visa debit card questions

[ckr31]

Im not really big into credit cards.can you use your visa debit card at the time of embarkation of the ship for exspenses? has anyone done this,and do you recommend it thanks

[paul929207]

You can, but they will put a hold on your account to cover their estimate of yor spending. I have heard the holds are slow to come off.

[-Lew-]

You can, but they will put a hold on your account to cover their estimate of yor spending.

A hold is placed on credit card accounts also. This is true of most hotels, car rental companies, etc.

 

Lew

[ckr31]

thanks for the reply's does anyone know how much of a hold. say for a like a 14days cruise,and are they anymore pro's and con's thanks

[cruisemom42]

Another con of using your debit card is that IF a mistake is made in billing your account, the money in dispute will be held until the dispute (or mistake) is resolved, which can take a while. Not too long ago, someone posted on this board about being charged for someone else's entire room charges. That could wipe out an account real fast.

[jester121]

cruisemom is right, if you have time to establish a second checking account before you leave, it might be a good idea -- just deposit your budgeted cruise amount in that account, so you aren't worried about bouncing checks if your main checking account gets due to a lost/stolen card or a bookkeeping error.

 

Most debit (i.e. Visa Check cards) do offer fraud protection but it can take some time get these things sorted out, meanwhile you can't even withdraw cash at an ATM to get by.

[slowpoke58]

We were on the Coral Princess and had a bad experience with their accounting. I checked our bill after about 4 days, as is the advice here on CC and found that we had a lot of charges on our bill that we did not make. So I would use a credit card not a debit card.

 

We will be on the Ruby in January for a 10 day cruise, and will be checking our account every few days.

 

Joyce

[magicnelly]

We used a Debit Card that is also a credit card with a cash back bonus on our last 7 day cruise on the CB. But it is always treated as a debit card and that is fine with us - it gives us an insulating layer between the charge and the money in the bank.

 

I checked my account (bank) daily while on the cruise and what the ship would do is to hit my account each day for any expenses we had....BUT, those charges were "pending" and not actually being drawn from my account. I guess that is the hold they are placing on it.

 

Then, after the cruise was over, Princess charged our account for the total amount of the FINAL bill and eliminated all of the "pending" charges. Worked out fine for us - gave us the chance to look over our bill and have any changes made....but it was all ok.

 

Hope this helps.

[aaerobear]

I have always used a debit card and have NEVER had a hold put on it by Princess, on HAL, they tell you the amount when you register your card online prior to the cruise.

[-Lew-]

I have always used a debit card and have NEVER had a hold put on it by Princess...

How do you know that? You would never know a hold had been put on your debit card account if your off ship spending didn't exceed your account balance, less the hold amount.

 

Without a hold, there's no way the cruise line can be assured it will be paid. A passenger could drain the account to zero with nothing left to cover the onboard account.

 

Lew

[pastaandpotatoes]

Last year on my honeymoon cruise, my husband and I tried to use my debit card for our onboard account. We had more than enough money to cover what we were planning on spending during the 7 days we were onboard. A day or two into the cruise, we had a note from the purser's desk saying we needed to come change our card that we had on file. They would not allow us to use my debit card for payment on the cruise, we had to use my husband's credit card.

[kzmama]

I have used a debit card on all my cruises and never had a hold or any problem with registering this card.

[lindasuej]

I don't think you can use it if it is just a debit card. I think it has to be a debit visa or debit mastercard.

 

Linda

[ckr31]

seems like they are mixed reviews on this subject

[cflutist]

I work for a bank that is one of the largest Visa Debit Card Issuers in the country ... however, I use my Debit Card only to withdrawal cash at the ATMs, and never at any merchants that accept Visa. Why? Because I prefer to use the bank's money up front instead of mine by using a Credit Card. And if there are problems, again it's the bank's money not your own in dispute.

 

Depending on the date of a purchase, you can get almost 2 months of float before you have to pay ... and since we pay our Credit Card balance off in full every month, we don't pay any interest, and we get cash back too.

 

Just different strokes for different folks. :D

[aaerobear]

yes, I can see what holds are on my debit card, you may not be able to , but I can. Mine is through my brokerage firm and they provide that information.

 

I advise anyone reading this post to remember that there are many different issuers of debitcards that can be either Visa or Mastercard as the "processor" so there can be differences in how the different banks or brokerage houses handle debits.