HAMCEL

The beauty, as we saw it (and on Mr Lewis’s recommendation), of the CHASE card, was the fantastic foreign exchange rates and cash back features of the account. We therefore decided to use it for all our spends on this trip - despite P&O already charging in GBP. Because it’s an APP based account you are instantly made aware of spending (assuming you have access to Wi-Fi!!) and when you check your ‘balance’ the daily sums on your onboard account show as actual ‘spends’ - with no reference to ‘pending’ or or other classification. Further spending ashore accrues in exactly the same way. As such the remaining ‘balance’ left in the CHASE account reduces during the course of the cruise. The bombshell came at the end, when the full amount of our onboard spending was debited from the account for a second time taking the account into overdraft and, into which, I immediately had to transfer funds to bring it back into credit. Statements on the account are only made available a month In arrears so the daily ‘balance’ is all you’ve got to go on. I have now learnt from all the above useful posts that one or other of the amounts charged to the account should drop off in the next few days/weeks and that, as in the past if I had used a credit card, the ‘problem’ wouldn’t have been manifest. It seems to me that there’s an element of responsibility with both P&O and CHASE in this. Firstly, P&O should make more of an effort to remove the pending charges as soon as they have received the full amount of your onboard spending, and CHASE should clarify within the APP that the’pending’ amounts are exactly that. From the number of posts the thread has received I hope, like me, it has been a useful learning experience. Thanks again.

The reason I used my CHASE card was because of the generous cash-back on spends. Unfortunately this has backfired on me!! I have always previously used CCs for onboard spends on Holland America and Celebrity and thought this may have just been a P&O mistake. I have now learned my lesson for the future and will revert back to Credit Card versus Debit Card. Thanks again for all the advice. Andy.

Thanks everyone for your valuable insight. I will in future ONLY be using a credit card! I did speak to CHASE, the card provider, and they advised that they were unable to intervene until when or if P&O removed the hold ☹️

Hi Having just returned from a repositioning cruise on Brittania, I’ve found that my onboard expenses have been charged to my card twice (taking me overdrawn!!). They were charged on a daily basis during the cruise for my previous days expenses and then again as a lump sum on the final day. Customer services tried to explain that the charges are pending however this is not shown on my bank account and a week later none of the charges have been repaid. Has anyone else experienced this?

All good advice. Thanks Alpmac.

Hi As advised/required by P&O cruises we have completed the Barbados Immigration and Customs Travel Form prior to leaving home and have received an email receipt from travel@barbados.gov.bb One of the questions on the customs form required a declaration (amongst others) on whether we were bringing in ‘pharmaceuticals’. I answered ‘yes’ presuming that this also covered prescription medication. Does anyone know if this is correct or have experience of the border procedures?