Celebrity puts credit card holds every day?

[Knighton]

I am a very seasoned cruiser (42 cruises) and this has never happened before!  For some reason on my last cruise (Celebrity Infinity) I got a letter every single day saying my credit card didn't work.  I often have this problem just once on a cruise-my name is hyphenated but some cards only have the married name.  Anyway, on this cruise every day I had to go down and have them manually enter it, which did work.  However, what I found out from this experience is that every day a hold is automatically put on the credit card for whatever you have charged up to that point.  I get it, it's protection for them, but this time, the credit card I used didn't have as much of a credit balance and the multiple holds over 5 days added up to the point that they couldn't really charge the final bill!  An embarrassing turn of events since I didn't know until I tried to disembark and my card wouldn't let me off the ship, doubly bad because I was on a ships shore excursion that they had to make wait for us while I straightened that mess out.  Even calling the card company didn't help-they couldn't remove the holds and guest services didn't have the access to remove  them either.  I had to use another credit card that I really don't like using just to get things done.  Has anyone else ever had this experience?  I didn't realize that I had to have a ton of credit left on a card to cover basically double or triple what  the final bill ended up being since they kept putting holds on my existing credit!

[Cirdan]

To me, it seems a problem on your credit card provider. If you have the credit, and after verifying, the credit card cannot remove the hold, it seems thay have a bad service (cheap workforce, so with many automated restrictions [but possibly badly implemented].

 

I would ask again the credit card for a reason, and what you should do next time.  Prepare to change credit card.

[awhfy]

Holds on debit cards yes, never had an issue with a credit card. I’d change cards

[neilrr]

Hi there!!! This is why when we travel, we always use Amex on the ships - there are no limits and if there are holds, you are really not affected. Now in Europe or Caribbean (in stores and restaurants) they do not generally like to take Amex, so we use Capital One to avoid the 3% foreign transaction fee.

 

Good Luck and Happy Sailing!!! 

[GenerationX]

How frustrating! Just another idea on how to avoid this situation, if you have the means:

 

On our way to the port on embarkation day, DH and I stop at an ATM and get a few hundred dollars (or more depending on cruise length) out of my checking account and then, once we’re onbard, we go straight to guest services and deposit the cash onto our onboard account.  We usually have OBC as well, so this gives our account a significant, negative starting balance.  Our experience has been that as long as our account balance is in the negative, they don’t put holds on the credit card linked to the account.  We aren’t huge onboard spenders, so we’re usually most of the way through the cruise before we run through the cash (so then there’s only one or two small holds, if any, on the credit card).  If we still have cash on our account at the end of the cruise, we go to guest services and get it refunded back to us on the last day.  

[bEwAbG]

Their FAQ says this:

 

"While you are onboard, your spend will be authorized at the close of business each day. Your card provider, as part of their standard procedures, may retain these authorizations (also known as ‘hold charges’) for up to 28 days which are outside of the control of RCL Cruises Ltd. For this reason, you may wish to set up a cash-only account or register a credit card rather than a debit card at the start of your sailing. You may also wish to contact your bank at the end of your cruise to assist with any outstanding authorizations. Final settlement of your account will take place at the end of your cruise. If you are traveling on consecutive cruises, your bill will be settled at the end of each cruise."

 

How long your bank takes to release a hold is up to the individual bank.  Most take a few days at minimum and consumers only become aware of it in cases in which the holds + pending charges exceed the credit limit.  It's unlikely that they'll release holds immediately with just a phone call and, even then, it can take a bit for the various systems to update.  Using cash as others have mentioned is one way to avoid this whole process.  Or, you could have also asked your bank for a temporary credit line increase for the duration of the trip.  The best solution in this case was the use of a different card altogether.

[Knighton]

Well, needless to say I've learned my lesson.  🙂  It was very surprising and even a few days after the cruise the holds were still there (which I found out when I tried to use the card somewhere else).  I called my card company and they couldn't remove them, but verified that they were all from Celebrity, then called Celebrity and they said it could take as much as 10 business days for them to bother to clear the holds-she said they're pretty slow about it.  Which is dumb, since I am  paid in full.

[gerelmx]

It is well known that X charges daily your purchases, if you don't do purchases you will not have holds, depends on the CC brand and bank (V, MC) how long the holds takes to be erased, I use MC with Citi..last Summit cruise the holds take 36 days to be removed.

Edited December 1, 2018 by gerelmx

[Happy Cruiser 6143]

I've never had this problem with AmEx, my preferred credit card.

[4774Papa]

Agree with previous poster about AmEx.  We use it primarily since we get Delta Skymiles, but I have had the card since 1074 and when I lived overseas, you could always go into an AmEx office and they would take great care of you (issue new card, etc.).

Never had a problem with holds.

[Cruise Junky]

28 minutes ago, 4774Papa said:

Agree with previous poster about AmEx.  We use it primarily since we get Delta Skymiles, but I have had the card since 1074 and when I lived overseas, you could always go into an AmEx office and they would take great care of you (issue new card, etc.).

Never had a problem with holds.

Just how old are you?? 😹

[jagoffee]

6 minutes ago, Cruise Junky said:

Just how old are you?? 😹

4774Papa probably meant to say since 1740.

[mek]

On 12/1/2018 at 11:46 AM, Happy Cruiser 6143 said:

I've never had this problem with AmEx, my preferred credit card.

 

Agree - I would never travel without Amex or a really high limit credit card.  By using Amex the above problem never occurs and also if I ever needed to get out of Dodge quickly, I would be able to so. If I was in a sticky situation and my life was on the line, the last thing I would want to hear is I couldn't purchase a ticket home because I didn't have enough credit on my card.