Onboard Credits (Regular & Princess Promotional)

[Almighty188]

I have a question concerning on-board credits as this is the first time I actually have them and want to know more about it before the sailing next month on the Grand Princess. 

 

Here is the situation:

 

We basically have 2 cabins with 2 persons in each cabin so we will call it cabin 1 and cabin 2 and the the persons in the cabins as 1A, 1B, 2A, 2B.  A being person 1 and B being person 2.

 

Princess is giving $75 per person On-Board Credit in each cabin.  When I asked Princess Cruises Customer Service, they told me the OBC can be used anywhere except the casino, is this correct?  

 

If I buy On-Board credits, can they be used everywhere including the casino?

 

In any case, person 1A's credit card will be used for 1A, 1B, 2A and 2B.  With Princess, does both persons in the cabin need their own account or can it just be one account per cabin?  

My other question is, since each cabin basically has $75 per person OBC or $150 in total and assuming they require a account per person, let's say there is a transaction that needs $80, can they do $75 from person A's OBC and then the $5 from person B's OBC?  

 

Thanks in advance!
 

 

 

[Musky Ike]

It is a simple credit/debit system. Yes, if you load $ from your room account onto a slot machine it comes first from any OBC for that person. However, the amounts you are talking about from Princess will be very quickly consumed by the daily gratuity charges. 

 

since all accounts are on the same card if one has leftover credit and another a balance due that credit card will be charged the difference. So in the end for you it doesn't really matter much which persons account shows what onboard credits. Some OBC is non-refundable but that is used first so usually not an issue if you leave the auto gratuity intact.

[paul929207]

Each person will have their own On Board Account. At the  end of the cruise if two people are using the same credit card, their charges will be combined and netted for a hit to one hit to the card. 

[Almighty188]

We will have Pre-paid gratuity so basically everything is already paid for as well as the Soda & Unlimited Package which is also pre-paid and we will also buy OBC's as well which is also paid for before the cruise.   So at the end, we will really only use On-Board Credits for everything as there won't be anything to roll to the credit card which was why I was asking about the OBC as we are trying to use all the OBC's.  So I am not talking about if it will hit the credit card or not, I am asking if say the 1st person need to buy something that is $80 but they only have $75, can the other $5 come from the second person's OBC.  And I guess my other question was if 1st person did buy something for $80 and used only their cabin card and only had $75 in OBC, does the other $5 go to the cabin itself or does it actually take from the 2nd person's OBC if they had the $5 available?  Will we know when we board the ship what each type of OBC can be used for and not used for as we have three types, one is from Princess, one is from the online TA and the other is the one we buy from Princess's Cruise Personalizer. 



 

 

[ljhershey]

Generally TA OBC is refundable, Princess issued is not.  If you are worried about not being able to use part of the OBC, don't add any prepaid credit, for sure!

[skynight]

2 hours ago, Almighty188 said:

I have a question concerning on-board credits as this is the first time I actually have them and want to know more about it before the sailing next month on the Grand Princess. 

 

Here is the situation:

 

We basically have 2 cabins with 2 persons in each cabin so we will call it cabin 1 and cabin 2 and the the persons in the cabins as 1A, 1B, 2A, 2B.  A being person 1 and B being person 2.

 

Princess is giving $75 per person On-Board Credit in each cabin.  When I asked Princess Cruises Customer Service, they told me the OBC can be used anywhere except the casino, is this correct?  

 

If I buy On-Board credits, can they be used everywhere including the casino?

 

In any case, person 1A's credit card will be used for 1A, 1B, 2A and 2B.  With Princess, does both persons in the cabin need their own account or can it just be one account per cabin?  

My other question is, since each cabin basically has $75 per person OBC or $150 in total and assuming they require a account per person, let's say there is a transaction that needs $80, can they do $75 from person A's OBC and then the $5 from person B's OBC?  

 

Thanks in advance!

Each person will have their own on board account and each person's account will begin with a credit balance being the OBC. Each on board expense, including the daily gratuity, will be added to the person's account as it is incurred and the account will have a net balance. Since the accounts are all linked to one credit card there should also be a summary account with the net due.

Princess is incorrect regarding the casino. You have a choice in the casino, cash or your on board account. When using the on board account the amount gambled is added to the account as an expense and nets against any credit balance. The origin of the credits are of no concern in the simple minus/plus system.

Once on board get frequent statements from the passenger service area which include all 4 people and you will quickly see how it works.

