Question re cashing out non-refundable OBC in casino

[Turtles06]

I have read more than once in this forum that if you have leftover non-refundable OBC, one thing you can do is turn it into cash in the casino, for a 3% fee.  I’m on the Gem now, and was told in the casino that they cannot do this, that they can only draw against refundable OBC in your account.  I’d really appreciate any help on this. Perhaps what I’ve read on here was not correct, or perhaps I did not ask the right question in the casino or do it the right way. 

 

If it’s not possible to do this, please let me know. If it is, I’d really appreciate someone walking me through the steps, as I clearly did know the magic hand signal. 
 

Thanks! 

Edited January 7, 2020 by Turtles06

[tokidoki]

1 hour ago, Turtles06 said:

I have read more than once in this forum that if you have leftover non-refundable OBC, one thing you can do is turn it into cash in the casino, for a 3% fee.  I’m on the Gem now, and was told in the casino that they cannot do this, that they can only draw against refundable OBC in your account.  I’d really appreciate any help on this. Perhaps what I’ve read on here was not correct, or perhaps I did not ask the right question in the casino or do it the right way. 

 

If it’s not possible to do this, please let me know. If it is, I’d really appreciate someone walking me through the steps, as I clearly did know the magic hand signal. 
 

Thanks! 

I just did it last May? I was able to transfer OBC to my acct to gamble with and then withdrew voucher and instead of playing, I cashed it out!  

[Turtles06]

1 hour ago, tokidoki said:

I just did it last May? I was able to transfer OBC to my acct to gamble with and then withdrew voucher and instead of playing, I cashed it out!  

 

You can do that with refundable OBC. I am asking a question specifically about non refundable OBC. 

Edited January 7, 2020 by Turtles06

[Doc Tom]

1 hour ago, Turtles06 said:

I have read more than once in this forum that if you have leftover non-refundable OBC, one thing you can do is turn it into cash in the casino, for a 3% fee.  I’m on the Gem now, and was told in the casino that they cannot do this, that they can only draw against refundable OBC in your account.  I’d really appreciate any help on this. Perhaps what I’ve read on here was not correct, or perhaps I did not ask the right question in the casino or do it the right way. 

 

If it’s not possible to do this, please let me know. If it is, I’d really appreciate someone walking me through the steps, as I clearly did know the magic hand signal. 
 

Thanks! 

Hi Turtles, Like you I was told in the casino that I could not draw against nonrefundable OBC. Shortly thereafter, I stopped at the purser's desk and asked the same question. The gentleman added up my refundable plus my nonrefundable OBC and gave me the total in cash. I'm pretty sure in my case he was "violating" published NCL rules, but it is worth a try. Good luck.

[vince_g]

I just cruised on Gem this past October 25, and did a room charge right at a slot machine.  It draws against the non-refundable OBC first.  I have done it many times.  Once you have a balance on the slot machine, you can just cash it in.

Edited January 7, 2020 by vince_g

[tokidoki]

21 minutes ago, Turtles06 said:

 

You can do that with refundable OBC. I am asking a question specifically about non refundable OBC. 

My OBC is always non refundable 

[tokidoki]

Just now, tokidoki said:

My OBC is always non refundable 

It’s from it’s from my ncl credit card points

[mking8288]

Turtles, as noted above, do a Room Charge with one of the slot machine, follow the prompts to withdraw & transfer the funds.  Move that onto the slot machine to (NOT) play, then - cashout - before your pull the keycard.  Take your printed voucher & convert back to cash to use as you wish (3% fees deducted)   *** see/follow "instructions" below.  Watch your OBC debits, credits adjustment - done overnight - to reflect your net balance; that, it should reduce/zero out available OBC posted to your account.  I'm 95% sure (it worked last month for us, on the Gem) this is still doable, unless 2020 and NCL is putting another hood over our heads.  

 

Don't do this on the last 2 days to avoid surprises, figure out another way to "spend" or use up any remaining OBC.  BTW, off-topics ... can you check to see the duty-free cigarette prices in the gift shop, if & when you get a chance ... no need or rush to post that info.  DW used OBC for it and there's never enough for costmetics, except they no longer stock her brands.  TIA. 

Edited January 7, 2020 by mking8288

[vince_g]

Ask someone from the casino to show you how to transfer money from your onboard account to a gaming account in the casino.  You have to insert your keycard, press cabin charge button, enter amount to transfer, enter your birth day and year (as a PIN).  

