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Credit card pre-authorisations


Josy1953
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I have had an email this morning informing me that the check in process has changed.

 

"We hope you are looking forward to your cruise.

 

When registering your credit or debit card at check in, you will be required to enter your 4 digit pin number for verification.

 

At this point a 50,00GBP pre-authorisation will be applied to the card in order to open an account for your on-board purchases. Once your on-board account statement totals more than 50.00 GBP, plus any on-board credit you have, authorizations will continue throughout the cruise as per our current process. Please see the back of the brochure for details.

 

We look forward to welcoming you on board."

 

We have never had this before so are not sure how this works with the credit card and we don't have a brochure. It is not a problem as the only time we use a credit card is for cruise spending so it is always clear and if we choose to use a debit card we would also have enough to cover our spending available since we keep an amount in the current account so that we get interest on the current account. I can imagine however that this may cause a problem for high spenders who do have an outstanding balance on their cc. We will just go with the flow next week and see how it goes.

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I can't imagine what you would spend £50,000 on? 😉😉 a private helicopter tour at each port. Purchasing commeritive jet-skies, with ships name blazoned on the side?

The mind boggles. 😀

 

Joking aside, this is pretty common. I see it most often hotels. It's to combat credit card fraud. It's so the business know there's funds available to cover you expenditure. Any money not used is re-issued back to your card.

 

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I can't imagine what you would spend £50,000 on? 😉😉 a private helicopter tour at each port. Purchasing commeritive jet-skies, with ships name blazoned on the side?

The mind boggles. 😀

 

Joking aside, this is pretty common. I see it most often hotels. It's to combat credit card fraud. It's so the business know there's funds available to cover you expenditure. Any money not used is re-issued back to your card.

 

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£50! Its quite usual for hotels and cruise ships to do this as they need to ensure their bill is paid.

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It works for the benefit of the passenger too.

 

There's nothing worse than being told at the end of the cruise, whilst in the middle of the ocean, that even though you know you have a zero balanace and a high credit limit your payment card company have rejected payment.

 

Been there, got the T shirt, thankfully we had another credit card. A pre authorisation would have flagged this up at check in and we could have sorted it.

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I think it is only common sense to make sure before leaving home that the card you present will have enough credit limit to cover your cruise ship spend and also to take a 2nd different card in case of problems. Nothing new here really as I understand it your ship spend has always been ring fenced by P&O.

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We have never had this before so are not sure how this works with the credit card and we don't have a brochure.

The oldest brochure I have to hand is Jan 15 - Mar 16: it describes exactly the same credit card process including the daily authorisations. The only thing that appears to have changed is the initial £50 authorisation on setting up the account.

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The oldest brochure I have to hand is Jan 15 - Mar 16: it describes exactly the same credit card process including the daily authorisations. The only thing that appears to have changed is the initial £50 authorisation on setting up the account.

Thanks for that we never bother with brochures as we always look online before booking. We were on Ventura in March and Oriana in June and we didn't have to enter a pin for the credit card and there were no authorisations. I knew that they did authorisations on debit cards but not credit cards. It is not a problem as we have zero outstanding on our credit cards and we have so much OBC that I really don't imagine that anything more than the initial authorisation will be applied.

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The oldest brochure I have to hand is Jan 15 - Mar 16: it describes exactly the same credit card process including the daily authorisations. The only thing that appears to have changed is the initial £50 authorisation on setting up the account.

 

 

 

Yes I agree they have always checked that your transactions are being covered daily throughout the duration of the cruise, they don't wait until the end to tell someone there is an issue.

It doesn't necessarily mean a person has reached their limit, the unusual spend could be flagged as potentially fraudulent by the bank. I always have a last minute panic when I remember we need to tell the bank to expect foreign and large transactions.

I also think they have always checked at boarding, and call passengers if cards get declined.

I can't be certain but I suspect the new process may be centred around us consenting by submitting the pin - this might be due to the changes in data protection legislation, which are shaking quite a few things up.

 

 

 

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We were on Ventura in March and Oriana in June and we didn't have to enter a pin for the credit card and there were no authorisations.

You've got me worried now, having assumed I entered my PIN when we last cruised I can't actually remember doing it. My excuse is that was back in December.

 

As others have already pointed out, hotels routinely swipe your credit card on checkin to authorise enough to protect themselves against you doing a runner. You'll never normally know there are authorisations on your card unless you unexpectedly run out of credit because an authorisation hasn't cleared.

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You've got me worried now, having assumed I entered my PIN when we last cruised I can't actually remember doing it. My excuse is that was back in December.

