credit card charges still coming!!!

[brendielee]

I forgot to mention that the charges are charges not holds and the merchant is Sapphire Princess.

[willysgrandma]

You can not just stop a bank from further payments you have to DISPUTE the charges once they do hit your account OR you have to authorize a FREEZE on the account which only adds to the issue of how to pay your other bills. If it's the credit card, same thing. You have to dispute the charges and again wait for all the back and forth of credit card company investigating.

 

 

PTC

 

As a former banker, yes you can put a stop payments on debits. I've done it for customers if they know as little as the payee. You have to dispute the charges that have already been charged, but you can place a stop payment on future anticipated charges that may go through.

 

This is one reason why you should not use a debit card for onboard accounts. It is a lot easier to dispute a credit card transaction than a debit card when they are draining money from your checking account.

 

I used to use my debit card to buy gas until my debit card info was lifted at a gas station and over $1500 in unauthorized charges were made to my account. The bank didn't credit that money back for 10 days - and I've never used my debit card for gas since. We also don't use it for hotel reservatons, because they place a hold on your account when you check in and then charge your card again when you leave, leaving hat first hold ont he account.

[willysgrandma]

Why does this seem to be a recurring problem on Princess. You don't hear of it to any extent from any other line.

 

I was charged for beach towels after I returned home - and never have been able to get it resolved. They asked for a few days to look into it, and they never returned my many calls to follow up.

 

 

You weren't on a cruise with a bunch of travel agents were you? Someone posted that on a recent cruise that travel agents were on, she oveheard a TA say she had taken towels home and put other TA's name and room numbers when she took the towels so they'd be charged for the towels!

 

Did you ever get the charges reversed? You may want to find that thread and send it to Princess, LOL.

[JLC@SD]

Has anyone else had this problem? We got off the cruise on 5/26/07 in Anchorage (Sapphire Princess) and my debit card is still getting charges! Two days before the cruise ended, I went to the front desk and paid $500 with my debit card, and told them to but the balance on the regular credit card that I had registered, which they did. So, between the $500 on the debit card and the $6xx on the credit card, it did total my final bill. WHY am I still receving charges??? I called Princess on Friday, they said give them a couple of days and call back, meanwhile I just got another $61 charge!!!!! Any ideas???? Brenda

 

......seems pretty confusing transaction.......more likely for someone making a mistake in trying to settle the account after pre authorizations were made. It would be less complicated to chose either "paper" or "plastic" and stick with it.....:)

[Fuzzzy]

Has anyone else had this problem? We got off the cruise on 5/26/07 in Anchorage (Sapphire Princess) and my debit card is still getting charges! Two days before the cruise ended, I went to the front desk and paid $500 with my debit card, and told them to but the balance on the regular credit card that I had registered, which they did. So, between the $500 on the debit card and the $6xx on the credit card, it did total my final bill. WHY am I still receving charges??? I called Princess on Friday, they said give them a couple of days and call back, meanwhile I just got another $61 charge!!!!! Any ideas???? Brenda

Are you disputing that these charges are legitimate or just late in being charged to you?

[Cruise Gypsy]

Another reason to use a credit card and not a debit card...

 

I agree - I know it is too late for the OP but when I travel credit cards work best for me. :)

[Admiral Horatio Nelson]

As someone who worked for Princess and was involved in supervising the transmission of credit card charges, I can say that once the cruise ends no charges would be made to any cards.

 

All credit/debit card charges are sent on disembarkation day, the billing system is taken offline do close the cruise. After the purser closes the cruise all of the transactions and financial information is archived and then removed from the ship's computer systems. The archived material is then sent to the head office so no further charges can be made. The new cruise is loaded and then we start all over again.

 

So knowing the system as intimately as I do, I cannot understand how any charges would be made after you left the ship? I can only assume they have been somehow delayed in the system after being transmitted.

 

As for the conspiracy theories that always appear in the event of any alleged discrepancies, I think they are foolish. Remember the days when it was simply mistakes that were made? Reputation is everything these days, and any truth in the idea that a major player like Princess was charging people's credit cards to improve profits would ruin the company.

[ldoc31]

Since I've already taken a beating on the fraud thread, this is all I'll say on this one...but as a credit or debit card holder, if there are charges coming into your account and you don't know why or where they are from, there's something seriously wrong that posting here won't fix.

 

Posting here did provide some valuable information for some of us--never use a debit card on a cruise.

[MaryPoppinz]

I can only assume they have been somehow delayed in the system after being transmitted.

 

The card on file for incidentals was a credit card, so anything "somehow delayed in the system" would be charged to that card. The only transaction authorized to this debit card was a one-time transaction of $500.

[Admiral Horatio Nelson]

The card on file for incidentals was a credit card, so anything "somehow delayed in the system" would be charged to that card. The only transaction authorized to this debit card was a one-time transaction of $500.

 

I don't claim to hold the answers to this, I am just sharing my insight with everyone so people are a little more aware of how the system works. Having said that, I notice the OP registered both cards at some point so it's possibole that even though she added a new card, the purser didn't remove the old card; actually that would seem to be the case here. what is more strange to me is that charges are coming in after leaving the ship?

