Credit Cards on board

[retep55555]

Hi,

We are new to Celebrity with our first cruise booked on the Solstice in Nov 2014. I have read various comments on how "other" cruise lines handle credit cards used to pay for on board expenses. I have heard that your credit card is frozen for about 2 weeks after the cruise in some cases. We usually cruise with Princess and always use our credit card rather than cash for payment of our account on board. We have never had any problems doing this. So my question is does your bank account/credit card get frozen if you use it as a deposit for your on board expenditure? I would be lost if I couldn't use my credit card for 2 weeks but hubby would be rejoicing!!

Thank you

Sharon

[Pennstatedj]

I have never had that happen with my visa on X, Princess, HAL or RCCL.

[NLH Arizona]

I've never had a problem with any of my cruises.

[SHIPMEOUT]

That's never happened to me either. There must have been another reason that the credit card got frozen...like the owner didn't notify their credit card company that they were going to be out of the country and it was flagged.

 

There's no difference between how Princess and Celebrity handle their on-board accounts.

[SPacificbound]

It would be best to call your credit card company with this question.

[warmwinds]

Do you mean "frozen" in that you cannot use it at all? (never heard of this happening, except in cases of suspected fraud).

 

Or do you mean that a certain amount was taken and held, similar to what any on-land hotel would do, to cover their risk of damage, etc.? That should not tie up ALL your funds.

 

Neither of these sounds plausible, and has never happened to me, either.

[need2bespoiled]

The process will vary depending on whether you use a debit card or credit card. We've used both.

 

I believe the below is correct, but since I don't really pay much attention anymore, some details may be slightly off.

 

As you charge onboard, Celebrity will request authorizations for the amounts you charge, usually it is daily, but not always. Those Authorizations may or may not fall off your card as you cruise, it will depend on your bank/card and the length of your cruise. At the end of your cruise, Celebrity will then authorize the entire amount of everything you purchased. This may duplicate the charges that haven't fallen off. THEN, a day or two later the actual charges go through in total. If the total authorization hasn't fallen off, you will likely have both amounts on your statement (online of course). If you have a debit card it is likely freezing money from your bank account. If you provide a credit card for charges, you probably won't even know, again, depends on your card. My card(s) for example don't count the authorizations against anything until they are actual charges.

 

Not too long ago there was a thread about a couple who was "double charged" and then bounced some checks because of the authorization and then the charge they weren't expecting. I felt bad for them :(

 

Happy sailing,

Jenna

[johnb0529]

That should only happen if someone uses the Credit Card, but makes final payment in cash and the Authorizations are never settled.

 

If the Authorizations are correctly settled at the end of the cruise (mine always have been) the bank knows that charge is complete and final. But if you settle the account in cash, the bank never knows that the authorization isn't going to turn into a charge, so they hold it open against the credit line for a set number of days...that length can be different depending on your banks policies.

[xxpinksaltxx]

On our last cruise we had to use a prepaid credit card as we had forgotten to tell our credit card company we were going away and they kept blocking Celebrity's transactions. We had all our spendings "held" on our account and then on the last day we had our transactions charged (along with the card still having hold sales). It took us two weeks to get those funds back to "available".

 

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[Project_gal]

Hi,

We are new to Celebrity with our first cruise booked on the Solstice in Nov 2014. I have read various comments on how "other" cruise lines handle credit cards used to pay for on board expenses. I have heard that your credit card is frozen for about 2 weeks after the cruise in some cases. We usually cruise with Princess and always use our credit card rather than cash for payment of our account on board. We have never had any problems doing this. So my question is does your bank account/credit card get frozen if you use it as a deposit for your on board expenditure? I would be lost if I couldn't use my credit card for 2 weeks but hubby would be rejoicing!!

Thank you

Sharon

 

Sharon

 

As the other posts have pointed out, Celebrity uses the same procedure that would be used by any hotel you are staying at and puts a hold on your credit card to cover the amount you may spend on board. This hold then gets removed when your account is settle at the end of the cruise.

 

In the UK, most credit card companies will clear your payment within a few days even if you are overseas when the payment is made. The only amount that may be left on hold would be the small surplus if they held a higher amount than you spent.

 

I check my credit card account daily and these surplus holds [often PayPal payments will have a slightly larger hold than the actual amount] always disappear after a few days [billing cycles].

 

You are only likely to find your credit card "frozen" is if you have so low a credit limit that it is taken up by the hold Celebrity puts on your card. The period of this "freeze" should be well under 2 weeks in the UK. If you find that holds on your credit card last longer than a few days, think about changing your provider!

[miched]

Never had a problem using a credit card to pay for my on board expenses.

 

You register the card that you will be using when embarking and that is it.

 

We always inform our credit card company that we are traveling to inform about where we will be so they don't block the card for suspicious activity.

 

🌊🚢🇺🇸🌅

[Max Circus]

I always use a credit card, but remember seeing some information at the check-in counters for cruises that explain how they handle debit cards differently. They will "charge" your debit card a certain amount as a hold. And then as you sail, they will charge more as you get close to exceeding that amount. It is similar to what I have seen as a warning on gas pumps where that hold may not be removed for a couple of weeks.

[mo&fran]

I have heard of this happening with a debit card but not a regular credit card.

[retep55555]

Thank you for your feedback and advice. We haven't had a problem in the past with Princess but will make sure I advise our bank before we travel.

The people that reported having their bank accounts "frozen" said that they could not use their accounts or credit cards for approx. 2 weeks after disembarking which they said was a real pain for them. I just wanted to avoid a situation like this if possible but it appears that I am worrying unnecessarily.

Thank you again.

Sharon