Costa onboard account - need help

[tim716]

Going on a Costa cruise in 2 weeks, and I'm a bit stuck - don't know what to do with the onboard account.

The problem is - I have a credit card, but the credit limit is small. It's prudently sufficient to cover the spendings onboard, but nowhere near 2x that amount to "cover" the abundant pre-authorizations AND the payment. (Yeah yeah I'm jealous about American and European true credit cards, which have all the fraud risks protected by law. In Russia getting a credit card with a large limit is a fancy mean of suicide, because if the money up to the credit limit get stolen from the card - that's only your problem and you're effectively sold into slavery. Did I mention neither we have a bankrupcy law?). 

I'm a brilliant member at Royal Caribbean, and the solution with Royal Caribbean was always simple: I just prepaid the onboard credit. The remaining holds were rather small and weren't a problem.

Actually I'm gonna have 90% of my onboard spendings already on my account by the time of boarding (I'm gonna preorder an all-inc drink package, the excursions and an Internet package). But I read it's impossible to prepay anything with Costa (at least I found no way to do it). 

Another way is to give a cash deposit. But I have not much cash (and draw it from the card is VERY expensive). It'd be ok if I could give a cash deposit, and the end of the cruise TAKE IT BACK and pay ALL the amount with the credit card. Otherwise I'll have nowhere to live and nothing to eat in Mauritius after the cruise (cheap villas don't accept cards). But a couple of guys here mentioned that was also impossible with Costa, they never return the cash deposit and you can only pay the remaining amount with the card.

So, any advice please? Any way to prepay, return the cash or make them not pre-authorize a ton of money? Otherwize I'll really have to resort to "Ok, you blocked my money to guarantee, now use that guarantee and take the blocked money, because I have no other money or cards to pay" and walking away. But I want no conflicts actually.

[tenpin]

You can pre-pay the service charge by Phoning Costa, and pre book all on board services, however they are not paid until end of the cruise. Except service charge.

Costa also take out your daily spend on the credit card even though it again is not actually charged to the card before end on cruise. You can also leave any amount in cash at reception, however all charges must be paid before leaving the ship whether in cash/card or both.

You say You could give cash deposit and take it back & pay with card and end of cruise, that is exactly what Costa does, payment is just logged and goes through about 2 days later in the UK.

[tim716]

Thank you for you reply! 

Concerning the cash deposit, can you please make it very clear because it’s very important for me. Can it be done like this?:

 

At the beginning of the cruise: 

The receptionist:

- You have 900 euro of preorders on your account, you have to give 900 euro as a cash deposit.

Me: 

- That’s fine. (give him nine 100 euro bills)

 

At the end of the cruise:

- The receptionist: Your final bill is 1100 euro. How would you like to pay?

Me

- I want to pay all the bill by the card and get my deposit back. 

Receptionist: 

- That’s fine. (Takes the card, transaction of 1100 euro successful, GIVES ME BACK NINE 100 EURO BILLS).

 

Or it’ll be like this:

Receptionist:

- Sorry sir, I cannot give your nine 100 euro bills back, they’are taken as the payment, you just have to pay the remaining amount of 200 euro. How’d you like to pay?

 

The latter case would be a disaster for me.

 

Concerning the credit card. Actually exactly what you describe what Costa does with a credit card constitutes a problem for me. 

If Costa CHARGED my daily spend on my credit card each day - that’d have been fine, I have quite enough funds for that. But if it just holds (pre-authorizes) the money as you say - this is where sh$t hits the fan. For example, I have 1500 euro on the card (including the credit limit). My onboard spendings is 1000 euro, and Costa takes  (pre-authorizes) 1000 euro on my card successfully. This leaves 500 euro of disposable money on the card. Then at the end of the cruise they try to CHARGE me 1000 euro as the final payment. TADAM - transaction declined! Because, obviously, there is only 500 available, since the other 1000 euro is blocked...by Costa. They call me to reception and ask me to pay the bill. And I can’t pay it because I don’t have any other money. I have to have at least DOUBLE the amount for it to go through (maybe even more), and I don’t have that. 

The problem is nicely described here: https://www.creditcards.com/credit-card-news/cruise-ship-credit-card-problems.php ,Case #1. I have a credit card but not "plenty of funds" on it...

Edited January 21, 2019 by tim716

[tenpin]

I really do not understand what you are saying.

