UK cruisers - cautionary advice for those using Visa Central/CIBT to obtain visa.

[harz99]

This is for UK residents only.

 

For Chinese and other visas Celebrity will steer you towards Visa Central/CIBT. Be aware that their charges are, shall we say, less than transparent.

 

Yes they list everything in some place or another on their website, or on the photocopies they send you if you opt to go that route instead of printing out from the website, but they are literally very small print and not together in one place.

 

Things to be aware of:

 

The charge for using a Credit Card rather than Debit Card is 3.9% or approximately double what the credit card companies actual charge a company.

 

They charge UK VAT on everything and the prices quoted in big bold print do not include VAT.

 

If you send in a hand completed order rather then a web completed one, expect to pay an additional £17 plus VAT for each visa.

 

If you forget to check the little opt OUT box for passport replacement service, expect to pay an additional £9.95 plus VAT for each visa.

 

Finally, they use DX secure, a courier company, to return your passports and charge £10.95 plus VAT for next day delivery, which is almost double the cost of Royal Mail's equivalent.

 

Our experience with DX secure was that we stayed in all day, DX made no attempt to deliver, no contact from them or CIBT, after eventually getting through to a non UK call centre all I got was an offer to reschedule the next day 9-6 so another day wasted. It turned out the lady who did the run covering my area had a day's leave and DX failed to provide adequate cover.

 

If you do a Google search DX have a terrible reputation, so why do CIBT use them and not our national postal service via the Royal Mail?

 

Anyhow, you may be better using Trailfinder's Visa service, whose website is much plainer, who are less expensive and who will, if you call and ask them, use Royal Mail instead of DX.

 

My bill for two Chinese visa's via CIBT came to nearly £350 which frankly is outrageous.

Edited February 14, 2014 by harz99

[OldJerseycruiser]

Thank you for that as we shall be needing visas for India next year.

[newport dave]

If they are listing the price minus the VAT then they're breaking the law. Prices shown must include all taxes by law.

[harz99]

If they are listing the price minus the VAT then they're breaking the law. Prices shown must include all taxes by law.

 

To be clear Dave, the big bold prices you see don't mention Vat, but they do list elsewhere in the small print that Vat is charged on all of their services. My point was that it is not obvious that Vat is not included.

 

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Forums mobile app

[uktog]

We posted warnings about this company last year but others countered about how good they were. My husband was required by a client to use them for business visas, I was disgusted by the add on fees just as you describe. For both India and China we have done it ourselves no problem.

 

There is no need to use Visa Central