Onboard account charges

[HAMCEL]

Hi

Having just returned from a repositioning cruise on Brittania, I’ve found that my onboard expenses have been charged to my card twice (taking me overdrawn!!). They were charged on a daily basis during the cruise for my previous days expenses and then again as a lump sum on the final day. Customer services tried to explain that the charges are pending however this is not shown on my bank account and a week later none of the charges have been repaid. Has anyone else experienced this?

[molecrochip]

P&O post daily pending charges incrementally. At the end of the cruise they could finalise the charges and post your bill against pending charges but they don’t.

Instead they post the total bill as a new charge which finalised within 2-3 days.

 

P&O could then finalise the pending charges as nil but instead they choose to let them time out at 28 days.

 

P&O will tell you that the bank can release the holds but that’s not true. The bank can only release them when they time out. The bank will tell you that P&O can release the holds - this is true. But P&O don’t have a process to do his.

 

This is how the banking system works. Same at a petrol station except the petrol station takes a generic say £130 hold at the start and then finalises the actual amount against the hold.

 

In future I suggest using a credit card. Pending holds don’t usually reduce available credit until finalised unlike bank account/debit cards where the money is set aside until the hold is released.

[jeanlyon]

Yes, they are authorisations and will drop off at some stage.  use a credit card in future and you don't get this problem.

[swanseaboy]

If you can, always use a Credit Card as molecrochip suggests. Much easier with all these daily 'authorisations'.

[Megabear2]

It's not just cruises. Recently had a problem with Hilton hotel at Gatwick.  Original booking made 9 months in advance held against my debit card as my credit card would expire just before travel. On receipt of new credit card changed the reservation to reflect this and assumed debit card would be removed. My husband on check out was asked if he wanted card on file charged and said yes - they email your invoice so nothing physical to check against.  Meantime I open up bank account on line and find £143 pending charge plus a £185 normal charge- enquiry led to my husband having had a beer and a meal the night before.  I complained then told they'd taken money from the credit card. Sure enough £185 debited day after check out so effectively we were paying three times.  The pending charge did not drop off for 10 days and it took 7 days for the wrongly charged amount to process back into our account.  Despite a very big complaint nothing sped it up although I did get 10,000 Hilton Honours points as an apology.  Lesson learned by me, never let anyone have your debit card details as a hold for a booking!

[Dermotsgirl]

2 hours ago, HAMCEL said:

Hi

Having just returned from a repositioning cruise on Brittania, I’ve found that my onboard expenses have been charged to my card twice (taking me overdrawn!!). They were charged on a daily basis during the cruise for my previous days expenses and then again as a lump sum on the final day. Customer services tried to explain that the charges are pending however this is not shown on my bank account and a week later none of the charges have been repaid. Has anyone else experienced this?

It will depend on your bank how long it will take for the pending amounts to 'drop off'. With some banks it can be up to a month before the pending amount is removed.

 

As others have said, it's much better to use a credit card for this thing, as the pending amounts are less intrusive. 

[Adawn47]

Unfortunately, as strange as it may seem, not everyone uses credit cards, we don't. 

Avril

[Megabear2]

1 hour ago, Adawn47 said:

Unfortunately, as strange as it may seem, not everyone uses credit cards, we don't. 

Avril

Definitely not strange. I only have one for travel as in the US debit cards appear to be a tool of the devil!

[yorkshirephil]

1 hour ago, Adawn47 said:

Unfortunately, as strange as it may seem, not everyone uses credit cards, we don't. 

Avril

We only got a credit card for cruising as many moons ago some lines didn't accept debit cards.

[CarlaMarie]

2 hours ago, Adawn47 said:

Unfortunately, as strange as it may seem, not everyone uses credit cards, we don't. 

Avril

 

We never did either. It wasn't until we read the advice on this forum regarding the account authorisations/holds following a P&O cruise that we have one. It is used for onboard account purposes only.

[Beckett]

2 hours ago, Adawn47 said:

Unfortunately, as strange as it may seem, not everyone uses credit cards, we don't. 

Avril

Nor me Avril. I'm worried now about all these potential charges - it feels like a bit of a penalty against those using their own money!  Jane xxx

[terrierjohn]

2 hours ago, Adawn47 said:

Unfortunately, as strange as it may seem, not everyone uses credit cards, we don't. 

Avril

 

1 hour ago, Megabear2 said:

Definitely not strange. I only have one for travel as in the US debit cards appear to be a tool of the devil!

