Easiest way to add on board credit??

[luxlvr]

i want to add on board credit to our 4 night cruise in January. I don't want to give them my cc at all (we follow Ramsey and don't use them). Wondering what's the easiest/ most hassle free way to go about doing this?

We have a DVA and can transfer $ from there.

We have the cash on hand and can add it to a gc.

Is there anything I should know about adding cash vs using a cc?

Also looking to add $1000 to on board spending. Is that a good amount? More? Less? It will be my DH, me, DS 9, DS 7, DD 5. Will pre pay excursions and tips but are concierge so will need more to add.

 

[shelbell77]

If you don't want to carry cash you can use a Disney gift card. They can be managed online. Then you just go to guest services and they put the gift card on your account. I check my balance every couple days on board and go with a GC to pay it as I go.

 

[TestingH2O]

But if you load the gc, you've committed your money to Disney. It's not like you'll be able to extract that as cash again. I'd actually say just bring the cash. You know you'll spend a couple hundred on extra tips, souvenirs, and upcharge drinks and snacks so maybe $200 in gift cards and then extra cash.

That's assuming you prepay everything else including BBB etc.

 

[cruisehopeful]

If you wait to board to put cash on your account, you'll have to stand in line at the end to get your leftover money back. I use Disney gift cards and the leftover money gets transferred back to one of the cards about a week after the cruise.

If you don't want to risk having leftover money on a Disney gift card, you could get a prepaid credit card. The leftover money will go back to that card and you'll be able to use it for anywhere that takes credit cards.

I'm not familiar with the DVA, so I can't comment on how to use that, but I'd think the leftover money would be stuck in there?

 

[FigmentSpark]

Naive, here.... why don't you want to give them your CC number? Should I be concerned about this, too?

 

[P'colaBeachBum]

i want to add on board credit to our 4 night cruise in January. I don't want to give them my cc at all (we follow Ramsey and don't use them). Wondering what's the easiest/ most hassle free way to go about doing this?

We have a DVA and can transfer $ from there.

We have the cash on hand and can add it to a gc.

Is there anything I should know about adding cash vs using a cc?

Also looking to add $1000 to on board spending. Is that a good amount? More? Less? It will be my DH, me, DS 9, DS 7, DD 5. Will pre pay excursions and tips but are concierge so will need more to add.

Cash on the ship and excursions can be used for tips. Your best bet is some sort of gift card if you don't use a CC, that you can hand over to the concierge host to add to your OBC. He/She can handle that for you. Not sure about how much to add since the 2 of us spend less.

 

[cruisehopeful]

Naive, here.... why don't you want to give them your CC number? Should I be concerned about this, too?

In the first post, they said they don't use credit cards because they follow Dave Ramsey's financial advice.

 

[Ofinn]

Just buy gift cards. If you plan on doing a lot of traveling in the future. I would highly recommend a CC. It's just easier and safer. Can't you just pay it off when you get home?

 

[Jennifer777]

If your excursions and tips are paid, $1,000 *should* be enough for a 4 night cruise. We have very loosely followed Dave Ramsey's plan (although we still use credit cards, we just pay them off every month) and you can use a debit card with his plan so this could be an option. Otherwise, we used our DVA account, uploaded gift cards bought at Sam's Club or Target at 5% off and called to purchase $1,000 on board credit ahead of time for our last cruise. It was quick and easy and we got an extra $20 gift card for using our DVA. Anything left over will go back into your DVA account.

 

[FigmentSpark]

Oh! Hah! The only Ramsey I'd heard of was Gordon Ramsey and I was wondering what food and finance had to do with each other, lol!

Good advice, but a credit card for emergencies (even a prepaid one) wouldn't be against the rules, would it?

Also, to be clear, no one here is worried about card theft, card denial because your company blocked the card, thinking it was stolen or kids running up debt, not realizing smoothies aren't free?

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Oh! Hah! The only Ramsey I'd heard of was Gordon Ramsey and I was wondering what food and finance had to do with each other, lol!

Good advice, but a credit card for emergencies (even a prepaid one) wouldn't be against the rules, would it?

Also, to be clear, no one here is worried about card theft, card denial because your company blocked the card, thinking it was stolen or kids running up debt, not realizing smoothies aren't free?

We always us a credit card for our onboard account. Those cards that prefer knowing we're traveling, we notify. We also ask for a printout of charges a few days into the trip to see who's charging what. If my kids start charging things they aren't supposed to their KTTW card will be blocked. You can turn off the charging privileges to individual KTTW cards, if you wish.