Purchased OBC is refundable. Promo OBC is generally non refundable. The Princess system automatically uses non refundable OBC first then refundable. 
 

 

 

 

Edited January 24, 2019 by skynight

[Almighty188]

Thanks everyone for your responses!  Wouldn't it be pretty easy to convert all including the nonrefundable OBC's into cash as couldn't one just play like $1 worth of slots in the casino and then cash out the rest?  

[Almighty188]

2 hours ago, Musky Ike said:

It is a simple credit/debit system. Yes, if you load $ from your room account onto a slot machine it comes first from any OBC for that person. However, the amounts you are talking about from Princess will be very quickly consumed by the daily gratuity charges. 

 

since all accounts are on the same card if one has leftover credit and another a balance due that credit card will be charged the difference. So in the end for you it doesn't really matter much which persons account shows what onboard credits. Some OBC is non-refundable but that is used first so usually not an issue if you leave the auto gratuity intact.

I was just on the Cruise Personalizer and basically I chose various things in onboard reservations but it seems like the system automatically applies the $75 per person OBC from Princess to the excursions area but doesn't do it for Pre-paid gratuities and On-board reservations even though the excursions was the last thing I actually added.

If you load $ from the room account but the room has separate accounts for each person, does it use the OBC from the other person if the OBC's in your own account is not enough?  I noticed there is something called a Casino OBC on princess.com, are those OBC's also added to the room or are they handled differently? 

Edited January 24, 2019 by Almighty188

[Colo Cruiser]

1 hour ago, Almighty188 said:

Thanks everyone for your responses!  Wouldn't it be pretty easy to convert all including the nonrefundable OBC's into cash as couldn't one just play like $1 worth of slots in the casino and then cash out the rest?  

Yes.

[Musky Ike]

Each person has a separate account. As far as I know, once assigned, OBC assigned to  one person will not automatically be used to cover another person's charges before or dung the cruise. If they are on the same credit card I fail to see that as a problem.  Never bought "casino credit" or any advanced onboard credits. I prefer to pay for expenses when I actually incur them, but to each their own. 

[thinfool]

Seems a little confusing so may I add...

The folks at the pursers desk can  and will help you with any questions that you have.  Combining or separating onboard folio accounts is very common.  Moving OBC between accounts is also common.

The comment about daily gratuities is spot on.  A 7 day cruise will more than consume the $75. OBC for each account regardless of other purchases.

Edited January 24, 2019 by thinfool

[famski740]

When we travel. my wife and I (like everyone else) each have or own onboard account.  During the cruise, my wife usually has me pay for everything so my account is large and hers is small.  Most times, my account will show an amount due and hers will show a credit.  Since we only use 1 credit card at the end of the cruise both accounts are merged and the credit from her account will offset the amount due on my account and the difference will either be charged to the I card or a check will be sent for the remainder.

 

Since you have 4 passengers all using the same credit card, all accounts will be merged and a final amount we be figured.

[skynight]

1 hour ago, Almighty188 said:

Thanks everyone for your responses!  Wouldn't it be pretty easy to convert all including the nonrefundable OBC's into cash as couldn't one just play like $1 worth of slots in the casino and then cash out the rest?  

Basically yes. But the casino knows how much you actually gambled. They expect you to gamble more than $1.

When you play the tables and charge it to your account they also want you to stick around and play. As long as you play some it doesn't matter if you win or lose.

The casino does not wish to be an ATM.

[WisCruiser2]

3 hours ago, skynight said:

 

Or you can also check your balances using the Princess@Sea app.

Weird, the quote didn't show up. I was responding to this suggestion: "Once on board get frequent statements from the passenger service area which include all 4 people and you will quickly see how it works."

Edited January 24, 2019 by WisCruiser2

[Daniel A]

2 hours ago, Almighty188 said:

Thanks everyone for your responses!  Wouldn't it be pretty easy to convert all including the nonrefundable OBC's into cash as couldn't one just play like $1 worth of slots in the casino and then cash out the rest?  

When Princess gives an OBC for $1.00, it costs Princess much less than a dollar to give.  If you spend $8.00 for a bottle of beer and use Princess OBC, trust me, Princess didn't pay $8 for that beer.  Princess wants to appear to be more generous with their OBC than they actually are.  That's why Princess doesn't want you to be able to cash out the OBC.

[Almighty188]

11 hours ago, Musky Ike said:

Each person has a separate account. As far as I know, once assigned, OBC assigned to  one person will not automatically be used to cover another person's charges before or dung the cruise. If they are on the same credit card I fail to see that as a problem.  Never bought "casino credit" or any advanced onboard credits. I prefer to pay for expenses when I actually incur them, but to each their own. 

