leaving the ship debt free???

[sandee]

Can I go down to Guest Services on the last night of our cruise and pay off any charges I've put on my credit card? I'd like to leave the ship knowing I won't have a whopping credit card bill coming in a few days or weeks. Thanks for any info.

 

[pmgreene]

If you put a charge card on your account they will apply the charges whenever it hits something like $250. If you are going to charge things while on the ship AND you know you are going to pay with cash at the end, I would leave some money on my room bill upfront. Maybe even pay cash the end of each day or something. Don't wait until the last minute to do any of this as the lines can be very long.

 

[wovenwonder]

You can choose to have your account a 'cash acct' rather than placing a charge card on it. But once your rack up a couple hundred dollars your charging privledge will be put on hold until you pay up -- to take care of a possible embarassing situation, I would pay up front every couple days as needed. You can go to guest services the morning of debarkation and obtain your refund if you have one due to you.

 

[nuke]

How about using a debit card? Then you would have the card on file, but using your checking account instead of a charge card.

 

[Jobro2]

I put a credit card down for the record, but went every other day to Guest Services and paid off the balance in Traveler's checks. Didn't have to carry cash and knew at the end of the cruise that we were paid off. The only charge we had on our card was from the last night from shutters....

 

[pgesler]

Is it possible to put a limit on the amount of charges that can be made to your room key?

I'm trying to figure a way the kids can use their room keys to make charges but not more then what they've saved for the cruise.

 

[jlima]

I overheard a conversation at the guest services desk last summer between an irate guest whose cc had been charged "already" and a CM who explained that whenever your balance goes over $400 they charge the card on file that amount that night . . . but you can pay cash on your account at any time. The CM said this was an effort to avoid a card's being declined at the end of the cruise after the card being charged to the limit in ports of call. If the final charge at the end of the cruise is declined at least they have the earlier amount charged, if you've run it up that high early in the cruise. So, if your balance is $90 after day 1, $250 after day 2, $370 after day 3 and $550 after day 4, your card would get charged $550 the night of the 4th day because that's the first balance over $400.

 

[aprilgail2]

Originally posted by pmgreene
If you put a charge card on your account they will apply the charges whenever it hits something like $250.

I went down the 3rd day to pay off what I had charged so far and they had already charged the credit card, it was no big deal though, I paid in cash and they credited the credit card for what they had charged it so there was no balance...

 

[imgoingtodisney]

Debt free is the only way to leave the ship!
When I cruised on NCL in Dec I walked off owing NOTHING
What a great feeling
I had my credit card on my account but every few days went to the purser (who happened to be on the same deck as my room)and paid off what I had charged.
This Nov Im doing the same but paying off in Disney dollars!

 

[trip]

While I understand it is wonderful not to have long term credit card debit, I don't quite get the insistance and the bother of constantly paying the account off while still on board. If you have the cash in the bank, why bother with travelors cheques and disney money? Just pay off the statement when you get home. Not an attack... just wondering.

 

[prymsu]

I save up a big chunck of cash to take with us. Usually when i get on the ship, I will put most of the cash down on our account. I do this the first day so i don't have to worry about having a lot of cash on me.

Then if i go over, i go over, and it is directed to my credit card. I don't ever go down to the desk after the first day when i put cash towards my account.

This is just how I do it. I normally have tip money figured in to the amount I put down, so I am pretty close to target with what we need to spend on the ship. I have not had more than $100 by the end of a week on my credit card by doing it this way.

 

[sandee]

I sure don't take your question as anything but curious and I'm
almost too embarrassed to answer but I'm sure I'm not the only one who has done this. Last cruise I had $ in the bank to cover all expenses and had a plan to wait for Cr.Card bill and just pay it all. #1 I was really floored by how much I owed - those pina coladas really add up! LOL! Still , no problem, then the credit card bill came and I though, hmmm....maybe I'll just pay 2/3 of the balance this month and I can use the extra money for a weekend at the beach (still had serious case of cruise withdraw)..well, I had my weekend at the beach, didn't pay the final 1/3 until the following month and had to pay the interest ,which I hate to do, on that 1/3 balance. I know I could have paid off cruise bill and still gone to the beach but it just felt like "found money" to me. I'm weak... LOL. Also I think I'd have bought a few less items aboard ship if I'd been aware of how much I was spending. I didn't really need all those tee shirts and sweatshirts.

 

[ZenBuddha]

Nuke...

They won't accept debit cards but they will allow you to cut them a check and they will verify everything right there for you... Like you, I didn't want to leave the ship with a kickin' CC bill...

 

[mjc1971]

Hi -

We were on the Magic for the 4/27 cruise and I used a debit card to pay for everything and had no problems whatsoever. It does have the Visa logo on it but it clearly says check card right on it. I have read other posts on here also of people using their debit cards.

 

[ZenBuddha]

Wow, mjc... I was misinformed then, cuz I went to the desk to settle my acct (the card did have the Visa logo) but the gentleman at the service desk said 'no go'... so I had to cut him a check... I'm glad you made out okay... I'll have to remember that on my next crooooze

 

["Ginger"]

You can always pre-pay on your ship board account.
Call Magical Treasures 1-800-601-8455 just tell them you would like to pre-pay your on board credits. On Board Credits can be purchased in $25.00 denominations.
I usually pre-pay $500. for us being a family of 3. I call about 3 months before the cruise charge it to a credit card and have it paid off before we leave for our crusie. They will refund you any amount that you don't spend. Never had that happen, last time we went over our amount by $1.43.