Beware of Credit Card Phones

[rcarrosq]

Not sure exactly where to post this, but since this happened to us in St Maarten 2 weeks ago, I guess I'll post it here.

 

We were sailing on Caribbean Princess and on 23 April stopped in St Maarten. We were supposed to hook up with an old friend and the plan was to meet at the end of the pier at 11 a.m. We waited and looked for her but she was nowhere to be found. We walked all around the immediate area and couldn't find her. We saw a bank of pay phones but they were not coin phones. These were the ones where you swipe your credit card. There were no prices listed and no information about how this worked. We looked everywhere for a pay phone that uses coins but were told there were none. We were leery about the credit card phone but after 3 hours of searching for our friend, we decided to make the local call.

 

We used our credit card and we got an answering machine. All told the call lasted under 1 minute. On the 25th of April we were at another island and I was able to find a wifi hotspot and checked my mail. My credit card company sent a fraud alert email saying there was a $49.51 charge on my card from Luxembourg and there was a link to accept or deny the charge. Since we were not in Luxembourg, I declined the charge and my card was cancelled. Thankfully we had other credit cards to charge our ship items to.

 

When I came home my new card was waiting for me and 3 days later a letter from my credit card company arrived and this time, it did list that charge as those phones and being in St Maarten. I've since called, explained the story and will be paying for the charge. A quite expensive lesson.

 

So.....if you are ever in need of a phone and don't want to use your own cell because of the charges, try to find either a sympathetic local or a shop that sells phone calls and computer time. Don't get caught like I did with a bill for $50 for a local call. Lesson learned

[AntiHamstr]

Sorry to hear you got caught by that type of “scam”. I've also learned the hard way to NEVER make any sort of phone call unless I know EXACTLY what the rate will be. A lot of cruisers know to avoid the credit card phones near port, but also be wary of hotel phone rates. Sandals in Jamaica had the nerve to charge more per minute than the cruise lines do!

 

 

If you do need to make a local call, your best bet is to nicely ask a local if he could dial the number on his cell phone. Be considerate and as short as possible: unlike in the US they might have very few “free” minutes, or none at all. Also offer them a few dollars afterwords...

 

 

Dennis

[gtaylor]

From an earlier post:

 

I don't think you'll find a phone that accepts US coins, but BEWARE of the (mostly) blue phones that accept credit cards, like these, in front of Splash and spread all around the island.

 

(click)

 

A simple, short, call back to the states can end up costing $50 or more, despite whatever it says on the phone.

 

Who are you calling?

 

If it's just going to be a minute or two locally to confirm a reservation or such, I'd just approach any local and ask if you can make a call on their cell phone, offering a dollar or two.

 

Calls on the island typically cost about $.23 /minute. I'd suspect that many will reject the offer of payment, but don't push it. It's the Friendly Island.

 

gary