How much does Carnival put on hold on a CC

[pbsteve]

Does anyone know what carnival puts as a hold on your credit card. I don't use any credit cards, only a bank visa/debit card, but I don't want them putting a massive hold on my account, causing anything to bounce (like mortgage, and car payment, both of which are auto deducted while I'll be on the cruise). So I want to make sure I transfer enough from savings to cover everything, including the hold, S&S charges, and bills.

fyi: we dont buy anything on board but alcohol, and plan to do the cheers program, so I'd rather just fund it with the money ahead of time for that, but have a card registered for any incidental things we didn't think we'd buy but do.

I was planning on registering a bank account I rarely use for anything, and transfering just the funds I used, but clearly with the hold that won't work, since the account only has around 100 in it at any given time (I get good rates for loans from that bank, but hate their checking account rules), and I'd have to transfer over the hold and funds.

[MissMichelle]

My suggestion to avoid any hold is to buy the new cruise cash that ay you don't need to use your debit card.

[ready2cruzagain]

Here is a link that might help

http://www.carnival.com/CMS/Static_T...rdingcard.aspx

[pbsteve]

Yeah I read that but it says they'll increase it if you go over, which on day one I'll be dropping 600. So will they hold 600?

[ready2cruzagain]

Originally Posted by pbsteve

Yeah I read that but it says they'll increase it if you go over, which on day one I'll be dropping 600. So will they hold 600?

There are lots of threads on CC that talk about them placing high holds on credit cards and debit cards. Here is a good link to one where they put a $2100 hold on ones credit card
http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1658365

[bjd2]

I just bought an eGift card at carnival gift cards dot com. There is tax charged on cruise cash and if you don't use it all I have read that you lose it. We will just go to guest services when we board and have the gift card amount applied as OBC. No hold on our card and we won't have to carry as much cash across the country as we travel.

[bmckim]

From what I could tell from the authorizations on my cc, it appears that they will authorize to give about a $150-$200 cushion from your charges. So $200 or so when you board, $700 more when you buy cheers, and then $50-$100 at a time or so if you are buying anything while on board.

Seems like the gift card route (or put cash on it at Guest Services) may be the best route for you.

[Mrs CruisinCritter]

We used our debit card last month and the only hold that Carnival put on it was for $100 on embarkation day. I checked our account at every port to see if they were adding more holds as we went along and they did not. The $100 hold was gone by the time we debarked the ship and the actual S&S charge was on our account by Wednesday. Granted we started the cruise with $400+ in OBC so we only spent around $70 over that which was charged to our card so as long as you don't charge over $100, they shouldn't add any additional holds on your card.

My recommendation for paying for the Cheers program would be to buy yourself an e-giftcard to cover the amount of the program before you go and apply it to your S&S before you purchase Cheers so that won't put any large holds on your bank account. The gift cards can only be purchased in even amounts (25,50,100, etc) so you may have a small amount of money left over that you can use toward a few small purchases onboard, but this should keep the hold on your bank account at $100 unless you charge more than $100 over the gift card amount.

[kelly11]

We had an issue on our second cruise where they held $1000, I think they meant to hold $100 but added another 0 when punching it in. When we arrived home and realized they were holding $1000 we called and Carnival said that the hold would only be in place for 48 hours, 48 hours later it was still there. We called Visa, they said they cant take the hold off unless the merchant tells them to or 15 business days has gone by. We called Carnival asked them to take the hold off, they said Visa is the one who has to take it off, we told them what Visa said but we got nowhere and had to wait 15 business days lol. Im sure that was a fluke, but since then, we set up our account with cash

[ShanteS]

To avoid the holds and too much (or any not done by me for the matter) activity on my accounts and cards I load my S&S card up with a specific amount of cash (typically $400-$500) as soon as I get onboard. That way you know what you have to work with and you don't have to worry about spending over that amount and Carnival placing an additional hold on your account. I hardly ever went over the amount I put in and usually always left the ship with a refund. If need be you can always just add more money to your S&S. Go with cash, it'll be much easier.

[CoquinaKeyNereid]

Also want share that we put down our AmX card and on the last eve, had enough cash on hand to pay off all of our S&S charges. We did so and upon returning home the next afternoon, I checked AmX online and there was no hold. I don't know when they put the hold on or take it off but our card was clear the evening of debarkation day. I don't know if paying it off in cash had anything to do with it or not ???




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[teddygurl28]

okay, so this is my 4th cruise and i have never really thought much about this. but now after getting into some issues with my money- i am really nervous. i have a seriously low credit limit now that i have forced upon myself. im putting the credit card down on my boarding pass stuff.- i know they will put a $200 (approx) hold on it at that time. also i want to get the cheers program. my thought was i will keep the cc on file, get my sign and sail card and as soon as i walk into the lobby go directly to guest services and put down $500. then go to the bar and get the cheers program. by doing that they shouldnt add any holds to my cc right? because they would take it from the 500 cash and 50 obc first? im really just hoping to avoid any big hits (even if they are just holds) on my cc.