 

52 minutes ago, yorkshirephil said:

We only got a credit card for cruising as many moons ago some lines didn't accept debit cards.

I can understand why many people do not like using a credit card, however if you can afford to set up a direct debit to pay off the credit card every month, then it is, IMO, the easiest and safest way of managing your finances.

[Palaceman]

16 minutes ago, Beckett said:

Nor me Avril. I'm worried now about all these potential charges - it feels like a bit of a penalty against those using their own money!  Jane xxx

Why does it feel like a bit of a penalty? Surely whether you pay by cash, debit card or credit card you always use your own money, do you not?

[swanseaboy]

I always use my M&S Rewards Credit Card so I get reward points for my onboard bill. Brucey bonus!

[HAMCEL]

Thanks everyone for your valuable insight. I will in future ONLY be using a credit card! I did speak to CHASE, the card provider, and they advised that they were unable to intervene until when or if P&O removed the hold ☹️

[Beckett]

1 hour ago, Palaceman said:

Why does it feel like a bit of a penalty? Surely whether you pay by cash, debit card or credit card you always use your own money, do you not?

Yes of course you always use your own money in the end but if you use a credit card you have time to pay do you not? With a debit card monies are taken out immediately so why should a holding amount be levied and not refunded until some time later. That's all I was saying. You obviously disagree. I was just expressing my own personal opinion.

[purplesea]

2 hours ago, swanseaboy said:

I always use my M&S Rewards Credit Card so I get reward points for my onboard bill. Brucey bonus!

I use my Tesco credit card to get extra points.

[Vampiress88]

5 hours ago, Adawn47 said:

Unfortunately, as strange as it may seem, not everyone uses credit cards, we don't. 

Avril

we have 4 😱

[Dermotsgirl]

2 hours ago, swanseaboy said:

I always use my M&S Rewards Credit Card so I get reward points for my onboard bill. Brucey bonus!

Yes, that’s what we do. My secondary credit card is Sainsbury’s so I get extra Nectar points on that  on that.

 

I make sure both cards are paid in full each month 

[Dermotsgirl]

1 hour ago, Beckett said:

Yes of course you always use your own money in the end but if you use a credit card you have time to pay do you not? With a debit card monies are taken out immediately so why should a holding amount be levied and not refunded until some time later. That's all I was saying. You obviously disagree. I was just expressing my own personal opinion.

The holding amount is also applied to the credit card account. But people notice it less, as they are not so likely to check their ‘amount available to spend’ in the same way that they check their current account balance 

[Dermotsgirl]

2 hours ago, HAMCEL said:

Thanks everyone for your valuable insight. I will in future ONLY be using a credit card! I did speak to CHASE, the card provider, and they advised that they were unable to intervene until when or if P&O removed the hold ☹️

The pre-authorised amounts will eventually ‘drop off’ of their own accord, but that is dependent on the bank. 

[HAMCEL]

The reason I used my CHASE card was because of the generous cash-back on spends. Unfortunately this has backfired on me!! I have always previously used CCs for onboard spends on Holland America and Celebrity and thought this may have just been a P&O mistake. I have now learned my lesson for the future and will revert back to Credit Card versus Debit Card. Thanks again for all the advice. Andy.

[terrierjohn]

1 hour ago, Dermotsgirl said:

The holding amount is also applied to the credit card account. But people notice it less, as they are not so likely to check their ‘amount available to spend’ in the same way that they check their current account balance 

But it must get deleted before the next statement because in over 35 cruises we have never seen a holding charge on any statement.

[Dermotsgirl]

24 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

But it must get deleted before the next statement because in over 35 cruises we have never seen a holding charge on any statement.

They are not actual debits to the account, so you’ll won’t  see them on your statement - it’s just money that’s been ‘reserved’ for when the account is debited. 
 

If the debit is never actually applied to the account, the authorisation will drop off after a set period of time.

 

People are less likely to notice this on credit cards as, generally speaking, when you log in online, pending transactions are not itemised for credit cards like they are on current accounts. Most people aren’t even aware that they have pending debits  on their credit card account unless they carefully check their ‘available to spend’ figure. 
 

it’s the same method for both debit and credit cards, but it feels less intrusive for credit cards as people don’t realise it’s happened. People would probably only notice if they were very near their credit limit and transactions start to get declined because they inadvertently go over their limit due to pending charges. 

 

 

[davecttr]

My credit card pending transactions are listed on my account summary, currently £1 for Arvia. That's a holding amount on the card you registered for your onboard account. There are usually a few pending amounts but I haven't bought much recently.