Problem with Hub app showing wrong balance

Just off the Sunshine. Overall we had a good cruise, but we had a couple of problems. I posted about our Cheers issue in another thread. Now I want to give a heads up about the second problem.

We took $2000 in Carnival gift cards to apply to our Sail and Sign account to cover our expenses and for the casino. We also had a credit card linked to the account.

So I was using the Carnival Hub app to keep track of my account. With only a few days left in the cruise, it was showing me an "available balance" of over $600. So I thought we were doing fine and I pulled $300 into my casino account. Obviously this means I was still showing over $300 in available balance.

I was talking about this with my husband. He didn't know you could see that on the Hub so I opened the app on his phone to show him. His Hub showed $0 available balance.

I thought that was strange. We are in the same room, charging to the same account. Why would his show a zero available balance when mine showed I had hundreds of dollars available?

We went to Guest Services to ask. They gave us a printout of all our charges. It showed that not only did we NOT have any available balance, we OWED $674 which would be charged to our credit card.

I was standing there with my phone in my hand, showing an available balance. So I kept asking why does it show I have money available if in fact we owe money? They could not answer that question.

We took the printout and reviewed it. I'm not disputing any of the charges. They were correct. What was NOT correct was the app showing me that I still had hundreds of dollars available to spend.

After reviewing our printout of the charges, I went back to guest services a second time and asked them to explain why the Hub was showing different information. The lady just repeatedly said "I know it is confusing. I can't explain it to you."

Now is the point when all the haters are going to come out and say I should know how much and keep track of my spending. That is exactly what I thought I was doing.

We were both pulling money from the S&S account to our casino accounts. I thought the app was accurately showing how much we had left available to us. It was not.

Up to the moment I got off the ship it was still showing I had and available balance, when I did not. I'm posting here to warn others about this.

I didn't gamble any more or less that I would have otherwise, but I can see for some people it could be a real problem if you are spending money you don't have. I could have thought I still had cash and been blowing it in the shops, when it fact I had no cash and it was getting charged to my credit card. This could be a huge problem for people on tight budgets.

I did call Carnival this morning to report this problem. Their customer service person also had no explanation.

My suggestion is that you go to the kiosk (which was barely functional on our cruise) or GS to get an occasional printout of your charges so you can keep track. Do not rely on the hub to be accurate.

Just off the Sunshine. Overall we had a good cruise, but we had a couple of problems. I posted about our Cheers issue in another thread. Now I want to give a heads up about the second problem.

 

We took $2000 in Carnival gift cards to apply to our Sail and Sign account to cover our expenses and for the casino. We also had a credit card linked to the account.

 

So I was using the Carnival Hub app to keep track of my account. With only a few days left in the cruise, it was showing me an "available balance" of over $600. So I thought we were doing fine and I pulled $300 into my casino account. Obviously this means I was still showing over $300 in available balance.

 

I was talking about this with my husband. He didn't know you could see that on the Hub so I opened the app on his phone to show him. His Hub showed $0 available balance.

 

I thought that was strange. We are in the same room, charging to the same account. Why would his show a zero available balance when mine showed I had hundreds of dollars available?

 

We went to Guest Services to ask. They gave us a printout of all our charges. It showed that not only did we NOT have any available balance, we OWED $674 which would be charged to our credit card.

 

I was standing there with my phone in my hand, showing an available balance. So I kept asking why does it show I have money available if in fact we owe money? They could not answer that question.

 

We took the printout and reviewed it. I'm not disputing any of the charges. They were correct. What was NOT correct was the app showing me that I still had hundreds of dollars available to spend.

 

After reviewing our printout of the charges, I went back to guest services a second time and asked them to explain why the Hub was showing different information. The lady just repeatedly said "I know it is confusing. I can't explain it to you."

 

Now is the point when all the haters are going to come out and say I should know how much and keep track of my spending. That is exactly what I thought I was doing.

 

We were both pulling money from the S&S account to our casino accounts. I thought the app was accurately showing how much we had left available to us. It was not.

 

Up to the moment I got off the ship it was still showing I had and available balance, when I did not. I'm posting here to warn others about this.

 

I didn't gamble any more or less that I would have otherwise, but I can see for some people it could be a real problem if you are spending money you don't have. I could have thought I still had cash and been blowing it in the shops, when it fact I had no cash and it was getting charged to my credit card. This could be a huge problem for people on tight budgets.

 

I did call Carnival this morning to report this problem. Their customer service person also had no explanation.

