Payment Nightmare - A Cautionary Tale

[gmerick]

I am approaching final payment date for my 18 Jan 2024 AN sailing.

I proceeded with my previous years practice of collecting my credit card Rewards as prepaid VISA cards.

I can no longer charge $500 on a $500 gift card.  RCI now places a 120% "Authorization Hold" on credit card payments.  That hold will remain in place for what appears to be 30 days after the charge is processed.  Result:  only $416.66 of the $500 can be applied to the cruise fare.  The remaining $86.34 will be unusable until the "Authorization Hold" expires.

 

I'm in a nice fix, instead of paying off my cruise fare with $3000 in pre-paid cards, I can only apply $2500.  The remaining $500 will have to be spent otherwise, and in small amounts.  I have to use "real money" to pay for the remainder of my vacation.

 

Before my friends here pop in with advice to e-mail Mr. Bailey, I've already done so -- and received replies from several offices.  Yes, I am out-of-luck.  Had this 120% policy been better publicized, I would have used the pre-paid cards earlier, and been able to make 2 charges  per card, and only been out ~$80 instead of the $500 by making the first payment at least 7 weeks prior to final payment.  

 

I refuse to start my much needed vacation off with moaning about a bad experience, so I'll simply be making my final payment, and saving the pre-paid cards for fun elsewhere.  

Edited October 6, 2023 by gmerick
Year

[time4u2go]

18 minutes ago, gmerick said:

I am approaching final payment date for my 18 Jan 2024 AN sailing.

I proceeded with my previous years practice of collecting my credit card Rewards as prepaid VISA cards.

I can no longer charge $500 on a $500 gift card.  RCI now places a 120% "Authorization Hold" on credit card payments.  That hold will remain in place for what appears to be 30 days after the charge is processed.  Result:  only $416.66 of the $500 can be applied to the cruise fare.  The remaining $86.34 will be unusable until the "Authorization Hold" expires.

 

I'm in a nice fix, instead of paying off my cruise fare with $3000 in pre-paid cards, I can only apply $2500.  The remaining $500 will have to be spent otherwise, and in small amounts.  I have to use "real money" to pay for the remainder of my vacation.

 

Before my friends here pop in with advice to e-mail Mr. Bailey, I've already done so -- and received replies from several offices.  Yes, I am out-of-luck.  Had this 120% policy been better publicized, I would have used the pre-paid cards earlier, and been able to make 2 charges  per card, and only been out ~$80 instead of the $500 by making the first payment at least 7 weeks prior to final payment.  

 

I refuse to start my much needed vacation off with moaning about a bad experience, so I'll simply be making my final payment, and saving the pre-paid cards for fun elsewhere.  

I'm confused how you are "out" $500.  Why not just pay $2500 with the prepaid card(s), then pay the other $500 with other credit/debit card(s)?

[Mum2Mercury]

If I understand correctly, you're not "out" any money.  You can still use that money for groceries, gas, and other things you use in your everyday life.  

[gmerick]

19 minutes ago, time4u2go said:

I'm confused how you are "out" $500.  Why not just pay $2500 with the prepaid card(s), then pay the other $500 with other credit/debit card(s)?

 

13 minutes ago, Mum2Mercury said:

If I understand correctly, you're not "out" any money.  You can still use that money for groceries, gas, and other things you use in your everyday life.

 

Of course you are both correct.  I can use the small remainders on the cards at a later date.  I just have to wait until the hold expires.  My disappointment with the new policy is the inconvenience of many small pre-paid balances remaining, and the 30 day loan to RCI.  

It's not something I will "fix", as I have already simply made the final payment.  I'll have 6 inconvenient reminders of the experience in the coming months as I use up the prepaid cards, but other than that, I'm done with it.

Edited October 6, 2023 by gmerick
last paragraph

[reallyitsmema]

2 minutes ago, gmerick said:

 

 

Of course you are both correct.  I can use the small remainders on the cards at a later date.  I just have to wait until the hold expires.  My disappointment with the new policy is the inconvenience of many small pre-paid balances remaining, and the 30 day loan to RCI.  

 

Is that authorization hold only on prepaid cards?  I have never seen a hold larger than what I have charged and it clears within a couple of days.

[gmerick]

Just now, reallyitsmema said:

Is that authorization hold only on prepaid cards?  I have never seen a hold larger than what I have charged and it clears within a couple of days.

I really don't know.  I only discovered it myself a couple days ago.  It definitely was not there when I used pre-paid cards a year ago, or 2 years ago.

[smokeybandit]

I would never want to use prepaid cards for such purchases.

I've never had a hold for final payment. I have had RC reject a card because there was a hold on the card for some other trivial reason.

[kitkat343]

I don't understand what is happening here, but if you call RC and offer to give them another credit card to hold will they release the balance on your prepaid cards?  I know hotels require a credit card to hold in case there are extra charges during your stay, and maybe RC needs a credit card on file too?  I have no idea if that would work (because I don't really understand what happened) but maybe its worth a phone call to try?

[not-enough-cruising]

moving forward use your credit card rewards as statement credit.  You are making a lot of extra work for yourself

[Ret MP]

Well, now you know and so do many folks that just read your post, including me.  However, I don't use Gift Cards/Prepaid cards for anything more than restaurants, I certainly don't purchase them, but I get some as gifts and other credit card rewards that I contribute to.  

[firefly333]

I havent read the small print in a while, but I know carnival wouldnt even take those generic gift cards. If your name isnt preprinted on the card they dont take it for payment. 

[Rather be golfing]

I went through the same thing 3 months ago.  I had 2 prepaid Amex gift cards that I had received as gifts and were both valued at $100 and they were at first denied by Amex when I went to charge the full amount towards my final payment.  I called the cc and they said there is an automatic 20% held back on any restaurants, hotels or travel an that it would take 3-7 days to get that hold released.   So I ended up charging $80 on each card which left me a balance of $20.   Well the balance did not get released till after 30 days which was ridiculous.  I ended up using it later for gas.  Moral of my story - don't use prepaid cards even if they were received as gifts for anything travel or restaurant related.  At least mine was a small figure, good luck.. 

[lcpagejr]

I just don't understand this...If you call the number on back of card...you get your balance immediately??  Maybe RCL is slow in processing the actual charges and they are concerned there could be another charge against that amount before the amount they process goes through? Doesn't make sense

[steveru621]

That hold is standard practice and RCI has no control over the duration.  I just don't understand why you go through such a complicated process?

 

Am I missing a CC benefit?

 

The only reason for gift cards?  The issuing bank collects interchange fees.

[steveru621]

On 10/6/2023 at 7:45 PM, kitkat343 said:

I don't understand what is happening here, but if you call RC and offer to give them another credit card to hold will they release the balance on your prepaid cards?  I know hotels require a credit card to hold in case there are extra charges during your stay, and maybe RC needs a credit card on file too?  I have no idea if that would work (because I don't really understand what happened) but maybe its worth a phone call to try?

 

RCI has no control over the hold or its duration.

[not-enough-cruising]

48 minutes ago, steveru621 said:

That hold is standard practice and RCI has no control over the duration.  I just don't understand why you go through such a complicated process?

 

Am I missing a CC benefit?

 

The only reason for gift cards?  The issuing bank collects interchange fees.

Exactly what i mentioned above.  Use your CC points for a statement credit and avoid the convoluted, multi step, gift card scenario