The reason I asked was because nothing will even make it to the credit card since if the $75 OBC Promo from Princess is for each person, wouldn't each person have to use up that OBC because wouldn't what will end up happening is person 1 spent $80 but person 2 still has the $75 as the cruise can do it one way or another since they can say because person 2 did not use anything, they will lose all the $75 while $5 ends up getting charged to the credit card because that $5 is something person 1 used and they did say Promo OBC was not transferable as you have to use it or lose it and since person 2 didn't use anything, they would lose it all instead of being able to the $5 that person 1 owes.  It's for budgeting and so I don't overspend and also because it's a credit card promotion, I will get a x amount bonus for spending a certain amount by a certain date which is way before the cruise.  If I pay for the expenses on the ship, I get back exactly 2% in rewards.   If I pay for expenses before February 15th, I get back 5% plus another $750 and I only need to spend $500 in total for OBC and also for things not cruise related so I end up making money so basically that $500 I spent already earns $25 on it's own and since they are giving back $750, I already made $275 as the first $500 would zero itself out.  Even if I didn't have that, the reason also is that I want to play it safe since you never know how many authorizations the cruise company actually does on the credit card since authorizations that don't get sent in do not disappear the next day, it takes weeks and basically will effect the available credit and there is always a chance the bank will decline the charges even before the available credit is gone and it will be very expensive calling the bank to resolve it while you are on the ship.  It's the same reason I don't carry cash because just like others, if I need money, I visit any ATM in the world and I will pay no fees of any kind and also get the best rate possible for conversion with a Schwab Investor's Debit Card and not run the risk of losing the money or having to declare the cash I am carrying going through customers and immigration instead of doing the currency exchange at a bank locally while in the U.S. and the bank giving a lower exchange rate.  



 

[skynight]

13 minutes ago, Almighty188 said:

The reason I asked was because nothing will even make it to the credit card since if the $75 OBC Promo from Princess is for each person, wouldn't each person have to use up that OBC because wouldn't what will end up happening is person 1 spent $80 but person 2 still has the $75 as the cruise can do it one way or another since they can say because person 2 did not use anything, they will lose all the $75 while $5 ends up getting charged to the credit card because that $5 is something person 1 used and they did say Promo OBC was not transferable as you have to use it or lose it and since person 2 didn't use anything, they would lose it all instead of being able to the $5 that person 1 owes.  It's for budgeting and so I don't overspend and also because it's a credit card promotion, I will get a x amount bonus for spending a certain amount by a certain date which is way before the cruise.  If I pay for the expenses on the ship, I get back exactly 2% in rewards.   If I pay for expenses before February 15th, I get back 5% plus another $750 and I only need to spend $500 in total for OBC and also for things not cruise related so I end up making money so basically that $500 I spent already earns $25 on it's own and since they are giving back $750, I already made $275 as the first $500 would zero itself out.  Even if I didn't have that, the reason also is that I want to play it safe since you never know how many authorizations the cruise company actually does on the credit card since authorizations that don't get sent in do not disappear the next day, it takes weeks and basically will effect the available credit and there is always a chance the bank will decline the charges even before the available credit is gone and it will be very expensive calling the bank to resolve it while you are on the ship.  It's the same reason I don't carry cash because just like others, if I need money, I visit any ATM in the world and I will pay no fees of any kind and also get the best rate possible for conversion with a Schwab Investor's Debit Card and not run the risk of losing the money or having to declare the cash I am carrying going through customers and immigration instead of doing the currency exchange at a bank locally while in the U.S. and the bank giving a lower exchange rate. 

 

I did not follow your entire reasoning, but the ship's billing works like this. Each day all the on board accounts are posted individually and to a summary invoice. When accounts are linked credits on one person's account net against debits on another's. In the end there is one total that goes to the credit card, or if there is a refundable credit balance that money is returned. There should be a summary invoice and you should check it each day either at Passenger Services, at the kiosks or on a smart device using Princess@Sea.

 

[Almighty188]

11 hours ago, thinfool said:

Seems a little confusing so may I add...

The folks at the pursers desk can  and will help you with any questions that you have.  Combining or separating onboard folio accounts is very common.  Moving OBC between accounts is also common.

The comment about daily gratuities is spot on.  A 7 day cruise will more than consume the $75. OBC for each account regardless of other purchases.

