Credit card hold confusion

[racnwdow]

I know I over think things, but...  

I understand a $60 a day/per person hold is put on your credit card.  Then I get unsure.  Our cruise is 14 days so the hold would be $840.  Is that amount on the credit card unusable after that point?  If I spend $30 a day on drinks and the gratuities, does that amount get taken off the card like regular purchases?  So in essence I would have an $840 hold and additional charge for $420 for drinks and $203 for tips?

 

[Roz]

Your card doesn't actually get charged until the end of the cruise when your account is reconciled.  

 

Roz

[racnwdow]

I decided to go straight to the source.  At least the credit card source, AmEx.  They said, generally the hold is on your account for 5 days and then drops off.  But during the 5 days that amount is not available for use.  And that is a generality.  Sometimes it may take longer for the amount to drop off. 

[*Miss G*]

The hold will be the total amount they tap your credit card until the end of your cruise.  Because they don’t do the actual billing until the end, the hold will drop off in the interim.  They don’t charge anything in addition to that hold (re the drinks and gratuities you mention).  The hold is only to see if you are good for those charges when you finally get billed.

 

Sorry if this is as clear as mud.  🙁

[TomBeckCruise]

20 minutes ago, racnwdow said:

I decided to go straight to the source.  At least the credit card source, AmEx.  They said, generally the hold is on your account for 5 days and then drops off.  But during the 5 days that amount is not available for use.  And that is a generality.  Sometimes it may take longer for the amount to drop off. 

Do the two of you use different credit cards? If not your gratuities alone will be about $30/day.

Regardless, as Roz said,  your card is  not charged until the end of the cruise . All HAL charges accumulate until then.   There is not an additional hold for daily charges,

[racnwdow]

2 minutes ago, TomBeckCruise said:

Do the two of you use different credit cards? If not your gratuities alone will be about $30/day.

Regardless, as Roz said,  your card is  not charged until the end of the cruise . All HAL charges accumulate until then.   There is not an additional hold for daily charges,

I am traveling with a friend this time, so we will be using separate credit cards.

[bEwAbG]

The hold amount is not available for you to use as long as it is on hold.  That is the point of the hold.  Call your credit card company and request a temporary credit line increase if you think this is going to be an issue.  They may just make it a permanent increase. 

Edited July 10, 2019 by bEwAbG

[cb at sea]

There really aren't "holds" on a CREDIT card....that's on DEBIT cards, placed by your bank.  On credit cards, NOTHING is actually charged until you depart the ship.  You are simply racking up charges on your room account, until the cruise is over.    You may see a "pending" charge on your credit card, until funds are released.  Unless you are spending to your limit, then it shouldn't cause any issues.  They will "authorize" your card, to make sure it's valid....and you should call your credit card companies to let them know you'll be out of the country, so they don't put a "fraud" alert on your account!

[Roz]

10 minutes ago, cb at sea said:

There really aren't "holds" on a CREDIT card....that's on DEBIT cards, placed by your bank.  On credit cards, NOTHING is actually charged until you depart the ship.  You are simply racking up charges on your room account, until the cruise is over.    You may see a "pending" charge on your credit card, until funds are released.  Unless you are spending to your limit, then it shouldn't cause any issues.  They will "authorize" your card, to make sure it's valid....and you should call your credit card companies to let them know you'll be out of the country, so they don't put a "fraud" alert on your account!

 

You can call it anything you want to, but pending charges still take away from your spending ability.

 

Roz

[Hlitner]

The concept is really not that complicated.  With most credit cards the "hold" will show-up as a "pend" if you look at that account.  The pend amount is simply a transaction which reserves that amount of your card's credit limit.  For those with high limits or cards like AMEX, a hold or pend really has little effect.  Eventually (the time can vary by card) the hold is automatically released.  But for folks with lower credit limits these holds/pends can have a major impact.  For example, say you have a $2000 credit limit and your cruise line puts on a $1500 hold.  While in a port you decide to rent a car with that same card and the rental car company normally puts a $1000 hold on your card (until you return the card).  Your credit card company may reject the hold transaction and the rental car agency will immediately ask you if you have another card.

 

What to do?  For those with relatively low credit limits you can simply call your credit card company, explain about your upcoming trip, and ask for a temporary increase in your credit limit.  Depending on your credit history the credit card company will 1.  Immediately give you a temporary higher credit limit.   2.  Simply increase your credit limit on a permanent basis  or 3.  Deny your request.  Denials do not usually happen unless you have some major credit issues.

 

Hank
 

[Herfnerd]

What Hlitner said. 

 

While nothing is actually charged to the credit card, the amount of credit available becomes less by the pending amount.   For those with low credit limits, this can be an issue.

[bEwAbG]

 

3 hours ago, cb at sea said:

There really aren't "holds" on a CREDIT card....that's on DEBIT cards, placed by your bank.  On credit cards, NOTHING is actually charged until you depart the ship.  You are simply racking up charges on your room account, until the cruise is over.    You may see a "pending" charge on your credit card, until funds are released.

 

This isn't correct.  The only difference between a credit card and a debit card "hold" is that with a credit card, the available credit limit is reduced until the hold drops off and with a debit card, the available balance is reduced.  

[TAD2005]

We have had the hold drop off after 5 or 6 days.   But the hold absolutely reduces the amount you can spend on your credit (or debit) card for the hold duration.   The cruise line wants to determine that you have sufficient capacity on the card you have on file to cover the normal amount of spending on your cruise.   However, if they place the $60 per day/per person hold on your card, ($30 per day/per person on cruises of 26 days and up), and then you go to the gift shop and buy a $5000 watch or put $5000 in chips in the casino on your cabin account, I'm sure HAL will do another quick "authorization hold" for this higher amount, just to make sure you have the funds available to cover these purchases.