On board acct

I understand Princess cruises originating from Australia have the onboard account in AUS dollars. When you fill out your information prior to sailing and they ask you what currency you would like your on board acct set up as, what is the best exchange rate for Canadians charging on Canadian credit card?

i.e. Keep the onboard acct in AUS dollars and use Canadian MC to pay bill taking into the currency exchange rate and MC 2.5% extra fee OR changing the account over to CAN dollars which means Princess would do the conversion onboard and add their fee. Any advice from Canadian cruisers who have done Australia and New Zealand cruises is appreciated.

Usually the exchange rate used by cruise ships is not a good one for the passenger, but it is a convenient way to handle your on-board charges. It depends on how much you will have on your account. The other ways are to use your MasterCard or get Aussie cash (either at home or in Australia before boarding) and put that in at the Passenger Services Desk.

If you can get a credit card that doesn't charge foreign transaction fees then let the credit card company do the conversion. You'll pay 3-5% more if you let Princess do the conversion.

If you can get a credit card that doesn't charge foreign transaction fees then let the credit card company do the conversion. You'll pay 3-5% more if you let Princess do the conversion.

If you do a search on google for the subject Dynamic Currency you will find it much cheaper to get your bank to do the currency conversion for you rather than the ship.

If we do a cruise where the currency used on board is different to AUD that's what we do but we also make certain to let the bank know that foreign currencies are likely to be debited to our account and the dates we will be away on our trip.

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