 

[luxlvr]

If you wait to board to put cash on your account, you'll have to stand in line at the end to get your leftover money back. I use Disney gift cards and the leftover money gets transferred back to one of the cards about a week after the cruise.

If you don't want to risk having leftover money on a Disney gift card, you could get a prepaid credit card. The leftover money will go back to that card and you'll be able to use it for anywhere that takes credit cards.

I'm not familiar with the DVA, so I can't comment on how to use that, but I'd think the leftover money would be stuck in there?

This is a fantastic idea!!! Thank you!

 

[luxlvr]

Naive, here.... why don't you want to give them your CC number? Should I be concerned about this, too?

No no concern at all! We just don't use credit cards. We operate on an all cash system. We have an emergency cc and debit cards but we twirly use them. Everything we but we buy in cash. Just a personal preference

 

[luxlvr]

If your excursions and tips are paid, $1,000 *should* be enough for a 4 night cruise. We have very loosely followed Dave Ramsey's plan (although we still use credit cards, we just pay them off every month) and you can use a debit card with his plan so this could be an option. Otherwise, we used our DVA account, uploaded gift cards bought at Sam's Club or Target at 5% off and called to purchase $1,000 on board credit ahead of time for our last cruise. It was quick and easy and we got an extra $20 gift card for using our DVA. Anything left over will go back into your DVA account.

How far in advance did you upload the credit. This could work perfectly too.

 

[luxlvr]

Oh! Hah! The only Ramsey I'd heard of was Gordon Ramsey and I was wondering what food and finance had to do with each other, lol!

Good advice, but a credit card for emergencies (even a prepaid one) wouldn't be against the rules, would it?

Also, to be clear, no one here is worried about card theft, card denial because your company blocked the card, thinking it was stolen or kids running up debt, not realizing smoothies aren't free?

We have an emergency card, but we never use it. We do carry it with us when we are on trips just in case and knock on wood we've never needed it.

The prepaid card isn't a problem. We just personally don't want to pay any extra $ on interest. It's really work out well for us. Since we've never sailed before we have never run into this issue. When we hit up WDW we use a gift card and that may be the way we end up going here.

No one in concerned with cc security at all. Before we followed this (maybe 5 years ago or so) we used our cc'd all the time in wdw and never had a problem.

 

[Jennifer777]

How far in advance did you upload the credit. This could work perfectly too.

We called about two weeks prior to sailing. It was better than having to wait in line at guest services. When we arrived there was a little card in our stateroom notifying us of the on board credit.

If you use multiple gift cards, be sure to hang on to them all because if there is a refund, they put it back on the cards not used. That can be hard to keep track of if you have $1,000 worth of $50 gift cards.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

We called about two weeks prior to sailing. It was better than having to wait in line at guest services. When we arrived there was a little card in our stateroom notifying us of the on board credit.

If you use multiple gift cards, be sure to hang on to them all because if there is a refund, they put it back on the cards not used. That can be hard to keep track of if you have $1,000 worth of $50 gift cards.

They refund unused credit back to the cards in the reverse order of them being applied, if you can keep it straight the order in which you applied them. For example, if you used a $100 card, a $25.00 card and a $50.00 card (in that order), any refunded credit will be applied to the $50 card first, then the $25, then the $100.

 

[FigmentSpark]

They refund unused credit back to the cards in the reverse order of them being applied, if you can keep it straight the order in which you applied them. For example, if you used a $100 card, a $25.00 card and a $50.00 card (in that order), any refunded credit will be applied to the $50 card first, then the $25, then the $100.

Get a sharpie and number the cards as you enter them. That way, you don't have to remember and you need to keep the cards anyway.

 

[Hundredacre]

Www.disneygiftcard.com

Combine gift cards onto one so you don't have to keep track of multiple giftcards!

 

[Ofinn]

We have an emergency card, but we never use it. We do carry it with us when we are on trips just in case and knock on wood we've never needed it.

The prepaid card isn't a problem. We just personally don't want to pay any extra $ on interest. It's really work out well for us. Since we've never sailed before we have never run into this issue. When we hit up WDW we use a gift card and that may be the way we end up going here.

No one in concerned with cc security at all. Before we followed this (maybe 5 years ago or so) we used our cc'd all the time in wdw and never had a problem.

That's great if it works for you. I have to say I disagree with Ramsey about CC. Credit cards are not evil. It's people's fault(not the CC) if the don't have the self control to use them properly. I would never want to travel out of the country without a credit card though. It's so much easier and cheaper than worrying about currency exchange. If you don't travel internationally then I guess it's not as big a issue.