14 yr old cabin card and spending

[DKJ]

I will be on the Epic this Nov with my 14 yo grandson , I'm assuming he will get his own cabin card ? Also can you allocate a certain amount for his personal spending (mostly for the game room) or buy him a obc ? Thanks for any advice

 

DKJ

[ocean12ny]

Yes, he will have his own card and you can set if he is allowed to charge to his card and the amount per day if you want.

For my two teens, I did not give a limit but we talked about what they were allowed to charge each day.

[time2cruise1]

I will be on the Epic this Nov with my 14 yo grandson , I'm assuming he will get his own cabin card ? Also can you allocate a certain amount for his personal spending (mostly for the game room) or buy him a obc ? Thanks for any advice

 

DKJ

 

If you prepay his service charge you can put his card on a separate account with limited cash deposited. When it runs out the card won't work until you but more cash on it.

 

The reason I say prepay the service charge is if he has his own account the $12 will hit it everyday and you will need to have money in the account to cover it that he could spend.

[DKJ]

Thanks that's what I needed to know :)

[sdmike]

Right. The only way to set a limit on a specific card is to have an account separate from yours, and put cash down to limit it. I wish they had the ability to set a fixed amount by CARD by DAY, but they don't. They do it by account, and only by switching it from a credit card backed account to a cash account. They also can't limit spending by day, only in total.

 

The suggestion to pre-pay the DSC is a good one, otherwise you have to account for that $12 per day on their account with cash, and there's nothing keeping them from spending all that PLUS their allowance in just one day. If you use this approach, you would simply put the week's spending amount on their account (let's say $10 per day, for example) and tell them when it's gone, it's gone.

 

What I did instead with my kids is tell them that they had a spending limit for the week, and they had to manage it. I didn't create separate accounts or unlink it from my credit card. However, every couple of days I would check what they spent to make sure they were still ok. My boys burned the money pretty fast on games, snacks, sodas, etc., but my daughter saved her money and bought a couple of nice souvenirs at the end of the trip.

[meglet]

What a great learning experience for your sons. In high school my mom gave me a clothing allowance and it really taught me to shop, plan, and budget.

[sdmike]

What a great learning experience for your sons. In high school my mom gave me a clothing allowance and it really taught me to shop, plan, and budget.

 

That was sort of the idea. Give them some taste of fiscal planning

[tymike]

Right. The only way to set a limit on a specific card is to have an account separate from yours, and put cash down to limit it. I wish they had the ability to set a fixed amount by CARD by DAY, but they don't. They do it by account, and only by switching it from a credit card backed account to a cash account. They also can't limit spending by day, only in total.

 

The suggestion to pre-pay the DSC is a good one, otherwise you have to account for that $12 per day on their account with cash, and there's nothing keeping them from spending all that PLUS their allowance in just one day. If you use this approach, you would simply put the week's spending amount on their account (let's say $10 per day, for example) and tell them when it's gone, it's gone.

 

What I did instead with my kids is tell them that they had a spending limit for the week, and they had to manage it. I didn't create separate accounts or unlink it from my credit card. However, every couple of days I would check what they spent to make sure they were still ok. My boys burned the money pretty fast on games, snacks, sodas, etc., but my daughter saved her money and bought a couple of nice souvenirs at the end of the trip.

 

I did the exact same thing with my 3 kids (16, 18 and 20) on our recent BA cruise. I gave them a $ limit for the entire cruise and let them be responsible for how they wanted to spend it. It was interesting to see how differently they all chose to! My 20 y.o son only spent about $17 the whole week (in addition to his soda card!). I sprung for all the upcharge restaurants/entertainment, but I think it was a great way for them to manage a budget for the week. The good news is that none of them overspent!:)

[Chuck2810]

That was sort of the idea. Give them some taste of fiscal planning

 

Well you pretty much eliminated their ability to be in our federal government....;)

[sdmike]

Well you pretty much eliminated their ability to be in our federal government....;)

 

ha! nice one

[itravelalot]

We got a call three days into our 12 day cruise that our 9 yr old had spent $300. On his card and did we want to put a limit on what he spent. We were aware of the charges because he bought something for $250. In the gift shop when we were together. I think it's great that kids can use it as a learning and budgeting tool, but how great of NCL to monitor. I am sure there have been parents caught off guard with a huge bill at the end of a cruise.