Exchange rate on excursions

[TowandaUK]

We are in the UK and just booked our first Princess cruise. Some of the items available to pre purchase are priced in GBP. The excursions are all priced in $. When we buy is it charged in dollars and presented to our credit card in $ or is it converted to GBP and charged to our card. What exchange rate do they use?  Is it the rate in the markets on that day or is there a set rate?  I realise that once on the ship everything is done in $. 

[I_r_a]

Hi T,

 

Not exactly what you want, but in the US charges in a foreign currency are billed the CC in that currency.  The CC owner (MC, Visa, AMEX, etc) then converts that charge to US dollars and bills the bank.

 

Most banks then charge you an additional  3% "conversion fee".

 

The exchange rate is set by the CC owner and is not necessarily the current day's bank rate.

 

AMEX charges a flat 2%.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Ira

[TowandaUK]

Thanks for your reply. I think what is confusing me is that if I want to pre purchase anything else - wine, flowers, celebration packages, internet etc it is all charged in £. Excursions are quoted in $. So does Princess actually charge it to you in $ even though I am in the UK and everything else is in £. 
I plan on getting a Halifax clarity card which doesn’t charge fees on foreign currency, but would prefer to use my current card if buying in £. Has anybody from the UK pre purchased excursions - how was it charged to your account?

[NavyVeteran]

I'm in the United States, and I had the same issue when prepaying for excursions on an Australian cruise. The excursions are all priced in Australian dollars, and they were charged to my credit card (which converted them to US dollars).

 

I also noticed that the credit card charge for prepaid excursions on the Australian cruise was from "Princess Cruise Lines". The prepaid excursions on my other Princess cruises (charged in US dollars) are from "Princess Cruises Passage".

 

It looks as if excursions are priced in onboard currency unlike other charges that are priced in the currency where the cruise is purchased. This also means that we may make or lose money if we cancel an excursion - the refund will be the same amount of onboard currency that we paid but the amount returned to our credit cards will be different than what we paid originally (depending on changes in exchange rates).

[downsmead]

I see what you mean - just checked excursions for my October cruise.

I don’t remember the excursions being in $ previously but may be mistaken. As you say, other things to pre-purchase are in GBP.

If you want to know how much it will cost you, I suggest calling Princess and asking how much the excursion will be in sterling (0344 338 8663 is a free number). You can then book over the phone if you wish to go ahead hopefully.

[Rubynic]

The excursions are charged to your credit card in $ so it would be better to use a Halifax Clarity or similar card so you are not charged additional exchange fees. Or if you have on board credit you can use this to ‘pay’ for the excursions. Everything else is charged in £s. It is worth noting that the exchange rate for these is fixed depending when you booked - for a while now it has been approx $1.22 to £1. The current exchange rate is actually higher than this - if this remains the case then you would be better purchasing drinks packages, paying tips etc when you are onboard in $ and charging them to the Clarity card. Hope that helps 😊

[LeeW]

Last cruise on Sky we booked a number of excursions which were listed in US dollars and we paid with US credit card.  But when we got onboard the onboard account listed all these purchases as an excursion credit and they were not actually charged until we took the cruise.  Since a couple of these excursions were cancelled by Princess (weather and not enough bookings) the payments just became more onboard credit and they had to take no action onboard to credit our account.  Don't remember this in the past - usually the prepaid excursions had to be refunded if they didn't go.  This is the first time I have seen prepaid excursions show up in the onboard account.

 

So my impression is that you are now really buying an onboard credit in US dollars when you prepurchase an excursion.  Your credit card will be charged when you buy this.  As Rubynic says and others have reported, Princess will probably do the conversion at the rate you locked in when you booked the cruise.  Canadian cruisers have reported buying onboard credit this way when the locked-in rate is better than than the rate will be when they cruise.  Don't think you have the option to let your credit card company do the conversion.

