Curreney Connversion (Canadian) Details?

[BURWASHT]

Can someone please explain this to me, on the boarding pass, there is a currency conversion box to check, with a 3% fee. Should I not do this and just settle the account on my Canadian Visa? Thanks for your help!!!

[City_Woman]

Can someone please explain this to me, on the boarding pass, there is a currency conversion box to check, with a 3% fee. Should I not do this and just settle the account on my Canadian Visa? Thanks for your help!!!

 

Tick the spot, circle the spot, and highlight the spot! If you don't you will be charged 2 conversion fees, the first from Princess and then again from your Visa.

 

Judy

[c-to-sea]

Don't think that is quite the way it works. Yes, the cruise line will charge a

fee, usually higher than the fee your credit card would charge. Then, they will

convert the USD amount to your currency at THEIR exchange rate,

which is always higher than the going rate that your credit card would use.

Definitely make sure the election to be charged in USD for your onboard

account is well highlighted, pointed out at check-in and confirmed at the

desk after departure.

[CHOPPERTESTER]

If you do not check the DO NOT CONVERT box then Princess will exchange your on-board account bill from $US dollars to $Cdn dollars using:

 

THEIR CURRENT $1.15 CDN FOR $1.00 US RATE AND ADD A 3% EXCHANGE FEE ON TOP OF THAT!

 

By checking the DO NOT CONVERT box Princess will bill your credit card in $US funds. Your credit card will use the rate for large cash transactions (essentially what you see on the financial networks) and add a 3% exchange fee (all of them do).

 

Let your credit card make the exchange and NOT Princess.

 

Also, verify before the end of the cruise that they have acknowledged the DO NOT CONVERT request by visiting the relations desk.

[borgy]

We had done all the recommended tick the box, circle, highlight, check with the purser and were still converted by Princess. However, it was not a 1.15 exchange rate. It was 1USD=1.037 CAD, which when we checked with our bank was not much different than they would have charged on the day. Princess did not do the conversion-check the eticket account info.

 

"converted,at your election, to the currency of your card by our conversion agent, Global Card Services, Inc, using the exchange rate in effect at the time."

 

"currency conversion transaction is based on wholesale exchange rates collected from Bloomberg plus a 3 percent international currency conversion fee."

 

This was in September 2007.

[cruisequeen10]

This must be something new. I have never had to do this. I was always charged the US rate on my credit card, then the bank did the conversion for me. The cruise lines have no right to do a conversion, when the rates are always in US funds. It is up to the credit card issuer to do the conversion. And that is why I always pay in CASH.

[CHOPPERTESTER]

Borgy,

 

You are partially correct. LOL.

 

You chose Princess to not convert but they then used an external agency to do it (Global Card Services). It is still not very honest of them to not heed your wishes to let your credit card company do the conversion. This is what one would think from selecting the box. In Sept 1.007 plus the 3% to make 1.037 was a very fair exchange.

 

I'm convinced Princess gets a kickback from Global Card Services on the 3% charge, maybe 0.5%. But who's going to argue a fair exchange like that. It's not worth our time and money but to Princess I am sure it's a line item in their operating budget.

 

What would have happened had you not ticked the box etc to not have Princess convert and let them use their rate plus 3%?

 

Of course Princess wins either way, 15% for those who let Princess do it or 0.5% on those who don't. Still millions per year for them.

[derf5585]

However, it was not a 1.15 exchange rate. It was 1USD=1.037 CAD,

"currency conversion transaction is based on wholesale exchange rates collected from Bloomberg plus a 3 percent international currency conversion

 

This works anywhere in the Universe. Even in the andromeda galaxy where they use jfewoifao;

 

Universal Currency Converter

from

http://www.xe.com/ucc/

[britsbest]

This works anywhere in the Universe. Even in the andromeda galaxy where they use jfewoifao;

 

Universal Currency Converter

from

http://www.xe.com/ucc/

 

 

NOT TRUE

 

There are two cards available in UK that convert at bank rate with no charges what so ever !

www.nationwide.co.uk is the one we use and we even get a photo copy of the highlighted ticked and circled box!!

 

http://www.nationwide.co.uk/NR/rdonlyres/7E4784B3-69F5-4E0B-85CD-894A3539BB68/0/P4337_OCT07.PDF

 

Bob

[borgy]

It's right on the eticket--there are only two choices--you either agree to have them convert using global or they don't convert and your bank does it. They tell you upfront that the rate will be the wholesale price as determined by Bloomberg plus the 3% service fee. If my bank does it, it is the wholesale rate for the day plus 2.5-3.0 % service fee. Would I have preferred that they not convert? Yes because that is what we asked them to do. We did question as to why they did it and they apologized for the screw up, gave me the information that i need to get the charges reversed. It is the first time that this has happened. They have never converted our account before.

 

The shipboard account conversion is not the same 1.15% that Princess applies to cruise prices--that was all I was trying to explain based on our recent experience.

 

Hey derf-how is life on andromeda galaxy? Good to see you're still out there.

[free2travel]

Hi,

Just got back on the Golden. What they suggested, and we did, was Friday afternoon, I went and paid the outstanding balance with my Visa. Then the only thing that was charged was what we used Friday night. They did NOT convert it, as I marked, highlighted and underlined the box. If the had, it was only $55.00 so no big deal. I waited in line for a while, but it was worth it.

[DanJ]

 

The shipboard account conversion is not the same 1.15% that Princess applies to cruise prices--that was all I was trying to explain based on our recent experience.

 

 

That was my experience in Jan 2006 as well, but I was repeatedly told I was wrong on here, so I guess they must have simply liked us and decided to charge us less LOL. My $860 US bill was charged to my CC as $1023 CDN converted by Princess. That's just shy of $1.19 exchange. The official Princess exchange rate at the time applying to bookings was 1.25. On my credit card statement that I just looked at, Mastercard charged me anywhere from 1.17-1.185 over the course of that week as the dollar fluctuated.

[vickie_bernie]

I don't see why I have to tell Princess that i don't want something otherwise the give it to me automatically. It is called Negative Billing.

 

Next they will be charging you for

- the water in your room, unless you tell them no

- airport transfers wether you need them or not, unless you tell them no

- transfers in ports automatically showing up in your room and billed to your account unless you return them

- Spa appointments scheduled and charged unless you cancel

 

I think we should all let Princess know this is not right, instead of figuring out how to not have our CC charged us. This is wrong.

 

Recently a local cable company here promo two channels for free for a period of time, then automatically gave everyone the channels at a cost unless they called an cancelled.. ... the public were up in arms and the media got involved and it was corrected.

 

We are a big voice here on Cruise Critic --lets use it

[BURWASHT]

Thank-you, I THINK !!!!