Can you give yourself an OBC?

[kingsgirl]

I was curious - can you do this? If yes, how?

[pauline664]

I was curious - can you do this? If yes, how?

I did on RCCL not sure of other line's. If you use a TA they will do it for you of if you use RCCL direct just tell them you want to do obc.:D

[pmfan]

Yes, you can. Online I believe it is under the gifts and gear. You can call RC to do this as well.

[kingsgirl]

Yes, you can. Online I believe it is under the gifts and gear. You can call RC to do this as well.

 

What is it under for gifts and gear - do you know? Never mind I think I found it - thanks!

[nseagirl]

I've bought and redeemed gift certificates from the RCI web-site. I applied them to OBC. That way I start out ahead when I cruise.

[wrp96]

By yourself an RCCL gift certificate!!:D

[nseagirl]

By yourself an RCCL gift certificate!!:D

 

Yeah! I guess it is sort of like sending myself flowers for Valentine's Day, isn't it??:p :p ! OR, you could buy them for me???:D :D

[Jsme]

You can buy creidt prior to a cruise and apply it as OBC. If you do this, there is a cut off date before your cruise in apply the credit. We have done this and I forget the cut off date. It is a few weeks prior to the cruise.

I was not pleased with this process on RCCL. We did $100 credit and applied it prior to the cruise on our children's account. What we did not realize is the credit does not go into their account for a couple of days. We had planned on using it as their only money onboard. We did not want them have open access to our account which was secured by a credit card. I was using this as a learning experience for the children to learn to budget their money. We had to open their accounts to our account, fill out a paper to limit their spending and put their credits in our account. While they still only had $100 limit their last purchase would not be declined even if it went over $100. I have great children and they did not abuse this.

Over all I felt that at the time of purchasing the credit or at the time of applying someone should have explained the situation to me. I would not have bought the credit. Instead I would have put $100 cash on their accounts.

 

Moral of story, you can buy credit but it will not be applied the first day and if you are going to rely on that for you spending you will not have money for a while to spend on the cruise. Remember you can always put cash on your account when you get onboard. Same difference as an OBC.

[nseagirl]

UGG! Well I'm glad I didn't buy much then! Thanks for the update. I'll just take cash. I know! I know! I could have done that all along but I thought I'd be less likely to spend my money on clothes if I went ahead and put it on my OBC.:(

[Richiebaseball]

Call Royal Gift Department at 800-722-5443 and have your booking number and credit card number ready. I have done this 6-7 days prior to a cruise with no problems. You will get a card/voucher once you get to your cabin confirming the amount and it usually takes a couple of days before it shows on your account.

[nseagirl]

Call Royal Gift Department at 800-722-5443 and have your booking number and credit card number ready. I have done this 6-7 days prior to a cruise with no problems. You will get a card/voucher once you get to your cabin confirming the amount and it usually takes a couple of days before it shows on your account.

 

 

Are you saying that it's a couple of days after you PURCHASE the credits before it shows up? Or are you saying it's a couple of days into the cruise before it shows up? I'll be on a 4 night cruise so a couple of days into it would be too late.:confused:

[readytolose]

Even if the credit doesn't show up on your account for a few days as long as you have your account secured by a credit card you will still be able to "spend" the credit. Your account will just start out negative until your credit is applied. Just make sure you bring proof of your OBC with you when you leave. I just posted about this on another thread. I'll copy and paste it here.

 

On our cruise I had about $800 dollars OBC from gift certificates we had received as wedding presents. I first activated them online on the RC website and stated that I wanted them as OBC, since we had already paid the cruise in full. I waited about a week and called to see if they had been credited to our account. They had no record of it. They said it had to be done over the phone. So after being transfered to about 3 different people someone took the information and said that it would be done in a few days. (they were supposedly back logged at the time) I called again in about another week and still no record of it. They again took all the certificate information and said they would call back when it was taken care of. A few days later my husband got a call saying the credit was done and we would have the OBC when we boarded.

 

When we got on the ship I checked on the TV and it didn't show up, but from reading on here I knew it could take a few days to show up so I didn't worry about it. We were on our honeymoon after all! Lots of other things to do.

 

About half way through the cruise it still wasn't there so I decided to go to the guest relations desk and ask about it. They said there was no record of it. Luckily I was thinking ahead and brought copies of the gift certificates along with me! They called RCCL from the desk and they did tell them they had a record of me calling but for some reason the OBC never got credited. Guest relations made a copy of my certificates (I wanted my copies back because I wasn't going to trust it was taken care of until I saw the credit myself on the TV!) and said it would take about 4 hours to show up. It did later that night.

 

So the whole point of my long story is bring along any papers you have stating that you have OBC as proof, just in case you need it.

 

I wish you could just check it online. Sure would make things easier.

[louanne93]

Even if the credit doesn't show up on your account for a few days as long as you have your account secured by a credit card you will still be able to "spend" the credit. Your account will just start out negative until your credit is applied. Just make sure you bring proof of your OBC with you when you leave. I just posted about this on another thread. I'll copy and paste it here.

 

On our cruise I had about $800 dollars OBC from gift certificates we had received as wedding presents. I first activated them online on the RC website and stated that I wanted them as OBC, since we had already paid the cruise in full. I waited about a week and called to see if they had been credited to our account. They had no record of it. They said it had to be done over the phone. So after being transfered to about 3 different people someone took the information and said that it would be done in a few days. (they were supposedly back logged at the time) I called again in about another week and still no record of it. They again took all the certificate information and said they would call back when it was taken care of. A few days later my husband got a call saying the credit was done and we would have the OBC when we boarded.

 

When we got on the ship I checked on the TV and it didn't show up, but from reading on here I knew it could take a few days to show up so I didn't worry about it. We were on our honeymoon after all! Lots of other things to do.

 

About half way through the cruise it still wasn't there so I decided to go to the guest relations desk and ask about it. They said there was no record of it. Luckily I was thinking ahead and brought copies of the gift certificates along with me! They called RCCL from the desk and they did tell them they had a record of me calling but for some reason the OBC never got credited. Guest relations made a copy of my certificates (I wanted my copies back because I wasn't going to trust it was taken care of until I saw the credit myself on the TV!) and said it would take about 4 hours to show up. It did later that night.

 

So the whole point of my long story is bring along any papers you have stating that you have OBC as proof, just in case you need it.

 

I wish you could just check it online. Sure would make things easier.

 

We bought $800 in OBC. We secured the account with a credit card and used the OBC. It worked out great for us and made it easier to save up for the account. Anytime I had extra cash I just bought myself a gift certificate and I applied it right away. We ended up with $800. For a family of 6 on a 7 nighter it was easier to save up this way and in the end our total bill was $700. I kept checking at the pursers desk and the amounts just showed a negative amount until I had spent the $800 OBC and then it started out with the positive (I hope this makes sense)

[Richiebaseball]

Are you saying that it's a couple of days after you PURCHASE the credits before it shows up? Or are you saying it's a couple of days into the cruise before it shows up? I'll be on a 4 night cruise so a couple of days into it would be too late.:confused:

 

It shows on the account a couple of days after the cruise begins. Like others have mentioned, if your account is secured by a credit card then nothing is charged until the cruise is over. So your OBC will be in the account well before the cruise is over and it's time for the account to be settled.

[nseagirl]

It shows on the account a couple of days after the cruise begins. Like others have mentioned, if your account is secured by a credit card then nothing is charged until the cruise is over. So your OBC will be in the account well before the cruise is over and it's time for the account to be settled.

 

Cool! So I can keep on adding to my account with gift certificates. Yay!