Medallion Medallion....do I really need to have this on the ship????

[PTMary]

1 hour ago, CissyFuss said:

Finally a reason to buy an iPhone in preference to an android phone:

 

Princess MedallionClass app for iPhone:  4.6 star rating

 

Princess MedallionClass app for android:  1.7 star rating (severley overrated!)

 

Enough said.

 

Yeah, but you have to subject yourself to the inferior iPhone to get the better reviewed app in this one case. In our house we have both Android and iPhones. The iPhone causes so many more issues than the Android that having one is starting to look like a bad idea. We have had to visit the iPhone store several time to fix an issue, while the Android device just keeps chugging along with barely any attention needed. Unfortunately, I have the iPhone and my DH's Samsung runs circles around it without even trying. 

[caribill]

2 hours ago, LittleFish1976 said:

 

Very clever marketing on Princess's behalf though, to be able to convince all its passengers to wear a tracking device. Amazing, really.

 

 

Very clever marketing on the behalf of ATT, Verizon, T-Mobile, etc. to be able to convince people to carry a tracking device on land. Amazing, really.

[caribill]

14 hours ago, ldubs said:

 

OK.  

 

For us it depends on the cost, which varies by cruise line.  If deemed too expensive we will have it for only a single device.  We find Princess' current wifi pricing with our discount to be attractive.  

Even after the recent 50% price increase?

[wowzz]

3 hours ago, memoak said:

So if you are in a 30 day cruise how do you pay your bills like mortgage?

Every single regular bill we have is paid by direct debit or standing order. I would have thought that was common practice these days. 

[wowzz]

3 hours ago, LittleFish1976 said:

 

Very clever marketing on Princess's behalf though, to be able to convince all its passengers to wear a tracking device. Amazing, really.

 

And why should that be an issue ? 

On a daily basis you are tracked via your phone, face recognition technology, your car sat nav, APNR cameras etc. Worrying that Princess can find  out, if they can be bothered,  which bar you prefer, is the least of your worries !

[memoak]

8 hours ago, wowzz said:

Every single regular bill we have is paid by direct debit or standing order. I would have thought that was common practice these days. 

Mortgage is one thing but on other bills like credit cards etc.  I want to look for errors before paying them. Kind of like keeping track of your folio on ship 

[Guest ldtr]

11 hours ago, CissyFuss said:

Finally a reason to buy an iPhone in preference to an android phone:

 

Princess MedallionClass app for iPhone:  4.6 star rating

 

Princess MedallionClass app for android:  1.7 star rating (severley overrated!)

 

Enough said.

works quite well on both my Samsung 21 and my old Samsung 8 that I only use on board ship (no sim) for internet access and as an e book reader.

[ldubs]

9 hours ago, caribill said:

Even after the recent 50% price increase?

 

In general I am not liking like any price increase.  This one will amount to about $2.50/day additional for us.  We will still go for it.   

[damiross]

9 hours ago, wowzz said:

Every single regular bill we have is paid by direct debit or standing order. I would have thought that was common practice these days. 

You'd think it was common practice. I manage a small apartment building.  Out of 20 apartments, only 2 have automatic payment.

[sloopsailor]

17 minutes ago, damiross said:

You'd think it was common practice. I manage a small apartment building.  Out of 20 apartments, only 2 have automatic payment.

 

I avoid automatic payment. Too easy to get complacent and miss billing errors. Much better to manage them personally. 

 

But what do I know - I have only been paying my own bills for 55 years. 

[ldubs]

9 hours ago, wowzz said:

And why should that be an issue ? 

On a daily basis you are tracked via your phone, face recognition technology, your car sat nav, APNR cameras etc. Worrying that Princess can find  out, if they can be bothered,  which bar you prefer, is the least of your worries !

 

I'm still waiting for someone to explain why I should be concerned about being tracked on board.   Unless I plan on being a cat burglar or something, I just don't get the issue.  

[damiross]

14 minutes ago, sloopsailor said:

 

I avoid automatic payment. Too easy to get complacent and miss billing errors. Much better to manage them personally. 

 

But what do I know - I have only been paying my own bills for 55 years. 

I've been paying my own bills for decades.  I just pay them in a more efficient way.   I get an email of each of my bills. All of these bills (except electricity) are paid on a credit card.  The credit card is paid off automatically in full each month. I get reward points on the credit card.  My credit card sends me an email showing each bill paid.

 

In the decades I've been doing this there has been no problems with me missing billing errors because I actually do see each bill before it is paid.

