Prepay Service Charge or wait until onboard?

[rhinomike]

I normally cruise Carnival but we have a few cruises planned with NCL. I have cruised on NCL once or twice but it's been years. Normally with Carnival they add on the gratuity or service charge to my sail and sign card once I am onboard.

 

Curious with NCL is there any pros or cons to do the prepay service charge or should I just let them charge it to my card once onboard?

 

Not sure if there is a benefit either way.

 

Thank you.

[ColinIllinois]

Strictly personal preference Mike. Either way you are out the same amount of money so it's just up to you if you want to pay 'em now or pay 'em later.

[triptolemus]

I normally cruise Carnival but we have a few cruises planned with NCL. I have cruised on NCL once or twice but it's been years. Normally with Carnival they add on the gratuity or service charge to my sail and sign card once I am onboard.

 

Curious with NCL is there any pros or cons to do the prepay service charge or should I just let them charge it to my card once onboard?

 

Not sure if there is a benefit either way.

 

Thank you.

 

There is no benefit either way aside from your own budgetary considerations (ie, spreading costs over different credit card billing cycles, just the warm fuzzy feeling of having everything paid in advance, things like that.)

 

NCL does not care - there are no pros or cons. You can pre-pay, or it will be simply added to your shipboard account.

[rhinomike]

Perfect. Thank you.

[jjikids]

Some posters have said they were still charged the service charges. They had to argue and show written proof that it was prepaid. We don't think it is worth the aggravation. Just let them bill us.

[triptolemus]

Some posters have said they were still charged the service charges. They had to argue and show written proof that it was prepaid. We don't think it is worth the aggravation. Just let them bill us.

 

Alternatively, some posters have thought they pre-paid the DSC and simply didn't for any number of reasons - credit card declined, failure to properly complete the online transaction, failure to verify the transaction posted, wife said she did it but forgot, paid the DSC on another reservation than they intended, TA forgot to do it...

[Out to sea!]

I normally cruise Carnival but we have a few cruises planned with NCL. I have cruised on NCL once or twice but it's been years. Normally with Carnival they add on the gratuity or service charge to my sail and sign card once I am onboard.

 

Curious with NCL is there any pros or cons to do the prepay service charge or should I just let them charge it to my card once onboard?

 

Not sure if there is a benefit either way.

 

Thank you.

 

Pay on board. Benefit is earning savings (as meager as it may be) on the money prior to sailing.

[karoo]

Yes I always pay on board, but then again that's me. I always set bills to be paid 2 days before they're due. I figure it might as well sit in my account earning interest than in their's. Minimal savings I know. :)

[vols_159]

I pay onboard why give ncl your money sooner than you have to...

[soccersharon]

I normally cruise Carnival but we have a few cruises planned with NCL. I have cruised on NCL once or twice but it's been years. Normally with Carnival they add on the gratuity or service charge to my sail and sign card once I am onboard.

 

Curious with NCL is there any pros or cons to do the prepay service charge or should I just let them charge it to my card once onboard?

 

Not sure if there is a benefit either way.

 

Thank you.

 

We prefer to pre-pay both on Carnival and also did so for our Epic cruise next week.

 

I always bring my account statement, just in case :)

Sent from my GT-S5830D using Forums mobile app

[realtorlady42]

There is a benefit for those of us out of Country and to you if you travel out of a port not based in the US in the future...to pre-paying as much as you can before leaving.

 

When traveling out of country and paying with your credit card you are typically charged the currency difference and exchange fee PLUS an out of country fee..typically an additional 2.5%-4%

 

By pre- paying we save the out of country fee...which is a heck of a lot more than any interest paid these days.

 

We also prepay any ships sponsered excursions for the same reason and any excursions we are going to do that are not ship sponsered we reserve and pay deposit if required, using the card, then cash when we are traveling.

We do the same thing when traveling to an ALL Includive for a week, so we are not charged the extra which can be as high as 4% additional.

 

We travel several times a year and always do excursions so this can really add up to a big savings.

We always end up with some charges that incur the out of country fee, but for the things we know we have to or want to pay/do we try and minimize the extra expence.

[Out to sea!]

There is a benefit for those of us out of Country and to you if you travel out of a port not based in the US in the future...to pre-paying as much as you can before leaving.

 

When traveling out of country and paying with your credit card you are typically charged the currency difference and exchange fee PLUS an out of country fee..typically an additional 2.5%-4%

 

By pre- paying we save the out of country fee...which is a heck of a lot more than any interest paid these days.

 

We also prepay any ships sponsered excursions for the same reason and any excursions we are going to do that are not ship sponsered we reserve and pay deposit if required, using the card, then cash when we are traveling.

We do the same thing when traveling to an ALL Includive for a week, so we are not charged the extra which can be as high as 4% additional.

 

We travel several times a year and always do excursions so this can really add up to a big savings.

We always end up with some charges that incur the out of country fee, but for the things we know we have to or want to pay/do we try and minimize the extra expence.

