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Shipboard credit: who gets it & how much?

M.T. Schwartzman

Travel documents, immigration forms, passport, credit card. These are the essentials at embarkation. But once the cruise line takes an imprint of your plastic, what goes on behind the scenes? We wondered too. So we asked several major cruise brands to explain their policies.

For starters, a hold may be put on a portion of your line of credit. At Carnival Cruise Lines, that amount is $50, according to Smart Hall, vice president of operations accounting. As the guest adds charges to his or her shipboard account, more credit is requested from the cardholder's bank. Typically that amount is enough to cover the account balance plus a hedge against future charges. "We always try to stay $50 "ahead," Hall says. "We usually do that request two or three times a day. It's a process we do throughout the cruise. But not for everybody. It depends on your spending. Some people never go beyond the initial $50."

As the cruise progresses, these requests for credit create incremental holds on your line of credit with the bank. At the end of the cruise, the exact amount is processed with the bank, usually within 24 hours. "This is where it gets complicated," Hall says. "The card-issuing bank controls how long the hold stays on that account." These may remain in effect even after the account has been settled. "The cardholder's bank doesn't always release the hold once we bill the account," Hall explains--and the bank may, in fact, consider each request for credit as an individual transaction, which leads to further delays. "Sometimes those holds can remain on the account for up to 30 days."

This process of requesting incremental credit is standard industry practice, Hall notes, although the amount of the hold may vary by cruise line. "It's the proper way to handle it. Even though the cruise line is following proper procedure, the bank is not holding up its end, and there can be an inconvenience to the passenger," he says.

This can be even more of a problem if the card being presented is a debit card, Hall continues. "The hold we place goes against their checking account, even though the charge won't be processed until the end of the cruise," which may conflict with other transactions. "We advise them about that when they sign up," he notes, "but many debit cards are still presented. Better to use a credit card than a debit card when traveling," he concludes.

The casino presents still another aspect of the onboard credit picture, which also varies by cruise line. At Carnival, only a small amount of shipboard credit is available for use in the casino. "We do allow some chip purchases to be billed to your stateroom for a limited amount," Hall says, adding that while guests can't charge large amounts of chips to their room, they have access to funds in other ways. "We do have ATMs aboard our ships, so that's one way to get cash aboard for the casino. The casinos on Carnival ships also have a credit-card/cash advance service for a fee. It's a third-party service, like most Las Vegas casinos use, that allows you to take an advance on your credit card."

And what about people who don't have a credit card--or choose not to register one? "Carnival's policy is to secure your charges up front, not to wait until the end of the cruise and ask for payment," Hall answers. These guests will be asked In open all account with cash. The amount varies by the duration of the cruise: $100 for two- to four-day cruises, $200 for five- to eight-day cruises, and $350 for cruises that are nine days or longer. "If you make a cash deposit, and you exceed the cash deposit during the cruise, we'll ask you to come to the purser's office and deposit more cash," Hall adds. What if there's money unspent? "At the end of the cruise, we provide a refund check on debarkation morning to your stateroom," he concludes.

Over at Norwegian Cruise Line, procedures are similar, although the initial credit-card hold is for $300. Once the guest exceeds that amount, another authorization is automatically requested, although only for the amount that's been charged, according to the NCL accounting department. "For example, if the guest account is $420, we would have originally asked for $300 on the first night, and then the second night only the additional $120 is obtained," the company explained in a statement to Cruise Travel.

NCL confirmed Carnival's assertion that credit-card holds may remain in effect for up to 30 days, depending on the cardholder's bank, and that credit is requested in increments. In the casino, NCL tells a slightly different story: Guests may charge up to $1,000 per day to their shipboard account. However, NCL notes, there is no casino aboard the line's U.S.-flagged ship, the Pride of Aloha.

Other lines may grant credit even more generously. For example, Celebrity Cruises and sister line Royal Caribbean International allow passengers to access whatever available credit they may have on their cards, according to Liz Jakeway, manager of corporate communications for the Celebrity brand. "If the guest would exceed the limit set by the credit card, that of course would come to our attention and we'd have to take it up with them," she says. This is not unheard of. "I "know of an instance where that happened--where guest did exceed their MasterCard limit--and the ship was informed within a day. The reason they know so quickly is that the transactions are posted nightly and are approved by the credit-card company within 24 hours."

Passengers can avoid such embarrassment, Jakeway advises, by monitoring their account using the interactive, in-cabin TV system, known alternately as the Celebrity Network or RCTV. That way, she notes, "When they get their final statement, they won't be seeing it for the first time."

Both Celebrity and Royal Caribbean allow qualified passengers to charge a substantial amount of casino credit to their shipboard accounts. For an account with credit-card backing, the limit is $2,000 per day. For cash accounts, though, it's only $100. Furthermore, guests who want to bring a personal check aboard to fund their gaming may arrange in advance for a line of credit of $5,000 or more. "People with established lines of credit in Las Vegas like to bring a personal check aboard for convenience," explains David Stanley, vice president of fleet operations revenue for parent company Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. "If a person has a line of credit with an established casino, we will normally honor that credit." Most of the time, however, these limits are well above what's actually used. "Our normal transaction in the casino on SeaPass is $100 to $200. Only on very rare occasions do we have guests who charge the maximum," he says. "These would be our high rollers."

Regardless of your line's individual policies, remember that one thing consistently is true: the bill always comes due, and it's important to make sure you're not maxed out when the charges hit the bank. And while vacations have a way of loosening the purse strings, keep in mind that nothing--not even a cruise--lasts forever, So you may want to leave a little credit unspent for purchases after you get home.

COPYRIGHT 2004 World Publishing, Co. (Illinois)
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group