[Turtles06]

1 hour ago, mking8288 said:

Turtles, as noted above, do a Room Charge with one of the slot machine, follow the prompts to withdraw & transfer the funds.  Move that onto the slot machine to (NOT) play, then - cashout - before your pull the keycard.  Take your printed voucher & convert back to cash to use as you wish (3% fees deducted)   *** see/follow "instructions" below.  Watch your OBC debits, credits adjustment - done overnight - to reflect your net balance; that, it should reduce/zero out available OBC posted to your account.  I'm 95% sure (it worked last month for us, on the Gem) this is still doable, unless 2020 and NCL is putting another hood over our heads.  

 

 

Thank you everyone all for the info!  I will try this and report back.
 

Question: what if, on my test run, I transfer $50 and then play a few spins on the slot machine, so there isn’t a (suspiciously) round number to cash out? Will that still work?  Or should I transfer an odd number, like $53? Or is the number simply irrelevant? 

[esm54687]

15 minutes ago, Turtles06 said:

Thank you everyone all for the info!  I will try this and report back.
 

Question: what if, on my test run, I transfer $50 and then play a few spins on the slot machine, so there isn’t a (suspiciously) round number to cash out? Will that still work?  Or should I transfer an odd number, like $53? Or is the number simply irrelevant? 

The number is simply irrelevant as the "transfer" doesn't specifically impact OBC....... it's a general charge against your stateroom account and then OBC is applied behind the scenes. 

 

Many casino players will play down or up to a round number before cashing out. 

Edited January 7, 2020 by esm54687

[Krazy Kat]

FWIW - I could not use my non-refundable OBC (from NCL credit card) in the casino on the Pearl in Dec.  At a machine, I downloaded cash and charged it to my cabin account.  Later when checking my account, my OBC was not touched and the casino cash withdrawal was added to my outstanding balance account.  I went to Customer Service to inquire about using my non-refundable OBC in the casino and they said it was not possible.

[Turtles06]

1 hour ago, mking8288 said:

BTW, off-topics ... can you check to see the duty-free cigarette prices in the gift shop, if & when you get a chance ... no need or rush to post that info. 

Happy to oblige. I just wandered down there. I should have asked you if there are specific brands you’re interested in. I’m not a smoker;  the prices for cartons varied by brand from the $20s to the high $50s. Let me know if you’d like more specifics. 

[tokidoki]

7 minutes ago, Krazy Kat said:

FWIW - I could not use my non-refundable OBC (from NCL credit card) in the casino on the Pearl in Dec.  At a machine, I downloaded cash and charged it to my cabin account.  Later when checking my account, my OBC was not touched and the casino cash withdrawal was added to my outstanding balance account.  I went to Customer Service to inquire about using my non-refundable OBC in the casino and they said it was not possible.

now I am confused?????  I hope u,  Turtles has luck, as I plan to do it in March

[tokidoki]

9 minutes ago, Krazy Kat said:

FWIW - I could not use my non-refundable OBC (from NCL credit card) in the casino on the Pearl in Dec.  At a machine, I downloaded cash and charged it to my cabin account.  Later when checking my account, my OBC was not touched and the casino cash withdrawal was added to my outstanding balance account.  I went to Customer Service to inquire about using my non-refundable OBC in the casino and they said it was not possible.

are we talking about the same transaction???  I transferred OBC to gambling acct to use in slot machine, did one 50c pull, then cashed out voucher and got paid.  

[Turtles06]

1 hour ago, Krazy Kat said:

FWIW - I could not use my non-refundable OBC (from NCL credit card) in the casino on the Pearl in Dec.  At a machine, I downloaded cash and charged it to my cabin account.  Later when checking my account, my OBC was not touched and the casino cash withdrawal was added to my outstanding balance account.  I went to Customer Service to inquire about using my non-refundable OBC in the casino and they said it was not possible.

Thanks for your comment.  That’s exactly my concern. 
 

BTW, looking at my account today, I saw a $5 balance, which made no sense, because our non refundable OBC far exceeds our charges. I had to visit Guest Services for something else, so I asked about this. I was told it was the $5 we added as an additional gratuity the other night in Le Bistro.  I know you can’t use non refundable OBC for the DSC, but this is crazy. 

[mking8288]

16 minutes ago, Turtles06 said:

Happy to oblige. I just wandered down there. Let me know if you’d like more specifics. 

 

TIA, Marlboro was $55 per, buy 3 & get a 4th free, last month b/c we were not stopping at the Caribbean, just wonder if they varied prices, for our convenience. Not a rush or priority, we don't smoke but use OBC to buy as gift. Enjoy your sea day, looks great w weather on ship cam. 

