Use of debit card for onboard expenses?

[rtread]

"Norwegian does not recommend the use of a debit card as payment for your onboard folio." and it goes on to explain the "hold" up to 30 days based on onboard purchases. 

 

I'd like to hear opinions on this as I plan to use a bank debit card on an upcoming Hawaii cruise. Any pros, cons, experiences?

[shof515]

you can use it onboard the ship. the only con is the holds decrease your availability balance on the card until the holds is removed

[Shoppie124]

Does anyone know what the hold amount is?

[rtread]

7 minutes ago, Shoppie124 said:

Does anyone know what the hold amount is?

This is what NCL says:

Using your debit or ATM card

• Norwegian does not recommend the use of a debit card as payment for your onboard folio.
• Please be advised that multiple holds will be placed on your debit card account based on your onboard purchases.
• After settling your onboard folio, these debit card holds may remain on your account up to 30 days after the cruise ends.
• To avoid overdraft charges from your bank, please make sure that you have enough available funds in your account during this hold period.
• Norwegian will not be responsible for overdraft charges resulting from holds placed on Debit Card accounts.

[Nic6318]

17 minutes ago, rtread said:

"Norwegian does not recommend the use of a debit card as payment for your onboard folio." and it goes on to explain the "hold" up to 30 days based on onboard purchases. 

 

I'd like to hear opinions on this as I plan to use a bank debit card on an upcoming Hawaii cruise. Any pros, cons, experiences?

 

Hi

 

Think of it this way, they are going to put continuing additional holds on your bank account as the cruise goes on, and you spend. These holds will be (I believe) beyond what you are actually spending. Then at the end of the cruise, when your account is finally tabulated, the holds that are in place could remain for as long as 30 days. They would have taken their full payment and in addition, while not withdrawing the funds from your account, the amounts still on "hold" will not be available to you, which they say can be up to 30 days. If you aren't willing to use a credit card, and your bank balance isn't sufficiently high that you can't manage without the ability to draw on the funds that are on "hold", then just set up a cash account for on the ship. 

 

hope this helps

have a great cruise

[rtread]

13 minutes ago, Nic6318 said:

 

Hi

 

Think of it this way, they are going to put continuing additional holds on your bank account as the cruise goes on, and you spend. These holds will be (I believe) beyond what you are actually spending. Then at the end of the cruise, when your account is finally tabulated, the holds that are in place could remain for as long as 30 days. They would have taken their full payment and in addition, while not withdrawing the funds from your account, the amounts still on "hold" will not be available to you, which they say can be up to 30 days. If you aren't willing to use a credit card, and your bank balance isn't sufficiently high that you can't manage without the ability to draw on the funds that are on "hold", then just set up a cash account for on the ship. 

 

hope this helps

have a great cruise

It does help. Can you give me details on setting up the cash account....where? when? thx!

[Outerdog]

I would never allow anyone to run a tab directly against my checking account. There are so many ways for things to go wrong such as double billing, incorrect billing, erroneous charges, and while you're disputing it, those funds are unavailable to you.

 

Never, ever use a debit card for shipboard accounts. As stated, use/get a credit card or set up a cash account. You set the cash account up on board after check in at Guest Services.

 

[hladygirl]

We have always used our debit card on NCL. Last month on the GEM I used it and my final bill was $1,000. Ncl put another holdings of $750 on my card. Never had that happen before in 10 years. My bank doesn’t put holds on to the account so it was NCL. Won’t do that again. NCL has become quite the money grubber lately.

 

[Birdie And Sue]

You risk your account being overdrawn and having to pay bank NSF fees.  I would not recommend using a debit card ever.  Even once the cruise is over, your bank may not release holds for several weeks.

[esm54687]

18 minutes ago, hladygirl said:

We have always used our debit card on NCL. Last month on the GEM I used it and my final bill was $1,000. Ncl put another holdings of $750 on my card. Never had that happen before in 10 years. My bank doesn’t put holds on to the account so it was NCL. Won’t do that again. NCL has become quite the money grubber lately.

 

Not sure how you can claim NCL is a "money grubber"..... they clearly tell you NOT to use a debit card and clearly give you multiple reasons why not.... yet you still choose to..  They didn't collect $1,750 from you..... they collected the $1,000 that was owed.

 

You were warned and did what you want anyway...... no one's fault but yours. 

[Nola26]

48 minutes ago, esm54687 said:

Not sure how you can claim NCL is a "money grubber"..... they clearly tell you NOT to use a debit card and clearly give you multiple reasons why not.... yet you still choose to..  They didn't collect $1,750 from you..... they collected the $1,000 that was owed.

 

You were warned and did what you want anyway...... no one's fault but yours. 

Stop it NCL is taking an interest free cash float, they don't have to do this and certainly not tho that amount. 

[rtread]

Thanks for the good information and advice. I went back and edited my payment preferences to CASH. They recommend $100 per person per day so for a 7 day cruise I may add to that a bit and deposit $2,000 for the two of us (just so I won't have to mess with having to go replenish it).....they said we would get the excess refunded at the end of the cruise. Has anyone ever had a problem getting this refund?

Also, for the 7 day Hawaii cruise, does $2,000 sound excessive, about right, or what? (No casino on POA)Thanks!

