Princess charged our Discover card multiple times during our cruise

[gooch47]

We are sitting at the airport at Ft. Lauderdale and my husband just noticed they charged our Discover Card multiple times during the cruise. We had tours, photos and gratuities plus a few souvenirs on our bill.

 

Admittedly, we haven't cruised with Princess since last Christmas. Is this something new?

 

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[taxmantoo]

Are they actual charges on your credit card account (received, approved and processed) or are they only "holds"?

We have often had "holds" but no real charges until the final statement and then only one charge representing the total and all holds were dropped.

[gooch47]

My hubby says they appear to be actual charges.

 

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[Bill B]

Were the charges correct?

[Loonbeam]

It depends on the amount, but in most cases its holds (I have noticed excursions being charged if the dollar value is higher). On Discover sometimes its hard to tell what's 'Pending'. As long as the total adds up to your final bill, doesn't really matter in the long run.

 

Also, if they have an issue processing a larger hold, they will charge more often.

[fishywood]

On Ruby last month, my Visa showed two pending transactions that also matched specific onboard purchases. They disappeared by the time the correct total charge was posted from Santa Clarita. It took a few days longer than usual as (1) it was Thanksgiving weekend; and (2) none of our charges from the final day at Princess Cays were on the folios delivered to our rooms. The final amount was however correct.

 

I always thought Princess worked that way, doing a few test charges during the week to make sure your card was still valid and not over the limit--rather than check your card for a specific open-to-buy amount on embarkation day as many other lines do.

[Hawaiidan]

My hubby says they appear to be actual charges.

 

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You have a track record of all charges and then have the ease of having it all consolidated into one simple end charge. All charges you make every day will appear on the card/bill.....

 

Too, its all insured and you earned airline miles on top it !!! Its the only way I travel...with less than $50 cash. You can also charge tips too....

 

Don't get that any of that with cash or a debit card....

[Boytjie]

You have a track record of all charges and then have the ease of having it all consolidated into one simple end charge. All charges you make every day will appear on the card/bill.....

 

Too, its all insured and you earned airline miles on top it !!! Its the only way I travel...with less than $50 cash. You can also charge tips too....

 

Don't get that any of that with cash or a debit card....

 

OP said it was a Discover Card, so it is a credit card.

[Colo Cruiser]

OP said it was a Discover Card, so it is a credit card.

 

Twilight zone. :eek:

[PescadoAmarillo]

We currently have the same issue with the Pacific Princess. We disembarked the ship on 12/28 and there were already several small (<$100) charges pending. We have not yet received the charge for our final onboard spending and when we do, I suspect the small charges will disappear.

[PescadoAmarillo]

We currently have the same issue with the Pacific Princess. We disembarked the ship on 12/28 and there were already several small (<$100) charges pending. We have not yet received the charge for our final onboard spending and when we do, I suspect the small charges will disappear.

[SoCal Cruiser78]

On the Golden last fall, Princess put daily holds on my credit card for FAR more (about twice) my actual charges. After the cruise, my card was charged correctly for the onboard purchases, but the holds never dropped off, even after several weeks, limiting my available credit.

 

I called VISA, and they said that Princess had never "released" the holds properly. I had thought this was automatic, but apparently not in this case. VISA told me to call Princess in Santa Clarita, and have them remove the holds, which I did.

 

If I had been on a longer cruise, Princess' hold policy could have put me over my credit limit. I now know to always travel with at least two credit cards, just for this reason.

Edited December 31, 2014 by Ryndam2002
spelling

[gooch47]

We are still not sure whether they are holds or charges. If they ARE holds, sorry for the post.

 

What did concern us was that Discover would get pi$$y about all the actions and put a freeze the card.

[PescadoAmarillo]

The charge for our final onboard statement hit our credit card today and the smaller, pending charges were eliminated.

[Mom33]

The charge for our final onboard statement hit our credit card today and the smaller, pending charges were eliminated.

 

We had the same experience on our Regal bill 2 weeks ago.:)

They hold some charges each day but the final bill is correct and the separate charges disappear.

[VibeGuy]

To the credit of Princess, they do seem to actively release auths after they get an approval for the final folio amount. This benefits customers, as many merchants just let the partial-amount auths expire, and because the final single charge doesn't match any one pre-auth precisely, issuers are loath to drop them.

 

The downside is that this can temporarily decrease available credit rather substantially. In a perfect world, they would use hotel folio-style billing but with so many debit cards in circulation, they're exposed until they get a final capture.

[Colo Cruiser]

We had the same experience on our Regal bill 2 weeks ago.:)

They hold some charges each day but the final bill is correct and the separate charges disappear.

 

Same on our Regal cruise and the numerous ones before that.

[bhopal21]

We are still not sure whether they are holds or charges. If they ARE holds, sorry for the post.

 

What did concern us was that Discover would get pi$$y about all the actions and put a freeze the card.

 

They are holds and will disappear when your final portfolio posts.

