Pre-purchasing OBC

[Over from NZ]

You can pre-purchase OBC to spend onboard. Seems a fair idea.. pre-pay a bit of the spending money.. and in our case.. a bit of insurance against our dollar dropping lots. However.. it seems a real strange set-up that you pay xyz $NZD and then after you've paid.. they tell you what you're getting in $USD. Not before. You're not advised the exchange rate until after you've hit pay! That's a bit off. Seems a very strange set-up.   

[skynight]

I would think a better way is to use a credit card that does not charge exchange fees, and to indicate to Princess that your billing should be in US$. That way your bank will receive a US$ charge and will apply the bank exchange rate on the billing date. You can over pay your credit card before you depart on your vacation. Our bank will retain debit balances for a few months before they refund the overpay. That has the same effect as placing funds into your ship account.

Another way is to purchase US$ before you leave. Once on board just deposit them into your on board account.

I would try to avoid using the Princess exchange rates. 

[sunviking90]

We do this to offset the fluctuating CAD exchanges. Supposedly the exchange will be the same as it was when you booked your cruise. Easiest way to tell is see what the 3rd option costs, and then you’ll know the exchange you’re paying. That is for $100 usd.

Edited November 14, 2022 by sunviking90

[Over from NZ]

9 hours ago, skynight said:

I would think a better way is to use a credit card that does not charge exchange fees, and to indicate to Princess that your billing should be in US$. That way your bank will receive a US$ charge and will apply the bank exchange rate on the billing date. You can over pay your credit card before you depart on your vacation. Our bank will retain debit balances for a few months before they refund the overpay. That has the same effect as placing funds into your ship account.

Another way is to purchase US$ before you leave. Once on board just deposit them into your on board account.

I would try to avoid using the Princess exchange rates. 

We always just link our credit-card to the room.. and we pay the credit-card off each month. Easy and no issues. No issues with the holds either.. there's a sufficiently high credit-limit to not have to worry. What I was thinking of doing this time around.. was pre-purchasing some on-board credit, simply given that some economists suggesting quite a drop coming between the NZD vs USD. You can purchase onboard credit via the cruise personaliser. However.. they won't give you the conversion or tell you how much USD you're buying until after you've paid for it.. which is mighty odd and not fair. 

 

Anyhow, think what we might do is pre-pay the 21-nights gratuities now effectively locking in the current exchange rate on that.. and hope that the exchange rate doesn't tip too much for our onboard spending money. We're not big drinkers or spenders onboard.. so it's not the end of the world. 

 

Crystal ball though.. what to do about Euros for the rest of the holiday haha. 

[Martha1974]

If there are 3 price options in NZD those are the prices that Princess are currently charging for $25, $50 and $100 US. The OBC applied to your onboard account will always be those amounts of USD, it’s the non-US currency charges that change between cruises.
 

For example we sailed on Sky Princess in Sept ‘22 and bought 4x $100 US OBC at a charge of 72GBP per $100 so when we got on board we had $400 even though the exchange rate had changed between the purchase and the cruise and by the date that we sailed the 4x£72 would actually only have bought $350. (The current rate for the same cruise in Sept ‘23 is 82GBP per $100). Once you’ve made the purchase Princess won’t change the rate. Of course this can be a good thing or not depending on whether the exchange rate is going up or down. However having done it once I would definitely do it again. 

[Over from NZ]

32 minutes ago, Martha1974 said:

If there are 3 price options in NZD those are the prices that Princess are currently charging for $25, $50 and $100 US. The OBC applied to your onboard account will always be those amounts of USD, it’s the non-US currency charges that change between cruises.
 

For example we sailed on Sky Princess in Sept ‘22 and bought 4x $100 US OBC at a charge of 72GBP per $100 so when we got on board we had $400 even though the exchange rate had changed between the purchase and the cruise and by the date that we sailed the 4x£72 would actually only have bought $350. (The current rate for the same cruise in Sept ‘23 is 82GBP per $100). Once you’ve made the purchase Princess won’t change the rate. Of course this can be a good thing or not depending on whether the exchange rate is going up or down. However having done it once I would definitely do it again. 

Thanks Martha. That's what I wondered if it would be. Rather stupid that they wouldn't say on the site what it actually was though. However.. it still wasn't actually the case. The drongo on the other end after a lot of conferring with his boss.. came back and told me I would be buying different figures.. roughly $22, 45 & 90 USD. Obviously makes a difference. If I thought I was buying say $100 USD instead of getting $90 (and assuming I was going to buy quite a few of them).. it would make quite a difference. 

[Belmont Babe]

On 11/17/2022 at 9:54 AM, Over from NZ said:

Thanks Martha. That's what I wondered if it would be. Rather stupid that they wouldn't say on the site what it actually was though. However.. it still wasn't actually the case. The drongo on the other end after a lot of conferring with his boss.. came back and told me I would be buying different figures.. roughly $22, 45 & 90 USD. Obviously makes a difference. If I thought I was buying say $100 USD instead of getting $90 (and assuming I was going to buy quite a few of them).. it would make quite a difference. 

Hi there, just going through the same dilemma for an upcoming cruise. Can you tell me how it all panned out? Did you get US$100  or US$90 for your NZD - currently NZD155.

[Over from NZ]

19 minutes ago, Belmont Babe said:

Hi there, just going through the same dilemma for an upcoming cruise. Can you tell me how it all panned out? Did you get US$100  or US$90 for your NZD - currently NZD155.

Didn't bother in the end. Too much shagging around. Just linked the credit-card and got a bill at the end of the cruise. 🙂 

[phabric]

I am Canadian.  I purchase OBC in US$.  You can purchase OBC in $25, $50 and $100.  Princess uses the exchange rate used when you booked.  The $ amount shown on the Onboard Service list is the $ amount charged to your credit card.

 

There will be a card in your cabin for $100 OBC that $100 is on our account.

 

My present cruise exchange rate is $1.25 = $100US.  My credit card was charged $125 = $100US.  

 

My other cruises exchange rate is $1.35 = $100US.  My credit card will be charged $135 = $100US

Edited October 14, 2023 by phabric

[trinitygirl]

I bought OBC for my August and November cruises (where the onboard accounts will be charged in USD)  back in December and January.  The exchange rate was clear on the website.  I bought the OBC in $100 USD lots - $135 AUD for $100 USD ($145 in January).  I saved about 18% on the December purchase, but when I went back to buy for the November cruise they had obviously repriced their currency because the exchange rate had decreased to 11%.  However, when I left home in July the AUD had declined further so I felt pretty good about my decision.  I did the same thing for my Celebrity cruise - their currency pricing was a bit lower, but still a nice discount.  

I got the same advice here - just leave it and pay in real time - but on a longer trip where you don’t want to be paying credit card bills on the road, or where you are trying to stick to a budget or worried about the currency declining, prepaying can be a good option.

Edited October 16, 2023 by trinitygirl