Cash on board

[Sammi dee]

Can you still have a cash account  , this is the way we prefer to go ?,  thank you in advance 

[cruiseguy1016]

Yes.

[ALWAYS CRUZIN]

5 hours ago, Sammi dee said:

Can you still have a cash account  , this is the way we prefer to go ?,  thank you in advance 

Yes. However, don't you have a card that gives you points?

[Ashland]

34 minutes ago, ALWAYS CRUZIN said:

Yes. However, don't you have a card that gives you points?

We set it up as a cash acct then give them our card on the last night...This works great for us.

[ALWAYS CRUZIN]

Just now, Ashland said:

We set it up as a cash acct then give them our card on the last night...This works great for us.

I do not understand why you would do that. Please explain. I always use just my card and check on the room TV every night on the charges.

[irishgal432]

When I checked in for my Freedom Cruise, if you did not put in a card, it said that if you would have to check in at the terminal versus online/app.

[Ashland]

6 minutes ago, ALWAYS CRUZIN said:

I do not understand why you would do that. Please explain. I always use just my card and check on the room TV every night on the charges.

We used to always use a card when setting up our SetSail Pass...but now find it just as easy to do the cash acct  and then convert it.....many on CC do this and once I read of their recommendations...I too gave it a try. Some credit cards will put a hold on your card...so something to consider. 

[Ashland]

14 minutes ago, irishgal432 said:

When I checked in for my Freedom Cruise, if you did not put in a card, it said that if you would have to check in at the terminal versus online/app.

This must be new...never had this happen. Cash acct had no effect on checking in online and printing out your Set Sail Pass.

[irishgal432]

7 minutes ago, Ashland said:

This must be new...never had this happen. Cash acct had no effect on checking in online and printing out your Set Sail Pass.

I think it may be new as we always did a cash account as well.  You still can, but you have to do the extra step and check in at the terminal, based on the message during check in

[smokeybandit]

What's the benefit of opening a cash account only to put it on a card at the end anyway?

[Ashland]

4 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

What's the benefit of opening a cash account only to put it on a card at the end anyway?

It seems that some cards put a daily hold on them as I understand it.

[karena1]

21 minutes ago, Ashland said:

We used to always use a card when setting up our SetSail Pass...but now find it just as easy to do the cash acct  and then convert it.....many on CC do this and once I read of their recommendations...I too gave it a try. Some credit cards will put a hold on your card...so something to consider. 

We always use a CC, never in 126 cruises have we had a hold on our credit card, and we have used a number of different ones over the years.

 

[Ashland]

Just now, karena1 said:

We always use a CC, never in 126 cruises have we had a hold on our credit card, and we have used a number of different ones over the years.

 

Key word here was "some" which may not apply to what I use or yours. 

We cruise often with extended family (that we pay for) and easier to use cash acct when I do the checkins....and keep some (one in particular) from over spending.

[ALWAYS CRUZIN]

4 hours ago, karena1 said:

We always use a CC, never in 126 cruises have we had a hold on our credit card, and we have used a number of different ones over the years.

 

I did have a problem. Only once. I forgot to notify my bank that I was taking a cruise. After the third charge to the card from overseas, they put a hold on it. No more charges. It took a while to get it straightened out. 

[Sammi dee]

We prefer cash don’t even have credit cards only debit ones 🙈

[Ourusualbeach]

12 hours ago, smokeybandit said:

What's the benefit of opening a cash account only to put it on a card at the end anyway?

A couple of the common issues were 

 

daily holds that Royal would place on the card as they authorized daily charges

 

By using your card once to pay at the end you were only authorizing the cruise line to use the card once for the amount that you paid on the last day.  If you have it ahead of time then you were authorizing Royal to use it more than once and many people would find “mystery charges” that differed from their last bill (towels and water) that you would then have to call Royal to get reversed.

[ramja96]

12 hours ago, Ashland said:

We cruise often with extended family (that we pay for) and easier to use cash acct when I do the checkins....and keep some (one in particular) from over spending.

 

And there it is. I suspected from the beginning this might be the case. 😉💸💸💸

[smokeybandit]

2 hours ago, Ourusualbeach said:

A couple of the common issues were 

 

daily holds that Royal would place on the card as they authorized daily charges

 

By using your card once to pay at the end you were only authorizing the cruise line to use the card once for the amount that you paid on the last day.  If you have it ahead of time then you were authorizing Royal to use it more than once and many people would find “mystery charges” that differed from their last bill (towels and water) that you would then have to call Royal to get reversed.

I've never had any issues like that

[LilBlackDress]

15 hours ago, Ashland said:

We set it up as a cash acct then give them our card on the last night...This works great for us.

I have been doing this too after reading it on here... 
However I think our reasons might be slightly different. 

14 hours ago, smokeybandit said:

What's the benefit of opening a cash account only to put it on a card at the end anyway?

For us. We always have so much OBC that we probably would not be using on the cruise. Pre-Covid, if you had a Cash Account, they did not charge a 5% fee to take money out at the casino. I would cash out our OBC then put a CC to secure the account on the last night or a night sooner. 

[matj2000]

You know who else opens Cash accounts on cruises?

 

Your Dad.....

Edited June 16, 2021 by matj2000

[RKHOOKER]

On my last cruise, RCI would put daily pending charges against my Citibank debit card.  After 12 nights I had charges totalling over $1,500 dollars.  Then on the last morning they charged the entire $1,500 on the card again.  Effectively they charged my card twice!  It took many phone calls & emails to get the pending charges removed & it took nearly 3 weeks.  Hence, I was unable to access my cash on the debit card until RCI emailed Citibank saying they can be removed.  It was a massive inconvenience not being able to access my cash on the debit card whilst holidaying overseas.  Cash account is the only way for me on future cruises.

 

[matj2000]

6 minutes ago, RKHOOKER said:

On my last cruise, RCI would put daily pending charges against my Citibank debit card.  After 12 nights I had charges totalling over $1,500 dollars.  Then on the last morning they charged the entire $1,500 on the card again.  .

 

 

Why in the world would you use a Debit Card???

 

That is just asking for problems....

 

 

Edited June 16, 2021 by matj2000

[Seville2Cabo]

4 minutes ago, matj2000 said:

 

Why in the world would you use a Debit Card???

 

That is just asking for problems....

 

 

I agree.  I have never used (don’t think it even have) a debit card.   We like the points so just have a credit card on file.  Holds are really no big issue, they fall off before they move from pending to confirmed.  

[CaroleC]

10 minutes ago, Seville2Cabo said:

they fall off before they move from pending to confirmed.  

Yep, that’s what I thought happens

[LeeW]

4 hours ago, RKHOOKER said:

On my last cruise, RCI would put daily pending charges against my Citibank debit card.  After 12 nights I had charges totalling over $1,500 dollars.  Then on the last morning they charged the entire $1,500 on the card again.  Effectively they charged my card twice!  It took many phone calls & emails to get the pending charges removed & it took nearly 3 weeks.  Hence, I was unable to access my cash on the debit card until RCI emailed Citibank saying they can be removed.  It was a massive inconvenience not being able to access my cash on the debit card whilst holidaying overseas.  Cash account is the only way for me on future cruises.

 

 

The key word here is DEBIT.  Never use a debit card for onboard charges.