 

Mike:)

[latebloomer56]

On our trip last year they hit our AMEX daily (twice). When we got home we had 16 AMEX notifications of payment on our e-mail account. It was a pain in the butt to check each day I always use this card at check in and it never happened before. We also go to the desk and pay all tips and excursions booked the first full day so not sure why they charged the card then cancelled the charge each day.

I think I am going to like paying up front maybe that's why they started this to make folk's look at a different way of paying. Will find out in May :).

[WatchHill]

As much as I like some of the perks of using a Discover card, it's the one card that I always encounter strange "charges pending" or erroneous charges. Nevertheless, contacting Discover directly has always been a positive experience.

 

If you log into your Discover card account and click the tab "pending charges" you'll often see excessive point-of-sale amounts. For example, last month DH filled up a rental car before returning it and I noticed a charge for $150. Two days later, the pending was removed and the current charges posted at $27. correctly.

 

I've never had an issue with any other of our cards. Our credit limits are quite high on all, so it has never impacted us. I feel safer using CC's and for safety, we each carry difference bank cards in case one is stolen/lost.

 

Darcy

[Hlitner]

DW and I have every major credit card....but no longer have Discover. Over a period of years (we travel as much as 7 months a year) we had many issues with Discover (not encountered with any other credit card company) including strange credit holds, test charges, and numerous telephone calls from Discover trying to market various products and credit card enhancements. Finally, upon receiving another frequent phone call from Discover we told them that if we ever received another marketing call we would cease doing business with Discover. A few days later, at dinner time, Discover called again (to pitch a credit card registry service). I immediately told Discover to cancel my account!

 

The Discover rep immediately transferred me to another rep who tried to talk me out of closing our account. He finally threatened us by explaining that if we closed our account it would have a negative impact on our credit rating. At this point I said some things that I cannot print here, cut up our Discover cards, and severed relations with this awful company forever!

 

So now, whenever we see negative posts about Discover we just smile and thank the God's that we no longer get harassed by Discover phone calls (and too many junk mailings).

 

Hank

Edited January 1, 2015 by Hlitner

[dleighb]

We usually call Discover before our trip and tell them we will be traveling out of the country. We've never had a problem with them stopping our card during a trip. However, we also travel with another card just in case. Also, since Discover isn't quite accepted worldwide yet, it is nice to have a backup.

[waltd]

DW and I have every major credit card....but no longer have Discover. Over a period of years (we travel as much as 7 months a year) we had many issues with Discover (not encountered with any other credit card company) including strange credit holds, test charges, and numerous telephone calls from Discover trying to market various products and credit card enhancements. Finally, upon receiving another frequent phone call from Discover we told them that if we ever received another marketing call we would cease doing business with Discover. A few days later, at dinner time, Discover called again (to pitch a credit card registry service). I immediately told Discover to cancel my account!

 

The Discover rep immediately transferred me to another rep who tried to talk me out of closing our account. He finally threatened us by explaining that if we closed our account it would have a negative impact on our credit rating. At this point I said some things that I cannot print here, cut up our Discover cards, and severed relations with this awful company forever!

 

 

So now, whenever we see negative posts about Discover we just smile and thank the God's that we no longer get harassed by Discover phone calls (and too many junk mailings).

 

Hank

 

Hank I don't think it was really a threat so much as a bit of truth. If you do close a credit card from what I've been told it does raise a red flag for those that might be doing a credit check on you. At least that was what I was told when we were financing our home and we were told not to close out any credit cards.

 

Joe

[VibeGuy]

Closing a revolving card like Discover generally only hurts your score if one of the three below factors apply:

 

1) it is older than the average age of your currently open accounts (including mortgages and installment loans like student or automobile) or if it would cause your average age of account to drop below seven or 25 years, or if it would cause your oldest account to be less than seven years.

 

2) it is your largest credit line by a substantial amount or is your only card with a >$5000 line

 

3) if the sum total of your revolving general-purpose credit card statement balances on their respective statement dates divided by the total credit lines would increase to over 11%, 30%, 50% or 85% (rough tiers). This applies even if you pay all balances in full every month.

 

As for International acceptance, Discover is subtly getting very accepted in Asia due to being accepted on the China UnionPay, JCB (Japan Credit Bureau), BC Card (Korea), RuPay (India) and Diners Club networks. I don't carry the card, but I would seriously consider it if I were traveling heavily in Asia.

[pablo222]

He finally threatened us by explaining that if we closed our account it would have a negative impact on our credit rating.

 

I think there might be a shred of truth to this.

 

Part of your credit rating is derived from the amount of

'available credit' you have. It's counter-intuititive

to any sensible person, but the more credit cards you have

(with available credit) the better.

 

I ran into this, because Mrs. Pablo has a higher FICO score

than me, because she has a few store-specific credit cards.

 

This didn't compel me to get any more credit cards.

Edited January 2, 2015 by pablo222