Check cashing on Princess

[scrapycruiser]

It's been a while since we sailed with Princess. Can you cash a check on Princess ? We will be on the Ruby, a British Isle cruise. Can we get pounds and euros ? We'll bring cash in both currencies, but just in case we run short it would be convenient to get some from the ship.

[rdsqrl]

Use your ATM card in Europe. You'll get a better rate of exchange that way than you would either on the ship (worst of all) or at a currency exchange. Just be sure to advise your bank what countries you'll be in, so you don't trip their fraud detection.

 

And to answer your actual question, no, I do not believe Princess will cash personal checks. But if I'm wrong, no doubt people will immediately jump in to correct me. Traveler's checks, yes.

[patperry]

On our Baltic cruise on the Crown last summer, they did have a currency exchange machine. It wasn't the best exchange rate, but worked in a pinch

 

 

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[Colo Cruiser]

I don't believe that Princess will allow check cashing onboard anymore.

Years ago they had a $200 a day limit.

[caribill]

On our Baltic cruise on the Crown last summer, they did have a currency exchange machine. It wasn't the best exchange rate, but worked in a pinch

 

 

 

That is an understatement.

 

First off, if you use the ship's ATM to obntain US$, you will pay a service fee of about $6 plus whatever fee your bank may charge.

 

Then, when you feed those US$ into the currency exchange machine...(here is the way it was a couple of years ago when the Euro was higher than it is today)

 

There is an onboard currency exchange machine that could be used to obtain Euros. This is not an ATM machine. You insert the currency you have (for example US$) to get the Euros.

1 Euro onboard costs $1.56. Also there is a service charge of $3.50 per transaction. (Note: I think the fee is higher now.)

Rate I received buying Euros at an ATM on shore using Credit Union ATM debit card: $1.44, about the exchange rate at that time. (My CU charges no fees). Thus, buying 300 Euros onboard would have cost me $39.50 more than it did at an ATM machine on shore.

By the way, Princess will buy back those $1.56 Euros paying you $1.33 for each one. Again, there is a service charge of $3.50 per transaction.

It should be noted that the way exchange rates are listed on the machine can be confusing. For example, for the above listed example, the buy back rate was listed as $1.33 and the sell rate listed as .641 It is easy to see the $1.33 and think that is sell rate when the sell rate of $1.56 is what applies.

[patperry]

You are absolutely right caribill, I guess my " senior moment" got the best of me LOL

 

 

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[FritzG]

On the other hand, if you are only getting a small amount of cash to use in a port, the currency exchange machine is very convenient. It saves the time and trouble of finding an atm that works with your bank card. In Monaco we used an atm that looked like it had the right logos to work with our card. We were charged $25 for the transaction because it wasn't in our bank's network. Sadly, we had only exchanged $50 into eruos so that was a very expensive transaction.