 

As I said in my original post, once the cruise is archived and the new cruise starts it would be impossible to charge anything new to the account from the ship at least, it could have become known that there was a something not charged until after she left (such as bathrobe missing from suite, damage to suite etc.). Now OP I'm not saying you did those things just given them as examples to make a point.

 

Lastly, it is entirely possble for items to be delayed once charged like I stated, that happens more often than a lot of people realise.

[donna5]

I've never understood people not wanting to use a credit card for shipboard account. It is the safest and easiest form of payment.

[GloriaF]

I've never understood why anyone would choose to use a debit card - period. Why should you pay immediately with each purchase VS putting everything on a credit card and paying it off at the end of the month? The interest paid on accounts is so low as to not make much difference - but by using credit instead of debit cards, your account can accrue a little interest during the month.

[captainron]

Hi,

The good thing about using a credit card (such as Amex or Mastercard for example) is that if an entry on your statement is disputed they will back you and investigate on your behalf advising you of the results.

 

In addition, if your cruise bill is $6000 (art auction stuff plus drinky poos!!!) and if your CC (no silly not Cruise Critic, be serious now) is corporate partnered with an airline...you can get a good headstart on your airfare for your next cruise.

 

Be safe and use your MC,VI,AX,JBC, BC, DS or whatever credit card you may use. That is what is known as the "KYAC principle"...keepin' yer ass covered, and it is well worth taking away any reason for anxiety when you're s'posed to be there enjoying yourself.

 

Hope the experience doesn't reduce you to land vacations. Allow your bank the time to try and resolve the issue on your behalf.

 

Ciao for now!!!

[GloriaF]

Good Luck, Brendielee!! Please keep us updated as to what happens ~ hopefully it will be resolved to your satisfaction quickly.

[Steamboatin]

Take a tough stand.

 

Start with your local Better Business Bureau and your State Attorney General's Office. Naturally provide your itemized charges in question from Princess and duly note on your correspondence your bank's name.

 

Send a copy to your bank and see if your requested action moves at a much quicker pace to your pleasure.

 

Than send a letter to Chairman of Princess with copies of your letters.

[fathercop]

To the OP: I hope you get things worked out with your deibt card and any corrections are made quickly. Princess, I feel, needs to do a better job with customer service.

 

I am not enthralled with the way Princess handles printing out the statements on the cruise. It is very confusing at times to decipher the debits and charges.

 

However, as for fraud on Princess' part, I am sure it could happen, but in order for them to really make money of this scheme they would would have to charge thousands and thousands of passangers to make an extra profit. Think of it, if they cheat 1,000 passengers an average of $250 that would only be $250,000.00. 4,000 passengers would need to be swindled just to hit $1,000,000.00. That is a drop in the bucket of a company that deals in hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars. Secondly, the more people they cheat, the greater the chances of being caught and ruining their reputation are.

 

Yes, I will admit, I have sometimes felt that their crazy billing system is an elaborate conspiracy, but the reality of it is that they would have to overcharge or confuse just about every passenger in order to make a secret profit that is worth the risk in the first place. As one who is in law enforcement the majority of swindlers eventually get caught. I for one do not think that Princess is involved in fraud. They definitely would have been caught by now and we would not be on the Pricness boards, since there would be no Princess to talk about.

[bjkTX]

I don't know if having them processed on a ship makes a difference, but there are two ways to process a debit card transaction - as a debit card or as a credit card. For example if you buy gas at the pump and use your debit card and select "Debit" the transaction will process immediately. If you choose "credit" it can take several days to process. I notice that when I use the card as a "credit" card it doesn't show up on my account for at least 3 days. Possibly they processed some transactions on the debit card (even though they were supposed to use the CC) and processed them as "credit" card transactions - which took a few extra days. As another retired banker who has explained this to many customers it is one possible explanation.

[muffydawg]

I have also seen it happen that Merchant A's credit card MID (merchant identification number) gets "accidentally" programmed into Merchant B's credit card terminal, especially if both Merchant A and Merchant B are using the same credit card processor ( I used to work for one).

 

That could explain why the debits on the consumer bank statement are showing as "Sapphire Princess", but Princess has no record of these transmissions...

 

Let's give Princess the benefit of the doubt and let the bank do its job....

[greatuncle]

I am reassured that Princess does appear to reconcile card charges with passenger folios. This morning I discovered a credit on my CC statement for £25.30 (about $45) 4 weeks after the end of our cruise and I have no idea what it's for!

 

Peter in UK

[mrdood]

This is very disturbing news about Princess' ability to do accounting on board...

[cruise182]

This is very disturbing news about Princess' ability to do accounting on board...

Ditto

 

Fraud?? Probably not. But by having a lot of issues with refunds, extra charges, inflated charges, charges for towels...certainly leans towards incompetent. Funny how their incompetence favors them. If it wasn’t favoring them, I am sure they would figure a way to fix the "accounting" problems!