princess credit card a fraud

[rjnaz]

:mad:The princess credit card from barclay bank is a fraud....my credit line was reduced from $13,000 to $1750 without notice.. I had paid my card off on a monthly basis. I was charging to the card to get cruise points but now it will take forever. Don't think Princess cruise would like to be associated with a company like this... I am not the only one that this happened to...if it happened to you please call princess and let them know that even thro they have not control over the bank card thier name is on it and they should be responsible for the lack of consideration Barclay has for princess customers. If this has happened to you please reply here and let me know if you have heard from Barclay..they are not taking any phone calls concerning this matter..THEY REFUSE TO TALK TO ANYONE ...now that's customer service!!!!....thanks for hearing me out:eek:

[Coracii]

I can't say that I have a huge amount of sympathy if you're charging more than $1750 per month and paying it off on a monthly basis. Considering you have to spend around $100,000 on the cards (depending on the cruiseline) to get a free cruise, I don't find them a viable option anyways. Whether Princess has their name on the card or not, they don't have control over the terms of the financial contract that you agreed to with Barclay's.

[Pia1913]

:mad:The princess credit card from barclay bank is a fraud....my credit line was reduced from $13,000 to $1750 without notice.. I had paid my card off on a monthly basis. I was charging to the card to get cruise points but now it will take forever. Don't think Princess cruise would like to be associated with a company like this... I am not the only one that this happened to...if it happened to you please call princess and let them know that even thro they have not control over the bank card thier name is on it and they should be responsible for the lack of consideration Barclay has for princess customers. If this has happened to you please reply here and let me know if you have heard from Barclay..they are not taking any phone calls concerning this matter..THEY REFUSE TO TALK TO ANYONE ...now that's customer service!!!!....thanks for hearing me out:eek:

 

I hear you, but I have to believe there is more going on than indiscriminately lowering your credit line. Some other credit situation can very well have an effect on this card as well as other credit venues.

[Carolyn R]

I can't say that I have a huge amount of sympathy if you're charging more than $1750 per month and paying it off on a monthly basis. Considering you have to spend around $100,000 on the cards (depending on the cruiseline) to get a free cruise, I don't find them a viable option anyways. Whether Princess has their name on the card or not, they don't have control over the terms of the financial contract that you agreed to with Barclay's.

 

I agree with the original poster. You should be able to charge the cost of a cruise to your Princess credit card. Very few cruises for two would be less than $1750. Crazy times. Probably Barclay is in trouble too.

[can786]

I personally think the term "fraud" is a bit harsh. Barclay's is a business, just like any other. With all of the pressure on banks lately and the tightening of the credit market it is not any great surprise that they did this. I also have a card with a ridiculously high credit line and also pay my balance in full each month. I am aware of the fact that they could cut my credit limit at any time and I would be fine with it. There are enough other reward cards out there that I would simply get points for something else with my charging.

[PescadoAmarillo]

You should be able to charge the cost of a cruise to your Princess credit card.

You're right. Aside from debating the long term value of the card (I'd rather use a different card with better dividends), you'd think that you could at least charge the cost of a Princess cruise to it. But I've read in investment magazines that many, many customers have had their credit limit slashed recently as credit availability dwindles...this is probably just another case in point.

[DanJ]

I can't say that I have a huge amount of sympathy if you're charging more than $1750 per month and paying it off on a monthly basis. Considering you have to spend around $100,000 on the cards (depending on the cruiseline) to get a free cruise, I don't find them a viable option anyways. Whether Princess has their name on the card or not, they don't have control over the terms of the financial contract that you agreed to with Barclay's.

 

Wow, you must not take advantage of reward credit cards much. This is exactly why they have them - so that people who can, put as much as possible on them to earn points in whatever program, and the bank makes more money in merchant fees. I know business people who run hundreds of thousands of dollars through their various reward cars each year to earn points, but it doesn't mean you are rich if you can run a couple thousand a month through it and pay it off.

 

I realize in these times that banks need to reduce their credit exposure, but they should be looking at the people who aren't paying their balances, and tighten up on them. Not tightening up the people who are using the cards for all their purchases and ringing up the fees for the banks, and still paying it off.

 

To the OP, is your spending habit such that the limit isn't enough for single purchases, or just not enough for cumulative expenses on a monthly basis? If you do online banking, you can set up automatic payments to the credit card on a more frequent basis so that it frees up the line on a weekly or even daily basis if you want. Or if you want to spend more than the limit, you can pre-pay the card so that you have a positive balance, and you can still use the card to earn the extra points. I know that this sucks in that you don't get that free period of using their money, but you still end up earning the points.

