HA onboard spending account question

[minimartha]

We are leaving Sunday on NA and I just saw that they will put a $440 hold per person on our card. We normally do a preloaded travel Visa or cash onboard because I book excursions, coffee package, prepay tips and book and pay for dining. We rarely use more than $300 onboard between 2 of us. It said if you use cash and don't put down the $440 per person you could be denied boarding.

 

We've never come across a policy like this before on any of the cruise lines. Are they strict about this? If so I shouldn't have prepaid for everything.

[Stratheden]

How do you prepay tips?

 

I will do that if possible but didn't know that you could.

[Mytime2014]

I think its in the know before you go info....and I was told when I made the reservations. They asked for card info with the explanation with I did the online check-in thing and confirmed the amount there.

[Padraic]

This is a standard procedure on all cruise lines. It is also very common for hotels to do this especially in Europe.

[Randyk47]

We are leaving Sunday on NA and I just saw that they will put a $440 hold per person on our card. We normally do a preloaded travel Visa or cash onboard because I book excursions, coffee package, prepay tips and book and pay for dining. We rarely use more than $300 onboard between 2 of us. It said if you use cash and don't put down the $440 per person you could be denied boarding.

 

We've never come across a policy like this before on any of the cruise lines. Are they strict about this? If so I shouldn't have prepaid for everything.

 

Actually I've never come across a cruise line that didn't have this policy. Maybe some have been more forthcoming about it but they all have some kind of deposit or credit card hold policy. Remember it's a hold not an actual charge so if you have "deposited" sufficient funds or pre-paid certain services prior to the cruise the net impact at the end of the cruise will be no actual charges made to your credit card.

Edited March 27, 2014 by Randyk47

[Randyk47]

How do you prepay tips?

 

I will do that if possible but didn't know that you could.

 

There's no specific line item pre-paid option that says it's for tips. You can build up a cash credit balance prior to the cruise and those credits will or could be used for any on-board charges including the hotel service charge.

[jtl513]

How do you prepay tips?

 

I will do that if possible but didn't know that you could.

On the HAL site "gift" yourself OBCs. The max unit is $100, but you can buy as many units as you like.

[kyriecat]

OP,

 

Do you have a regular credit card? If so, you can give them that card number for the hold amount. When you get onboard, you can go to the Guest Relations desk and give them cash or use a prepaid card to pay for your charges.

 

If you try to put a hold on a prepaid card, you could run into a problem. When I cruised with HAL, they put a $1200 hold on my credit card, which was expected (2 guests, $60/day, 10 days). However, when they ran my charges, the hold wasn't removed. When I disembarked, I had the $1200 hold still showing plus the $700 we spent while onboard. After about a week, the $1200 hold amount was released and I was only charged for the actual onboard spending.

 

If I had used a prepaid card with $1500 on it, the $1200 hold amount would have tied up most of that available balance, leaving only $300 available. I assume it would have been denied when they tried to process the actual $700 charge since there wasn't enough available balance. I've had that happen before with prepaid cards and holds.

 

Padraic,

 

I think it is misleading to make a sweeping statement that it is standard procedure on "all" cruiselines to charge a hold amount. While it's true that MOST cruiselines charge a hold amount, it's not necessarily the large amount that HAL holds. Therefore, people who frequent other lines are surprised by the amount that HAL holds.

 

When I have sailed on both Celebrity and Royal Caribbean, they put a hold amount of $25 total (not pp) on my credit card when I boarded. On Royal Caribbean they processed the onboard charges at the end of my 7-day cruise. On Celebrity they processed my charges at the end of a 7-day cruise, but on a 12-day cruise they processed the charges every 4-5 days so I had 3 individual charges that totaled my onboard spending amount.

 

When I sailed on Silvesea last month, they did not put a hold on my credit card.

 

I had an issue with credit card fraud in the past and check my credit card accounts every day or two for any suspicious activity, especially when on vacation.

Edited March 27, 2014 by kyriecat

[Boytjie]

We've never come across a policy like this before on any of the cruise lines.

 

All 5 cruise lines I have sailed since 2007 on put a hold on credit (or debit) cards when I boarded the ship. And I think the amounts per day were qyute similar to what HAL holds.

Edited March 27, 2014 by Boytjie

[minimartha]

This is our first HAL cruise and I WAS VERY surprised at the amount HAL holds. We been cruising for a long time on different cruise lines and we've never run across this policy before and never heard the (deny boarding) if you didn't put that amount down in cash (if you chose the cash option). I was just shocked and it ties up a lot more money than I was expecting because we haven't come across that before. We could be in trouble if they put a hold and then a charge too. That will make me have to rethink which card for onboard, port spending and now there's money on the prepaid card but I'm afraid to use that one. Actually kinda stressing over this now .... NOT what I wanted to be doing 12 hours before we fly out

[minimartha]

OP,

 

Do you have a regular credit card? If so, you can give them that card number for the hold amount. When you get onboard, you can go to the Guest Relations desk and give them cash or use a prepaid card to pay for your charges.

