Sadly, I am finished with Carnival

[chapel29]

Sorry you had such a bad experience. But sadly, holds are everywhere. All our local gas stations have an automatic $99 hold EACH time you slide your cc in the gas pump. $99 is the most you can pump in one transaction, so they do a check to make sure they can get the max amount if you pump that much. It usually clears off within 24-48 hours with the actual charge immediate. I only found this out because they were having a problem with the pump and we slid our card multiple times trying to get it to work. While standing at the pump doing this, my phone rang. It was the cc company calling to see if all the holds/possible charges were legit! Went inside to see what was going on and was explained the process. My advice: Up your cc limit. Holds won't be a problem.

 

As to the bolded part... this just doesn't happen very often in this day and age. Thanks to the housing/credit bust, it is extremely hard to get large amounts of unsecured credit even if you have great credit scores.

 

Case in point, we have a few credit cards which we only use for very small things and emergencies. We pay them off every month completely, if we even use them at all. We own our house and have student loans and a car loan. We have above average credit scores (good on the FICO scoring). On two of our credit cards they actually reduced the amount of our credit line due to changes in their credit scoring.

 

My advice is always the same, use cash. Yes we use our one credit card to book hotel rooms and rent cars, but we always pay cash when it is time to pay up. Unless the charge is being charged that day, ie. booking a deal hotel room on that other online TA where you pay for the room at booking, we just don't risk having a balance on our cards and the ridiculous interest rates out there.

 

Edit: Meant to clarify, we don't actually carry around cash. We have a debit card that earns reward points. When we book our hotel room, we use the credit card. The hold goes on that and when we pay we hand over our debit card for the points. No "holds" this way, the charge is put through as a normal retail transaction.

[cmdknw]

If you use cash, you don't have a hold. It states there will be a hold on the website. Sounds like someone didn't read the info they were given.

[nbsjcruiser]

I feel sorry for you but will say a couple things. First, I think that other cruise lines place holds like this so you won't be finding it any different unless of course if you use cash or debit which might be a better option for you. Secondly, you should try other lines anyway. Carnival is good for its niche market but to really enjoy cruising you should try other lines. People who stay on Carnival all the time for reasons other than monetary ones are doing themselves a disservice.

[NewKansasKruiser]

I'll have to politely disagree with you on a couple parts. :) My credit score is excellent. Above excellent. I'm the top of the scale literally. We have never walked away from a debt, never been late, pay early for things and we charge literally EVERYTHING on our card to get free hotel rooms (we love to travel). We have several cards available, but the one is used almost 100% of the time. We are very responsible and watch our credit closely. We get 0% interest (.9% on a new truck very recently...that was the most we've EVER paid!) if we choose to take out a loan for a vehicle. My son just bought a beautiful new 2012 Camaro RS & SS (2) package and used us as a co-signee just to get the interest rate we get. We aren't rich, but we are very responsible. Anyway, I've never had a credit card take away available credit. I also work (everyday) in a business that my job is opening credit lines for people. Trust me, there is still a lot of credit out there to give people. :) My advice is still the same to the OP, get your credit line raised so the holds aren't a problem. And use the cards responsibly! Never carry a balance except for an emergency. We never buy anything we can't afford. We charge everything (gas, groceries, trips, Carnival Cruises, etc). And in return we get dozens of hotel nights per year for free. :)

 

 

As to the bolded part... this just doesn't happen very often in this day and age. Thanks to the housing/credit bust, it is extremely hard to get large amounts of unsecured credit even if you have great credit scores.

 

Case in point, we have a few credit cards which we only use for very small things and emergencies. We pay them off every month completely, if we even use them at all. We own our house and have student loans and a car loan. We have above average credit scores (good on the FICO scoring). On two of our credit cards they actually reduced the amount of our credit line due to changes in their credit scoring.

 

My advice is always the same, use cash. Yes we use our one credit card to book hotel rooms and rent cars, but we always pay cash when it is time to pay up. Unless the charge is being charged that day, ie. booking a deal hotel room on that other online TA where you pay for the room at booking, we just don't risk having a balance on our cards and the ridiculous interest rates out there.

 

Edit: Meant to clarify, we don't actually carry around cash. We have a debit card that earns reward points. When we book our hotel room, we use the credit card. The hold goes on that and when we pay we hand over our debit card for the points. No "holds" this way, the charge is put through as a normal retail transaction.

