Can't register credit card without Radiqual gaming

[Flyinby]

13 hours ago, Moondogy said:

Not defending or saying everything is hunkey dorey with this company, but from what I see the main thing for this to come about is for the new off shoreside transaction. I for one will not use the off shore part due to what I have read about how much they charge the vendors. There was a thread from a vendor/CC member in Alaska that showed the pamphlets they got from Princess when this was rolled out.  Here is a link to the thread.

Cruisers: Please do NOT use MedallionPay

 

Thanks much for the link.  I never intended to use MedallionPay anyway, unless the few purchases we do make on the ship had to go through it.  Their 7% "cash back" offer is so flawed it's ridiculous if you do the math, which most of its "victims" won't bother doing.

 

My credit card processor charges me roughly 3% for processing credit card payments.  Princess is charging the shore merchants who use MedallionPay nearly 18%.  So if they accept MedallionPay for a $100 item...say a lunch somewhere...the merchant gets only $82, versus $97 if you pay by credit card or $100 if by cash.  So what do they do?  Either raise prices to be able to afford Princess's silly payment system, or suck up the loss of the $15.  Or tell Princess to put its medallion where the sun don't shine.

 

Will they get more customers by accepting MedallionPay, another gimmicky and unnecessary payment method?  They may get a few, but how many won't they get by the higher prices they have to charge to compensate for MedallionPay?  Hard to say.

 

If the lure of getting the 7% "cash back" appeals to you, remember you have to spend it on the ship or at one of their lodges etc.  If you've ever noticed, the price of small items onboard is often 3-4X the cost it would be from a normal store.  So you take your hard-earned $7 "cash back" from the $100 lunch to the ship and buy a $3 item onboard for $10.  Using MedallionPay, of course, for which the merchant pays Princess $1.80, and you get another 70 cent credit to spend onboard.  Somebody's coming out way ahead, and it's not you, and it's not the merchant.

 

If this sounds like a good deal to you, go for it, but the only ones making out ahead are Princess and the Radiqal group who devised this silly scheme.  Everyone else loses, unless you consider paying a substantial fee for being able to wave a silly medallion at someone to pay, worth it.

 

If few people use it, it will probably flop...software companies flop all the time, and this one has developed something that nobody really needs or wants, and Princess has taken the bait of thinking they can make a lot more money from their customers without them actually realizing it's costing them more. 

Edited July 25, 2022 by Flyinby
spelling

[MsMidge]

Sounds fishy to me.  I wouldn’t trust it.

[Anubi]

2 hours ago, Moondogy said:

Do we know for sure that princess didn't use any other company when we gave our CC for our shipboard accounts in the past? I really am not sure who had our info in the past, but I'd say you could still wait to get to the port and give the information there, right? And if you do it there does a different company get that information? There are so many variables and I'm sure it's not just princess we have to be weary of now these days. But I would really say maybe just give the info at the port. 🙂

Well if you're standing there at the port and they say if you don't allow it you can't cruise, I think I'd cave really quick.  Its unfortunate and I don't like it but they have the upper hand.  😞