Paying bills during long cruise

[mobilemac]

My wife and I are on the Nautica cruise from HK - Athens in April. We're going to arrive early in HK and stay longer in Greece. In total, we'll be gone almost 7 weeks. We do electonic banking but have never been gone this long - we'll span a couple of bill cycles. I know O cruisers are experienced travelers and many of you take extended b2b cruises - what is your comfort level about the security using the internet cafes in the different ports? I've read the internet on board ship is very slow - is is fast enough and secure enough to do the kind of banking I'm describing? Nothing fancy ... basic bill paying, credit card paying, etc. Thanks for your experiences and comments.

[Rickey 88]

I have used a number of internet cafes on past cruises - and in each case, the connections were reasonably fast and secure. Much better that on board....

[Jancruz]

I to do online banking..but plan to pay most of my bills before I go..I just double up on the payments..I have never run into a problem using internet cafes..but I never use a credit card number on line..be sure to call your CC company and tell them where you are going and the dates..in case someone else tries to use your card..

Jan

*****

[LHT28]

I have my laptop with me on the cruises and just use the onboard account to pay my bills and I keep a record so I can make sure my account has the money in it ! ;)

I did not find the internet connection slow on Regatta this year ..just as fast as my cable at home.

 

I don't know if I would trust internet cafes as people can hack into them and get your account info :confused:

 

If you can pay in advance or set up pre-authorized payment from the utility company that is another option

[Aussie Gal]

We have always paid our bills in advance when we have been away for over 6/7 weeks and with our gas and electricity have notified them that we will be overseas and may miss a payment. We are with AGL and they are quite happy about extending payment of the account. With our phone bill which is with Telstra, we have also notified them and paid them in advance. The same with our Water Rates and Municipal Rates.

 

You can usually work out which bills will be coming due.

 

We have just gone on to having most of our accounts automatically being debited from one of our cards. eg. gas, electricity and phone. The account comes out about 2 weeks beforehand and you have time to check it before it goes on to your card. This does make it easier when travelling for long periods of time.

 

We also put money into both our Amex and Visa beforehand so that there is cash available for the various accounts. Of course we notify the various credit card companies that we will be in certain countries so that there isn't a stop put on our cards. We have travelled on long trips over the past 18 months and have never had any trouble with the payment of bills though I haven't used the internet for this purpose when away.

 

Jennie

[caribbeansun]

On our trip to NZ and Aus we had our daughter open anything that looked like a bill and email us the amounts - we then paid using my laptop and once at an internet cafe while we were away. No problems, no worries.

[serendipity1499]

We don't do on-line banking but do have all of our bills auto-deducted from our checking account with the exception of the Insurance & Property Taxes..The companies send the bills to the bank (with a copy for us) & the bank pays them..

 

We know when our Property Taxes & Insurance bills are due & pay them in advance of our trips...As former sail-boaters, we've been away many months at a time & found this to be the best solution for us..

 

We also FAX or call our Credit Card Company with our Itinerary before departure...If there is a deviation, we have the Phone Numbers of those Companies with us & immediately call them to avoid having our Credit Card privileges disabled..

 

Of course, as soon as we get home, I spend many hours checking the statements against the receipts to be sure there are no discrepancies, especially with the Credit Cards...Most Credit Card Companies give you 90 to 120 days to dispute a bill..We've done this for years & have never had a problem....

 

Enjoy your cruise..Betty

[Ask4Jay]

mobilemac – Don’t you have the ability with your online bank to set up a series of payments? That’s what we do. With certain payees whose payment due does not change for year or so, we set the monthly amount and payment date – and fuggeddabout it. We then have the option to set an end date or let the payments continue. Could you not set it up for maybe 2 or 3 months? If the payments are for a credit card, we pay the actual amount owed, and for payment #2 an estimated amount a month later. Payment #3, when we are back home, will be adjusted up or down, according to the latest CC statement. We started online banking in Feb 96 and in almost 13 years have had no problem whatsoever. We don’t even try the ship’s computers or any Internet Cafés.

[magicnelly]

We have a wonderful daughter-in-law who keeps track of it all for us while we're gone and pays all the bills, transfers the funds and keeps our business running........wow.......just realized how incredibly blessed we are!

 

In return, we deliciously spoil our grandkids, her and our son.....seems like a fair trade!

[stingraynz]

Hi

 

What I have done in the past is I make everything pre-authorized on either my AMEX (such as cable, phone, cell phone, internet fees etc). That also allows me to collect the air miles as well. Then I use my VISA card for all trip expenses (cruise fair, insurance etc). Where I can also collect air miles and take advantage of the gold card trip insurance.

 

Then, I pre-authorize both these credit card balances to be paid from a bank account. I used a bank account separate from the bank account I would be drawing on when using an ATM.

 

Make your bank accounts internet and phone accessible. I prefer phone as I do not completely trust internet cafes not to have spyware. I can phone in if I want to check payments and balances etc. But everything runs smoothly.

 

If this is the first time you are doing this...make sure you setup these payments well in advance so you can see how they all work months before your cruise/trip for your own piece of mind.

 

Also, probably the best tip I ever got along the way was to scan and email all important insurance docs, cruise docs, passports etc. I have created a word doc of all important banking phone numbers, insurance numbers, lost CC card numbers etc. Email them to yourself and save them in a folder so if you need to get a hold of this info you can access it by email.

[raf411]

....to scan and email all important insurance docs, cruise docs, passports etc. I have created a word doc of all important banking phone numbers, insurance numbers, lost CC card numbers etc. Email them to yourself and save them in a folder so if you need to get a hold of this info you can access it by email.

 

Hi stingraynz,

Great idea! Never thought of that one! However, since e-mail is typically not encrypted, it's possible for it to be intercepted by unscrupulous folks. You might want to password protect your Word Document before you send it to yourself. Just a thought!

 

Ruth