credit card charges still coming!!!

[brendielee]

Has anyone else had this problem? We got off the cruise on 5/26/07 in Anchorage (Sapphire Princess) and my debit card is still getting charges! Two days before the cruise ended, I went to the front desk and paid $500 with my debit card, and told them to but the balance on the regular credit card that I had registered, which they did. So, between the $500 on the debit card and the $6xx on the credit card, it did total my final bill. WHY am I still receving charges??? I called Princess on Friday, they said give them a couple of days and call back, meanwhile I just got another $61 charge!!!!! Any ideas???? Brenda

[PTC]

Has anyone else had this problem? We got off the cruise on 5/26/07 in Anchorage (Sapphire Princess) and my debit card is still getting charges! Two days before the cruise ended, I went to the front desk and paid $500 with my debit card, and told them to but the balance on the regular credit card that I had registered, which they did. So, between the $500 on the debit card and the $6xx on the credit card, it did total my final bill. WHY am I still receving charges??? I called Princess on Friday, they said give them a couple of days and call back, meanwhile I just got another $61 charge!!!!! Any ideas???? Brenda

 

No idea but wait for Princess to find out the answer. I don't see how anyone on this board would know your personal financial information and be able to answer your posted question. Not being unkind but wait to hear what Princess says.

 

PTC

[willysgrandma]

No idea but wait for Princess to find out the answer. I don't see how anyone on this board would know your personal financial information and be able to answer your posted question. Not being unkind but wait to hear what Princess says.

 

PTC

 

That is easy to say, but when it's your checking account that keeps having charges going through that shouldn't be going through, it isn't that easy to say wait for Princess. If you can't pay your bills because Princess double charges and can't fix it, it's a problem.

 

Go to your bank and have them put a stop on any further payments from Princess. Report anything that you did not authorize as an unauthorized transactions if you can't get Princess to issue credits for the extra credits right away.

[brendielee]

I wasn't thinking that anyone would know my financial info, I just wanted to know if anyone else has ever had this problem and if there was a reason.

[spongerob]

Absolutely, be sure to keep track against double charges. I ran into some surprise charges when the end of a cruise coincided with the monthly closing date on my credit card and some charges were posted to the following month.

[PTC]

That is easy to say, but when it's your checking account that keeps having charges going through that shouldn't be going through, it isn't that easy to say wait for Princess. If you can't pay your bills because Princess double charges and can't fix it, it's a problem.

 

Go to your bank and have them put a stop on any further payments from Princess. Report anything that you did not authorize as an unauthorized transactions if you can't get Princess to issue credits for the extra credits right away.

 

You can not just stop a bank from further payments you have to DISPUTE the charges once they do hit your account OR you have to authorize a FREEZE on the account which only adds to the issue of how to pay your other bills. If it's the credit card, same thing. You have to dispute the charges and again wait for all the back and forth of credit card company investigating.

 

 

PTC

[GloriaF]

I'd say you should go to your bank and speak with a Customer Service rep. It may be that you need to close that account and open a new account with a new check card.

[surfklutz]

Why does this seem to be a recurring problem on Princess. You don't hear of it to any extent from any other line.

 

I was charged for beach towels after I returned home - and never have been able to get it resolved. They asked for a few days to look into it, and they never returned my many calls to follow up.

[Toto2Kansas]

So, you are saying that you weren't just charged one amount for the rest of your shipboard charges? It is drippling in each month? Something doesn't sound right here.

If you had a set amount left to charge to your CC at the end of your cruise, that should all have been charged at one time to your CC. Only other charges that would come as a seperate charge we have ever seen is if we booked a Future Cruise onboard. That is charged directly to your credit card.

All of the shipboard charges come just as any other bill, all at one time.

[brendielee]

In addition to the $500 I put on my debit card, I was charged one lump sum to my credit card, which was the correct balance (according to my final bill on the last day of the cruise) but now I have these charges coming on my debit card that I can't figure out.....$61.55, 88.12, 8.25, 86.61. Two of the charges just came today! I am on the east coast so as soon as Princess Financial opens this morning I am calling them, and if I get no satisfaction I will call my bank and dispute the charges and perhaps close this account. My lesson is learned, never use a debit card when cruising!

[Clarkk W Griswald]

Possible fraud by Princess? (Referring to other thread). It seems Princess is lacking in this whole credit card/shipboard charges thing. I wonder how much extra money Princess makes on these so called "errors" in billing. I'm sure some people don't even keep a close eye on their charges, and Princess is making a mint just from "errors"!

