Gift cards for final payment--a question

[CruzCrazy]

For those of you who have used Carnival gift cards to pay off your cruise balance online, how is it handled if you have an overpayment? I would assume it's given as an OBC, but, since I've never encountered this myself, I thought I'd ask.

 

For example, if your balance is $1955 and you pay with four $500 gift cards (totaling $2000), how does the website show the excess $45?

 

Thanks.

[luv2trvlnow]

For those of you who have used Carnival gift cards to pay off your cruise balance online, how is it handled if you have an overpayment? I would assume it's given as an OBC, but, since I've never encountered this myself, I thought I'd ask.

 

For example, if your balance is $1955 and you pay with four $500 gift cards (totaling $2000), how does the website show the excess $45?

 

Thanks.

 

There would not be an overpayment. They would leave the $45 on 1 of the gift cards. You could then take that card and use it to pay for onboard expenses.

[richfret]

For those of you who have used Carnival gift cards to pay off your cruise balance online, how is it handled if you have an overpayment? I would assume it's given as an OBC, but, since I've never encountered this myself, I thought I'd ask.

 

For example, if your balance is $1955 and you pay with four $500 gift cards (totaling $2000), how does the website show the excess $45?

 

Thanks.

 

I had the same question so what I did was I paid the final payment with $500 and $100 Carnival gift cards up to the closest $100 and then paid the remainder with a charge card. That way I avoided the issue. All I had to do was E-mail the gift card numbers (including the scratch off numbers) to my TA and she paid it off without any problems. She paid off the differrence with a charge card already on her records.

[Valor2005]

I just paid ours off on Thursday using gift cards. You just check the bubble to pay the remaining balance and it will only take what's needed to pay it off. It will leave the remainder on the gift card for future use.

[MexicoCruzinMomma]

Our Citi card offers a great deal on Carnival gift cards, if we purchase them in $100 increments and want to use them as OBC do we have to go to guest services to load them to our S&S card or can we use a kiosk? Do they work just like cash, like if we dont use all of what we put on our S&S will we recieve a refund or will it be credited back to the gift card?

 

Sorry so many questions about it but DH wants to go this route and Im just curious as to how all that really works.

 

Thanks in advance.

[denrusk]

If you have a balance on your account you will get a gift card in the mail a couple of weeks later. It can be confusing because we used gift cards but also had onboard credit from price drops, stock and port tax refunds. We received a check for part of it and a gift card for the rest. I am not sure how they determined what to refund by check and what by card. It was odd amounts so they figured it out so it came out right in the end. Also, you can do like others and go to the casino and add to your player bank and then cash out later.

[Sparky2]

I just paid ours off on Thursday using gift cards. You just check the bubble to pay the remaining balance and it will only take what's needed to pay it off. It will leave the remainder on the gift card for future use.

 

We did the same thing. We have about $129 left on a $500 card which I will apply to our S&S card once on the ship.

[CruzCrazy]

Okay, thanks for all the replies. I'll put that $45 towards my S&S account, plus I plan on buying more cards from AARP before the cruise. We always have a large S&S bill (!), so 10% off is great.

 

Last cruise, we bought some and used them at guest services for the S&S account, but this is the first time I've had them in time to use on the cruise balance and was a little confused on how it works. I do see now that you can choose to pay the exact balance when using gift cards by clicking that bubble, so it makes sense. Just have to make sure I save the right gift card ;) Thanks for the tip.

Edited November 14, 2015 by CruzCrazy

[LibratPDX]

Our Citi card offers a great deal on Carnival gift cards, if we purchase them in $100 increments and want to use them as OBC do we have to go to guest services to load them to our S&S card or can we use a kiosk? Do they work just like cash, like if we dont use all of what we put on our S&S will we recieve a refund or will it be credited back to the gift card?

 

Sorry so many questions about it but DH wants to go this route and Im just curious as to how all that really works.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

We did the same thing. We have about $129 left on a $500 card which I will apply to our S&S card once on the ship.

 

The cards can be applied to your S&S card at a kiosk or guest services, but NOW you can have them applied to your S&S when you physically check in for the ship on embarkation day.:)

[DaytonCruiser]

The cards can be applied to your S&S card at a kiosk or guest services, but NOW you can have them applied to your S&S when you physically check in for the ship on embarkation day.:)

 

I think it depends on the port. All aren't allowing Guests to set up accounts with Gift cards before boarding.

[doconner]

Our Citi card offers a great deal on Carnival gift cards

 

 

 

Do you mind expanding on this? I have a few Citi cards, but haven't seen any offers for Carnival gift cards? What offers are you able to get, and do you do it through the Citi website?

 

Thanks,

[Rosesgt]

NOW you can have them applied to your S&S when you physically check in for the ship on embarkation day.:)

 

We did this on our Conquest cruise 2 weeks ago. I had 10 $100.00 gift cards to put on our Sail and Sign card. Each card had to be scanned and then signed for. The process took a long time to finish. But hey, they were purchased through Verizon and saved us 10%.

[wantocruisemore]

We did this on our Conquest cruise 2 weeks ago. I had 10 $100.00 gift cards to put on our Sail and Sign card. Each card had to be scanned and then signed for. The process took a long time to finish. But hey, they were purchased through Verizon and saved us 10%.

 

Where did you do this? I also will have several $100 cards. I got the lower denominations to have more flexibility with use so I don't have to worry about an amount not being used.

I had planned to just apply them at the kiosk with $500 at first and then apply as used. I'm confused about the sign part.