[TheRabbit]

When ever we travel, we check our cards to find the one with lowest fees. We usually have at least one with zero fees. As a side note, these cards are all with a credit union. Also make sure we have one we can use at an ATM with no fees for conversion.

[Steelers36]

6 hours ago, downsmead said:

I see what you mean - just checked excursions for my October cruise.

I don’t remember the excursions being in $ previously but may be mistaken. As you say, other things to pre-purchase are in GBP.

If you want to know how much it will cost you, I suggest calling Princess and asking how much the excursion will be in sterling (0344 338 8663 is a free number). You can then book over the phone if you wish to go ahead hopefully.

 

I wouldn't call Princess for this answer.  And for sure you don't want them converting the currency for you.  Best to charge your card of choice in USD and expect 2.5%, or whatever your card rate is.  You can just Google GBP-USD exchange rates online.

 

4 hours ago, LeeW said:

Last cruise on Sky we booked a number of excursions which were listed in US dollars and we paid with US credit card.  But when we got onboard the onboard account listed all these purchases as an excursion credit and they were not actually charged until we took the cruise.  Since a couple of these excursions were cancelled by Princess (weather and not enough bookings) the payments just became more onboard credit and they had to take no action onboard to credit our account.  Don't remember this in the past - usually the prepaid excursions had to be refunded if they didn't go.  This is the first time I have seen prepaid excursions show up in the onboard account.

 

So my impression is that you are now really buying an onboard credit in US dollars when you prepurchase an excursion.  Your credit card will be charged when you buy this.  As Rubynic says and others have reported, Princess will probably do the conversion at the rate you locked in when you booked the cruise.  Canadian cruisers have reported buying onboard credit this way when the locked-in rate is better than than the rate will be when they cruise.  Don't think you have the option to let your credit card company do the conversion.

Princess normally is charging whatever card you provide in USD and the CC company does the conversion to the currency you are billed in when using the card.  Normally, there is a currency exchange surcharge by the bank, but you can get cards that do not add this surcharge.  Do not have Princess do a currency conversion - it will be unfavorable. 

 

Yes, Canadians can sometimes benefit by ordering OBC through the Personalizer for on-board expenses.  However, the rate as been 1.30 for so long now, not likely many bookings left at 1.20 or 1.25.  Whatever rate was in place when you booked (example:  a $1000 USD cruise would be sold/billed for $1300 CAD), then that is the rate in place if you ordered a PBP or OBC of $100 (cost = $130).  If the CAD were to improve a bunch and Princess had not moved their rate, just ask Princess or your TA to book in USD. 

 

[downsmead]

Cruise companies do not use prevailing currency rates. They set their conversion rates spasmodically. This can work in our favour - I have bought OBC as I have got more dollars that way than buying here. One way to check what their rate is to look at buying OBC, the multiples are generally in $25. 

Usually the rate is held at what ever it was for your first purchase, not that when the cruise was booked which it seems to happen in Canada if I read correctly.

[tiggertom]

12 hours ago, TowandaUK said:

Thanks for your reply. I think what is confusing me is that if I want to pre purchase anything else - wine, flowers, celebration packages, internet etc it is all charged in £. Excursions are quoted in $. So does Princess actually charge it to you in $ even though I am in the UK and everything else is in £. 
I plan on getting a Halifax clarity card which doesn’t charge fees on foreign currency, but would prefer to use my current card if buying in £. Has anybody from the UK pre purchased excursions - how was it charged to your account?

We have just purchased excursions which were priced in $, used our Halifax Clarity card to pay for them, opted to be charged in $ (you don’t want the cruise line to do the exchange for you), and I have just checked my Clarity account and the transaction is there, no additional charges. If you can, get a Halifax Clarity card and always opt to pay for the goods in the local currency.

Edited January 17, 2020 by tiggertom
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[TowandaUK]

Thanks so much to everybody for your help. It’s really clarified it for us. Just off to request a Halifax clarity card. 😄