 

Maybe you need to look for a different credit card. The one I have does not charge out of country fees (tested and verified). Now, exchange rates could make a difference in whether or not to worry about pre-paying but that probably isn't a concern for most cruisers.

[realtorlady42]

Maybe you need to look for a different credit card. The one I have does not charge out of country fees (tested and verified). Now, exchange rates could make a difference in whether or not to worry about pre-paying but that probably isn't a concern for most cruisers.

 

Exchange rate can make a huge difference, though this year it is almost identical to last Feb when we needed to exhange...the difference may be in how much the bank charges us to exchange ..yup another fee on top of the exchange rate..no wonder Canadian banks are doing so well!

 

As far as the card I have an RBC platinum Avion...travel insurance, trip cancelation insurance, double, sometimes triple reward miles when I use it for travel, no blackout dates and choice of which flights we want to take when using points for flights and a host of other benefits far out weigh the odd time I get hit with a foreign country exchange fee.

 

We travel several times a year so these benefits really add up! :)

Edited November 7, 2013 by realtorlady42

[PeanutBudder]

someone had posted a link to be able to buy slot credits at a discount...it was an external site that said they are eligible for specific cruise ships. The one we are going on is eligible. My question is "do you think it makes a difference if you buy these credits from these sites or do you think your chances of winning are reduced as the cruise lines know you purchased them at a large discount?"

 

Thanks!

[Demonyte]

someone had posted a link to be able to buy slot credits at a discount...it was an external site that said they are eligible for specific cruise ships. The one we are going on is eligible. My question is "do you think it makes a difference if you buy these credits from these sites or do you think your chances of winning are reduced as the cruise lines know you purchased them at a large discount?"

 

It doesn't matter what so ever, the credits bought from slotplaycoupons.com are loaded to the casino card just the same as credits from NCL directly.

[PeanutBudder]

It doesn't matter what so ever, the credits bought from slotplaycoupons.com are loaded to the casino card just the same as credits from NCL directly.

 

Thank you for that...it definitely is worth it considering we can get 50% off! :D

[Chrislynn55]

We were just on the Breakaway a couple of weeks ago. Someone on our roll call had prepaid the service charge but once onboard found that he was being charged again. At first guest services told him that he was mistaken, that he had not prepaid, but once he presented written proof they did reverse the daily charges. If you prepay, be sure to take your paperwork with you on the cruise!

[davejura]

We prepaid coming from the UK at £7 per day, instead of $12. Saved us a wee bit due to exchange rate and no card fee!

[QuiGonJohn]

I wouldn't pre-pay simply because what if something happens and you wind up not going. Why have to fight to get that money back?

 

Thanks for the mention about out-of-country fees though. My cruise begins in the US (Anchorage), but ends in Canada (Vancouver). If they run it at the end of the cruise, out-of-country could be an issue. But, I have a Capital One, which does not charge foreign transaction fees, so I will use that for on the cruise.

Edited November 7, 2013 by QuiGonJohn

[realtorlady42]

:) Your Welcome! Not all cards charge it but if one is not aware of it and they do, they can get a nice little surprise when the bill comes in:eek:

 

I am neurotic about my paperwork...no worries about not having proof I paid lol;):)

 

We had final payment this week for our upcoming Jewel Cruise in January. Paid it and our grats and previously reserved and paid for the one ship sponsered excursion we are doing. All the rest of our excursions are independant or private deposits where required have been paid.

We travel several times a year so I pay stuff off when it comes up so I don't have to think about it anymore.

This is our first time pre paying service charge...I think we will do it from now on. I personally like the convenience...saving the out of country fee is a bonus :)

[gatorsfam]

I've never bothered to pre-pay and probably won't get into the habit. Now if they tossed in specialty dining, photos, who knows, I might consider it, but voluntarily giving them $$ early, I don't see the point. Then again, I tend to book very last minute - I might feel differently if spreading the cost out over many months or years.

[kylenyc]

On some other tip thread someone mentioned the convenience of not actually seeing the DSC appear every day on your onboard account makes it a little to easier reconcile your daily expenses.

Edited November 7, 2013 by kylenyc

[Out to sea!]

Exchange rate can make a huge difference, though this year it is almost identical to last Feb when we needed to exhange...the difference may be in how much the bank charges us to exchange ..yup another fee on top of the exchange rate..no wonder Canadian banks are doing so well!

 

As far as the card I have an RBC platinum Avion...travel insurance, trip cancelation insurance, double, sometimes triple reward miles when I use it for travel, no blackout dates and choice of which flights we want to take when using points for flights and a host of other benefits far out weigh the odd time I get hit with a foreign country exchange fee.

 

We travel several times a year so these benefits really add up! :)

 

I have the Capitol One card. I don't know if it's available in Canada. Same benefits as yours except I have the rewards card versus the airline miles card.

[Tiggertastic]

no choice for us, it's automatically added in by our TAs

 

The only way we don't is by ask NCL Direct not to do it

 

Although we are happy for it to be there

[shelly11]

I always pay ahead of time but did have a problem once with being billed on the ship as well. They fixed it once back on land but now I take a printed copy of where I paid just in case.