sbwaldrep Posted September 3, 2008 #1 Share Posted September 3, 2008 Hi everyone! I want to thank you all for the information that I have gathered over the months as we prepare for our first Carnival Cruise. You have all given me such good ideas! I've used the search, but I can not find the answer to my question. If you put a debit card down for your S&S and they hold $200 pp, does that include my 2 year old daughter (so the hold would be $600). If you put down cash, can you put down $100 total or is it $100 per person and do you still have to back that up with your debit card, and if so, do they still put the $200 pp hold on it if it's just the back up. My debit card limit is $1,000 and I'm worried that a $600 hold plus the $500 rental car hold (for 2 different days of rental - before & after the trip) is going to send me over the top! Any info would be appreciated, and, again, thank you all for the information you've given! We are so excited to get to Miami and cruise! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jleq Posted September 3, 2008 #2 Share Posted September 3, 2008 If you put down cash, can you put down $100 total or is it $100 per person and do you still have to back that up with your debit card, and if so, do they still put the $200 pp hold on it if it's just the back up. If you put cash down, there is no debit/credit card involved Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marci4tony Posted September 3, 2008 #3 Share Posted September 3, 2008 If you put cash down, there is no debit/credit card involved I didnt know you could use cash!! Thats the way to go!! (If you dont drink or gamble) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MM1998 Posted September 3, 2008 #4 Share Posted September 3, 2008 If you put cash down then you don't need the debit card at all. Now I had the same question about the $200 p/p down and my PVP told me that I didn't have to put the $200 down for my children (ages 10 & 7) if they have a non-spending S&S card.....meaning they won't be allowed to charge on their cards. The $200 down was only per person that will be using the S & S card to charge things to their account. Of course I know I could call back 10 times and get 10 different answers. Kim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chacooe Posted September 3, 2008 #5 Share Posted September 3, 2008 What you could do is get another prepaid debit card and use one for the ship and one for the car, that way both places are putting holds on your one card. That is how I am doing it, I am having one card for the ship and one for the car rental, BTW, on the car rental card, only put the amount that they require, do not put anymore than that because in the past, they have told me that they would only hold such and such amount and come to find out, they put a hold on the entire amount. So only do the $500.00 for the car company, this way you do not have to worry about getting on the ship and finding out that their is a hold to the balance on your debit card. Believe me, it can be very embarrassing when they tell you that they can not accept your debit card. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wework2play Posted September 3, 2008 #6 Share Posted September 3, 2008 I have a limit on my debit card of 800. per day. Anytime I know I will make a larger purchase than that, I have to run up to the bank and sign a paper and tell them what to increase the limit to temporarily. You may even be able to call or fax your signature, but that's the easiest thing to do. The whole purpose of the limit is for your own protection, so if you request and increase they will do it. For a cruise, I have them increase the limit for a 5 day period at the end of the cruise, since I don't know exactly when they'll run it through. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruzfrk Posted September 3, 2008 #7 Share Posted September 3, 2008 I asked this same question before cruising in August and got a smart --- remark about how even children are persons. Hope that person doesn't find you! Anyway, to answer your question I was worried about the same thing and decided to use cash. The money they tell you to use per person is only a suggestion. You can put as much or as little as you want. I only put $400 for the 4 of us and it was fine. I could have put less but I hadn't prepaid my tips. I ended up adding $100 more in cash to get a massage. Anytime you are getting low you can go to the purser's desk and add more. I wouldn't use a debit card because of the reasons you were saying about the hold. Sometimes it takes a while before the hold is dropped and if you have any bills floating around out there they will bounce. I will probably do the cash thing from now on because it was so easy. The only problem was a long line at the pursers desk the first day but wasn't to terribly bad. Have fun! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UnclePatNTampa Posted September 4, 2008 #8 Share Posted September 4, 2008 Here's a couple Cruise Critic links that might help: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=836511 http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=836462 Also check out Carnival's FAQ: http://www.carnival.com/CMS/FAQs/Sail_And_Sign_On_Board_Account.aspx We always use cash to help control the amount of spending. I also like knowing that when we get off the ship, the trip is paid for and any cash we have left is something to celebrate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