 

The electricity bill is paid by automatic debit of my checking account.

 

A few of the advantages:

• No postage needed
• No checks need to be written (my handwriting is getting worse as  I get older)
• All bills are paid on time
• I get cashback on my credit card (it's not a high percentage but it's better than a poke in the eye)

Edited December 17, 2022 by damiross

[sloopsailor]

9 minutes ago, damiross said:

I've been paying my own bills for decades.  I just pay them in a more efficient way.   I get an email of each of my bills. All of these bills (except electricity) are paid on a credit card.  The credit card is paid off automatically in full each month. I get reward points on the credit card.  My credit card sends me an email showing each bill paid.

 

In the decades I've been doing this there has been no problems with me missing billing errors because I actually do see each bill before it is paid.

 

The electricity bill is paid by automatic debit of my checking account.

 

A few of the advantages:

• No postage needed
• No checks need to be written (my handwriting is getting worse as  I get older)
• All bills are paid on time
• I get cashback on my credit card (it's not a high percentage but it's better than a poke in the eye)

 

I do all my bill paying through online banking. So I am not the troglodyte I may appear to be. 😁

[ldubs]

27 minutes ago, damiross said:

I've been paying my own bills for decades.  I just pay them in a more efficient way.   I get an email of each of my bills. All of these bills (except electricity) are paid on a credit card.  The credit card is paid off automatically in full each month. I get reward points on the credit card.  My credit card sends me an email showing each bill paid.

 

In the decades I've been doing this there has been no problems with me missing billing errors because I actually do see each bill before it is paid.

 

The electricity bill is paid by automatic debit of my checking account.

 

A few of the advantages:

• No postage needed
• No checks need to be written (my handwriting is getting worse as  I get older)
• All bills are paid on time
• I get cashback on my credit card (it's not a high percentage but it's better than a poke in the eye)

 

We do almost exactly the same.  It is easy to monitor. Even the PG&E provides a notice on the amount to be taken out of the checking acct.  

[tennisobo]

When have people been receiving their Medallions?  Two weeks before sailing? Earlier?

 

Thanks for any info. 

[capriccio]

46 minutes ago, tennisobo said:

When have people been receiving their Medallions?  Two weeks before sailing? Earlier?

 

Thanks for any info. 

You will get more responses if you ask this in a new thread.

[Guest ldtr]

10 hours ago, caribill said:

Even after the recent 50% price increase?

about the same as HAL after the increase. The price increases are mostly narrowing the price difference with the competition.

[caribill]

3 hours ago, ldtr said:

about the same as HAL after the increase. The price increases are mostly narrowing the price difference with the competition.

 

Right. No reason to be better than your competitors when you can try to be just like them.

 

[wowzz]

5 hours ago, memoak said:

Mortgage is one thing but on other bills like credit cards etc.  I want to look for errors before paying them. Kind of like keeping track of your folio on ship 

 

4 hours ago, sloopsailor said:

 

I do all my bill paying through online banking. So I am not the troglodyte I may appear to be. 😁

 

4 hours ago, damiross said:

I've been paying my own bills for decades.  I just pay them in a more efficient way.   I get an email of each of my bills. All of these bills (except electricity) are paid on a credit card.  The credit card is paid off automatically in full each month. I get reward points on the credit card.  My credit card sends me an email showing each bill paid.

 

In the decades I've been doing this there has been no problems with me missing billing errors because I actually do see each bill before it is paid.

 

The electricity bill is paid by automatic debit of my checking account.

 

A few of the advantages:

• No postage needed
• No checks need to be written (my handwriting is getting worse as  I get older)
• All bills are paid on time
• I get cashback on my credit card (it's not a high percentage but it's better than a poke in the eye)

Perhaps we live in different environments. 

All our utility bills, local taxes, internet costs etc are on 12, 18 or 24 month contracts,  with a constant monthly payment. Nothing to check, the payment is made automatically,  and at the end of each contract period you renegotiate a new contract (although obviously not with the local council !) No need to constantly check bills, arrange payments etc. 

As for credit cards,  I have a standing variable direct debit,  to pay off the full amount every month, but can challenge any unexplained charge at any time.

So, I can happily go on a three month cruise (I wish) without needing to worry about making any payments  - everything is taken care  of .

Edited December 17, 2022 by wowzz

[sloopsailor]

1 minute ago, wowzz said:

 

 

Perhaps we live in different environments. 

