Urgent

[2009lawyer]

my limit is 5000

[2009lawyer]

MY CC company said they don't have a set limit, but some merchants can force the transaction to go through....no idea what that means..

[CruisenLexie]

If you are talking about a debit card then use it as a credit card. That will take an extra day or two to hit your account instead of having the funds come out immediately. Your money will be transferred over before they take the money from your account. Can you set up a transfer before you leave so the funds are automatically transferred the day you are paid?

 

If you are talking about transferring money to make a payment on a credit card before the chanrge hits your account then it depends on what credit card you use. American Express payments affect available credit immediately, many others do not, and some do not even allow payments to be made on the same day you set them up. You could set up a transfer before you leave home for the day you receive your pay.

 

Good luck.

[VibeGuy]

At least on my 17-night NCL, each shipboard purchase triggered an additional card authorization, in realtime. The aggregate charges were not settled until the end of the cruise with a single transaction, but *everything* (including a single glass of wine) was directly authed, and this was back in 1999. The amount of the final charge did not add up to the authorized amount, though, due to added gratuity here and there, so they took a final auth for the entire amount which was declined. The remaining auths stayed pending for up to 14 additional days.

 

So how'd they deal with it? They allowed me to phone the issuer on their dime, and when that didn't result in anything productive (they said my total authorized charges were ~80% of my limit, and they wouldn't override it due to "fraud" concerns), the purser's office was happy to let me disembark with a promise that the Miami office would re-run the charges after the auths had expired. I was absolutely, under *no* circumstances, going to give them a second card because they did hold valid auths on the first card and the risk of having *both* cards get whomped with a huge charge while I still had some travel to do was simply unacceptable, and it wasn't any of their business whether or not I was travelling with a card in reserve. It wouldn't have been malice on their part, just an accounting "glitch", albeit one that could have stranded me in Provence indefinitely.

 

Oh.

 

Wait.

 

I *totally* screwed that up. I had to come home!

 

E

[jenjens1023]

i guess my question is what woudl have happened if she had not been able to pay it off at all?

 

Dishes. Lots and lots of dishes! (sorry, I know it's a serious question, but that keeps going through my mind...)

[2009lawyer]

my bank debit card allows me to instantly transfer my cash onto my CC but i have to do it online so i have to do that at 6am. the ship arrives in rome at 4am...i wonder when disemb. will begin?

[ckr31]

I then suggest you go to the pursers desk everyday ,and check your balance also yo can transfer money online from your account at home to your credit card account online in the internet cafe.oh your credit card repersenitive have been told by their management to done give you that info.matter of fack people dont know this but debit cards depending on the bank wont be denied at point of sales swipes your bank will just give you what they call a over draft fee.think about it you never ever in the last 5 years seen anyones debit card denied at your local walmart check out

[Caribbean Sunsets]

Does your debit card have a daily limit? Most do and mine does. I have had mine raised in the past and where it's not with a major bank, it was done with a quick trip to the bank.

[2009lawyer]

basically i just have to make sure i can access the internet for 3 minutes at 6am and transfer the direct deposit to my credit card on June 10th (day of departure)....

[ckr31]

remember the time difference you will be going by your local time at your bank not the time in Rome or where ever take that into concideration

[2009lawyer]

i know...the money is deposited at 12am JUNE 10th (from 9th to 10th) Ontario-Eastern Time, so add 6 hours...meaning 6am in ROME!

[Caribbean Sunsets]

matter of fack people dont know this but debit cards depending on the bank wont be denied at point of sales swipes your bank will just give you what they call a over draft fee.think about it you never ever in the last 5 years seen anyones debit card denied at your local walmart check out

 

I've had my debit card declined by a merchant before, and it was only a couple of days before purchasing my home where I knew there was a tremendous amount of cash in the account.

 

Family members who spent the winter abroad used their debit card to pay for their accomodations were declined as well. They had made other purchases the day before but with the time difference, both charges hit their bank on the same day and resulted in the decline. He called the bank collect from overseas, and they explained what happened. We laugh about it now but it wasn't so funny when it happened.

[ckr31]

Again Lawyer your best bet is to keep up with your spending you may have to cancel a couple excursions but thats life at least you wont have all kinds of problems when you return back home

[Embracedbylife]

Isn't there an ATM machine on the ship? If there is than you can just figure out what your balance is by getting a print out the day before departing, and whatever you can't cover on your credit card just take out cash and pay the balance in cash? I would think there must be an ATM?

