Beware of paying with Debit cards !!

How do you pay for your on board account ? With absolute ignorance I used my Debit card on board a recent cruise, and here the story begins, as we got off the ship on 26th I made sure there would be sufficient funds in my account to cover the bill, and as I then got paid on 28th did not get too concerned about it. When I checked my account on the 27th the debit had gone through my account yet the available balance was far less than I had calculated, it appeared that my bill had been taken twice , once in “real” money and the other held in some Bermuda triangle somewhere that no one wanted to acknowledge ? my bank blamed the cruise line and the opposite.

To my horror I had a lovely customer return on 14/05/2016 after a seven night cruise who had a bill of Approx £550, she was happy with this and carried on her next day or two , and like me was in ignorant bliss, when trying to draw on her account , no funds available ?? yet she could see clearly the cruise line had debited her account and removed the said £550

I have written to the cruise line and here is the explanation …………………………………………

I very much regret any confusion that has arisen surrounding the process we use in dealing with credit and debit card transactions while on board a  Cruises ship.  If I may explain exactly what happens this may give you a clearer understanding as to our policy over card payments while on board.

On the day of embarkation the ship staff send a pre-authorisation of all credit cards that have been registered with us to check the validity of the card to ensure it has not been declined, closed, lost or stolen.  At the end of each day a file is sent to our clearing house in the United States to authorise any transactions that have taken place that day; this is to ensure enough funds are available to cover any activity that has place during that day.  On the final night of the cruise a settlement file is sent to the clearing house to settle all charges incurred during the cruise.  The grand total is sent and not just the amount for the final day.

When our clearing house obtains a final settlement from the card issuing banks, one of two things should happen:

The card issuing banks combine all the pre-authorised approval codes obtained to complete the final settlement.

Or

The card issuing banks complete the final settlement without using the prior approval codes obtained, but drops them as unused when settled.

After we verify that the ship settlement was completed and monies have been received from our credit card processors, we will then call the card issuing banks directly to release the authorisation holds.

I realise this seems to be a complicated process, but as I am sure you can appreciate, we have to be very careful when dealing with such transactions.  I am sorry this was not explained to your clients at any time, but can assure you this is standard practice throughout the United States, particularly in hotels.  This is also detailed on our website.

It is common practice for Cruises to request authorisation holds to be placed on a passenger’s credit or debit card.  In effect, we are asking the card company to set aside a certain dollar amount until we process the actual charge to the card.  Occasionally these authorisations remain on a passenger’s card, even though the charges have already been posted.  When this occurs, the authorisations will automatically drop off within one to two weeks.  I am truly sorry for any unnecessary inconvenience or embarrassment this situation may have caused.  I have today emailed our Finance Department to request that they make contact with Mrs xxxxxxxxx’s card provider to request that any existing holds are removed.
Really !!!! two weeks, sorry that is just shocking, not all of us have thousands at our disposal , and not all of us have credit cards. I thought of paying cash , but it appears this “hold ” is put on every day , so not even sure that would solve the issue, I may have to consider a credit card in the future , just for this, I hope lots of people read this blog as this has been very distressing for my customer, i will be mentioning it in the future to my customers, but I also think people should be made aware at check in !!

It appear to be with all American cruise lines !!