 

If your on board spend is 1000 euros which you are willing to put on your card at end of cruise what is the problem, this sum will NOT be taken from the credit card until you leave the ship. The hold on the payments are just to insure that payments will be made after you have left. No money is actually taken until you leave the ship from the credit cardor with cash on the morning of departure, ( or you jump ship before end of cruise)

I don't know about in Russia but we can also make over payments on credit cards thus being in credit as well as your credit limit, or you could tell the card Company that you are going on a cruise and could you have a temporary higher limit, I do this when we travelled to the USA for longer trips. 

To be clear no payments are actually taken from a card until end of cruise, if you leave cash at Reception that will get taken every day to pay for your on board spend even if you register a credit card. 

[tim716]

Thank you again for trying to help!

Please read the link I posted in the previous message. Many cruisers with small credit limits, not only Russians, face this problem.

I perfectly understand that the money is not removed from the account, the money get "just" blocked.

The problem is: when at the end of the cruise the company tries to charge (remove from the account) the full amount of spendings, the bank (or processing system)  doesn't recognize this transaction as an order to convert the previously made holds into charges. It "thinks" it's a NEW TRANSACTION, unrelated to the previous holds, and this transaction can only take the  UNBLOCKED (disposable) money on the account. This transaction cannot use the blocked money. And if there is not enough UNBLOCKED money on the card for this full final charge - the transaction gets declined.

 

All the cruise company sees in this case: the holds go through successfully, but the payment gets declined. They call the cruiser to the reception and tell him that his card "doesn't work" for payment and ask him to pay with another card or cash, which I personally have none of (or cannot spend for that). 

 

The bank declined my request to raise the credit limit, and I don't think it'd allow a transaction exceeding the limit.

 

Unfortunately your information confirms my worst expectations, but thank you anyway, it's always better to be informed.

 

Happy Western cruisers who uses law protected credit cards with large credit limits have no idea of this problem, because with those cards the payments always go through. And they're even unaware of the holds which remain after the payment (and drop in days or weeks), because these holds tie the bank's money which the cruisers are not gonna use anyways.

Edited January 22, 2019 by tim716

[Stefan_Varong]

Generally you have the choice between cash and card. But regarding an Italian law you mustn't pay any more than 999,99 € cash. If paying cash you need to pay a deposit, as I know correctly at least 150 €. If you spent about that amount you will have to add funds to keep your card working. Separately booked drinking packages are taken at the beginning of your cruise, the rest - including service charge, if not already included in your fare - on daily basis. Cash will only be returned if the deposit has been higher than your actual spending and you did not use a credit card for amounts above the legal limit.

 

If you use your credit card they'll block an amount. If your spending is higher they will block more. But it is never higger than what you booked before your cruise plus your additional costs aboard. On a longer cruise you can get a row of approvals, but at the end only one amount will be booked from your card (I can see all approvals and bookings by internet banking). Regularly you won't have a higer amount blocked from your card than to be paid, of course for example an excursion blocked from your card, that didn't take place by any reason, will not be billed at the end and that amount will be released. There won't be amounts blocked plus amounts billed, this is not how credit cards work and if somebody makes such a kind of error this is not your fault, and as you said that double amount won't be approved by your bank anyway.

 

At the end of your cruise you will get a bill to your cabin, but if you used your card you don't need to do anything as long as the bill is correct, you just leave the ship. Remaining cash you need to collect in person, time and place will be announced. From the TV in your cabin you can regard your account in real time whenever you want, if there might be a problem just report it.

 

By the way: you also might buy a prepaid card and wire there the money needed. I don't know whether you have them in Russia, but you can get them from another country as well, there are companies accepting customers from all over the world. It just needs to be a physical card, not a virtual one, as you need to put it into a machine aboard to link it to your cruise card(s). I use one for some internet transactions, never have a lot of money on it, but as long as it is no payment service offered by a reputated bank or pay pal I protect my regular cards this way.

[cruiseshipfan18]

I have a question about cash deposits. Im going on my first costa cruise in March and Im not planning on spending alot of money onboard. What is the minimum ammount of money I have to put as a cash deposit at the beggining of the cruise. and also if I dont spend all the money I deposited, when do I get it back?

[tenpin]

150 Euros is the amount requested & you will be asked for an additional cash deposit once that gets low, the service charge is taken out daily 10 euro/dollars a day pp.

On the morning of departure you have to go to collect any remaining cash, but be warned this often results in long queues & some late departures if your travels mean early flights/transfers.