Edited May 19, 2019 by rtread
typo

[KeithJenner]

2 hours ago, Nola26 said:

Stop it NCL is taking an interest free cash float, they don't have to do this and certainly not tho that amount. 

When someone puts a hold on an account like this they don’t actually get a penny of that money until they confirm the transaction.

 

All the hold does is get your bank to allocate that money so it will be paid (ie you can’t go and spend it elsewhere). NCL don’t actually get it.

[KeithJenner]

7 minutes ago, rtread said:

Also, for the 7 day Hawaii cruise, does $2,000 sound excessive, about right, or what? (No casino on POA)Thanks!

Impossible to say, as we don’t know what you are likely to buy.

 

Our onboard accounts are usually less than $100 as we have the beverage package and dining packages, and tend not to buy much onboard. Plus we always prepay the DSC.

 

If you are going be buying any drinks, getting spa treatments, paying for shore excursions etc then $2,000 may be way under.

 

The $100 per day is just a recommendation. As long as you pay in enough to cover everything that will automatically me charged (ie DSC) then you can open a cash account with a lot less than that.

[kerryincork]

I would pay less not more and go back and pay extra if required. If you pay more than you spend it can be a bother to get the money back.

 

What I do is put my credit card on the account and on last day I pay my account off in cash so I get off the ship.

 

I do it this way as I am not sure how much money I will spend in port.

[esm54687]

3 hours ago, Nola26 said:

Stop it NCL is taking an interest free cash float, they don't have to do this and certainly not tho that amount. 

WOW!! 

 

I can't even respond to this if you don't have the basic understanding of what a "hold" is. 

 

[esm54687]

1 hour ago, rtread said:

Thanks for the good information and advice. I went back and edited my payment preferences to CASH. They recommend $100 per person per day so for a 7 day cruise I may add to that a bit and deposit $2,000 for the two of us (just so I won't have to mess with having to go replenish it).....they said we would get the excess refunded at the end of the cruise. Has anyone ever had a problem getting this refund?

Also, for the 7 day Hawaii cruise, does $2,000 sound excessive, about right, or what? (No casino on POA)Thanks!

I've done the cash thing and have had no issues getting the remaining funds back the last night...... try and pre pay your DSC so that it is one less thing deducted from your deposit.

[amelia3171]

Why not use a credit card, use the app daily to keep track of any charges(if any), let the final balance be paid on the card? No faffing about with money, no standing in a long queue on the last night to get your money, no guessing how much you need. Then if you don’t want to leave a balance until the due date on the credit card just transfer money from your bank account  

[rtread]

2 hours ago, esm54687 said:

I've done the cash thing and have had no issues getting the remaining funds back the last night...... try and pre pay your DSC so that it is one less thing deducted from your deposit.

OK, give me a break....I'm new at this. What is my DSC? 😊

[ColinIllinois]

https://www.ncl.com/faq#!#what-is-onboard-service-charge

[Harratine]

5 hours ago, rtread said:

Thanks for the good information and advice. I went back and edited my payment preferences to CASH. They recommend $100 per person per day so for a 7 day cruise I may add to that a bit and deposit $2,000 for the two of us (just so I won't have to mess with having to go replenish it).....they said we would get the excess refunded at the end of the cruise. Has anyone ever had a problem getting this refund?

Also, for the 7 day Hawaii cruise, does $2,000 sound excessive, about right, or what? (No casino on POA)Thanks!

Depends.  I would ask the following questions in order to set a budget.

 

1a. Do you have a drink or specialty restaurant package (will drinks and food add to the amount I need).

 

1b. Do you plan on buying excursions to your account?

 

2.  Do you have any OBC? That will be used first and reduce the budget.

 

3. Is there anything you like doing that will add cost (bingo, etc)

 

Add or subtract with each big category and you can be really accurate

 

and side note, if you are adding cash, and there was a casino, then I would just use cash as the account / casino will charge you to charge to the room.

[Sauer-kraut]

Here's what I would do:

• Pre-pay the DSC (the daily service charge) you can do this under your MyNCL in your account online.  This way you are already saving yourself the  $15 per person per day charge to your on board account and you don't have to worry about covering that during the cruise.
• When checking in put down $400 per person  and just watch your on board account every few days to see what the balance is
• IF the balance is getting low apply more cash, you can see how you are spending on board and adjust accordingly
• If you are getting down to your last few dollars, you're in Hawaii so you can just use an ATM on shore to get more cash.
• I would also bring smaller bills to tip bartenders and that will also come out of your cash flow.

[adam_s_allen]

OP not sure if you know this or not but you’ll be able to check exactly what your balance is at on the TV in your cabin or on the app at anytime. I’d put around 300 pp down in cash and check once in a while and if it starts getting low you can add more money at guest services any time.

[debgreg]

On Royal Caribbean I always set up a cash account and you don’t have to put any money down. I then pay the final bill at the end with my fee free debit card , is this not an option on NCL ?

[rtread]

Thanks for the good response I'm getting here. One thing I'm still not clear about....I put cash into my account and I want to spend money around the ship....like a BAR or something😁, do they give me a card to pay with or how do I actually make a purchase?

Edited May 19, 2019 by rtread
typo