 

If you try to put a hold on a prepaid card, you could run into a problem. When I cruised with HAL, they put a $1200 hold on my credit card, which was expected (2 guests, $60/day, 10 days). However, when they ran my charges, the hold wasn't removed. When I disembarked, I had the $1200 hold still showing plus the $700 we spent while onboard. After about a week, the $1200 hold amount was released and I was only charged for the actual onboard spending.

 

If I had used a prepaid card with $1500 on it, the $1200 hold amount would have tied up most of that available balance, leaving only $300 available. I assume it would have been denied when they tried to process the actual $700 charge since there wasn't enough available balance. I've had that happen before with prepaid cards and holds.

 

Padraic,

 

I think it is misleading to make a sweeping statement that it is standard procedure on "all" cruiselines to charge a hold amount. While it's true that MOST cruiselines charge a hold amount, it's not necessarily the large amount that HAL holds. Therefore, people who frequent other lines are surprised by the amount that HAL holds.

 

When I have sailed on both Celebrity and Royal Caribbean, they put a hold amount of $25 total (not pp) on my credit card when I boarded. On Royal Caribbean they processed the onboard charges at the end of my 7-day cruise. On Celebrity they processed my charges at the end of a 7-day cruise, but on a 12-day cruise they processed the charges every 4-5 days so I had 3 individual charges that totaled my onboard spending amount.

 

When I sailed on Silvesea last month, they did not put a hold on my credit card.

 

I had an issue with credit card fraud in the past and check my credit card accounts every day or two for any suspicious activity, especially when on vacation.

 

My experience is the same as yours. Royal Carribean, Celebrity and Carnival just put a small hold and then run it the night before we got off. I had to present another card on one of celebrity cruises for another $100 once but I've never had such a large hold at first.

[Globaliser]

This is our first HAL cruise and I WAS VERY surprised at the amount HAL holds. We been cruising for a long time on different cruise lines and we've never run across this policy before ...

Better HAL's policy than what Princess did to me a couple of years ago.

 

In the middle of the evening on the sea day immediately before disembarkation day, I got a text from my credit card company: please call the fraud department, urgently. It happens from time to time, so I knew it was a genuine message, but I had never had one in the middle of the ocean.

 

The fraud alert had been triggered by the ship, which had been authorising small amounts on my card day by day, and sometimes several times a day. Eventually, they had done this so many times that the fraud detector had tripped. I was not pleased at having to call the UK from the ship to find out what had happened, especially as it turned out that it wasn't actually serious and as there was not enough time on the last evening to go to the front desk to give them a piece of my mind.

 

Better HAL's policy, as I say. One authorisation at the beginning of the cruise, and no further hassles. (But then, I personally couldn't imagine travelling anywhere without several cards that each have limits big enough to absorb this sort of authorisation with ample headroom to spare. That could be vital if anything goes wrong while you're away.)

[Mharvey66]

On both HAL cruises I have been on I have given credit card when booking and then when we board I put down $500 cash for the two of us as hold. Never been a problem and on exiting cruise I go to guest service and check out and recieve any left over cash back. As I prepay for drinks, excursions and casino chips I get all back but auto tip.

[Stratheden]

We are leaving Sunday on NA and I just saw that they will put a $440 hold per person on our card. We normally do a preloaded travel Visa or cash onboard because I book excursions, coffee package, prepay tips and book and pay for dining. We rarely use more than $300 onboard between 2 of us. It said if you use cash and don't put down the $440 per person you could be denied boarding.

 

We've never come across a policy like this before on any of the cruise lines. Are they strict about this? If so I shouldn't have prepaid for everything.

 

It is very clear on their website that they hold $60pp pd. You really should have known about this before now. If you booked yourself you should have read the fine print or if you used a TA - he/she should have told you.

 

i'm pretty sure they are very strict about it. I would be giving them my usual credit card no. and then going down to the front desk on the last night and settling up in cash.

[Stratheden]

Better HAL's policy, as I say. One authorisation at the beginning of the cruise, and no further hassles. (But then, I personally couldn't imagine travelling anywhere without several cards that each have limits big enough to absorb this sort of authorisation with ample headroom to spare. That could be vital if anything goes wrong while you're away.)

 

Totally agree with you. When we travel O/s we usually put credit onto one of our credit cards so that we can just get cash advances out of the ATM without any cash advance fees. We are withdrawing our own money. Never had a problem with this anywhere.

Edited March 27, 2014 by Stratheden
Grammar