P&O's card charging system!!!

[greshna]

Hi I was wondering if any of you have had an issue with P&O's card charging system? I love P&O but dont like the way they do the authorisations on a daily basis from your debit/credit card, this in effect on the last 2 P&O cruises has been a real pain.

I understand they need to ensure passengers have sufficient funds to pay their bill at the end of the cruise, but the authorisations I found were still showing at the end of my last 2 week cruise, so when the final day of the cruise comes and you go to pay your bill, you reall need to have double the bill amount available in your acount, as the authorisation that they have made on a daily basis still haven't dropped off!!, and to cap it all last year P&O charged almost all their passengers twice in error!! although this was refunded within the week of arriving home I am sure(and cust services at P&O told me this) it caused many people problems with insufficient available funds in their accounts. I heard peoples direct debits were not paid , mortgages etc etc.

I am going to make sure this time that the account I use has at least twice the amount that I am prepared to spend in it..... Hmmmm :(

[MattyBarlow]

This is common practice but the amounts are only pending and quite small. It can take upto two weeks fro them to come off but unless you have a very small credit limit then it shouldnt make much difference.

[greshna]

Well last year my authorisations were not that small I cannot remember the exact amounts, but they totalled into the hundreds not vey small amounts!

[FLUFFY01]

Hi

 

I use a credit card and have had no problems. This means that I have even longer to pay. yippee.

 

Regards

Jo

[MattyBarlow]

Well last year my authorisations were not that small I cannot remember the exact amounts, but they totalled into the hundreds not vey small amounts!

 

 

Biggest i have ever come home to was a total of £137. That went down each day for about two weeks.

 

I dont know if the amount varies depending on any information the CC company may share with P&O upon swiping.

[southwinds]

never had a problem.. but I did hear of somebody with a Tesco card that took the authorised amount and the final amount BUT that was the CC fault not P&O

[charabanc]

On my last cruise, we had a very big problem for the entire duration of the cruise, 7 days.

I had pre booked the internet package before we left, but on going to get it activated I was told the had changed the way they do internet on Azura, it was now MB and not Minutes.

Anyway to cut a very long story short, they had to work out out how much my pre booked package was worth in MB, and then alocate to my account. They forund this very difficult, so they bought me a new package online, and said they would refund it so I was not out of pocket and that I would be able to use the internet. That is where the problem started. Somehow, to do with refunds and purchasing, they pushed my on board account from zero to £4,000.00 yes four thousand pounds. They were at a loss what to do, they kept telling me they would sort it, but it kept going up a bit and then down a bit. It was very worrying. it took them until 7pm on the last night of the cruise to get my account in order. So we had a constant worry that they would take this amount from my credit card the entire trip, it put a very dark cloud over the whole cruise.

 

And like someone said, everty night they ring fence the account money, so I was just lucky I had a higher credit limit, or I would not have been able to use it anywhere.

 

It's put us off P&O for good.

[jeanlyon]

Never had a problem yet. 4 cruises. My card has a £3K limit, but I only got home last weekend and there were no outstanding authorisations on it, just the final amount. My credit limit was exactly right.

[lynnquenby]

This isnt just P&O it's all cruise lines!

[jessie england]

can you pay your bill with some cash for the first week and the rest on card at the end of are cruise ,

[southwinds]

I the pre authorised amount is on your CC account its the fault of the CC company not P&O I have never had this happen but it happened to a friend with a Tesco card and the fault was with Tesco for putting the the two amounts on the final account BUT it was dealt with quickly by the CC company who do it for Tesco..

[terrierjohn]

Returned from our cruise on 2nd Sept and it was only this week that the P&O charge hit my credit card statement, and I had been checking regularly.

So not certain what the OP is alluding to!!

[hansi]

If you're paying by credit card you surely have a sufficiently high enough limit to enable you to be able to pay the P&O bill anyway. What about the other purchases you make with your credit card while on the cruise. I agree if it's a debit card, the you have to be more careful, but with a CC?:confused:

[greshna]

It was debit cards I have had the problem with

[hansi]

In that case, I would load your current account with enough cash to see you through the cruise, or better still, use a credit card.

[C at Sea]

Think I'm being thick! What do they do and how does it affect your card account?

Also is the Internet package still by MB or is it back to mins? Will be totally at a loss what to have! Probably Internet staff innundated by passengers wanting it translated into mins!

[buddy 27]

Just a question, if anyone knows..

Some places where you use a credit card charges a minimum of 2.5% extra (or the shop / restaurant etc does on top of the bill). Does anyone know if this is the caes when using a credit card as payment on the ship.

Thanks

Buddy:)

[cruiseluvva]

No fee is charged for using a CC on board.

[buddy 27]

Thankyou Gill.