 

My suggestion is that you go to the kiosk (which was barely functional on our cruise) or GS to get an occasional printout of your charges so you can keep track. Do not rely on the hub to be accurate.

We noticed the HUB app wasn't always very timely with updating the correct balance, like charges that wouldn't show up on it until hours later. Also, since DH's credit card was the one on file, he was the primary on the account and his HUB app would show both our charges, as where mine would only show mine. But, like you said, the kiosk and GS would have the correct up to the minute balance. I think the HUB still has some growing pains and bugs to work out.

I remember the two folios were separate in the hub app. Seems it was a bit confusing to figure out where we were in our balance. It's hard to remember exactly how ours looked, since it's been a couple of months since we sailed. I was thinking there was a way to see a combined folio balance, but not being on board a ship at the moment, it's really hard to recall. It's entirely possible that we had to manually figure it out. I do remember that the gift card we had only showed up under my folio number because I was the one who went to GS to have it applied. The more I think about it, the more it seems you had to manually figure out how much was actually going to be charged to our credit card.

I would not rely on the hub app. (only because one cruise the fun times was posting wrong and the dining room menu was wrong dates.

Thanks so much for sharing your story. I'll be sure to not solely rely on the app!

I remember the two folios were separate in the hub app. Seems it was a bit confusing to figure out where we were in our balance. It's hard to remember exactly how ours looked, since it's been a couple of months since we sailed. I was thinking there was a way to see a combined folio balance, but not being on board a ship at the moment, it's really hard to recall. It's entirely possible that we had to manually figure it out. I do remember that the gift card we had only showed up under my folio number because I was the one who went to GS to have it applied. The more I think about it, the more it seems you had to manually figure out how much was actually going to be charged to our credit card.

Yes. In the app, it starts off as a "Summary" but then you can switch to a "Folio" tab that shows each individual's balance. Since I had my kids on my credit card, it showed me their account balances as a separate line item from mine.

I was on the same cruise as LuckyBecky and was also confused by the "Available Balance" thing as it always seemed off. I had cruise cash, gift cards, and my credit card as well as paying most of it off in cash the second to last day. I was fortunate that the Guest Services line was always short when I came by, so it was no big deal to get a print out and I didn't have to deal with the kiosk which is always wonky.

Also, since I had my kids on my account (and they sometimes go over their allotted arcade budget!) I was checking the folio balances several times a day so I kind of got used to how it looked, but if you are not used to it, it is hard to figure out. Still...I guess its better than nothing!

The hub may have its uses, but checking your available balance isn't one of them.

On day 5 of our Breeze cruise last week my granddaughter, who was on my S&S account, mentioned her available balance shown on the hub was larger than her beginning available balance.

The representative at Guest Services gave us the true balance available, which was exactly what I believed it to be. She said, and I quote verbatim, "The balance shown on the Hub application is never correct."

The previous system that showed account activity on the cabin TV was always accurate, within minutes of new charges. The hub was never accurate last week.

Pencil and paper still work and Guest Services, as always, had an accurate and timely record.

Trust the hub, advertised as progress, at your own risk.

Ours was accurate on the Glory this past April but, as someone else said, it did take some time for the account to reflect recent activity. We also did print out our activity from the kiosk a couple of times.

I have noticed discrepancies in the account balance with the app, and often a not exact correct MDR menu.

Thanks for the warning

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I also remember the Hub app being very confusing when looking at our account balance. I will definitely not be relying on it in the future for that purpose.

The most accurate accounting of your Sail n Sign account will be at Guest Services.

In our experience the Hubb app, TV, kiosk all have different parameters. Have spoken to more than one GS crew about this. They have said the accounting (debits and credits) confuses some pax.

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What about the account screen on the TV in your cabin? Does it update regularly and correctly? I know not all ships have this feature, but where it does, I've always found it to be accurate and timely... I'm wondering if that's still the case.

They have said the accounting (debits and credits) confuses some pax. s

especially when they add in the days grats put it as a plus then again as a minus

Something similar happened to me on my last cruise. BF and I had $600 OBC at start of cruise. Even though we were technically on same “account”, we had separate folios. The OBC was applied to my folio, so as I was checking my account, it showed there was still available credit. BF never checked his folio, so I had no idea that the OBC was not being applied to his charges. At end of cruise we owed another $600 just from his charges. I probably would not have spent so much had I known we were long out of OBC. I believe they do it this way in case people in the room are wanting to pay their accounts separately.

