Express to Citi Bank, so did we.  We had an issue with a credit card breach, so BofA gave us new numbers.

Regardless of the CC issue, HAL could have taken a few extra steps to send me a letter to my house.  WHY pass it on to a THIRD party??

I don't feel getting a rejection from the current Credit Card warrants declaring these Cruise Credits as ABANDONED property!  They send be at least FIVE emails a week, and at least FIVE mailers a month!!   

And now, we wait for 4 to 5 months for the refund... thats terrible customer service!! 

Edited March 23, 2019 by mikjr

[Lido deck main]

3 minutes ago, mikjr said:

We use Costco CCs... so when they changed from American Express to Citi Bank, so did we.  We had an issue with a credit card breach, so BofA gave us new numbers.

Regardless of the CC issue, HAL could have taken a few extra steps to send me a letter to my house.  WHY pass it one to a THIRD party??

I don't feel getting a rejection from the current Credit Card warrants declaring these Cruise Credits as ABANDONED property!  They send be at least FIVE emails a week, and at least FIVE mailers a month!!   

And now, we wait for 4 to 5 months for the refund... thats terrible customer service!! 

Seriously how come some people do not take personal responsibility, it is always someone else fault.  

[mikjr]

2 minutes ago, Lido deck main said:

Seriously how come some people do not take personal responsibility, it is always someone else fault.  

Please tell me... what was I supposed to do??   I've had cruise credits with Princess for years, they don't get used, they send me back a CHECK!    

Edited March 23, 2019 by mikjr

[rkacruiser]

2 minutes ago, mikjr said:

I don't feel getting a rejection from the current Credit Card warrants declaring these Cruise Credits as ABANDONED property

 

Just a thought:  maybe the definition of "abandoned property" in the State of Washington where HAL is located caused the issue.  I know in Ohio if an account does not experience some activity within a given number of years, after an attempt by the financial institution to contact the person of record, by Ohio law, the account is turned over to our Treasurer of State and placed in the Unclaimed Funds Account.  

[dfish]

I bought cruise credits for my parents back in 2011.  Due to health issues since then, they were never used.  When I bought them, if not used in four years, you were out the money.  It was after that time that they started refunding the money if the credits were not used.

 

My dad recently received one of those letters and they are going to refund the money despite the policy in effect at that time.  I say, thanks, HAL!   It is an unexpected bonus!

[mikjr]

6 minutes ago, dfish said:

 

My dad recently received one of those letters and they are going to refund the money despite the policy in effect at that time.  I say, thanks, HAL!   It is an unexpected bonus!

I have to agree, I will happily accept the $200 back... I just found their methods bothersome!! 

[the2ofus]

Seems to me a simple letter from HAL to the owner of the cruise credits at their most recent address on file would save HAL time and expense.  "Dear sir/madam.  Our records show you have cruise credits purchased on .....date, which you have not yet used.  Please advise us by ,,,,,date whether you wish to apply them to a specific future cruise or whether you wish them returned to your credit card ending #......."  All it would cost would be the time to print, the paper and envelope and the postage.  As it is, HAL is probably paying a per case basis to some private company to move them to a state Unclaimed Funds account.

[OVgirl]

Were you able to contact HAL to get some clarification regarding this seemingly new process? And ask them why they didn't contact you directly?

[RDC1]

2 hours ago, mikjr said:

Please tell me... what was I supposed to do??   I've had cruise credits with Princess for years, they don't get used, they send me back a CHECK!    

There have been some other stories on CC where refunds to the old Costco cards (Amex, prior to the major switch to Visa) have been very problem filled.  In one of them Princess had said that they had refunded it to the card, but the individual never received anything.  It is like anything going to the Amex costco card numbers just vanish. 

 

Are you certain that it is HAL that turned it over to the third party.  It might be that HAL refunded it to the card and think that the refund was successful, only to have Amex turn it over to a third party because the card was closed.

 

It seems like almost like Amex is doing everything legally possible to be obstructionist when it comes to the coverted Costco accounts.

Edited March 23, 2019 by RDC1

[drowelf]

7 hours ago, mikjr said:

 

the problem is, who has the same CC after 3 or 4 years...   They could have easily sent me a letter themselves without passing the issue on to a 3rd party.  

Well I do. My 2 major CCs have been in my possession for 33 and 12 years respectively. I also hold some emergency CC's that are over 20 years old. Also flipping credit cards every few years is not the best thing for your Credit Score. Once a year I pull every card out and charge something just to keep them active, as CC companies will try and close the account with no activity after 12 - 18 months. 

Edited March 24, 2019 by drowelf

[mikjr]

2 hours ago, OVgirl said:

Were you able to contact HAL to get some clarification regarding this seemingly new process? And ask them why they didn't contact you directly?

Yes, I called HAL to find out if it was LEGIT.  the REP had to place me on hold and came back and said YES, HAL had turned over 30,000 accounts over to this company to process!!  She was surprised because she had heard nothing about it until my call. 

[mikjr]

13 minutes ago, drowelf said:

Well I do. My 2 major CCs have been in my possession for 33 and 12 years respectively. I also hold some emergency CC's that are over 20 years old. Also flipping credit cards every few years is not the best thing for your Credit Score. Once a year I pull every card out and charge something just to keep them active, as CC companies will try and close the account with no activity after 12 - 18 months. 

I am not chasing CC deals.  Sometimes you don't have a choice...   I have had my same BofA account for 30 years, but THEY have changed the CC numbers 2 or 3 times over that period of time.  Also, we had a CC security breach several years ago after a cruise to Hawaii.  We started getting unauthorized charges from Hong Kong!!   And Costco had a recent change, which was also not my doing. 

 

[RuthC]

I'm not seeing a problem here. You, along with 29,999 others, left money with HAL beyond the four year period in which to use it. They want to clear it off the books. 
HAL farmed out the task of finding the owners of the money and getting it returned to them to a company in that business. The money has been out of your hands for several years, and now four months longer is not sitting well with you? You are going to get back money you left languishing.

[bennybear]

I am surprised by the blame the victim.  Hal should very least send a letter and or email to the last address before this is turned over to a third party.

Really,  whether one has the same credit card,  has had it compromised or likes churning them is no ones concern when a simple letter or email would suffice.

[RDC1]

1 hour ago, RuthC said:

I'm not seeing a problem here. You, along with 29,999 others, left money with HAL beyond the four year period in which to use it. They want to clear it off the books. 
HAL farmed out the task of finding the owners of the money and getting it returned to them to a company in that business. The money has been out of your hands for several years, and now four months longer is not sitting well with you? You are going to get back money you left languishing.

However, if the person had an account with HAL, as most of us on this board does.  Then the Future Cruise Deposit is linked to that account and as a result the cruise line would have had the information ( e-mail, physical address and probably phone number) to easily cut a check or at least notify the individuals involved.

 

The normal process for Princess (which is part of the Holland America Group within Carnival, and which shares some of the corporate structures) automatically sends a check when the credit card refund fails.