[cruiseshipfan18]

38 minutes ago, tenpin said:

150 Euros is the amount requested & you will be asked for an additional cash deposit once that gets low, the service charge is taken out daily 10 euro/dollars a day pp.

On the morning of departure you have to go to collect any remaining cash, but be warned this often results in long queues & some late departures if your travels mean early flights/transfers.

Thank you very much for your help & informations! We are staying in the city for a couple of days after the cruise so I’m not worried about long queues and late departure!

[Dancer Bob]

My situation is a bit different, I have shareholder OBC which can't be used for service charge. I deposit the service charge in cash at the beginning, I've never been asked for a further deposit until my OBC ran out. Many ships have machines which allow you to deposit cash daily to keep your account above zero balance.

However, Russian cards may be different. I did encounter one woman who tried to use a UK (debit?) card and was refused.

Edited January 27, 2019 by Dancer Bob

[Stefan_Varong]

I've never seen any regulation that a shareholder OBC mustn't be used for the service charge. Up to now I just got a notification that my claim is approved - without any restrictions. I usually register my credit card aboard and the balance is taken from the card. Last time and with my cruise over a couple of weeks the service charge had already been included into the price anyway, so it doesn't appear on my bill at the end of the voyage.

 

Debit cards are not accepted by Costa, but nobody knows whether a credit card is linked to a credit or is prepaid. The difference is just that you either need a spending limit high enough or enough money on that card, both nobody knows - except you and the issuer of course. My bank allows even to transfer money onto my credit card as well to expend spending limits above my credit limit - and even pays a relative high interest, although in these days even that is...

[tim716]

4 hours ago, Stefan_Varong said:

The difference is just that you either need a spending limit high enough or enough money on that card

Can you please make this more precise?

How much money, with Costa, is “enough” money?

More than the amount of onboard spendings (the bill is 1000 euro, 1001 euro on the card is ok)?

The bill + XXX euro (XXX = ?)?

The bill x2?

The bill x3?

The credit limit of the Count of Monte Cristo? ;)

[G.M.T.]

In the words of Mr Micawber:

 

"Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen [pounds] nineteen [shillings] and six [pence], result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery."

[Stefan_Varong]

9 hours ago, tim716 said:

The credit limit of the Count of Monte Cristo? ;)

 

Would make things easy of course, but no need to. If you have spent 1,000 € your card should have a limit of 1,000 € (no problem of course if it is higher, but no need to).

 

Preapprovals are made to ensure your card will bear the bill, for nothing else. Worst case happened to me, when my bank's system detected a card fraud, while I was abord a ship and the entire card was blocked. I went to the hospitality service to discuss the problem, but it had no effect at all to the preapprovals and my bill was paid as it should.

 

The only situation that more might get blocked than the actual bill is if you book something that doesn't happen and will be cancelled from your definitive bill, relase of a preapproval takes a couple of days, while putting them on your card happens immedeately.

 

Generally drinking package and service charge (if to be paid on board) are blocked directly, excursions when tickets are issued (a couple of prebooked tickets you might find in your cabin on arrival, perhaps even all). If you buy anything aboard it will be preapproved at the moment you buy...

[Lunenburg]

Is there any way to pay the service charge prior to boarding? It sounds like that isn't possible but I do not understand why Costa does not allow it.

[Dancer Bob]

Some cruises have enough Russians there's a Russian language hostess, so card limits shouldn't be a surprise, maybe all the OP needs to do is go to the front desk and say he has a Russian card.

It's my understanding service charges now have to be included in the prices in Germany and Australia. The topic of service charges vs gratuities, not to mention the mysterious and opaque "port charges" and "non-commisionable fees" has been the topic of many threads on many boards.

Edited January 29, 2019 by Dancer Bob

[tenpin]

Hi Tim,

If you have not paid the final payment you can pre-pay the service charges then, or phone Costa and ask to pay before you cruise.

See Costa's T & C's under Useful Information.

[Stefan_Varong]

On 1/27/2019 at 4:27 PM, Dancer Bob said:

I have shareholder OBC which can't be used for service charge.

 

Bob, indeed, you're right. Today I got mine with the information "I would like to remind you that the Carnival Shareholder Benefit is not transferable, cannot be exchanged for cash and cannot be used to pay Casino Charges or Service Charges".

[SeaTheW0rld]

I found this on costa's "need" to know section.  As I read it, you do NOT have to register a credit card.  In that case, you make the required minimum, then pay more as you use that up or you won't be able to charge anything new to your Costa card. 

 

https://www.costacruises.com/useful-links/useful-info.html