I still blame him for not figuring out how to check his account through the app. Apparently it is difficult to type numbers in🤔

It's very confusing and frustrating. On our last 3 cruises from Galveston, we brought gift cards to put on our accounts. All three times, we did this at check in in the terminal and all three times we had problems. The first time, the wrong onboard account was credited with our $500 gift card. The second and third times, they just never were applied correctly, even though I had a receipt that said they were. I kept looking at our account balances via the hub app all week and just assumed that the gift cards would be deducted at the end. They were not! Each time I had to wait in guest services line to figure out what happened. The last time, I didn't find out they weren't there until 6:00 am on debarkation morning. From now on, I will ALWAYS apply the gift cards once on the ship AND I will get a print out from the kiosk mid cruise and on the last night. Sad you have to do that on vacation, really!

It's very confusing and frustrating. On our last 3 cruises from Galveston, we brought gift cards to put on our accounts. All three times, we did this at check in in the terminal and all three times we had problems. The first time, the wrong onboard account was credited with our $500 gift card. The second and third times, they just never were applied correctly, even though I had a receipt that said they were. I kept looking at our account balances via the hub app all week and just assumed that the gift cards would be deducted at the end. They were not! Each time I had to wait in guest services line to figure out what happened. The last time, I didn't find out they weren't there until 6:00 am on debarkation morning. From now on, I will ALWAYS apply the gift cards once on the ship AND I will get a print out from the kiosk mid cruise and on the last night. Sad you have to do that on vacation, really!

Where is the sad part?

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Thank you for the heads up!

OK, after reading all the comments, I think I have it figured out.

I was the one who went to GS to apply the gift cards, so they were all applied to MY folio.

I had thought we had one account per room, but apparently this is incorrect. Each person in the room has their own "folio." So I unknowingly applied all $2000 to my folio, and none to my husband's.

So when he was pulling out money for the casino, it was being charged to our credit card because none of the gift cards had been applied to his folio.

This is the first time we have ever used gift cards or the hub and we were a few days into our cruise before I even realized we could check our account balance on the hub. When I finally did, I saw it and thought I was still flush with cash. Hooray for me! :)

The good news is that I was cashing out my casino balance regularly and putting money into our safe. So it worked out OK for us. We came home with quite a bit of cash.

But I do hope others will be aware of this so they don't mistakenly charge up a bunch of money onto their charge card.

It's a shame that no one at Carnival was able to explain this to us. But after reading all your comments and thinking it over I am sure this is the explanation. Thanks guys!

Just one other question.... since I still had an available balance when we got off the ship, will that amount be applied to our total folio charges? Or will they refund it to me?

I don't want a refund because my understanding is that refunds will be issued in the form of a carnival gift card. I don't want a gift card because I am not at all sure we will be cruising Carnival again anytime soon.

Anyone know how this works?

What about the account screen on the TV in your cabin? Does it update regularly and correctly? I know not all ships have this feature, but where it does, I've always found it to be accurate and timely... I'm wondering if that's still the case.

Last week on the Breeze account information was not available on the tv. It was always correct and timely in the past.

Guest Services told me when it was made available on the hub it was discontinued on tv, and in the next breath said the balance on the hub isn't reliable. Go figure!

On a good note the hub has always given me correct information on my balance. But then again I use cash as a deposit. It may be the credit card holds could be the problem in showing the correct balance..

Carnival will mail you a check if you have a remaining balance I, f you don't clear your account on the last night. If it's under a certain amount it's donated to St Jude.

Since we only had the 1 $100 gift card, we didn't have a credit balance. Logically, if both people have signing privileges, using the same credit card for any charges due, you would think that any credit balance on one folio would be transferred to the other folio if it owed money. Unfortunately, logic sometimes goes out the window. The only times I ever had a credit balance were on Princess & Royal. I always owe on Carnival because we have always used our OBC.

Ok, so I found my account statement from last trip. My folio had a credit of over $200, but only charges of $40, so even though everything listed separately, in the end, it was all lumped together so that the credit balance in my folio was used to go against the balance due in my hubby's folio.

So, I guess you just have to look at the Hub as a general way to see what has been charged, but you still have to do some of your own calculations to get a true balance. Or, as others have said, use the kiosk or guest services.

Just one other question.... since I still had an available balance when we got off the ship, will that amount be applied to our total folio charges? Or will they refund it to me?

 

I don't want a refund because my understanding is that refunds will be issued in the form of a carnival gift card. I don't want a gift card because I am not at all sure we will be cruising Carnival again anytime soon.

 

Anyone know how this works?

We had a $16 and change credit balance and they mailed us a check. Get the check and pay off the credit card balance. :)

So the issue is when there are gift cards on an account? If the room has an OBC, it is split between guests?