When does DCL charge your card?

[Ocallygal]

We are going to be going on the Disney Fantasy shortly and we are a bit confused about when our bank account gets charged. We were originally told that all our purchases are placed on our onboard account, then at the end of the cruise, DCL closes out the account and charges our bank account for the total bill(at one time). We even filled out the form with our bank to increase our account limit to plan for the large charge.

Now I'm hearing that DCL charges, the card you put on file, every day or even as you make a purchase/use a service.

Can someone clear it up for us? We really appreciate the help.

 

[disfan16]

When we were on our cruise I was told that once you get 500 or more in charges they charge your card. I wanted to pay all of our bill on the last night and found out they already charges 600 some to my card. They did take my money and my card got a refund though.

 

[disfan16]

On our cruise in September I was told that once you reach 500 or more they will charge your card.

 

[jahber]

To clarify, if you put a CC on file, it will be charged periodically, although I don't how frequently or when, as we've never done it. If you are using a cash account--in other words, you do not give them a CC number--they will remind you to pay down your account before you hit the $500 mark (or more/less depending on the cruise length). You can use cash, gift cards, or CC for that. If you don't, they suspend your charging privileges until you pay it down. At the end of the cruise you pay off the rest.

We always go with a cash account and typically apply Disney gift cards at the beginning of the cruise. If we have leftover money, it's refunded to the gift cards. If we have a balance, we pay it at the end.

 

[emsmomma]

Can you choose not to give them your cc number and when you reach that $500 mark instead of paying cash you use your card? I'm just thinking that way I know what's being charged and when?!

 

[4HppyCamprs]

Can you choose not to give them your cc number and when you reach that $500 mark instead of paying cash you use your card? I'm just thinking that way I know what's being charged and when?!

I just did check in and chose not to give a credit card number (was in a hurry) and it said that at 300.00 the account would have to be cleared.

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

 

[Ocallygal]

Thank you all for the answers. It makes sense. Wish I had asked before going to my bank. What a hassle they made it to increase my per day level...when really it should have been an easy process.
On the bright side...at least the entire bank now knows we are going on a cruise, so they won't think its fraud when DCL charges.

$500 is well below our per day limit, so this will actually work out better.

Thanks again...

 

[chindog]

Our credit card, the one that we have registered for our cruise in a couple of weeks, got declined at the gas station yesterday. The message on the pump didn't actually say "declined", it said "unauthorized use". I called the credit card company, and they told me that a merchant we had used in the past had reported their customer credit card data had been "compromised" (stolen), and our card number was in danger of fraudulent use. They cancelled our card number, and are sending new cards with new numbers. But, the new cards don't arrive until tomorrow. I'm just glad this didn't happen the day before we sailed, or we would have run into inconvenience.

 

[su_A_ve]

Our credit card, the one that we have registered for our cruise in a couple of weeks, got declined at the gas station yesterday. The message on the pump didn't actually say "declined", it said "unauthorized use". I called the credit card company, and they told me that a merchant we had used in the past had reported their customer credit card data had been "compromised" (stolen), and our card number was in danger of fraudulent use. They cancelled our card number, and are sending new cards with new numbers. But, the new cards don't arrive until tomorrow. I'm just glad this didn't happen the day before we sailed, or we would have run into inconvenience.

You got lucky... My DVR got recently compromised (looks like it was cloned at a restaurant) but no charges made it thru. It's a must today to have a second card with a different bank in case there's a major breach.

Also, you should advice your CC company you are traveling - else first gas station or store you hit outside your state could flag it as stolen

 

[DCLShel]

Our credit card, the one that we have registered for our cruise in a couple of weeks, got declined at the gas station yesterday. The message on the pump didn't actually say "declined", it said "unauthorized use". I called the credit card company, and they told me that a merchant we had used in the past had reported their customer credit card data had been "compromised" (stolen), and our card number was in danger of fraudulent use. They cancelled our card number, and are sending new cards with new numbers. But, the new cards don't arrive until tomorrow. I'm just glad this didn't happen the day before we sailed, or we would have run into inconvenience.

I was at Downtown Disney the night before we sailed when my DH (he was at home) called to tell me his card had just been declined. I immediately called the CC company and, sure enough- our account had been compromised! Luckily, I had brought a second card on the trip. I just changed the account info when I checked in at the port.

 

[SuperDry]

When we were on our cruise I was told that once you get 500 or more in charges they charge your card.

That's right. The threshold is $500 for cruises of 7 days or more, and it may or may not be less for shorter cruises. When your on-board account exceeds that limit, they charge the current balance. But, it's not an exact science. First of all, unless you were exceedingly lucky or precise, the charge that pushes you over will not result in a balance of exactly $500. Also, I think they process the charges in batches at certain times (perhaps 1-4 times a day), so you may have some other charges on your account between the moment when it goes over $500 and when the charge is made.

In any event, when they make the charge, they charge your current balance, which resets your on-board account to $0 owed.

Based on the above, you can extrapolate several other scenarios:

- If you don't exceed the $500 limit, then you won't be charged until the end of the cruise.

- You can make partial or full payments at any time at Guest Services, using cash, check, gift card, or alternate credit card I would assume. As long as your balance doesn't exceed $500 at any time, then you won't be charged until the end.

- If you don't plan on exceeding $500 (including the automatic room gratuities), then there's really no difference between putting a credit card on file and going with a "cash only" account. The only two differences between a cash account and a credit-card-on-file account are a) your on-board charging won't be interrupted once you get to $500, and b) you don't have to settle at the end of the cruise.

 

[the_bUg]

This is why I would not want to pay cash out of pocket... given the cost of spa treatments and excursions on a DCL cruise, they'd be bugging me almost daily for more money. I'd have to be all like "GET YOUR GRUBBY HANDS OFF MY WALLET!"

 

[jahber]

- If you don't plan on exceeding $500 (including the automatic room gratuities), then there's really no difference between putting a credit card on file and going with a "cash only" account. The only two differences between a cash account and a credit-card-on-file account are a) your on-board charging won't be interrupted once you get to $500, and b) you don't have to settle at the end of the cruise.

There is a difference, actually. With a cash account you don't have to use a CC. Which matters if you don't use credit cards to pay for the cruise expenses, which we don't. We use gift cards purchased at Target to pay for onboard expenses. We use a cash account so that if expenses run over the amount we anticipated, there's no credit card charged before we can run down and reload our account with gift cards or cash or a debit card. Sometimes we are lazy and lose track of time on a cruise . Once those tips and excursion charges hit a few days in, suddenly your account can blow up! But we prefer not to have to use a CC at all.