Unused OBC

[jveevers]

Any left over OBC can go back to the Credit card or just pull it out as cash and they take the 5% commission.

I heard somewhere that you can cash out whatever leftover OBC at Guest Relations, is this correct and do they take 5%... ? I have purchased a substantial amount of OBC for my August cruise with the idea of cashing out the unused and using it after the cruise.

[Project_gal]

I heard somewhere that you can cash out whatever leftover OBC at Guest Relations, is this correct and do they take 5%... ? I have purchased a substantial amount of OBC for my August cruise with the idea of cashing out the unused and using it after the cruise.

 

I think that you are confusing two different options. You may [it is believed] withdraw cash in the Casino paying a 5% surcharge. Alternatively, refundable OBC will be repaid at the end of the cruise. This will usually be to the credit card you registered at check-in [not that used t purchase the OBC]. I am hoping that we may be allowed to set up a cash account and have the US$ refunded in cash.

[Gordoncruickshank]

I think that you are confusing two different options. You may [it is believed] withdraw cash in the Casino paying a 5% surcharge. Alternatively, refundable OBC will be repaid at the end of the cruise. This will usually be to the credit card you registered at check-in [not that used t purchase the OBC]. I am hoping that we may be allowed to set up a cash account and have the US$ refunded in cash.

 

Sue I have never tried to get it repaid in cash but I have had it repaid to my prepaid US$ Mastercard several times noe which I then used for the rest of our spending post cruise. You can draw it from the card using an ATM. The card I have allows you to draw $200 per day at a £2 charge which is cheaper than using the casino (unless you use the ships ATM which I think costs 3%. You register with a regular CC and switch onto the prepaid card the last night (which stops Celebrity putting a hold over some of your cash as all the holds for purchases on ship are on the CC account).

 

On our last cruises Feb and Mar the excess OBC was repaid onto the card within a couple of days.

 

Gordon

[girlpookie]

i just returned from my cruise Saturday i asked at desk and was told i could get cash last night but i withdrew $300 from casino for $315 US so factoring in the 1.09 exchange X gave me = $344 CAN it was still a better deal than a bank in canada $300 US would have cost me $360 CAN. I left the rest to be credited to my MC it was $367.79US MC exchanged it @ 1.304 and i got $479.47CAN back it was a sweet deal.

[judyzoo]

If I get cash at the casino to use up my OBC, will I get it in US dollars? (I'll be cruising around the Dalmatian Coast, in case that makes a difference).

[need2bespoiled]

If I get cash at the casino to use up my OBC, will I get it in US dollars? (I'll be cruising around the Dalmatian Coast, in case that makes a difference).

 

Yes. Regardless of where in the world you are all transactions on the ship are in US Dollars and USD is the currency in the casino.

 

Happy sailing,

Jenna

[MindyJohn]

This was my concern. An upcoming cruise we're doing will have both OBN and OBR for the first time (and it's not a group booking). So I want to make sure they use the OBN first so the remaining OBR goes back on our credit card after the cruise.

 

When we check the account in the room on the TV, does it actually display which OBC is being used up first (for excursions)?

 

Despite the many people saying "aw, just spend it!", I'm more practical than that. I figure every $300 I don't blow on things that aren't a priority for me adds up cruise after cruise and allows me to take an extra cruise down the road. :D I'd much rather take an extra cruise than blow it on over-priced treats onboard.

 

When looking at your account on the TV look for the N or R coding on the credits. If you have difficulty just stop at Guest Relations and they'll print it out and highlight which are which. We've always been assured the ships automatically use up the NR OBC first, and we've never had them make a mistake on that.

[BosoxI]

That's a great idea to buy yourself something nice....IPAD, camera, special bottle of wine. Assuming you are a guy, are you traveling with a lady? Leave it to her....we know how to handle these situations!!!! :D

 

 

I guess you can do that, but the prices of many items on board are so inflated. I looked into buying a bottle of cologne. No thanks. And the watch that I was interested in can be had for $1400 less than the ship's shop ( which guarantees the lowest authorized pricing. Hah!) As it turned out, Bingo got the excess ship's OBC and I took our TA's OBC in cash from Customer Relations, not wanting to trust to a credit showing up on my card.

Edited March 25, 2015 by BosoxI

[BosoxI]

Same thing happened to me on Summit two weeks ago, I assumed the OBC from my ta would be refundable but it wasn't. Guest Services insisted it was how the ta coded it. Total OBC from ta was $300, with $25 of it listed as refundable and $275 not.....go figure!