Yes except I wasn't talking about moving OBC between accounts.  What I was asking was let's say I went into a shop on the cruise ship and wanted to buy something that was $80 and I only had the $75 OBC on my account but the person 2 was also there, would the shop be able to swipe my room card and charge $75 to it and then swipe $5 from the 2nd persons room card?
That was what I was asking.  Yes, I know daily gratuities is $135.00 per person on a 10 night cruise except as I said, on cruise personalizer, there are on-board reservations and such.  

If you do Pre-paid gratuities, you can only make the payment for pre-paid gratuities and not other things but you will have to charge $135.00 per person or $270.00 in total to the credit card.  You will not see the OBC even being used.

 

If you do the On-Board Reservations for other stuff like the Unlimited Internet, Beverage Packages, and even the other foods like the 15 shrimp in your room.  You have to pay for that section separately to your credit card in full and it will not use the OBC.

 

Then there is the Specialty Dining Reservations section which you also have to pay in full just for that section only to your credit card.

Then there is the Excursions section, this one is interesting.  It shows the cost of the excursion(s) itself for each person as each person has their own column, then there is the total cost for each person.  The next line will show the $75.00 OBC Credit for each person deducted so let's say 4 excursions is $300 per person in total, it will show $225.00 per person or $450.00 total.

You don't have a choice of using the OBC or not so when you do the make payment, you will get charged the amount after the OBC had been applied.

So in that case, the OBC will be used as soon as the payment is processed.  So it seems atleast for the cruise personalizer, the available OBCs will be applied to shore excursions only for anything you want to pay for before the cruise.  The other items requires payment in full and the system will not apply OBC's to it.  



 

[Almighty188]

11 hours ago, famski740 said:

When we travel. my wife and I (like everyone else) each have or own onboard account.  During the cruise, my wife usually has me pay for everything so my account is large and hers is small.  Most times, my account will show an amount due and hers will show a credit.  Since we only use 1 credit card at the end of the cruise both accounts are merged and the credit from her account will offset the amount due on my account and the difference will either be charged to the I card or a check will be sent for the remainder.

 

Since you have 4 passengers all using the same credit card, all accounts will be merged and a final amount we be figured.

Yes, I can see how it works when you start off with $0 in credits and charges since that one is easy as anything you owe just ends up going to the credit card on file for each account which may or may not be the same for each person.  You never mentioned if you had any OBCs or where the wife's credit actually came from.  

[Almighty188]

11 hours ago, skynight said:

Basically yes. But the casino knows how much you actually gambled. They expect you to gamble more than $1.

When you play the tables and charge it to your account they also want you to stick around and play. As long as you play some it doesn't matter if you win or lose.

The casino does not wish to be an ATM.

And I am not using the casino as the ATM since I never said I was cashing out immediately after playing with the $1.  When I originally read the forums a few days ago, I thought when they say the casino would block you from charging to the room, I thought it meant blocked for life with that cruise line.  And I did read that like if someone plays for $1 or don't play at all on day 1 of a cruise and you were on a 10 day cruise for example, then can block you so you won't be able to charge the casino to the room on day 3 until the end of the cruise.  But what I meant was I can always just load a small amount of the credits to the casino like $25 or something, play once and then cash out on the last night of the cruise.  If I needed a ATM, like I said, I can always use the Schwab Investors Checking Debit Card which has no fees of any kind at any ATM worldwide.  Yes, I know there are people who uses the casino as a ATM so they can get the cash they need to spend during the cruise while in my case, I would already either have the cash in my pocket before I boarded the ship or it would have came from the ATM.  I am basically converting the OBCs to cash which will actually be used after the cruise is already over so it's a different scenario.  When you are at the tables, do you have to use chips because I thought you can also use cash so couldn't someone just cash at the casino and then use that cash at the tables in the casino as at that point, they won't be scanning your cabin key each time you gamble.  Almost like paying for something with cash versus a credit/debit card as the first one will not leave a record.  



 

[Almighty188]

11 hours ago, WisCruiser2 said:

Or you can also check your balances using the Princess@Sea app.

Weird, the quote didn't show up. I was responding to this suggestion: "Once on board get frequent statements from the passenger service area which include all 4 people and you will quickly see how it works."

That would only work if you were actually using the credits since I really don't want to go to the casino to load $25 for example and then see if it deducts from the OBC or not and if it doesn't, I will need to pay $25 to the credit card company.  That was why I was trying to ask how it works.  