I'm now zipping up my flame retardant/anti cheerleader suit, so flame away!

[Pam in CA]

Make sure you have all of your onboard receipts and compare them to your final statement before you call. Go over your onboard account and make sure everything you charged is accounted for -- or missing. This will give you the documentation you need or perhaps answer some of the charge questions. Your final statement is really the bottom line and you can, and should, question any charges not on this statement.

 

The only charge that I'm aware of that you make while onboard but which is not on your onboard account is Future Cruise Sales. But there may be other items as well that I'm not aware of.

[LARGIN]

Another reason to use a credit card and not a debit card...

[spongerob]

Possible fraud by Princess? (Referring to other thread). It seems Princess is lacking in this whole credit card/shipboard charges thing. I wonder how much extra money Princess makes on these so called "errors" in billing. I'm sure some people don't even keep a close eye on their charges, and Princess is making a mint just from "errors"!

I'm now zipping up my flame retardant/anti cheerleader suit, so flame away!

In this day and age, that would be an incredibly stupid thing for any business to do. However, it would be easy for an individual to harvest CC numbers and use them - there have been reports of exactly that same thing posted on the RC board. I honestly can't say what's going on with the OP's case here, but definitely it needs to be looked into.

 

In the other case you reference, the OP did get her money back while on board - it just took far more effort than should have been necessary. As I mentioned in that thread, I've had charges "change" magically between the time the receipt was signed and the statement arrived. All it takes is one waiter or bartender trying to pad their tip, or just keying something in wrong, to create a problem. Maybe the cases I encountered were hoenst mistakes, and maybe not. Blowing things out of proportion by claiming that a public company is knowingly committing fraud is a very serious charge...so before you make such charges, please have the facts handy. Otherwise, you are just distracting people from the more important message to keep track of what the activity is on their charge/debit cards. You can be a victim any time, anywhere.

[muffydawg]

In addition to the $500 I put on my debit card, I was charged one lump sum to my credit card, which was the correct balance (according to my final bill on the last day of the cruise) but now I have these charges coming on my debit card that I can't figure out.....$61.55, 88.12, 8.25, 86.61. Two of the charges just came today! I am on the east coast so as soon as Princess Financial opens this morning I am calling them, and if I get no satisfaction I will call my bank and dispute the charges and perhaps close this account. My lesson is learned, never use a debit card when cruising!

 

When you log onto your bank website you should TYPICALLY see the name of the "merchant" who processed / submitted the debits of $61.55, $88.12, etc.

 

Can you confirm the "merchant" name corresponding to these debits is Princess? If so, the call to your bank is your next move. Be sure to follow up your telephone inquiry / request to dispute with a written statement mailed to your bank within approx. 10 days. Transactions processed on debit cards are not necessarily afforded the same protections as transactions processed on credit cards, so check with your bank. Your bank will also want to confirm you still have your debit card in your possession.

 

Another alternative to the payment discussion is the use of prepaid cards. Three card issuers (American Express, Visa, MasterCard ) now sell cards you load with cash up to a certain demonimation. At least if the card is lost or stolen, the remaining funds are replaceable and your bank account is not affected.

[Juliadlf]

In addition to the $500 I put on my debit card, I was charged one lump sum to my credit card, which was the correct balance (according to my final bill on the last day of the cruise) but now I have these charges coming on my debit card that I can't figure out.....$61.55, 88.12, 8.25, 86.61. Two of the charges just came today! I am on the east coast so as soon as Princess Financial opens this morning I am calling them, and if I get no satisfaction I will call my bank and dispute the charges and perhaps close this account. My lesson is learned, never use a debit card when cruising!

 

Understand that if you close your account, the bank still makes you responsible for all charges that come through. Just because you close the account doesn't mean the problem goes away. Best to resolve the issue and figure out what happened and work with Princess to resolve it.

 

PTC: You need to understand how difficult it is to resolve matters over the phone so hopefully the OP will resolve it quickly.

 

Julia

[elmtree]

Well, I was not at all happy with my last Princess cruise, and let it be known here for all to critizise. I didn't go into detail about the extra charges on my account after returning home. I went to the purser desk the night before the end of the cruise and told them I had been charged for two tranfers to the airport and that we had asked for them to be canceled before because we had an after cruise tour with them that would drop us off at the airport. They were very nice and said they would take care of it and it would be credited to our final bill...well, of course it was not..We were charged, but I was just so fed up with all the other crap that happened on the cruise, that I just figured to heck with it...so I think they make plenty of extra money from their "Mistakes".

