Getting worried

[diablob]

I have been reading all this nightmare stuff regarding credit card charges during and after the cruise. I thought you had to give your credit card to charge against during your cruise. Is it possible to use cash for this, or can you just settle at the end of your cruise. If this is the case, could these nightmare 'extra' charges still appear?

[Davey Interweb]

You can secure your shipboard account with cash in lieu of a credit card, you can also pay off your account balance in cash. Personally, I wouldn't worry about it too much. If this had happened to me and I found the cruise line unhelpful in resolving the charge in question, I'd simply initiate a chargeback.

[paul929207]

We have been on 8 Princess cruises. we always charge our on board account to a credit card. Never had a problem. I do check our bill a day or two before the end, as well as the last morning.

[Toto2Kansas]

Over 35 cruises for us, and we have NEVER seen one of these extra charges placed on our Credit Card, either onboard or after we have left the ship.

[CrusinAgain]

We also have never had a problem and always use a credit card. If I ever did have a problem and could not resolve it with Princess, I would dispute it with the credit card company. Using the cash method, if they find you might still owe later, I don't know your rights if Princess can go after you for the money if you definitely know you do not owe it. Hopefully others can chime in on using cash.

[chasetf]

I have been reading all this nightmare stuff regarding credit card charges during and after the cruise. I thought you had to give your credit card to charge against during your cruise. Is it possible to use cash for this, or can you just settle at the end of your cruise. If this is the case, could these nightmare 'extra' charges still appear?

I think you are getting worried about nothing. It happens no more than any other business.... You will always hear the horror stories, but not the hundreds of thousands of other cruisers that had no problems..... like us.

 

If you check your accounts during the cruise a couple of times, and we also check it the last day before embarking, then you should have no problems with the your accounts. As far a "extra" charges beyond your shipboard account, I would not worry about those either.

[Bucky3]

We have just completed our 18th Princess cruise and have never had a problem. We check during the cruise and at the end and our account has always been accurate.

[newman's dad]

Always use a credit card for your cruise this gives you the most protection. Billing errors happen and you don't ever want to use a checkcard for that reason. Billing errors could result in bounced check fees, Your bank can dispute the charges for you however before your aware of the issue you could bounce several payments that aren't the banks problem. They may refund fees but that doesn't help when you receive a late fee from a mortgage company.

[Pam in CA]

Like the others, I've taken many cruises and never had a problem.

 

The best advice I could give is to keep your receipts and keep track of your spending; and, request a copy of your onboard account a couple of days before you disembark so that if there's an amount on the account that you don't recognize, you can question it or get it resolved before the disembarkation rush. Mistakes are made and usually, they are honest ones and quickly resolved. With your receipts, you have your documentation should a question arise.

 

Don't worry -- but be smart. :)

[diablob]

Thanks so much to all of you. I feel a lot better now. I don't like surprises and people were starting to freak me out. Now I can relax and have a great cruise!!

[Embracedbylife]

We always ask for a print out of our bill a day or two before we are ready to leave and make sure there are no charges that are out of the ordinary. Have never had a problem with our bill, never over charged once! :p

[huskerdan25]

I have been reading all this nightmare stuff regarding credit card charges during and after the cruise. I thought you had to give your credit card to charge against during your cruise. Is it possible to use cash for this, or can you just settle at the end of your cruise. If this is the case, could these nightmare 'extra' charges still appear?

 

I would recommend that you not worry about this. Obviously, the only time you are going to hear about problems using a credit card is when someone has charges improperly made to their cards. But that is also the benefit of having the charges go on a credit card because you have the avenue of disputing the charges if they are incorrect.

 

As I'm sure others do, I save up my cash (leaving in my savings account), charge my expenses to my credit card and then pay the credit card off from my cash savings. No interest on my charges and I know that I can dispute any inaccurate charges if necessary. So far, have never had a problem and my charges have always matched the final charge report sent to my cabin the last night of the cruise.

 

While mistakes do get made, don't let a handful of reports of this make you think this is a massive problem as it isn't.

 

Also, take Pam's advice and save all of your receipts. This is how I confirm that my final charge report is correct. In fact, I will usually get a copy halfway through the cruise and validate up to that point with my saved receipts. I get a copy at time when there is no one waiting in line so I just walk up and get a printout. Works great and gives me peace of mind that all of my charges are correct and that I am staying within budget :)

 

Enjoy your cruise!

 

Dan

[JLC@SD]

Thanks so much to all of you. I feel a lot better now. I don't like surprises and people were starting to freak me out. Now I can relax and have a great cruise!!