[CCSSDRC]

 

To the OP, is your spending habit such that the limit isn't enough for single purchases, or just not enough for cumulative expenses on a monthly basis? If you do online banking, you can set up automatic payments to the credit card on a more frequent basis so that it frees up the line on a weekly or even daily basis if you want. Or if you want to spend more than the limit, you can pre-pay the card so that you have a positive balance, and you can still use the card to earn the extra points. I know that this sucks in that you don't get that free period of using their money, but you still end up earning the points.

 

No. I have several cards that will not let me pay more than once a week and will only allow automatic payments once a month. They also will not let me pay more than the balance owed.

 

This is just another tactic to get rid of people who payoff their credit balance by being a pain in the butt and having the customer cancel the card instead of the bank canceling the card. They can then pretend it is your fault.

[Dorset Cruiser]

I always pay for my cruises with a credit card. That way, although I have to pay a commission charge, I do get a lot of protection if the cruiseline suddenly goes belly up:eek: and I really don't think they will all escape this recession period. I try and use my British Airways AE card but a lot of UK retailers do not like dealing with American Express because of their exhorbitant commission charges. So I also use my Tesco Visa card which gives me loyalty points which I can exchange for BA miles (so I don't lose out on the BA miles - we already have enough miles for one return to Canada for our next big holiday and we are trying to get enough miles for the second return ticket by July 2010). We also use credit cards for all our household purchases; food, petrol, clothes etc. etc. in order to get more miles.

 

HOWEVER - I ALWAYS ensure I have enough money in my bank account to pay the credit card bill in full every month - not to do that really is a slippery slope. It does not make sense to have credit card rewards if you are maxed out on the actual card:confused:

[cruzzers]

So far..so good for us with the Princess Barclay card. No deductions in our credit line and we use it for everything we purchase and pay the balance off in full each month. We also have a very high limit and have never had a problem with it. We just put our final payment for our cruise in March, so will have to see what happens with that. We may need to carry another credit card with us when we travel just in case.......Thanks for the update on this se we can keep a watchful eye out.

[smoosh21]

:mad:The princess credit card from barclay bank is a fraud....my credit line was reduced from $13,000 to $1750 without notice.. I had paid my card off on a monthly basis. I was charging to the card to get cruise points but now it will take forever. Don't think Princess cruise would like to be associated with a company like this... I am not the only one that this happened to...if it happened to you please call princess and let them know that even thro they have not control over the bank card thier name is on it and they should be responsible for the lack of consideration Barclay has for princess customers. If this has happened to you please reply here and let me know if you have heard from Barclay..they are not taking any phone calls concerning this matter..THEY REFUSE TO TALK TO ANYONE ...now that's customer service!!!!....thanks for hearing me out:eek:

 

This isn't jsut Princess affiliate card, all banks are doing this, and then dinging your credit score after the fact, so it is a double whammy. I agree that it is ridiculous that a cruise line would have an affinity card with a credit line too low to charge a cruise.

 

but the real issue is that the credit card is not by Princess, it is run by the bank. However, Princess does take a cut from the bank for the affinity association. Most of these cards are not worth the hassle and most people never get the benefit of the points. The truth is that unless you pay off your bill in full each month, you should never have an affinity card as they have higher interest rates.

[Colo Cruiser]

Other interesting reading from another thread on this.....

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=896037

[LARGIN]

Well I guess one can get an American Express Centurion or a Visa Black Card and not worry.. :eek:

[sackman]

This is just another tactic to get rid of people who payoff their credit balance by being a pain in the butt and having the customer cancel the card instead of the bank canceling the card. They can then pretend it is your fault.

 

I understand your frustration with what has happened, but your take on the reasoning behind it is incorrect. The best client a credit card company has is the one who pays off his bill every month. What Barclays is doing is reducing it's potential exposure, nothing more. They're looking at a global recession, and with it a lot of people using their credit cards to live on. They see the amount that they could be on the hook for if all their cards were to be charged up to the max, and they took action to limit that exposure. Don't take it personally.

[jalpert]

I have a friend, a small business owner. It's not a princess card but a frontier card. Per month, he pays his suppliers $30,000 - $50,000 a month on credit cards, and then pays it off. If it's 100K for a cruise, than he'd have several. For some people rewards cards are a big deal...

[jalpert]

I understand your frustration with what has happened, but your take on the reasoning behind it is incorrect. The best client a credit card company has is the one who pays off his bill every month. What Barclays is doing is reducing it's potential exposure, nothing more. They're looking at a global recession, and with it a lot of people using their credit cards to live on. They see the amount that they could be on the hook for if all their cards were to be charged up to the max, and they took action to limit that exposure. Don't take it personally.