[NRWPA]

1 hour ago, Krazy Kat said:

FWIW - I could not use my non-refundable OBC (from NCL credit card) in the casino on the Pearl in Dec.  At a machine, I downloaded cash and charged it to my cabin account.  Later when checking my account, my OBC was not touched and the casino cash withdrawal was added to my outstanding balance account.  I went to Customer Service to inquire about using my non-refundable OBC in the casino and they said it was not possible.

I had a similar experience twice on Jade, twice on Pearl. It looked like the non-refundable credit was being used, then when I received the final bill (on the final morning) the OBC was charged back to my bill as Unused Non-Refundable Credit. The biggest problem is until I received that final bill, it looked as if the Non-Refundable credit was being used. As a side note, on Jade in September, I had plenty of charges other than casino charges and they STILL charged the credit back as unused - that time I went to Guest Services and got it straightened out. Luckily, I woke up very early that morning so there was no line. Their system is terrible - they should not be allowed to charge back OBC calling it "unused" after you go to sleep the last night.

[tokidoki]

54 minutes ago, NRWPA said:

I had a similar experience twice on Jade, twice on Pearl. It looked like the non-refundable credit was being used, then when I received the final bill (on the final morning) the OBC was charged back to my bill as Unused Non-Refundable Credit. The biggest problem is until I received that final bill, it looked as if the Non-Refundable credit was being used. As a side note, on Jade in September, I had plenty of charges other than casino charges and they STILL charged the credit back as unused - that time I went to Guest Services and got it straightened out. Luckily, I woke up very early that morning so there was no line. Their system is terrible - they should not be allowed to charge back OBC calling it "unused" after you go to sleep the last night.

Just checking that u did or didn’t transfer OBC to your casino card? Don’t wanna gather lots of OBC and then have trouble getting unused balance back from casino voucher. Thx

[NRWPA]

39 minutes ago, tokidoki said:

Just checking that u did or didn’t transfer OBC to your casino card? Don’t wanna gather lots of OBC and then have trouble getting unused balance back from casino voucher. Thx

I had OBC and charged money to play in the casino at the slot machines on my room card. My cabin charges indicated in the running total that the OBC was deducted from my bill. It appeared to have been used to offset the casino charges all through the cruise - until the last night when in the middle of the night the final bill was delivered to the stateroom. The next morning is when I found that the OBC was put back on my bill as a charge (not a credit) and listed as Unused Non-Refundable Credit. In the case of the most recent Jade cruise, I had enough non-casino charges to offset the OBC and showed it to the Guest Services person. It was then credited back to me. The other time on the Jade and 2 times on the Pearl, I lost any OBC that was not for charges like shore excursions, etc. I hope I explained this well enough.

[tokidoki]

40 minutes ago, NRWPA said:

I had OBC and charged money to play in the casino at the slot machines on my room card. My cabin charges indicated in the running total that the OBC was deducted from my bill. It appeared to have been used to offset the casino charges all through the cruise - until the last night when in the middle of the night the final bill was delivered to the stateroom. The next morning is when I found that the OBC was put back on my bill as a charge (not a credit) and listed as Unused Non-Refundable Credit. In the case of the most recent Jade cruise, I had enough non-casino charges to offset the OBC and showed it to the Guest Services person. It was then credited back to me. The other time on the Jade and 2 times on the Pearl, I lost any OBC that was not for charges like shore excursions, etc. I hope I explained this well enough.

Thx😍appreciate your response, so the difference looks like u didn’t cash out which is my plan on the last nite

[Turtles06]

16 hours ago, mking8288 said:

 

TIA, Marlboro was $55 per, buy 3 & get a 4th free, last month b/c we were not stopping at the Caribbean, just wonder if they varied prices, for our convenience. Not a rush or priority, we don't smoke but use OBC to buy as gift. Enjoy your sea day, looks great w weather on ship cam. 

Marlboro 100s are $52.99 per, buy 3 and get a 4th free. 

[BostonGal35]

ive always been able to do this as recent as this past November.  

[tokidoki]

3 hours ago, BostonGal35 said:

ive always been able to do this as recent as this past November.  

are u referring to cashing out non-ref.  OBC?

[BostonGal35]

1 hour ago, tokidoki said:

are u referring to cashing out non-ref.  OBC?

 

yes. you are allowed to use nonrefundable OBC to gamble (unless something has changed since i last sailed).  so i sit at a blackjack table, charge $400 or whatever my OBC is to my room, and either play or i walk over to the cage and cash in the chips.