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Debit card vs credit card


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  • SpeedNoodles changed the title to Debit card vs credit card

Yes. We don't use credit for anything. We pre-pay for just about everything (drink packages, excursions, any specialty dining, and gratuities). All we pay for onboard is a couple of t-shirts/mangets and maybe some bingo cards so we don't have a huge hold on our card.

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Starting on day one the ship will charge a nominal amount like $100 but for credit cards it is basically a pending charge that never completes.  As the cruise continues the ship places more of these individual small charges as you charge items on board.  If you buy a $53 watch that will immediately become a pending charge on your credit card   

Once the cruise is over the ships charges the final amount due as one single lump sum charge and the smaller “holds” or pending charges that were being posted during cruise eventually fall off.

It works well for most credit cards but for debit cards many banks will not release the pending charges for a month to protect themselves in case the pending smaller amounts eventually post.   A credit card company knows it can always post charges to your account later so it doesn't impact most credit cards but for a bank if there is no money in a bank account they could be left stuck with the bill so they are more careful holding onto pending charges longer.  

If you have a big bank account it’s not a problem. If you live month to month on your bank account it can be a big problem.  Sometimes you’ll see people report the cruise line charged them twice but it’s really the bank holding the one set of pending charges for weeks.  Eventually the bank will let the pending charges fall off but they are very slow to do so.  That’s the downside of using a debit card. 

If you pre-purchase gratuity and everything you plan to buy like beverage packages and shore excursions it’s very easy to have no onboard charges.   A debit card in this scenario works well.  If you plan to buy everything on board a debit card doesn't work as well unless you have a big bank account that can get you through the extended hold time your bank might use.  

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We don't use a credit card except when traveling, and we pay it off in full as soon as we return home.  Doing this requires discipline in order to only spend what you have budgeted for vacation. 

We feel using a credit card rather than a debit card protects us...not only for the pending charges or "holds", but in the unlikely event that our card gets compromised. 

Random incident that happened last month in Miami....when we checked into our pre cruise hotel, the hold for incidentals was actually applied twice.  Since we used our credit card rather than our debit card, we didn't worry about it too much (yes, it went away when we checked out the next morning).

 

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Have always used our credit card on board never had problems plus like the money back from our credit card. We have the money already in another account to pay off any thing that is charged on the card so when we are all done everything is paid for just like the cruise is paid for before we leave. We have a vacation fund put money each week. Since two cruises have been canceled because on the virus that fund is fine :).

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