 

Sorry, but I don't agree with you. The worst client for a credit card company is the one who pays off his bill every month. If nobody carried a balance, they wouldn't make any money.

[sackman]

Sorry, but I don't agree with you. The worst client for a credit card company is the one who pays off his bill every month. If nobody carried a balance, they wouldn't make any money.

 

Sorry, but you're incorrect. I work for a bank and I know how it works. The credit card companies make a small percentage off of every transaction. They have to pay for the money they lend out. That impacts their balance sheet. The fees that are generated from the interchange don't require any capital offset. Your thoughts are a common misunderstanding of how things work.

[spingal]

I checked my credit limit and it has not changed. I use the card mainly to pay for cruises. I get double points when I pay for cruises. To date, I have gotten 2 $100 on board credits from using the card.

[Bruin Steve]

I don't have a Princess credit card...

But I do have a Royal Caribbean Visa and a Celebrity Amex and an American Airlines MasterCard...

 

I have excellent credit due to high income and net worth, extremely low debt and spotless payment record, etc. So my credit limits on each card are pretty high. I have never had a bank LOWER my limits...In fact, they periodically raise them.

 

My thought if this ever happened to me would be that someone at the bank made a mistake...and I would be calling them to have them correct it...

 

The only possibilities I can think of for why the OP encountered this are:

1) Bank's mistake

2) Some drastic change in the OP's credit rating (bankruptcy, lost job/income, house into foreclosure, etc.

3) Misstatements discovered on credit application.

 

Even with banks in trouble, they don't usually take that drastic an action on an existing credit card client with a good payment record.

 

BTW, I've had my RCCL Visa only since about late 2005 and I've already taken one free cruise (June 2007 on Liberty of the Seas) and halready have over the 125,000 points needed for another one...

[jalpert]

Sorry, but you're incorrect. I work for a bank and I know how it works. The credit card companies make a small percentage off of every transaction. They have to pay for the money they lend out. That impacts their balance sheet. The fees that are generated from the interchange don't require any capital offset. Your thoughts are a common misunderstanding of how things work.

 

I think we're talking about 2 different things. There are always good times to use credit cards, but what I meant was this. People who tend to carry a balance are people who tend to use credit cards more. People who can pay cash (at least people I know) usually do. When I said banks wouldn't make money of nobody carried a balance, I believe that is true because if nobody had to carry a balance, credit card spending would be a fraction of what it is now. That would lead to less transactions etc... I don't think I did a good job explaining.

[BalconyBumz]

It's the banks, not Princess. I have a very prominent credit card that I use, I have a credit score that is so high it's ridiculous, and my card was cut from a $25,000 limit to $8,500 for no reason at all.

[DanJ]

No. I have several cards that will not let me pay more than once a week and will only allow automatic payments once a month. They also will not let me pay more than the balance owed.

 

 

 

How do they stop you? I go onto my online banking, select Visa or whatever from my list of payments, make a payment and submit it. If I buy gas with my Visa, I can come home, logon, and pay the gas off the Visa. Then tomorrow I can do the same with my groceries. The day after, for dinner out. I can set it to make a recurring payment weekly, or I can manually set up post-dated payments for more frequently if I wanted to. I don't do all these things because my limit is fine for what I want to do. But if my limit was $2000, and I wanted to buy a $3000 TV, I could go online, put $2000 onto my Visa before I buy, then afterwards, I would only have $1000 left on there to pay. You just need to factor in a couple days after payments for them to clear the balance.

 

A credit limit is exactly that, not a monthly spending limit. If you want to spend more than the limit, you have to make room for it. Maybe in the old days when you had to mail a check, it was more difficult to clear limit room, but nowadays, it's so much easier.

[ocnlvr3]

I disagree with the statement people who have the cash usually pay with cash. I always use a credit card for miles and points even though I have the cash. I figure it's better earning interest for me then giving it to them:) I try to keep my cash as long as possible!!

 

 

Andrea

[BlueCat1105]

I disagree with the statement people who have the cash usually pay with cash. I always use a credit card for miles and points even though I have the cash. I figure it's better earning interest for me then giving it to them:) I try to keep my cash as long as possible!!

 

 

Andrea

 

I agree wholeheartedly. I pay my credit card off every month, but I use it for everything I buy, save for some small incidentals, like lunch in the cafeteria at work once in awhile. I've done this for years.

BC

[Pia1913]

I agree wholeheartedly. I pay my credit card off every month, but I use it for everything I buy, save for some small incidentals, like lunch in the cafeteria at work once in awhile. I've done this for years.

 

BC

 

I go to Starbucks almost daily; $2.08 for a Vente. On the card.