Hold on credit card for sail & sign

[mkend]

I know I have read this before, but the time is near and I really don't remember. If you have a $3000 limit on your credit card, no balance, and you use it for your sail & sign, can you use this credit card on the islands or is the whole card on hold? Thanks!!

 

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</applet>Carnival Glory

 

[vince_g]

I was on the Conquest in December and I believe they only authorize about $300 per person against your available credit, so you should be just fine.

 

Enjoy!

 

6/5/4 QM2 Westbound Transatlantic

 

[kgymn]

you will be fine! I have a 2500 limit on the card I used for my S&S. As its my only card, i also used it to shop in the ports.

No problem, mon! hehe

~Katy

[hstrybuf]

Also, be sure to let that credit card company know that you'll be using the card outside of the US. I saw a thread a while back where someone didn't do this and the CC company froze their card because of the purchases outside the US. When it came time to pay their bill at the end of the cruise, they were in a real bind.

 

 

Navigator OTS 10/04

Legend 04/04

Grand Princess 09/03

Dawn Princess 01/03

Enchantment OTS 10/02

Destiny 01/02

Sensation 08/99

[garyw]

From my past experience, the cruise line does not put a generic hold on your card.

 

Each night they will obtain an authorization for the amount you charged that day. If the authorization is declined, they will contact you the next day and request you make alternate arrangements. It happened to my roommate.

 

I found this out by calling my credit card company after my cruise and asking about the pending authorizations. I was shocked and worried when the recording told me there were 8 pending authorizations. Before then I thought the cruise line did an initial authorization at embarkation and then put the full charge after the cruise.

 

I talked with a customer service agent at my credit card company and they verifed that the individual authorizations were done daily by the cruise company and gave me the amounts. I took that information and referenced my receipts and sure enough they were the daily authorizations.

 

The problem came when the cruise line settles the balance. Since the final charge is done as a lump sum and does not match the individual authorization amounts, my card company did not release the authorizations when the actual charge hit my account. Authorizations have an automatic expiration time where they are released if the actual charge does not come through. I believe the actual amount of time is 5 days, but that may depend upon the company.

 

Norwegian Sea 04/00

Vision of the Seas 03/01

Explorer of the Seas 09/01

Rhapsody of the Seas 12/01

Rhapsody of the Seas 05/02

Celebration 09/02

Brilliance of the Seas 03/03

Mariner of the Seas 11/03

Carnival Glory 05/04

[DASA]

Just changed cards and have yet to make a purchase just a transfer of balance. If i still have credit line of well over what i expect to spend ,would that create a problem ? I plan on using card for S & S and shore expenditures.

 

5/16 Destiny/life is short/take a long cruise

 

[heather307]

A hold was put on our credit card because we did not notify the credit card company that we were going out of the country. We had to pay the last couple of days of charges in cash, luckily we had it.

 

Imagination 5/98

Explorer of the Seas 5/2002

Mariner of the Seas 12/2003

 

Till the Glory . . .

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[vince_g]

DASA,

 

Be careful about making purchases on a card you've used for balance transfers!! You probably have a really great rate on the balance transfer, maybe even zero percent. The problem is if you make purchases on a card with balance transfers on it, you cannot pay off those purchases because the bank allocates all payments to the promotional balances first. You will most likely end up paying high rate interest on those purchases!! Don't fall into their trap... use a different card for your S & S and shore excursions if you have one.

 

Vince

 

6/5/4 QM2 Westbound Transatlantic

 

[vince_g]

MKEND,

 

Carnival does not do daily authorizations... don't worry about that. They do 300 at the beginning, and if you use that up, they'll do another 300.

 

6/5/4 QM2 Westbound Transatlantic

 

[tef43]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by vince_g:

Carnival does not do daily authorizations... <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Sorry, but they do. They authorize an initial amount ($300), but then every day they process an additional authorization in the amount of your previous day's spending onboard. The final charge is not put through until the next business day after you disembark, but the "hold" is there. And Carnival is attempting to protect themselves somewhat by always keeping the $300 more than you've actually spent authorized.

 

People *may* run into a problem with their available credit if the authorization reversals are not processed by Carnival in a timely fashion after the final charge is put through.

 

I was able to monitor the credit card activity online after returning from vacation and saw that it took about ten days after the final charge for the last daily authorization to be reversed.

 

Tom <--- Curmudgeon of the Seas

 

 

Eleven cruises so far. Up next:

TBA

[vince_g]

tef43,

 

You learn somehing new everyday. I knew they did an initial auth. of 250 or 300. It seems perfectly reasonable for cruiselines to maintain a safety cushion. Of course your gratuities hit your s&s account day one...

 

6/5/4 QM2 Westbound Transatlantic

 

 

11/22/4 Sun Princess Eastern Caribbean

 

[madelinerose]

Glad we'll be using American Express.

 

Karen

 

Carnival Miracle 10/24/04