candigirl41 Posted September 4, 2008 #9 Share Posted September 4, 2008 My understanding is they don't take prepaid debit or credit cards unless you get the ones that your purchase in advance with your name on it. No name they will not let you use it. Please let me know if my info is incorrect. Candi Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crookedhalo Posted September 4, 2008 #10 Share Posted September 4, 2008 What you could do is get another prepaid debit card and use one for the ship and one for the car, that way both places are putting holds on your one card. That is how I am doing it, I am having one card for the ship and one for the car rental, BTW, on the car rental card, only put the amount that they require, do not put anymore than that because in the past, they have told me that they would only hold such and such amount and come to find out, they put a hold on the entire amount. So only do the $500.00 for the car company, this way you do not have to worry about getting on the ship and finding out that their is a hold to the balance on your debit card. Believe me, it can be very embarrassing when they tell you that they can not accept your debit card. Please be aware that many car rental agencies will not accept prepaid debit cards, because there is no allowance to recover additional charges. I would make sure before you count on this one (FWIW, I am a manager for a bank and see this the terms and conditions of many prepaid debit cards). Hi everyone! I want to thank you all for the information that I have gathered over the months as we prepare for our first Carnival Cruise. You have all given me such good ideas! I've used the search, but I can not find the answer to my question. If you put a debit card down for your S&S and they hold $200 pp, does that include my 2 year old daughter (so the hold would be $600). If you put down cash, can you put down $100 total or is it $100 per person and do you still have to back that up with your debit card, and if so, do they still put the $200 pp hold on it if it's just the back up. My debit card limit is $1,000 and I'm worried that a $600 hold plus the $500 rental car hold (for 2 different days of rental - before & after the trip) is going to send me over the top! Any info would be appreciated, and, again, thank you all for the information you've given! We are so excited to get to Miami and cruise! I would not recommend using a debit card at all if you can avoid it. They cruise line CAN (sometimes they do and sometimes they don't - you will get different stories) put a hold of $600 (or whatever they choose) against your debit card and then at that end of the cruise request another authorization for the actual amount. The important thing to be aware of is that the original $600 hold may not be removed or have fallen off by this time and could result in your account becoming overdrawn or not being authorized. Do not rely on what people on this board tell you - call your bank and ask how they would treat it in this situation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DAllenTCY Posted September 4, 2008 #11 Share Posted September 4, 2008 The children will still be charged the $10/day gratuities...so be prepared for that. Whether they can use their cards for purchases or not, makes no difference. You can start with a cash deposit and increase it if necessary. David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sbwaldrep Posted September 4, 2008 Author #12 Share Posted September 4, 2008 We have prepaid our gratuities, so that's taken care of. I put in a call to my rep at the bank yesterday (thanks for reminding me Karen), so I hope to hear from her today. I think we've decided to do the cash thing onboard. We've got 2 nites in the hotel to think about too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
partycruiser27 Posted September 4, 2008 #13 Share Posted September 4, 2008 Me and my fiance plan on using the same credit card for our SS cards. Once we get on the ship, would we be able to add a little cash credit to our account as well? Also, will they use our cash first and then start charging our credit card? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
candigirl41 Posted September 4, 2008 #14 Share Posted September 4, 2008 They will use your cash first and then anything that is purchased after the cash is gone will be put on the card. Candi Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AZ Karaoke Girl Posted September 4, 2008 #15 Share Posted September 4, 2008 Also make sure you notify your bank where you are going and when or they could turn off your card if they suspect fraud. Its happened before then people are stuck unable to spend anything cuz their cards were turned off. If you are relying on one credit card especially with only a $1000 credit limit, I would use cash instead for everything. I always have 2 credit cards with me cuz sure enough, one day the transactions wouldn't go thru on my debit card cuz the network was down and I had to use cash to gas up the rental car. I called the bank from the ship to see what was going on & they told me the network had been down and it was back up again but it freaked me out. I always have 2 cards with me now and lots of cash as a backup. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nvrhome Posted September 5, 2008 #16 Share Posted September 5, 2008 Hi, I put a $200 deposit with cash and that was for 3 people. We only used $160 and they refunded me $40 at the end. We used CC when we were off the ship. Mel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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