[Simplertimes]

I'll have to politely disagree with you on a couple parts. :) My credit score is excellent. Above excellent. I'm the top of the scale literally. We have never walked away from a debt, never been late, pay early for things and we charge literally EVERYTHING on our card to get free hotel rooms (we love to travel). We have several cards available, but the one is used almost 100% of the time. We are very responsible and watch our credit closely. We get 0% interest (.9% on a new truck very recently...that was the most we've EVER paid!) if we choose to take out a loan for a vehicle. My son just bought a beautiful new 2012 Camaro RS & SS (2) package and used us as a co-signee just to get the interest rate we get. We aren't rich, but we are very responsible. Anyway, I've never had a credit card take away available credit. I also work (everyday) in a business that my job is opening credit lines for people. Trust me, there is still a lot of credit out there to give people. :) My advice is still the same to the OP, get your credit line raised so the holds aren't a problem. And use the cards responsibly! Never carry a balance except for an emergency. We never buy anything we can't afford. We charge everything (gas, groceries, trips, Carnival Cruises, etc). And in return we get dozens of hotel nights per year for free. :)

 

Well, I have to politely disagree with you on this. We also have comparable credit to you and we've had credit limits decreased because of non-use. Walmart, of all places, decreased us down to a $100 credit limit because we hadn't used it for 6 months! Another card closed it completely because we hadn't used it for over a year. Note to self and others: if you have a credit card and limit that you want to keep, charge a tank of gas or even a pack of gum every month or so to keep the card "active."

[sharpasice]

Here is my story:

 

 

 

Today we had to cancel our November cruise. We made weekly payments on various cc and debit cards. One of the cc is now cancelled. The other cc have a zero balance. We tried to get Carnival to refund us in another method (check, all into the checking accounts), but we were once again told, sorry this is our practices. We were told it's not their problem that an $1000 credit will sit on our credit cards. As far as the cancelled card, they will still process the refund and when they get the rejection, they will contact me then to schedule a check refund which would take 6-8 weeks to process. Ugh!

 

I spoke to multiple supervisors and explained over and over again the problems I've had with Carnival and their financial practices with customers, but my complaints fall on deaf ears

 

 

We had this exact thing happen to us on RCI a number of years ago. I had to cancel a cruise and had used multiple credit cards to make payment on that cruise. One of the payments was for $250 ..they told me the exact same thing..once they got a rejection due to the account being closed..they would send a check ..well they never got the rejection..so they say..and I never got a check! It was long and drawn out..we argued back and forth..I called the credit card numerous times and was told RCI received a rejection and it was out of their hands. RCI insisted they never got it..so I lost out..We now always use ONE credit card to make payments and for our next cruise we are in the process of building OBC and will use cash.

[chapel29]

I'll have to politely disagree with you on a couple parts. :) My credit score is excellent. Above excellent. I'm the top of the scale literally. We have never walked away from a debt, never been late, pay early for things and we charge literally EVERYTHING on our card to get free hotel rooms (we love to travel). We have several cards available, but the one is used almost 100% of the time. We are very responsible and watch our credit closely. We get 0% interest (.9% on a new truck very recently...that was the most we've EVER paid!) if we choose to take out a loan for a vehicle. My son just bought a beautiful new 2012 Camaro RS & SS (2) package and used us as a co-signee just to get the interest rate we get. We aren't rich, but we are very responsible. Anyway, I've never had a credit card take away available credit. I also work (everyday) in a business that my job is opening credit lines for people. Trust me, there is still a lot of credit out there to give people. :) My advice is still the same to the OP, get your credit line raised so the holds aren't a problem. And use the cards responsibly! Never carry a balance except for an emergency. We never buy anything we can't afford. We charge everything (gas, groceries, trips, Carnival Cruises, etc). And in return we get dozens of hotel nights per year for free. :)

 

And for that I applaud you. If I was saying that you personally wouldn't be able to get approved for a credit increase, then you would be right on. But you yourself just reinforced what I posted as a general statement about the state of the credit market... You have above excellent credit. The average american (read majority) does not have above excellent credit. Above excellent means that you are near or at an 800+ FICO credit score. That is astounding and in this day an age very hard to pull off.

 

Did you know that the average american only has a credit score between 650 and 700? That is considered Fair to Good. Did you also know that if you have a 650 FICO score, not only is it harder to get a mortgage but you are also going to pay a higher interest rate?

 

Same with credit cards, a 650 can certainly get you a credit card but you are going to have a much lower credit limit (read $1000 to $3000 if your lucky) and a higher interest rate.

 

No offense please to the OP with this next statement, but from the sound of her low credit limit, and that fact that one of her cards was cancelled (whether is was by her own doing or the banks doing, it does not matter in the eyes of automatic credit scoring) she probably does not have anywhere near your credit score. As a matter of fact a cancelled credit card will automatically lower your credit score. No bank is going to see a $3000 credit limit and bump that limit up to over $10,000 unless, like you said, they have remarkably excellent credit.

