Why do people prepay service charges?

[untailored bostonian]

We usually cruise not only our DSC prepaid, but also a good amount (and fairly close) already on our on board account paid for. [...]

 

The DSC is like the port fees, it has to be paid, so I pay for it before I cruise.

[NMLady]

Apologies if this has been asked a million times. But...Is there an advantage to prepaying service charges? I see a lot of you do it.

We sail a week from today and if there's incentive to doing this, I may as well do it now. Thx!

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One advantage it is easier to read your on board bill without those charges on it.

Since the DSC is added daily per person, if two people that is 2 charge lines added each day in addition to whatever else you charge: drinks, excursions, specialty dining, photos, etc.

Not having the daily DSC charges makes it easier to know what you actually spent.

Since we take long cruises we'd rather not have all those extra lines of charges.

Gives us less paper as well for the final bill.

 

The other reason we pre-pay is so that the service charge is on a separate credit card billing.

That bill is paid in full before we leave. :)

Edited August 3, 2014 by NMLady

[riddle]

Question - if you prepay your service charges and have to cancel last minute and insurance does not cover the reason, do you get the prepaid services charges back?

[1lovehols]

So I know it's paid & I don't have to think about it while cruising.

[tray98]

We are prepaying as we can pay in Canadian Funds and save a bit on the exchange

[perkydebrajean]

We prepaid ours and also purchased some OBC for the cruise too. Our final bill was $17.24.

[LAWTONCRUISE]

I like to prepay everything I can to include any specialty dining and excursions we plan on taking. That way I usually have a very small cc bill (don't drink, don't use the spa etc). We usually have to do some last minute shopping just to use the OBC, when we have it that is. :)

[pisenor]

We are prepaying as we can pay in Canadian Funds and save a bit on the exchange

 

Same goes for me. I will also be pre-purchasing as much as we can before the cruise (ie soda package, UDP, etc). Since we booked when NCL was offering CDN$ at par all of our extras are still being charge in Canadian. Our next cruise we are not so lucky with the US/CDN at par gone for the time being, so I plan to only pay the DSC just before we leave for our vacation. For all the rest the Canadian NCL cruisers let's hope our dollar recovers sooner than later that way we might be able to reap the rewards of at par pricing again. :)

[Rhea98]

Question - if you prepay your service charges and have to cancel last minute and insurance does not cover the reason, do you get the prepaid services charges back?

 

I don't know but was under the impression that it was either non-refundable or a hassle to get back. Since I don't consider the charge discretionary, I do prepay but only the day before sailing. I don't think myncl.com is available on the day of the cruise. We'll both wait for a definitive response.

 

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[CarlsDad]

One less thing.

 

- Forrest Gump

[CruzLover80]

Because a little here and a little there, doesn't feel like so much. We prepay our gratuities and build up our OBC. I typically designate $25. a week for OBC after the cruise is paid off. So I typically have several hundred dollars in my onboard account, plus any OBC I have accumulated. Paying a final bill of $30 or so, makes the trip feel so much better. As opposed to have a a $600-700 final bill.

 

Our Epic cruise in November, we plan to have at least $500 in our on board account (not including gratuities, which has already been paid). With there being so many options on the Epic, I'd like for money to never be the issue. A little here, little there goes so far. That way everything has been paid for in cash and never on any credit cards!

[silkhair1]

We usually prepay just so the bill is not so much at the end because we have 4 in our room!!!!!

[sjbdtz]

We are prepaying as we can pay in Canadian Funds and save a bit on the exchange

 

 

 

And how did you do this? When I prepaid mine I was charged in USD.4

 

 

.

[SissasMomE]

Apologies if this has been asked a million times. But...

 

Is there an advantage to prepaying service charges? I see a lot of you do it.

 

We sail a week from today and if there's incentive to doing this, I may as well do it now.

 

Thx!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

Just one less charge on the final bill. We always pre-pay.

[SissasMomE]

I don't know but was under the impression that it was either non-refundable or a hassle to get back. Since I don't consider the charge discretionary, I do prepay but only the day before sailing. I don't think myncl.com is available on the day of the cruise. We'll both wait for a definitive response.

 

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Not a hassle at all. They will refund the service charges and anything else (exucrsions, restaurants, etc.) that was paid for.

[pisenor]

And how did you do this? When I prepaid mine I was charged in USD.4

 

Hi Stephen,

When I booked our trip my PCC informed me that NCL was still accepting CDN at par so I simply asked for my cruise to be billed in CDN funds. In fact we took advantage of the par for our previous cruise on the Epic as well. I asked for it and NCL was happy to oblige. At the time of the US/CDN at par all you had to do was ask for it. It was not automatic and unless you requested it. Everything associated with our cruises have been in CDN funds. This has turned out to be quite beneficial with the current exchange. So now that we are locked in at par I plan on purchasing all that I can pre departure instead of waiting to be on board. Hope this answers your questions.

