Credit Card Payments only via Paypal?

[Alex71]

Tried to pay for the cruise online by credit card and received constant error messages. I called and was told that they only accept payments via bank transfer or Paypal, but not by credit card directly. The lady said there was nothing she could do about it.

 

My credit card includes travel insurance, but only if I pay for the trip with that card. Is this their way of forcing me to buy additional travel insurance through them rather than allowing me to use my own?

[maryann2]

That sounds fishy as I have always paid over the phone by credit card.

Perhaps they are just not accepting the credit card you are using??

[Alex71]

2 minutes ago, maryann2 said:

That sounds fishy as I have always paid over the phone by credit card.

Perhaps they are just not accepting the credit card you are using??

 

I was trying to use my Lufthansa Mile & More Credit Card, because it includes comprehensive travel insurance. Apparently, they only accept American Express directy on their website and the other credit cards only via Paypal. Not sure why that is. The page where you enter the credit card number also only has the American Express logo. I will ask if they are able to accept the card over the phone.

[Dancer Bob]

I presume this is Costa Germany?

[Alex71]

29 minutes ago, Dancer Bob said:

I presume this is Costa Germany?

 

I booked on the German website, but the contract is with Costa Crociere S.p.A. Piazza Piccapietra, 48 - 16121 Genova P.I./C.F. 02545900108.

 

The lady I spoke with had an Italian accent, but no idea where she was based.

[gerryuk]

If its American Express that would not surprise me. When i lived in London you could not use it on the underground metro, and many other places in the UK would not accept it. Apparently American Express charged companies well above other card companies fees to process payments.

They do accept credit / debit card over the phone, that's how i pay the balance, you will probably need to use another card.

The person you have spoken to is based in Genoa, Costa closed a lot of its European call centres including the UK and all calls are routed to Italy.   

One way you could use the card is to purchase the cruise online, but not with Costa directly. We are not allowed to name names but you get my drift. 

[Alex71]

13 hours ago, gerryuk said:

If its American Express that would not surprise me. When i lived in London you could not use it on the underground metro, and many other places in the UK would not accept it. Apparently American Express charged companies well above other card companies fees to process payments.

They do accept credit / debit card over the phone, that's how i pay the balance, you will probably need to use another card.

The person you have spoken to is based in Genoa, Costa closed a lot of its European call centres including the UK and all calls are routed to Italy.   

One way you could use the card is to purchase the cruise online, but not with Costa directly. We are not allowed to name names but you get my drift. 

 

Thank you! The credit card I wanted to use is a Mastercard, but I also have different Visa cards. 

 

As you said, American Express charges higher fees and is less commonly accepted. Therefore, I was surprised that American Express was the only card they accepted directly. For Mastercard and Visa, one has to pay via Paypal. That is in principle not a problem, exept that the travel insurance in my card requires me to pay with that card directly.

 

I did pay for the cruise now with my Mastercard via Paypal. I'm just hoping we won't test postitive when we board the ship.

[BVILady]

 On the US-Site it still lists Visa and MasterCard as accepted payment-methods.

Edited March 12, 2022 by BVILady
forgot something

[Janet&Carl]

I have paid by Visa -over the phone.  I also have to ring Italy as our Australian office has closed.  I do know that when they were taking their time to process refunds people charged back on credit cards.  There was one Aussie on a cruise site boasting that they got a refund of $20,000 from Costa on the same day they got the charge back from their credit card.  I guess they have had a few very lean years and now have to be careful about which cards they will accept.  Give them a call and try and pay by your preferred method.

[Alex71]

4 hours ago, Janet&Carl said:

I have paid by Visa -over the phone.  I also have to ring Italy as our Australian office has closed.  I do know that when they were taking their time to process refunds people charged back on credit cards.  There was one Aussie on a cruise site boasting that they got a refund of $20,000 from Costa on the same day they got the charge back from their credit card.  I guess they have had a few very lean years and now have to be careful about which cards they will accept.  Give them a call and try and pay by your preferred method.

 

Thank you! My credit card company since confirmed that my travel insurance is valid even if the payment is processed through Paypal. It ended up being not as much of a problem as I thought.

[jennjess]

On the subject of paying for a cruise I am having a problem.  Why can't I pay for it online like I paid the deposit?  There isn't an option for doing that.

You have to call them to use a credit card but my bank requires them to send a request to my banking app for my authorisation and this doesn't happen.  So only option is a bank transfer.

[Alex71]

6 hours ago, jennjess said:

On the subject of paying for a cruise I am having a problem.  Why can't I pay for it online like I paid the deposit?  There isn't an option for doing that.

You have to call them to use a credit card but my bank requires them to send a request to my banking app for my authorisation and this doesn't happen.  So only option is a bank transfer.

 

Hm, I was able to pay online, but only via Paypal, not by credit card directly. This is the page where I made the payment after logging into myCosta: https://www.mycosta.com/de/mycruise/meine-zahlungen.html

 

I had the impression that they manage customer service centrally out of Italy, so it's odd that they use a different payment provider for the Netherlands than they do for Germany.

Edited April 12, 2022 by Alex71

[jennjess]

38 minutes ago, Alex71 said:

 

Hm, I was able to pay online, but only via Paypal, not by credit card directly. This is the page where I made the payment after logging into myCosta: https://www.mycosta.com/de/mycruise/meine-zahlungen.html

 

I had the impression that they manage customer service centrally out of Italy, so it's odd that they use a different payment provider for the Netherlands than they do for Germany.

That page just takes me to My Costa where I can see no place to pay at all.  Where exactly is the payment option?

[Alex71]

4 hours ago, jennjess said:

That page just takes me to My Costa where I can see no place to pay at all.  Where exactly is the payment option?

 

On the German page there is a tab that is called something along the lines of "my payments". If you click on it, it takes you to a page with an orange button that says "pay now". This took me to the page where I could pay. Credit card payments were rejected, but payments with Paypal, which is linked to my credit card anyway, went through.

[jennjess]

13 hours ago, Alex71 said:

 

On the German page there is a tab that is called something along the lines of "my payments". If you click on it, it takes you to a page with an orange button that says "pay now". This took me to the page where I could pay. Credit card payments were rejected, but payments with Paypal, which is linked to my credit card anyway, went through.

No tab at all on the Dutch/Belgian site or the EU site when I log in.  Very very odd.