On board account. Policy change!

[lady ahoy]

 

Anyone else annoyed by seabourn's new policy of automatically taking $210 dollars off your credit card on your 1st day of sailing on a 7 day cruise?[ Its $30 a day] Isn't it meant to be an all inclusive cruise? Plus so many of us have on board credit to get through before we might even want to buy anything else! I wonder how long they hold your $210 deposit for after the cruise? Feels cheeky to me!

Edited January 13 by lady ahoy

[margbem]

1 hour ago, lady ahoy said:

 

Anyone else annoyed by seabourn's new policy of automatically taking $210 dollars off your credit card on your 1st day of sailing on a 7 day cruise?[ Its $30 a day] Isn't it meant to be an all inclusive cruise? Plus so many of us have on board credit to get through before we might even want to buy anything else! I wonder how long they hold your $210 deposit for after the cruise? Feels cheeky to me!

Why on earth are they doing this? Our next cruise is a 20 nighter. Not happy!

[frantic36]

I am confused what @lady ahoy is referring too with her $210 card charge. I see in your history your cruise starts on the 11th Feb. 

 

We are currently onboard Seabourn and just checked our bank statements and have not had any $30/day or any other charges from Seabourn. We also had nothing charged prior to boarding so no bond has been applied.

[JPH814]

it is not a charge....it is just a hold.  They are making sure you have enough credit in case you decide to charge stuff.

 

Having said that, it is pretty obnoxious to think that Seabourn believes that someone who has spent ten thousand dollars or more for a cruise might have a problem problem with their credit to pay their charges at the end of the cruise.  I wonder two things:

1) Have they had a problem with this in the past? People running up charges on board and then not having the credit to pay their bill at the end of a cruise?   If this is the case, I am not sure what good a $30 per day hold would do.  I would have to believe it is  pretty rare on Seabourn.

2) I am willing to bet that this is some corporate policy that is applied across all CCL brands.  I can see the need more so with the budget brands like Carnival or even Holland America.  

 

Somebody did not think this through.

 But, then again, who cares?  $30 per day hold is not going to make much of a dent in my available credit.

 

 

 

[Capri73]

4 minutes ago, JPH814 said:

it is not a charge....it is just a hold.  They are making sure you have enough credit in case you decide to charge stuff.

 

Having said that, it is pretty obnoxious to think that Seabourn believes that someone who has spent ten thousand dollars or more for a cruise might have a problem problem with their credit to pay their charges at the end of the cruise.  I wonder two things:

1) Have they had a problem with this in the past? People running up charges on board and then not having the credit to pay their bill at the end of a cruise?   If this is the case, I am not sure what good a $30 per day hold would do.  I would have to believe it is  pretty rare on Seabourn.

2) I am willing to bet that this is some corporate policy that is applied across all CCL brands.  I can see the need more so with the budget brands like Carnival or even Holland America.  

 

Somebody did not think this through.

 But, then again, who cares?  $30 per day hold is not going to make much of a dent in my available credit.

 

 

[Capri73]

Silversea has been doing this for quite a while.They held $250.00 on our last cruise.Refunded the following month.

[frantic36]

1 hour ago, JPH814 said:

it is not a charge....it is just a hold.  They are making sure you have enough credit in case you decide to charge stuff.

 

Having said that, it is pretty obnoxious to think that Seabourn believes that someone who has spent ten thousand dollars or more for a cruise might have a problem problem with their credit to pay their charges at the end of the cruise.  I wonder two things:

1) Have they had a problem with this in the past? People running up charges on board and then not having the credit to pay their bill at the end of a cruise?   If this is the case, I am not sure what good a $30 per day hold would do.  I would have to believe it is  pretty rare on Seabourn.

2) I am willing to bet that this is some corporate policy that is applied across all CCL brands.  I can see the need more so with the budget brands like Carnival or even Holland America.  

 

Somebody did not think this through.

 But, then again, who cares?  $30 per day hold is not going to make much of a dent in my available credit.

 

 

 

So why haven’t I got this charge applied? I have only been on since 11 January?

[skybluewaters]

Who cares...high-end hotels do this routinely.

You get your money back, so no big deal.

[cruiseej]

5 hours ago, margbem said:

Not happy!

 

Just wondering why you (or anyone) is annoyed by this.  I wouldn't think anyone would be up against their credit limit. It's routine at many hotels. It doesn't matter to me; I'm curious why it would make anyone unhappy.

[rallydave]

Nothing to get back.  It goes on your account as pending and then disappears until a charge to you comes in and then it shows as a charge.  Anyone so close to your credit limit who is sailing Seabourn has bigger problems than this relatively small hold.

[jjs217]

No matter how expensive the hotel, this is common practice around the world.  No biggie.

[Vineyard View]

Agree. Not a big deal. Happens all the time when traveling. 

[kbnovak]

Much ado about nothing.  Very common.

[saminina]

It's just the way it is today.  Explora did not do this in October.   They did in December.  One more vote for much ado about nothing.

[Steve007NY]

Our local gas station (Sonoma CA) puts $150 hold on every time you insert a credit card into the pump. Initially, caused confusion when my husband “top door“ a couple times during one week and I was checking out the Amex bills but they disappeared and replaced by the actual charges

[hoosier74]

As far as I can remember, this happened on our last cruise (about a year ago) and maybe the cruise before that.  And yes, that automatic hold is quite common for any hotel these days.  

 

[Vineyard View]

OP appears to be MIA……

[alexandria]

On 1/13/2024 at 11:15 AM, lady ahoy said:

 

Anyone else annoyed by seabourn's new policy of automatically taking $210 dollars off your credit card on your 1st day of sailing on a 7 day cruise?

 

Not at all. 

 

As others mentioned, for decades that has been the norm at hotels, at gas stations, on cruises and anywhere else that the final total of a transaction is unknown when the credit card is presented.  It isn't a "deposit", they simply submit a temporarily authorization of a certain amount to your credit card that would ordinarily cover any anticipated transaction total.  If you don't spend any money onboard, then nothing is charged to that credit card and the temporary authorization automatically drops off, often within just a few days.

 

If your credit limit is such that the amount of the temporarily authorization presents financial challenges for you, then perhaps the decision to sail on higher cost luxury cruise lines should be reconsidered.  🙂

 

But unless I am misreading your post, it seems that the issue is not one of financial hardship but of annoyance.  If that is the case, don't let it bother you...just enjoy the trip!

[lady ahoy]

Thank you for the comments, very helpful! I can see the up front deposit is the way it works now days. Think I should have used the word surprised rather than annoyed as its hard to be annoyed about anything when about to set sail for 7 days in the caribbean, hooray!