 

Pat

[Rhea98]

Not a hassle at all. They will refund the service charges and anything else (exucrsions, restaurants, etc.) that was paid for.

Thanks.

I don't know how I got that idea so I checked before reading your reply:

"...*At what point in the booking process can the prepaid charges be added? They can be added at anytime up to 24 hours prior to sailing. Why would I prepay my service charges? The convenience of pre-paying the service charges allows you to plan your budget prior to your cruise giving you additional freedom while on board. If I cancel my cruise are the service charges refundable? Yes! The service charges are 100% refundable."

 

I'm assuming the same applies for any extra amount one may wish to add.

 

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Edited August 3, 2014 by Rhea98

[newmexicoNita]

Apologies if this has been asked a million times. But...

 

Is there an advantage to prepaying service charges? I see a lot of you do it.

 

We sail a week from today and if there's incentive to doing this, I may as well do it now.

 

Thx!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

The biggest advantage you get it out of the way and if you do it early, about the time you book or before final payment it is all paid for when you get on the ship. That is just one less hassle and expense. Otherwise, there is no advantages.

[luddite]

Question - if you prepay your service charges and have to cancel last minute and insurance does not cover the reason, do you get the prepaid services charges back?

 

Yes, you get your money back.

[LMaxwell]

There's no advantage to prepaying charges that you have the option of paying afterwards. Just set aside the money in a travel fund and draw it from that. At least if you have an emergency and NEED that cash for something more important than vacation you have it accessible. Otherwise you have responsibly budgeted for it.

 

I could see the very rare instance where on a credit card it could get you over a mileage/point tier for rewards/cash back and it may be useful in that case, but generally speaking the best financial advice is to keep your money yours for as long as practical.

[sjbdtz]

Hi Stephen,

When I booked our trip my PCC informed me that NCL was still accepting CDN at par so I simply asked for my cruise to be billed in CDN funds. In fact we took advantage of the par for our previous cruise on the Epic as well. I asked for it and NCL was happy to oblige. At the time of the US/CDN at par all you had to do was ask for it. It was not automatic and unless you requested it. Everything associated with our cruises have been in CDN funds. This has turned out to be quite beneficial with the current exchange. So now that we are locked in at par I plan on purchasing all that I can pre departure instead of waiting to be on board. Hope this answers your questions.

 

Pat

 

 

Aha! One of the lucky ones! Good for you, and thanks for responding.

 

 

Stephen

 

 

.

[vince_g]

There's no advantage to prepaying charges that you have the option of paying afterwards. Just set aside the money in a travel fund and draw it from that. At least if you have an emergency and NEED that cash for something more important than vacation you have it accessible. Otherwise you have responsibly budgeted for it.

 

I could see the very rare instance where on a credit card it could get you over a mileage/point tier for rewards/cash back and it may be useful in that case, but generally speaking the best financial advice is to keep your money yours for as long as practical.

 

Yes, the credit card rewards is exactly why.

Just got the NCL Mastercard with the 10,000 points, so I am doing all my NCL purchases ahead of time to get the double points for those things. I have had 1 billing cycle so far and have made enough points where I no longer need to use that card until I make my final payment in September. Final payment will get me to 20,000 points or $200 OBC. That will be real nice on top of the $300 OBC from the Mastercard promotion and the 150 from NCL. It's unfortunate I didn't get this card earlier, since now I won't have enough time before my cruise to earn another 5,000 points/$50 OBC Time to start using the Chase Freedom again you can't beat cash back!

[Schmoopy]

Thanks for all the replies, guys!

 

Yeah, we're big on credit card rewards, so if it were to boost our rewards to a higher level allowing us to take advantage of some reward, I'd do it. But one of you made the point that if you prepay, then have to cancel, it may be questionable if you get that part refunded.... or at the very least, an added hassle.

 

I appreciate the idea of getting a very small bill at the end of the cruise as well.

 

A lot of good points raised here. Thanks so much for the conversation and opinions, all!

[NMLady]

I don't know but was under the impression that it was either non-refundable or a hassle to get back. Since I don't consider the charge discretionary, I do prepay but only the day before sailing. I don't think myncl.com is available on the day of the cruise. We'll both wait for a definitive response.

 

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If a person does not cruise and has prepaid the DSC it will be refunded.

No hassle at all.

[julie3fan]

I do it for the credit card rewards. My Discover card has special categories every quarter that are awarded 5 points per dollar spent rather than 1. When that category is Travel, I pay everything I can up to the limit of that promotion, and if I still have travel expenses to pay, I pull out my DH's card. And not just service charges...I also pay off the actual cruise cost if I'm before final payment.

 

I never thought about having fewer pages of the bill to review on board...that sounds like a very good reason to prepay!