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Royal Caribbean Card issues threatened with arrest


lax18stx
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I just returned from Royal Caribbeans Anthem of the Seas on which my card was turned off by the bank for "fraud prevention." I figured no problem I would put it on another card. I called guest services to explain the situation and tried to give them another card to which they said they needed the physical card (I had it in my apple wallet and pictures of the front and back of the actual card.) I told them this was all I had and was told that local authorities would be waiting when I arrived. I immediately went to guest services to try to fix this. I was then assured I would not be arrested but my food and drink packages were turned off since I did not have a card on file. I explained I had everything they needed but they said they would not process it because it was against policy to run a card without it physically being there (I did not want to travel with it because of its high limit and though having it in my apple wallet and pictures would be enough) So in the end they had me fill out a bunch of paper work then call to pay my bill.... over the phone WITHOUT THE PHYSICAL CARD!!!!! So I then complained to RC and they apologized and there offer was $287 on board credit for my next cruise! ARE YOU SERIOUS!!!!!!!! Has anyone experienced this? It ruined my vacation and they offer me $287 that doesn't even cover the beverage package!!!!

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Did you bother to tell the issuer of the "turned off" card that you were going to be on a cruise and would using the card on the ship and in particular ports of call? If you didn't, then you must accept a great deal of responsibility for the card being frozen.

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no and I understand that .... but I tried to fix the problem but they won't accept a digital card or run it without it being there? I Paid for the cruise with that card and used it to pay the balance on the way home from the cruise! But they could not accept it on board hence ruining my vacation??

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no and I understand that .... but I tried to fix the problem but they won't accept a digital card or run it without it being there? I Paid for the cruise with that card and used it to pay the balance on the way home from the cruise! But they could not accept it on board hence ruining my vacation??

 

It is a merchant's prerogative to set its rules for cc acceptance.

 

Did you contact the bank to see if they would remove the hold on the original card?

 

It's unclear to me how an entire cruise vacation could be ruined by not being able to buy optional extras.

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the card was frozen and I had to reactivate it when the new one arrived in the mail. It was ruined because my pre paid dining and beverage packages were frozen and I could make no on board purchases. All they had to do was type in the CC # but would not do so because it was against policy... this policy was never made clear beforehand... the way you are defending them sounds like you work for RC.... I have been on many cruises before and never had a problem like this or was treated this way

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Sounds like an unfortunate situation, but I can see it from Royal's point of view (and I most definitely do not work for them). The card originally provided to them is deactivated under suspicion of fraud. I can absolutely see why they would want to physically have the card being offered as a replacement.

Edited by cruzeluver
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ok but do u see the irony that they would not accept it without the physical card on board but as soon as I get off the ship I can call and use it to pay the balance without the physical card?

 

Maybe whoever/wherever you phoned could get real-time authorization for the charge. And maybe on the ship, they could not get real-time authorization.

 

I'm really sorry you feel your vacation was ruined. DH and I had a conversation about vacation-ruining experiences after our credit card was deactivated due to fraudulent activity. In FLL. The morning we were to board the ship. And needed to pay our hotel bill. Fortunately our CC company authorized the hotel bill (real-time authorization) (big sigh of relief, since we weren't carrying buckets of cash), and we had other cards we could use on the ship. We just kept telling each other how truly blessed we were, that the problem with the one card wasn't going to ruin our vacation. Sorry your experience was different.

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Hopefully you will be able to move on. I would gladly accept the $300OBC. Especially since it really was my fault for not notifying the cc company. What else are you looking for. Maybe that will clue us in. You said they apologized. Correct? No... I do not work for RC. Just want to know what else you expect

Edited by champagne123
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ALWAYS call your credit card companies when leaving the States! That way, they don't put a "fraud" alert on you! We use 2 cards...one for the ship, and one we take ashore. The one linked to our shipboard account NEVER leaves the ship....and yes, we inform our CC company of our travel plans!

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For good or ill I suspect that this is one of those things where Elite status really helps. Elite status with the cruise line may garner much more considerate cooperation from them with regard to accepting the form of payment being offered. Elite status with a bank or credit card issuer may garner much more proactive assistance from them interacting with the merchant (the cruise line) to assure them that the form of payment being offered is valid. And to be fair it really is the bank or credit card issuer who is the one who should be helping you in this situation. There may be challenges in contacting them but they really are the ones who are supposed to be relied on for the financial services that they offer you.

 

This message may have been entered using voice recognition. Please excuse any typos.

Edited by bUU
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I had the same exact thing happen on ncl escape. They called my credit card company from the ship and I had the hold removed. It took 5 minutes and was no problem. I'm not sure why rc couldn't simply do the same thing.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

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Am I the only one that thinks the threat of arrest is extreme and uncalled for?

 

 

RCCL was doing was they should have done. You could have been using a stolen card and they have to protect themselves against that. Otherwise they would be in all kinds of legal trouble.

How hard is that to understand? You need to take a step back and look at it from there point.

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There are a few privileged merchant categories that you never want to cross, and hotels are one of them. (And a cruise ship is a hotel on top of a boat.) It tracks back to "ye olde times" when skipping out without paying the innkeeper was punishable in the most severe. Having said that, the cruise line would have to have some specific reason why they would express their concern in those terms. Maybe they didn't share all of what they suspected were concerned about with you or perhaps there's more to the story that none of us know.

 

This message may have been entered using voice recognition. Please excuse any typos.

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I kept getting stonewalled by "its against policy" all they had to do was type in the number and it would of been resolved

 

 

Really???

So the poor RCCL employee should risk their job by disregarding "policy" because YOU neglected to notify your bank that you would be out of the country?

Talk about selfish and entitled.

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The card had my name on it I had pictures of both sides and discover on the phone saying it was my card.

 

Surely you aware how easy it is to 'dummy' photos! I wouldn't accept a picture of a credit card on your phone either, or some unknown person on your phone saying 'yes it's his card'. Sorry your vacation was ruined, but you made 2 mistakes - not notifying your credit card company of your upcoming travel and not carrying a 2nd credit card (which had also been properly notified of travel plans) as backup. Yes, we can agree that the threat of arrest was a little extreme, but then we don't know how the conversation went that led up to that threat.

 

We saw a whole family arrested (actually we saw them being escorted off the ship with all their luggage, with police waiting at the end of the gangway) over a credit card This family had used a credit card to charge multiple purchases at the Art Auctions. When the card was run it had been reported as stolen. A little different from your situation, but they do take credit card issues very seriously.

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Surely you aware how easy it is to 'dummy' photos! I wouldn't accept a picture of a credit card on your phone either, or some unknown person on your phone saying 'yes it's his card'. Sorry your vacation was ruined, but you made 2 mistakes - not notifying your credit card company of your upcoming travel and not carrying a 2nd credit card (which had also been properly notified of travel plans) as backup. Yes, we can agree that the threat of arrest was a little extreme, but then we don't know how the conversation went that led up to that threat.

 

We saw a whole family arrested (actually we saw them being escorted off the ship with all their luggage, with police waiting at the end of the gangway) over a credit card This family had used a credit card to charge multiple purchases at the Art Auctions. When the card was run it had been reported as stolen. A little different from your situation, but they do take credit card issues very seriously.

 

 

As they should! I worked for a bank and Credit Card fraud is a very serious issue, which you would think the OP would understand.

I for one am glad that RCCL is so careful.

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