My MIL has just returned from a cruise on Golden Princess and discovered that the company has charged her credit card (in addition to the cruise fee) of 3 different amounts totalling close to $1500!
The are in a roundabout way saying that they did this to make sure she had enough money on her credit card for any purchases on board. When she rang them they are saying it takes 3 weeks for them to get the money back on her credit card!
Has anyone heard of them doing this before? She doesn't understand what is going on and is unhappy to say the least!
I had the same experience on my last Princess cruise. They put a hold on a certain amount to make sure there is enough to cover the "extras". This was the first time they've done this to us and I was more than a little upset too. But the charges were removed in just a couple of days.
Is any part of the $1500 her onboard charges? This is a temporary authorization. The final bill should be submitted within the 3 weeks they mentioned and the temporary authorizations will be cleared. She won't be billed for all of it, but it does reduce the amount of available credit in the interim.
Thanks for your replies!
MIL kept saying they said they had put a hold on her credit card which I couldn't understand.
None of the $1500 were any onboard purchases. The weird thing is that the amounts were like $212.84, $415.73 & then $818.54.
It would not have been a problem if they took these amounts from the total charge for the cruise but they have been charged in addition. She is annoyed because she still has 3 weeks left of her holiday and is now down $1500 until they see fit to refund her money.
This just seems crazy to me. When we went to a Club Med resort they did a pre-authorization on our credit card to make sure we had enough available for any purchases but the money did not actually come off our account and we had to sign the credit slip. She did not sign any credit slips for this money - they just took it!
I think she will definitely take the matter further as it seems very bad business practice.
Thanks again for your replies.
That's not how cruise lines do it. You signed for it when you checked in and gave them the credit card to activate the onboard account. They provide a print out of charges on the last day of the cruise. If you agree then you do nothing and they charge that amount to the credit card.
She did not sign a credit slip, but I'm sure she signed an authorization when she registered the card prior to boarding, But it would have been nice to know ahead of time that they were going to do this. As I said, it took us by surprise also.
They will place a hold on your credit card, for some specified amount to make sure you can cover your bill. I don't understand the amounts you listed, unless they were on board purchases. I think there's a little more than to the story than your MIL is telling you.
Penny, the amounts they put on hold on our card were uneven too; we went nuts at first trying to reconcile them with our shipboard account. They must use a percentage, or some other formula to determine the hold amount.
the amounts they put on hold on our card were uneven too
That is indeed very strange. I check my credit cards frequently on-line, especially after a cruise or other travel, and I've never seen uneven holds like those the OP and you have encountered. But I haven't cruised with Princess for a while, with all of our cruises over the past 5 years being Carnival and RCI. They don't do it, at least not that I can tell.
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