 

Now I will say that the two credit cards that we had that were bumped down went from over $10,000 to $6,000 and $5,000. It was really more of a slap in the face since we had both cards for over 5 years and never carried a balance on either one. When we called the banks they told us that it was an automatic reduction done across the board since their credit scoring had changed. The one bank offered to raise it back up to $8,000 as a courtesy since we were such "good customers". Note that it had nothing to do with my "very good" credit score.

[Cactuscruise]

For the OP I totally feel for ya. I don't understand why holds are placed on credit cards. It makes no sense to me. It is just an inconvenience. :(

 

Holds are placed on credit and debit cards so the company involved will be sure to get their money. Many companies do this, it's nothing new. Usually the hold is released once the company receives payment, which can sometimes take up to a week or more.

[FloridaGram]

OP, I am truly sorry you had to go through this. Thank goodness now it is the past and a lesson learned. Next time you will be able to do something to avoid this. But this could have happened on any vacation, an airline or hotel or another cruise line would have done the same thing.

 

Thank you for giving all the rest of us a heads up that this could happen. I just went to pay off the balance on my cc, even though it is not due, so that my credit used will be 0 before I sail on Saturday.

 

Wishing you much happiness in your future cruises!

[S.S.Oceanlover]

OP, I am truly sorry you had to go through this. Thank goodness now it is the past and a lesson learned. Next time you will be able to do something to avoid this. But this could have happened on any vacation, an airline or hotel or another cruise line would have done the same thing.

 

Thank you for giving all the rest of us a heads up that this could happen. I just went to pay off the balance on my cc, even though it is not due, so that my credit used will be 0 before I sail on Saturday.

 

Wishing you much happiness in your future cruises!

 

I wonder what the minimum availability on your card has to be if you plan on spending more than $375. :eek:

 

Bill

[tomsuelaw]

Thanks for posting this OP, I appreciate the heads-up. So sorry this happened to you.

[NewKansasKruiser]

I have no idea on the Walmart CC as we don't do cards like that (they benefit the store, not me IMHO).

 

Well, I have to politely disagree with you on this. We also have comparable credit to you and we've had credit limits decreased because of non-use. Walmart, of all places, decreased us down to a $100 credit limit because we hadn't used it for 6 months! Another card closed it completely because we hadn't used it for over a year. Note to self and others: if you have a credit card and limit that you want to keep, charge a tank of gas or even a pack of gum every month or so to keep the card "active."

[NewKansasKruiser]

Actually, 850 is the top FICO score and I've earned my way to the top. :) Like I said, we aren't rich, we are VERY responsible. It is possible for the average middle American with 2.2 children to do it. I was a stay at home Mom for many years, then returned to work for fun very recently. I honestly have never had a CC lower my limit. My two twenty something children have never had it either. They both started out with low limits and have worked their way up and both have excellent credit histories and reports.

 

And you are right that a cancelled card will lower your #. And a over zealous car salesman doing 3 hard credit pulls will also (note angry face here LOL When we co-signed for our sons new Camaro, we went in and told the salesman exactly what we had pre-qualified for and with who. He did THREE hard credit pulls for absolutely NO reason. Lowered our # temporarily a few points and he got an angry phone call because of it. I'm sure he gets bonus $$ for doing that, but he maybe will think twice before doing it again to someone).

 

Back to the origianal point...try to get your available credit line increased OP. LOL

 

And for that I applaud you. If I was saying that you personally wouldn't be able to get approved for a credit increase, then you would be right on. But you yourself just reinforced what I posted as a general statement about the state of the credit market... You have above excellent credit. The average american (read majority) does not have above excellent credit. Above excellent means that you are near or at an 800+ FICO credit score. That is astounding and in this day an age very hard to pull off.

 

Did you know that the average american only has a credit score between 650 and 700? That is considered Fair to Good. Did you also know that if you have a 650 FICO score, not only is it harder to get a mortgage but you are also going to pay a higher interest rate?

 

Same with credit cards, a 650 can certainly get you a credit card but you are going to have a much lower credit limit (read $1000 to $3000 if your lucky) and a higher interest rate.

 

No offense please to the OP with this next statement, but from the sound of her low credit limit, and that fact that one of her cards was cancelled (whether is was by her own doing or the banks doing, it does not matter in the eyes of automatic credit scoring) she probably does not have anywhere near your credit score. As a matter of fact a cancelled credit card will automatically lower your credit score. No bank is going to see a $3000 credit limit and bump that limit up to over $10,000 unless, like you said, they have remarkably excellent credit.

 

Now I will say that the two credit cards that we had that were bumped down went from over $10,000 to $6,000 and $5,000. It was really more of a slap in the face since we had both cards for over 5 years and never carried a balance on either one. When we called the banks they told us that it was an automatic reduction done across the board since their credit scoring had changed. The one bank offered to raise it back up to $8,000 as a courtesy since we were such "good customers". Note that it had nothing to do with my "very good" credit score.