All our utility bills, local taxes, internet costs etc are on 12, 18 or 24 month contracts,  with a constant monthly payment. Nothing to check, the payment is made automatically,  and at the end of each contract period you renegotiate a new contract (although obviously not with the local council !) No need to constantly check bills, arrange payments etc. 

As for credit cards,  I have a standing variable direct debit,  to pay off the full amount every month, but can challenge any unexplained charge at any time.

So, I can happily go on a three month cruise (I wish) without needing to worry about jaking any payments  - everything is taken care  of .

 

Where we live we pay most utilities on a monthly basis. Because months have different number of days, the bill will be different depending on whether it is a 28 day, 30 day or 31 day billing cycle. If we need to make two payments to cover a longer trip, we over pay to cover any fluctuations in the second bill due to those billing cycles. The few dollar difference overpaid will be applied to the next monthly bill. 

 

I had one experience with auto payments and it did not end well. I have avoided them since. Once burned, forever learned. But I'm a bit of a control freak and prefer to verify the bill is accurate before making a payment through my bank's online banking feature, so there is that aspect of it as well.

[wowzz]

2 minutes ago, sloopsailor said:

 

Where we live we pay most utilities on a monthly basis. Because months have different number of days, the bill will be different depending on whether it is a 28 day, 30 day or 31 day billing cycle. If we need to make two payments to cover a longer trip, we over pay to cover any fluctuations in the second bill due to those billing cycles. The few dollar difference overpaid will be applied to the next monthly bill. 

 

I had one experience with auto payments and it did not end well. I have avoided them since. Once burned, forever learned. But I'm a bit of a control freak and prefer to verify the bill is accurate before making a payment through my bank's online banking feature, so there is that aspect of it as well.

Seems a bit strange  - if you have an annual contract of $300, the monthly payment is $25 ! Why the need to alter payments ?

And what bills do you get that you need to verify ?

[Aggie83]

15 hours ago, caribill said:

 

Very clever marketing on the behalf of ATT, Verizon, T-Mobile, etc. to be able to convince people to carry a tracking device on land. Amazing, really.

Along with any entity using geofencing to send targeted push messages or digital ads.

[sloopsailor]

1 hour ago, wowzz said:

Seems a bit strange  - if you have an annual contract of $300, the monthly payment is $25 ! Why the need to alter payments ?

And what bills do you get that you need to verify ?

 

Not strange at all.

 

In my area we don't have annual contracts on utilities, for instance. Our billing is monthly. We can cancel anytime we want with no contract cancellation penalties. And there is no negotiation process. The price is the price, and if we subscribe to their service, we pay for what we have used. Most other services are on a month to month basis. Rare are services that require a yearly contract. 

 

For instance, for electricity, natural gas, and water we pay the going rate per unit multiplied by the number of units consumed. Use more units, pay more on the bill. Government required fees and taxes also are added. Those bills are good candidates to verify to manage any usage trends or discover waste from unnecessary consumption, such as water leaks.

 

For home security or cable TV services, we pay month to month until we decide to cancel. Those generally stay the same price month to month, but we aren't constrained by yearly contracts that may have early cancellation penalties. We can cancel anytime. 

 

For home or auto insurance we are billed a yearly rate and we can chose to pay in one payment at the beginning of the yearly coverage cycle or spread it out over 12 equal monthly payments, as you do. In that case, the bill is always the same, month to month. Those don't need to be verified other than to review if any unexpected changes in coverage have occurred that we were not properly notified about. Those we can also cancel anytime. 

 

NOTE: My apologies to those of you who find this not relevant to the topic. I am just trying to describe that for some of us around the world, paying bills isn't as systematic as for others. Knowing our differences helps people understand each other better. 

Edited December 18, 2022 by sloopsailor

[LittleFish1976]

7 hours ago, ldubs said:

 

I'm still waiting for someone to explain why I should be concerned about being tracked on board.   Unless I plan on being a cat burglar or something, I just don't get the issue.  

 

It doesn't matter at all I suppose. It just means they have an awful lot of easily accessible granular data on the movements and decisions of all people on board. Same as using social media and the internet in general I guess. All the data tells them how to target you to influence your decisions on everything from your purchases to your voting intentions.

 

[Guest ldtr]

3 hours ago, caribill said:

 

Right. No reason to be better than your competitors when you can try to be just like them.

 

No reason to be cheaper on everything when fares are usually less expensive and you offer more obc options resulting in a lower overall cost than the competition, even with the small price increases.