 

 

 

As others have already pointed out, hotels routinely swipe your credit card on checkin to authorise enough to protect themselves against you doing a runner. You'll never normally know there are authorisations on your card unless you unexpectedly run out of credit because an authorisation hasn't cleared.

 

 

I can't remember I get my husband to do the card bit [emoji2]

 

 

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You've got me worried now, having assumed I entered my PIN when we last cruised I can't actually remember doing it. My excuse is that was back in December.

 

As others have already pointed out, hotels routinely swipe your credit card on checkin to authorise enough to protect themselves against you doing a runner. You'll never normally know there are authorisations on your card unless you unexpectedly run out of credit because an authorisation hasn't cleared.

They have scanned the credit card in the past but never needed us to enter the pin. I did not realise that the authorisations were done in the past, now it makes sense because we have obviously never been short of available funds. I knew from travelling for work that hotels routinely scanned cards but again, because I used a business credit card I was not aware that authorisations were applied. I have had a good learning day today. :D:D

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I posted about this on FB when we got the email. I think they are starting it on the cruises leaving Southampton today. Cunard are also doing it.

I did wonder why they had started this. Did someone present a stolen card under the old system, that was not picked up until the pre authorisations started to be applied. Or is it because people complained about preauth. not dropping off in time..so at the end of the cruise, when the actual amount was taken ..approx. double that had been ringfenced.

Should add the thread I started has meandered in its own way..as these things do.

One of the things that seems to have come up on there is even if you are going to pay in cash you have to register a card. Also although a lot of people know their pin on their debit card a lot do not seem to know the pin for their credit card.

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I posted about this on FB when we got the email. I think they are starting it on the cruises leaving Southampton today. Cunard are also doing it.

I did wonder why they had started this. Did someone present a stolen card under the old system, that was not picked up until the pre authorisations started to be applied. Or is it because people complained about preauth. not dropping off in time..so at the end of the cruise, when the actual amount was taken ..approx. double that had been ringfenced.

Should add the thread I started has meandered in its own way..as these things do.

One of the things that seems to have come up on there is even if you are going to pay in cash you have to register a card. Also although a lot of people know their pin on their debit card a lot do not seem to know the pin for their credit card.

 

I find that I know my credit card PIN much better than my debit card. I usually pay for everything with my credit card (loyalty rewards) and use the PIN probably 5 times a week. My debit card is used for getting cash out maybe once a month, or for contactless paying of small amounts when I haven't got cash on me, or when I get charged extra for using a credit card. Therefore, my cc PIN is bought more readily to mind than my dc PIN.

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I posted about this on FB when we got the email. I think they are starting it on the cruises leaving Southampton today. Cunard are also doing it.

 

I did wonder why they had started this. Did someone present a stolen card under the old system, that was not picked up until the pre authorisations started to be applied. Or is it because people complained about preauth. not dropping off in time..so at the end of the cruise, when the actual amount was taken ..approx. double that had been ringfenced.

 

Should add the thread I started has meandered in its own way..as these things do.

 

One of the things that seems to have come up on there is even if you are going to pay in cash you have to register a card. Also although a lot of people know their pin on their debit card a lot do not seem to know the pin for their credit card.

 

 

 

Unlikely to present a stolen card when going on a cruise when all your details are known.

 

I suspect they are falling in line with the hotel chains. You always have to use your pin when checking in.

 

 

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There is a short thread on the Cunard forum about this, on which I posted:

 

I have retired now, but last year my company was advised by our bank of some forthcoming changes to the 'Payment Processing Industry Regulations'. From memory a lot of things were being toughened up in the electronic processing of cards, I suspect this one of the effects.

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Pre authorisation doesn't need a pin. Its done as a 'cardholder not present' transaction.

 

Sounds as if they are stopping this because you will be present when you give them your credit card at check-in so instead of swiping it they will ask you to put your Pin No in.

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There is a short thread on the Cunard forum about this, on which I posted:

 

 

 

I have retired now, but last year my company was advised by our bank of some forthcoming changes to the 'Payment Processing Industry Regulations'. From memory a lot of things were being toughened up in the electronic processing of cards, I suspect this one of the effects.

 

 

 

Exactly and also possibly the new data protection legislation.

 

 

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The only problem I can see is for those that do not use their credit cards often or have never used their Pin No. I am one of those as only use my credit card online so have requested from my bank my Pin No because I have not got a clue what it is. Do not know what system P&O or Cunard would fall back too if you have current credit card but dont know the Pin No.

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