Credit Card authorization policy

[BenTheMan]

Hello there,

 

I hope that the experienced Celebrity cruisers on these boards might be able to assist me in a matter regarding credit card authorizations. Having worked at hotels in the US and in Europe, I know that hotels will authorize a certain amount of money (either a set amount per night for the whole stay or a general amount that is monitored and increased if necessary during your stay). From what I understand, cruise ships are doing the same, but each line seems to be handling it differently.

 

What is Celebrity's policy regarding the authorization? I am going on a 14 night cruise to the Caribbean on the Constellation in April.

 

Having a certain limit on the card I will use for travelling and staying in hotels pre- and post-cruise, I want to make sure I don't run out of it. If necessary I could either have my bank increase my limit or use a second card (which I was not planning to take with me for the cruise).

[Christine Frances]

Hello there,

 

I hope that the experienced Celebrity cruisers on these boards might be able to assist me in a matter regarding credit card authorizations. Having worked at hotels in the US and in Europe, I know that hotels will authorize a certain amount of money (either a set amount per night for the whole stay or a general amount that is monitored and increased if necessary during your stay). From what I understand, cruise ships are doing the same, but each line seems to be handling it differently.

 

What is Celebrity's policy regarding the authorization? I am going on a 14 night cruise to the Caribbean on the Constellation in April.

 

Having a certain limit on the card I will use for travelling and staying in hotels pre- and post-cruise, I want to make sure I don't run out of it. If necessary I could either have my bank increase my limit or use a second card (which I was not planning to take with me for the cruise).

 

 

I am not sure about X's authorization policy but I think it would be prudent to bring a second credit card as backup in case of emergencies ie something unforeseen happens to your primary card.

[EithneMay]

We always bring a second card, just in case. Better to have it than be stuck.

[BenTheMan]

My fiancee will have her CC with her for the cruise, so that should be covered. Still, I am trying to figure out which one to provide for Check-In.

[If only]

Just make sure you advise your credit card company where you are travelling so you will not have a problem.

[candbgirl]

I too have wondered about this. Hopefully some one will come along and help us out. I know that Holland America authorizes $60 per day. I can't for the life of me remember what Celebrity did last year.

[CHEZMARYLOU]

I'm can't figure out how Celebrity does it. I have my credit card set up to email me whenever a charge is posted without the card being swiped. On our last 3 cruises I checked my email and had daily emails from my CC that X had charged an amount to the account. These charges all showed as pending when I returned home and eventually disappeared when the final bill was charged.

 

From this it seemed that X periodically charged some, but not all, of our daily purchases to the CC. None of them added together exceeded our limit.

 

I do advise notifying all of your CC companies that you will be traveling, being very specific as to where and on what dates. One cruise we did was a B2B and even though we notified our CC company of our travel plans they started to reject the charges on the 2nd cruise. I guess after the final bill was charged on the 1st cruise they thought we had disembarked and someone was using our account. Several calls by X to the CC company with us standing there and verifying our identity got everything fixed.

 

Mary Lou

[Hollywood Traveler]

I had exactly the same experience as Chezmarylou. A lot of pending charges (really holds, I think) but only the amounts I had charged on board. A couple of days after the cruise the pending charges disappeared and the total was charged to the card. I never saw any evidence of any kind of standard per-day hold put on the card, and never anything more than the actual charges.

[fleckle]

...... If necessary I could either have my bank increase my limit or use a second card (which I was not planning to take with me for the cruise).

I agree with the others that you should always bring a second card and leave it locked up in your safe. That way if one card should be lost, stolen or compromised, you just cancel it and still have the other card immediately available to use.

 

As "If only" says, be sure to notify the credit card company in advance of when and where you will be traveling.

 

If there is more than one person who charges to the account and you will be using your cards at different locations, inform them of that situation also.

[billie5]

One should always have a backup credit card. Strange things can happen.

 

A few years ago I was in Italy for a couple of weeks, and, of course, had notified my credit card company. During the trip I went online to make several overnight hotel reservations. Unknown to me, the hotel reservation company was in Istanbul. Evidently, when charges suddenly started appearing in Istanbul, my credit card was frozen.

[Hlitner]

We are not sure of Celebrities policy, but our knowledge of HA might shed some light on the subject. HA puts a "credit hold" on the cruisers credit card that is equal to $60 per person/day. Once the cruise is completed and the actual amount is charged, the credit hold is released. This can be a problem for cruisers that do not have a high credit limit (especially on longer cruises). My advice to the OP is that if you are concerned about a credit hold policy you should call Celebrity and ask them for their specific policy.

 

I should add that Credit Hold policies are pretty common throughout the travel industry (hotels, rental car companies, cruise lines, etc) which is why many frequent travelers are willing to pay an annual fee for an American Express card since they do not have specific credit limits.

 

Hank

[sjaak]

On our last cruise, only 7 days Med, on the 3rd day we found a letter in our "mailbox" when returning to our cabin in the evening. We were told there were some issues with our creditcard and kindly requested to show up - with our card - at the desk on deck 3.

 

They said that a (new) swipe of our card probably would solve the problem, but the next day we again received a letter. This time we asked a little further and it seemed that every day they try if the costs made onboard can be booked on the card. They very politely told us it seemed we had not enough money on the card, the poor guy seems a little embarrased to tell us so :(

 

At the moment I didn't quite understand, but after a night sleep I remembered (which I should have before using that particular creditcard for that cruise) that I just had booked our flights from Belgium to Miami for our next cruise. That almost "ate" our whole limit.

 

No problem for us, we went back to deck 3 with another cc and problem solved. So, what I understand is that they everyday check if the daily amount of costs made onboard can be booked on your cc. They do not charge your card, just check.

 

(I hope everyone understand what I mean, sometimes its difficult to explain things in English, it would be much easier if you all understood Dutch :D)

[candbgirl]

I understand. Thanks for explaining that situation.

[billie5]

Ja. Het is volkomen klaar. :)

 

Bill

[Sloop-JohnB]

TO SJAAK,

 

Excellent explanation !!

 

And this is a practice that is quite common in the Travel Industry... be it for Cruises or Hotels on land... the Operators want to make sure you can "afford" the charges you are making daily on their account... they'd rather be out 1 Day's money than a whole Week's worth !!

 

As for the Dutch...

 

BILLIE5 put it quite well...

 

Ja. Het is volkomen klaar. :)

Bill

 

OR

 

"Yes. It is quite clear"

 

In my case, I gotta love GOOGLE TRANSLATE another way that the internet can bring the world together.

 

Cheers!