 

Another final thought - some companies allow their employees to get their vacation pay upfront before their vacation for circumstances such as yours. In fact my company has it as part of their union contract - to allow employees to get vacation pay upfront so long as they provide 4 weeks notice requesting the pay check prior to vacation. It's just an idea so you'd have it ready before you go...check with payroll and see if they do this!

[Pam in CA]

One thing to be aware of is that you may not be able to use the ship's Internet at 6am on disembarkation day. I believe they shut everything down overnight and purge the remaining minutes so it's ready to go with the new embarking passengers. Also, whenever I've made an electronic transfer of money, unless it's from one account to another in the same bank, it's not accessible for 24 hours even though it's showing up in my bank account or shown as a payment on my CC.

 

Toto gave the best advice which is to check your onboard account a couple of times while on the cruise to make sure you're not overspending. If it looks like you are, you may have to forego a tour or change it to a less-expensive one.

[ckr31]

we try to plain much in advance for our vacation i ran out of money years ago in Mexico and swore it would never happen again on a cruise I make sure i and at least $150dol per day plus 30% over so on a 7 day cruise thats $1,300dol no less and $2000cash and we never spend more than that my last 7 day cruise I brung $1000dol cash back home with me and we always have a great time going to special restaurants and my wife always get a unlimted pass to the spa and I do as well from time to time

[sp2]

Is the internet cafe open on the morning of disembarkation?? I have never tried it, but I think they have to cut off access at some point very early in order to finalize everyone's bills.

 

If I was you I would be checking with my credit card company to get the limit raised so that you don't have to spend your trip worrying about it, and you just enjoy your cruise.

[ckr31]

Lawyer Pam made a great point you can go and still have a good time just keep up with spending and you will be fine

[ckr31]

if this makes you fel better i have read on this board people that go on cruises and dont spend any money on the ship at all or very little.One lade told me at the end of her cruise she had only spent like $200bucs and that was for tips

[sp2]

I doubt Princess woudl take a CANADIAN DEBIT CARD...correct me if I am wrong....I get paid on JUNE 10th, at midnight EASTERN TIME, which is 6am JUNE 10th ROME TIME, so I have to then at 6am TRANSFER my money through online banking....gonna be a hassle but shoudl be doable!

 

I take it you are Canadian and banking with a Canadian bank. Most online banking sites that I am familiar with (RBC, Scotiabank, etc) allow you to set up a pending transfer for the future date that you wish the money to be transferred. So you could do this too before you leave, to have the transfer take place on your pay day.

 

Its also been my experience with Canadian credit cards that it takes a few days before the charge appears on your Visa anyways (perhaps because of the currency conversion.) There always seems to be a lag between the transaction date and the posting date. However, I believe that when Princess takes your credit card info upon boarding, they do a pre-authorization which goes against your available credit card limit right away. Perhaps Princess customer service could tell you how much they will pre-authorize right away upon boarding. Its probably a set amount per day.

[Spender Nui]

Have you considered contacting your credit card company and asking to have your limit increased?

[Strawberry]

On the last two cruises we were on (one as recently as last week) the internet was shut down at 11:00 pm the night before disembarkation.

[Spender Nui]

I have a publication from the internet cafe on our last emerald Princess Cruise in November, 2008. It states "time plan minutes can be used until you disembark the ship".

[GFLeeper]

At the end of a 28 day trans-Pac cruise a few years ago, the Purser's Office informed us that our credit card was not valid. Although the charge was several thousand dollars, we were nowhere near our credit limit. After a long wait in line on the second to the last day of the cruise, the assistant purser got the credit card company on the phone but they would not provide us with any answers other than your card has been canceled. I, of course, was acutely aware that everyone else in line knew we were financial bums.

 

Fortunately we had another credit card on which to apply the charges.

 

When we got back home, we found out that there had been a security breach for a large number of credit cards, They had all been canceled and new credit cards had been issued. The new cards were indeed among the mail waiting for us at the post office.

 

We informed the credit card company of our extreme displeasure. At least now we will get an email about such major changes.

 

George

[trevor182]

You can always pay off part or all of your account at any time with cash while on board. I'm guessing that you are saying that anything over $1300 will put you over your limit. Just make sure to pay it down with cash if it starts getting up there.

 

By the way, when you check in your card will have an authorization against it for a certain amount of money ($300 or $500, I'm not sure) then if you exceed that amount they will put through an additional authorization. So if you have limited credit, and have say $1100 in total charges, you still might not be able to charge additional because an updated authorization might not go through.