 

That's interesting, as I have always assumed all of a TA's OBC would be refundable. I guess I need to contact him to inquire about his coding and then to remember to inquire again while onboard. I don't want to leave any money on the table, even if it means purchasing something I wouldn't ordinarily buy.

[dbsb3233]

I guess you can do that, but the prices of many items on board are so inflated. I looked into buying a bottle of cologne. No thanks. And the watch that I was interested in can be had for $1400 less than the ship's shop ( which guarantees the lowest authorized pricing. Hah!) As it turned out, Bingo got the excess ship's OBC and I took our TA's OBC in cash from Customer Relations, not wanting to trust to a credit showing up on my card.

Yep. The prices on the ship are usually pretty bad. Just because it's OBC doesn't mean it's not REAL MONEY. If I'm in the market for a tablet or a camera or something, I'll buy it at home for a whole lot less. We're already splurging by spending like 10 grand on a cruise vacation to Europe or Asia or wherever, so IMO there's no value in blowing another few $hundred in OBC if we have ways to get better value out of it.

 

But that's just me. I don't mind when OTHER people spend lavishly onboard, since it keeps cruise fares down for me. :D

[judyzoo]

Yes. Regardless of where in the world you are all transactions on the ship are in US Dollars and USD is the currency in the casino.

 

Happy sailing,

Jenna

 

Thanks. I believe that I will try this. This is the first time I expect to have any OBC remaining at the end of the cruise.

[Gordoncruickshank]

Thanks. I believe that I will try this. This is the first time I expect to have any OBC remaining at the end of the cruise.

We only manage it because we load obc onto our cruise.

 

$300 usually goes easily as we quite enjoy the wine that is not covered fully by the premium package. You start thinking it is only a few $s each glass but a glass becomes several glasses and doing it every night over 14 nights makes a fair dent in the $300

Edited March 25, 2015 by Gordoncruickshank

[cle-guy]

If I'm in the market for a tablet or a camera or something, I'll buy it at home for a whole lot less.\

 

In another thread, there has been discussion on the Apple pricing on the ship.

 

They are selling for the same exact pricing as in the Apple Stores and Apple.com.

 

The benefit is, no sales tax, and for international travelers, they can sometimes get better deals on the currency conversion factor as well. Also those who get OBC as a free perk, in essence use that as a straight discount to paying on land, where there are no coupons to apply.

[dbsb3233]

In another thread, there has been discussion on the Apple pricing on the ship.

 

They are selling for the same exact pricing as in the Apple Stores and Apple.com.

 

The benefit is, no sales tax, and for international travelers, they can sometimes get better deals on the currency conversion factor as well. Also those who get OBC as a free perk, in essence use that as a straight discount to paying on land, where there are no coupons to apply.

Good to know. I wondered about that, which is part of why I wrote "tablet" rather than iPad. I've heard that Apple might have more fixed (i.e. non-discount) pricing. I'm an Android guy myself, so I've never actually priced Apple products. ;)

 

Ships may not even carry Android tablets, so perhaps the "tablet" point is moot. If they did, then no doubt the pricing would be pretty unfavorable compared to what we can get from Amazon or Costco or somewhere back home. The little bit of looking I've done at camera equipment and most gift shop items has left me walking as saying "Whoa! No way I'm buying here!".

[Project_gal]

This is our recent experience on Millennium:

 

We started the cruise with a large amount of OBC [non-refundable] from Celebrity and even more purchased OBC [refundable] so, on embarkation, I did not register a credit card. I really did not want any refundable surplus to go onto our credit card and take an exchange rate hit as we could always use it on another cruise. We did, however, want to get access to some of the OBC as cash during the cruise for our additional gratuities and to use in the Casino.

 

Early on, my husband checked with the Casino that [in a PH] we could draw out cash without paying the surcharge. We could but, as there was no letter about this in our suite, I am not sure which suites receive this concession.

 

My husband withdrew the first amount without any problem. The next time he tried, he was told that he could not unless a credit card was registered to the account. We asked the Michael's Club to clarify this as it did not seem reasonable with the amount of OBC we had.

 

The clarification was: if you still have unused non-refundable OBC, you cannot withdraw cash from the Casino without registering a credit card. We still had roughly US$150 non-refundable OBC. The original cashier had made an error. We registered our credit card and were then able to continue withdrawing cash.

 

We had credit left at the end of the cruise and I was able to withdraw that, in cash, at Guest Relations on the final day.

 

Here is the important part: the total withdrawn from the Casino plus refunded at the end of the cruise exceeded the refundable OBC.

Edited May 20, 2015 by Project_gal