Refund from Princess

[aussienellie]

We have had to cancel a cruise later in the year due to health issues

Princess agreed to refund the appropriate amount and said it would be paid into the bank account I had listed on my profile within three working days.

A week later, I received an email from HSBC Bank in London requesting my bank details so they can make an international bank transfer on behalf of Princess.

Has anyone else received a refund in this way?  I'm a little concerned it could be a scam and would like to know if this is the way Princess now delivers it's refunds.

Yes I know I should ring Princess to confirm, but thought I would ask the experts on CC first.

[arxcards]

I haven't received a refund like this personally, but it is the way they do it.

 

There will be others here with personal experience, as I have read of it here a few times over the past couple of years.

 

PS Try this link

 

Edited August 23 by arxcards
PS

[Yaya_in_Oz]

I received an e-mail like this from HSBC in April for some Princess refundable OBC I had from a cruise which ended about 3 weeks earlier.  I'd hadn't come across this system before so I checked with my TA and it was all legit.

A few days later I got another e-mail from HSBC where I filled in my details, followed up by a confirmation e-mail stating the funds would be in my account within 3 days which they were.

[valantine80]

We had similar emails from HSBC Bank in London in order fro them to refund some unused Future Cruise Credits. All went through very well.

[Aus Traveller]

1 hour ago, aussienellie said:

We have had to cancel a cruise later in the year due to health issues

Princess agreed to refund the appropriate amount and said it would be paid into the bank account I had listed on my profile within three working days.

A week later, I received an email from HSBC Bank in London requesting my bank details so they can make an international bank transfer on behalf of Princess.

Has anyone else received a refund in this way?  I'm a little concerned it could be a scam and would like to know if this is the way Princess now delivers it's refunds.

Yes I know I should ring Princess to confirm, but thought I would ask the experts on CC first.

I have received a refund from Princess via HSBC Bank. I am sure it is legit.

[resordanis]

I have received a refund this way and it was very quick once I gave my details. I must agree I was very unsure whether to proceed with the transaction, but I think I read about it on CC. 

[Kaylacool]

Have also received a refund via this method.  It all went quite smoothly and money in the bank within a couple of days.

[Relaxing Robbies]

I can also confirm that Princess processes refunds through HSBC and that the refund arrives quickly once you provide the requested bank details.

[Jakdgr]

So glad to hear people’s positive refund experience … will share from an experience I had last year.

 

We had email from HSBC literally 3 days before flying out to Europe for a cruise so I decided I’d check direct with Princess staff onboard re the validity of the email a few days later as it didn’t feel right.

 

We do lots of scam/cyber training at work and I was fairly sure it was a scam as there was a deadline and the reference number on it was not anything to do with our past or recent cruises. HSBC was part of domain name so that had made me pause.

 

Guest Services on board had the Finance team investigate and what I had received was confirmed a few days later as a scam - ref number nothing to do with Princess and refund was to go into my Paypal a/c according to email letter.
 

Princess GS staff said they do not ever refund into PayPal accounts and the US office confirmed they had seen this scam just arise based on their real refund process (which is also HSBC as well as cheques). 
 

 

 

[Patois]

We recently had to cancel a cruise . Our refund was paid back to our credit card for which we used to pay for the cruise.

[Yaya_in_Oz]

5 hours ago, Jakdgr said:

So glad to hear people’s positive refund experience … will share from an experience I had last year.

 

We had email from HSBC literally 3 days before flying out to Europe for a cruise so I decided I’d check direct with Princess staff onboard re the validity of the email a few days later as it didn’t feel right.

 

We do lots of scam/cyber training at work and I was fairly sure it was a scam as there was a deadline and the reference number on it was not anything to do with our past or recent cruises. HSBC was part of domain name so that had made me pause.

 

Guest Services on board had the Finance team investigate and what I had received was confirmed a few days later as a scam - ref number nothing to do with Princess and refund was to go into my Paypal a/c according to email letter.
 

Princess GS staff said they do not ever refund into PayPal accounts and the US office confirmed they had seen this scam just arise based on their real refund process (which is also HSBC as well as cheques). 

My e-mail which was legit, also had an option for the refund via Paypal providing your e-mail was registered with Paypal. My Ref. No etc, were all correct. I chose the bank account with no problems. This was Apr 2024. I'm just wondering why they would include the Paypal stuff on a legitimate e-mail if Princess never refund into it.

 

[aussienellie]

1 hour ago, Patois said:

We recently had to cancel a cruise . Our refund was paid back to our credit card for which we used to pay for the cruise.

Princess told me the refund would be sent to the credit card with which I had paid within three working days.  This did not happen then a week later the email from HSBC arrived.  All the details matched my booking, e.g booking number, cruise number, destination etc.  It gave me the option of having the refund paid into my bank account or my pay pal account. It also had a 60 day time limit to claim the refund.

I'm still feeling a little uneasy as it is a sizeable refund.  I think I will have to put aside a few hours and try to ring Princess.

 

[aussienellie]

Update. I took a chance and followed the instructions issued by HSBC.  The refund landed in my bank account within 24 hours.

Thanks to everyone who responded to my original post.  Gotta love CC!