 

....for peace of mind and to avoid "surprises".......every couple of days stop by the Purser's Desk and get a print out of your account to verify that everything is proper....;)

[JPO]

After our last trip on the Royal P. a mysterious charge for a bit less than $100 showed up on my AmEx bill. It was not clear what number to call but a call to the same number you would call to book through Princess fairly quickly got me a very helpful operator who looked it up and after a bit of conversation, asked if I had used the money exchange machine on board. I had (really bad idea ... excessive service charge, use an ATM ashore) and apparently those charges do not show up until after the end of the voyage. Thus things were quickly explained to my stisfaction.

[dms42]

Are the total charges billed at the end of the cruise, or do they charge the amounts daily? I am used to RCCL. I have always used my visa debit card, and a day or two after we disembark, the total is charged to my Visa debit.

 

I have been reading various threads, and some have said that Princess puts thru a large authorization at the beginning (a hold), while other posters say that at the end, their final credit card bill had numerous postings, as if the cruiseline authorized the charges on a daily basis.

 

Can anyone clarify for me how Princess does this?

[bjcanady]

Over 35 cruises for us, and we have NEVER seen one of these extra charges placed on our Credit Card, either onboard or after we have left the ship.

 

Ditto~

[janetz]

For us we use no CC, no DC, just plain old cash. We do not chance the "hassle" of a mistake. Works great. :) :)

[CrusinAgain]

Are the total charges billed at the end of the cruise, or do they charge the amounts daily? I am used to RCCL. I have always used my visa debit card, and a day or two after we disembark, the total is charged to my Visa debit.

 

I have been reading various threads, and some have said that Princess puts thru a large authorization at the beginning (a hold), while other posters say that at the end, their final credit card bill had numerous postings, as if the cruiseline authorized the charges on a daily basis.

 

Can anyone clarify for me how Princess does this?

 

Well that is a good question as I have heard that from others also when using a debit card versus a credit card.

 

I have heard they do put a high dollar amount for pre-authorization and you should probably call Princess and find out what amount will be frozen in your bank account so you can have enough in your account to cover that frozen amount and to be able to use it for other things you may buy since it sounds like you would prefer to use a debit card instead of credit card.

 

They do post charges every day on your shipboard account, however I have always seen it as one final charge on our credit card statement. We have not experienced it as a debit card transaction which they may do differently.

[honeydog714]

What I would suggest is daily get a printout from the purser and match it up to your charges (you get a slip when you sign for a drink etc) to make sure all is well. Never had an issue ever with random charges showing up after we left.

[brucilla]

We are currently experiencing difficulties with an amount that was added to our credit card bill. A charge for the mini bar was added and not discovered until the credit card bill came in. It never appeared on any of the interim statements etc. We never had anything from the mini bar and so we are disputing this with Celebrity Cruises. Not having much luck at the moment. Has anyone else had similar experiences on the Galaxy. Although not a huge amount I think i'll be settling everything by cash in the future.

[willysgrandma]

You really usually only read about problems on these boards - people that have no problems don't post to say "I had a perfect cruise - no credit card mischarges, great service, beautiful ship, outstanding food and entertainment"...blah, blah, blah.

 

IF you go to the pursers desk and check your onboard account a few times during the week, you can nip any problems in the bud.

 

Ask for receipts for everything you charge to your room. Then check those to your printouts. We checked our shipboard account three times during the cruise so we didn't have to worry about problems on the last day. And don't wait until the last day to do it - the lines are awful with people trying to settle up their accounts. Do it the day before that and once or twice before that.

 

It is imperative you ask for a receipt for anything that goes on your card. We had a lot of problems on the Crown getting receipts for our drinks - if we didn't ask for a receipt, they didn't bring one.

 

I wish Princess would get their act together and allow you to view your shipboard account on your t.v. screen the way other cruise lines do - it eliminates those lines at the pursers desk.

[augie]

For us we use no CC, no DC, just plain old cash. We do not chance the "hassle" of a mistake. Works great. :) :)

 

I remember that time we had a wad of cash stolen. No problem, I just called the mint and gave them the serial numbers and they invalidated them so that no one else could use them and sent us a stack of crisp new replacement bills the next day!

 

;)

[fathercop]

TO THE OP: I want to place myself in the camp of one who has never had a problem with any of the charges made to my ship board account. Not during the cruise not after the cruise. There were a couple of times when I did not recognize a bar statement, because we drank at one bar and the charge came from another. What happened was that the waiter entered our drink order at that bar, instead of the one we were at.. The Purser's desk was able to show me the charge and everything was fine. I subsequently keep a copy of every reciept from the ship and about 1 or 2 days before the end of the cruise, I check my balance.

 

Good luck to you and enjoy your cruise!

[janetz]

I remember that time we had a wad of cash stolen. No problem, I just called the mint and gave them the serial numbers and they invalidated them so that no one else could use them and sent us a stack of crisp new replacement bills the next day!

 

;)

 

 

Very cute! :p We don't have the cash in hand till the last day and I am not even going to tell you how that works!!:p :p