[thinfool]

You are right about OBC being used prior to sail date to pay for excursions.  There is a big history here....Princess used to take excursion reservations, deferring payment until you actually took the excursion.

This was very popular.

About 2 years ago Princess stopped that foolishness and began charging for excursions at the time of booking.

Many passengers have OBC available before sailing and they raised such a ruckus that Princess decided to allow excursion bookings to access the OBC before the sail date.

As you have noted...this is only for excursions.

[Almighty188]

10 hours ago, Daniel A said:

When Princess gives an OBC for $1.00, it costs Princess much less than a dollar to give.  If you spend $8.00 for a bottle of beer and use Princess OBC, trust me, Princess didn't pay $8 for that beer.  Princess wants to appear to be more generous with their OBC than they actually are.  That's why Princess doesn't want you to be able to cash out the OBC.

Yes, it works the same way like how you can buy merchant gift cards for like $0.75 for every $1.00 or how banks pays $0.20 or $0.80 for every $1.00, I forgot the exact amount as banks don't pay $100 for that $100 bill they gave you either.  Similar to how credit cards with rewards, you never pay 100% of the charged amount so if you have a 2% cash back card, then you really pay 98% or if you have a 5% cash back card, you are really paying 95%.  Well, if the ship was already within the boundaries of the State of California, they are required by law to give you cash if the balance is $10.00 or less which would apply to both Gift Cards and On Board Credits regardless who the merchant is, Princess in this case and this is on items that specifically say it's non-refundable.

Edited January 25, 2019 by Almighty188

[Almighty188]

26 minutes ago, skynight said:

I did not follow your entire reasoning, but the ship's billing works like this. Each day all the on board accounts are posted individually and to a summary invoice. When accounts are linked credits on one person's account net against debits on another's. In the end there is one total that goes to the credit card, or if there is a refundable credit balance that money is returned. There should be a summary invoice and you should check it each day either at Passenger Services, at the kiosks or on a smart device using Princess@Sea.

 

Yes, I see how the billing works but like I said before, I don't want to be forced to spend or unnecessarily spending the OBCs just to see how the ships billing works.  When I went on my first and only cruise, my sister paid for everything and I never charged anything or even saw the statement or what the balances were for that matter.  I just knew that I can drive up her costs if I charged anything to the room card.  

 

All I did was eat and sleep and had fun.  In my case, I am 100% sure that nothing will go to the credit card as the only thing we will even need to buy is lunch during the excursion so it will not remotely even touch the OBCs in any way.     My reasoning was you know how they always have Terms and Conditions that they can always put something there that says that the $75 has to be spent by that individual only and not transferable so it can be used by someone else in the same cabin or the responsible paying party.  And then when you ask them why it's not applied, they will tell you to read the fine print as it has happened before.  Because for example, the Online TA gives $150 OBC per cabin so how do they actually apply it in that case, do they just send the entire $150 for the cabin only without splitting it or do they actually put $75 to each person's account since it seems like when reading CC, lots of people says they charged something to the room which would seem like there are some credits/debits that goes to the room as a whole and then there are some that goes to each person individually.  But my question was pretty basis which no one really answered as I am not talking about at the end of the cruise when the credits will subtract from the debits and the remainder goes to the credit card(s) on file for each of the accounts.  My question was similar to a store, I can go buy something.  At some merchants, you can do what is called a split payment so if something was $30, I can ask them to charge $25 with credit card 1 and then pay the $5 with another payment method which can be cash or another credit/debit card.   Can the same thing be done on a ship?  So in another way of saying it, you know we have a party of 4 already and we wanted to buy like some jacket in the ships store which is $30 as a example and I want only $25 charged to my room which means there is still $5 that needs to be paid.  Would they allow another person with their cabin card to pay the $5?  When I mean another person, it can be one of the other 3 persons or it can always be someone else that is not part of the 2 cabins.  




 

 

 

 

 

[Almighty188]

30 minutes ago, thinfool said:

You are right about OBC being used prior to sail date to pay for excursions.  There is a big history here....Princess used to take excursion reservations, deferring payment until you actually took the excursion.

This was very popular.

About 2 years ago Princess stopped that foolishness and began charging for excursions at the time of booking.

Many passengers have OBC available before sailing and they raised such a ruckus that Princess decided to allow excursion bookings to access the OBC before the sail date.

As you have noted...this is only for excursions.

Thanks for that.  Was wondering why the OBCs were available before we were even OnBoard.  Atleast this way, I don't have to worry about non-refundable OBCs as it's already been used.