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When do onboard costs hit your credit card


crayola1932
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Do our onboard costs hit our credit card each day as we incur the costs, or only at the end of the cruise?

 

PS

I just answered my own question, by searching the forum. I would have deleted this thread, but couldn't figure out how to delete it. Evidently they put a big hold on your card at the beginning (e.g. $300) and then increase it as your daily costs go beyond that amount. So bottom line, yes, our credit card incurs the costs right away.

My apologies for not thinking to search the forum before I posted the thread.

Edited by crayola1932
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But note that at least some credit card companies, i.e., Amex, do not automatically release the daily holds when the final charge goes through if the holds do not EXACTLY match the total. On my last cruise, NCL put through a final change of 5300, and there already were holds of about 5100, and it took Amex 3 weeks and about 5 calls to get them to release the 5100 of holds.

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Do our onboard costs hit our credit card each day as we incur the costs, or only at the end of the cruise?

The cruise line will run authorizations periodically throughout the cruise. On the final day, the cruise line will run the final balance. Your credit card company "decides" if the authorizations are cleared by the final charge (most don't) and how long to keep the authorizations. They don't hurt anything, but will tie up your credit line for a while.

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I use an AMEX, and while they may run holds I have never seen one on my account and I check daily while on board. I suspect it depends on the realtionship you have with the CC issuer. Final charges usually appear within 48 hours of disembarking.

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But note that at least some credit card companies, i.e., Amex, do not automatically release the daily holds when the final charge goes through if the holds do not EXACTLY match the total. On my last cruise, NCL put through a final change of 5300, and there already were holds of about 5100, and it took Amex 3 weeks and about 5 calls to get them to release the 5100 of holds.

 

Ouch!

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make sure you have plenty of money on your charge card. In my case, they have held around $300 per day, so thats $2100 being held, then at the end of the cruise, they charge your card, say you spent $1800, that $2100 won't drop off the same day, so you need to make sure you have at least the combined total available, so in my case, $3900. You can also put a cash deposit down when you board instead of using a credit card. The last couple of cruises i pay my grats online before i board and put cash down, this way my credit cards are not tied up in case of an emergency.

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So a related question:

we have pre-paid all of our DSC/gratuities/whatever you want to call it, and have about $140 OBC that was purchased for our cruise. This is refundable, obviously.

We will be sailing b2b from Vancouver to Seward and back for two weeks.

Will they:

1) accept a low cash deposit, and how low?

2) accept no deposit and then not allow us to charge once we get close to the max on the OBC? and then we can present a card or cash to cover anything else we want?

3) put a lower hold on our credit card?

 

Thanks.

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So a related question:

we have pre-paid all of our DSC/gratuities/whatever you want to call it, and have about $140 OBC that was purchased for our cruise. This is refundable, obviously.

We will be sailing b2b from Vancouver to Seward and back for two weeks.

Will they:

1) accept a low cash deposit, and how low?

2) accept no deposit and then not allow us to charge once we get close to the max on the OBC? and then we can present a card or cash to cover anything else we want?

3) put a lower hold on our credit card?

 

Thanks.

Here's the policy. Since you are on a B2B, you may need to establish a deposit of $300 per person for each leg.

 

https://www.ncl.com/faq#onboard-expenses

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And, please, please, please do not think DEBIT card holds are anything like CREDIT CARD holds.

 

Debit cards can be a real pain.

Don't use a debit card for any payment that is not processed immediately. ... it can take ages for authorisations to be released and all the time your money is unavailable for you to spend.... regular payments might be declined ....

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...3) put a lower hold on our credit card?

 

Thanks.

 

When folks ask this, I am guessing they have a low line of credit on their card. If at all possible, just call and get it raised.

 

FYI- the hold is not a real charge and no interest will be charged by the CC company. It never hits your monthly bill, etc.

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Also don't use Citi bank cc. The one time I used that card it took over 30 days and numerous calls to get the holds off. I usually use American Express and never had issues like with citi bank.

 

 

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Also don't use Citi bank cc. The one time I used that card it took over 30 days and numerous calls to get the holds off. I usually use American Express and never had issues like with citi bank.

Is your credit card charged up to the limit where this matters?

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Is your credit card charged up to the limit where this matters?

 

 

 

No it was no where near the limit but I make a lot or purchases so I can get miles and pay off every month. I never carry a balance however the hold did effect available credit until they released it which took calls to ncl telling them to call citi to release hold.

 

 

 

 

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I have never seen the "hold" impact available credit. Then again, we carry multiple cards with us with plenty of limit on each and never carry a balance other than what is due this month.

 

 

 

Let's say you have a 10k limit on a card and Ncl puts a 5k hold. This would then only allow you to make purchases up to 5k until the pending hold is released. I have been on 21 cruises and only once did I use citi and even after final bill posted and was paid by me the hold was still there. I had to call Ncl and request them to call citi to release it or it would stay as a hold up to 45 days is what citi told me.

I personally will never use citi again with a cruise. I should not have to waste my time calling to get a hold released. Am ex never did that in 20 cruises. Once final bill post holds are released.

 

 

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Let's say you have a 10k limit on a card and Ncl puts a 5k hold. This would then only allow you to make purchases up to 5k until the pending hold is released. ...

 

Does anyone spend $5k on a cruise?

 

Is that the only card you have?

 

We always travel with multiple, just in case.

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Does anyone spend $5k on a cruise?

 

 

 

Is that the only card you have?

 

 

 

We always travel with multiple, just in case.

 

 

 

Well it really is not anyone's business how much anyone spends on a cruise and I was using it as an example on how a hold works on citi bank credit cards

 

 

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Well it really is not anyone's business how much anyone spends on a cruise and I was using it as an example on how a hold works on citi bank credit cards

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Some cards are better to use, eg don't charge foreign currency handling fees so better to use when overseas

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