[OHCruisin]

OP - those charges may only be on hold in your account. When I returned from my last RCI cruise, they had put $500+ "on hold" (long story here about phone charges they did correct) but about a week after the cruise, all the hold charges dropped off and a final charge of $175 (the correct amount) was actually applied to my account.

 

When using debit cards, merchants do two things that I've discovered. They'll put a hold on an amount higher than your purchase (should they need to charge you back for insufficient funds). Or, in the case of the cruise line, they "charge" each purchase you make on the ship (i.e. every time you sign for something on your account). Those charges are processed to hold the money to make sure you can pay your bill. Usually, and I stress usually, all those charges drop off in favor of the actual cruise end charge.

 

Are the new charges actually hitting your account or are they in "pending transactions"? I know, it still holds up your money and prevents you from paying bills, but if it's only pending chances are good these will drop off in a couple days. At least that's been my experience.

 

Good luck to you. I hope it all works out.

[bdjam]

...so I think they make plenty of extra money from their "Mistakes".

Well they do have a new ship coming out - they have to finance it somehow. :rolleyes:

 

Sorry folks - I used to work in the contact center for a major national credit card and if I had a dollar for every person who swore a charge wasn't theirs, or that a salesperson ripped them off or accused either our company or the retailer of fraud, I could have retired in style when I left that job. 99% of the time, charges that the customer felt were incorrect had their signature on them and were proven to be correct. Right, fraud happens as do billing errors and there's a certain process that has to take place to get those rectified and any business person would follow such a process to protect their financial health.

 

Since I've already taken a beating on the fraud thread, this is all I'll say on this one...but as a credit or debit card holder, if there are charges coming into your account and you don't know why or where they are from, there's something seriously wrong that posting here won't fix.

[Spender Nui]

This is a great reason to check your receipts ... and balance your account.

[trvlcrzy]

Be diligent and efficient in following up on this. As stated before, you do not have the same protections with debit vs. credit. I used to work in the automatic transactions division at a bank... automatic drafts and deposits (Soc. Sec., payroll deposits, etc.)

The dispute time for a scheduled draft is 90 days from the transaction/posting date (not from the statement date)... but that is through the ACH system... NOT the same as a debit card draft. The dispute system for debit cards is much more difficult for the cardholder.

Again, this wasn't even handled by the same department, but I think their time limit was 30 days from the transaction date. (I received a lot of erroneous affidavits for people attempting a dispute after the debit's time limit... they liked my form better because it said "90 days.")

 

Good luck with this!

[MercedMike]

Every hotel and motel does the same thing. I am sure at the bottom of your "final" statement you will find some sort of disclaimer that any charges not yet posted will be charged to your card later. The ones you report sound like things like maybe spa services or wine packages or something, which may not have been in the computer before you left.

 

As several other posters have pointed out, it is very wise to save all your receipts and compare them to the actual charges. It seems that everybody, ashore as well as aboard, has to be checked up on all the time.

[Vanilla]

Sounds like a fabulous reason to only use cash when dealing with Princess. Go down the last night, settle up my bill and I am done!! No need to worry about what might come in later.

[MaryPoppinz]

Every hotel and motel does the same thing. I am sure at the bottom of your "final" statement you will find some sort of disclaimer that any charges not yet posted will be charged to your card later.

 

Except that the card on file for incidentals was a credit card rather than this debit card that is incurring charges. The debit card was used only to offset the balance and was only authorized for a one-time charge of $500 -- it's no different than giving the purser $500 cash or writing a check for $500 and then having the remainder of the balance billed to the credit card on file. Any late charges, if that's what these are, should be going to the credit card.

[brendielee]

Well, I spoke to a Princess Financial rep today, she looked at my final folio to try to find a charge that would explain the debit card charges.....she couldn't find a thing that matched! So, now she forwarded this to the person who handles the on-board charges, claims that I will hear back by tomorrow. I am cancelling my debit card and getting a new one, and will be filing a dispute with my bank if I don't hear back from them tomorrow.

Lesson learned....DO NOT USE A DEBIT CARD FOR ANY REASON ON THE CRUISE SHIP!!