Prepaid Visa Card

[SPace]

Can I use a prepaid Visa card to pay my onboard account balance. I know debit cards aren’t suggested.

[DoomSlayer]

I would not suggest that as the way Royal Caribbean does holds is crazy.  Credit card is really the best option assuming you have one, second option would be debit card, but understand that there could be a large hold against it after you get off that will take a week or two to clear.  Essentially, you need to budget for twice of what you expect to spend onboard and have those funds in your debit account.  Their onboard billing system is not friendly for people not using credit cards unfortunately.  Even people that have low limit cards run into issues.

[Pattycruise]

It does not appear you can.
Cash or credit card are mentioned 
https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/questions/seapass-onboard-spending-account

[Mturk]

I believe what you could do is, before disembarking, use your prepaid Visa card to pay part or all of your balance owing for your cabin. If the there is a shortfall, then this will be paid with the credit card on file.

[SPace]

It’s strange to me that a prepaid Visa card can’t be used. A debit card is different since the money has to be withdrawn from a bank account. You purchase a prepaid Visa for a specific amount and the value of the card is the purchase price less any activation fees. It’s like using cash. 

[DoomSlayer]

39 minutes ago, SPace said:

It’s strange to me that a prepaid Visa card can’t be used. A debit card is different since the money has to be withdrawn from a bank account. You purchase a prepaid Visa for a specific amount and the value of the card is the purchase price less any activation fees. It’s like using cash. 

You can always call and ask them directly or chat with their customer service on Facebook.  I find they are generally helpful in answering questions.  Honestly, the answers here so far, including my own, are speculation and not definitive.  If you do ask them, share their response as I am sure you will not be the last person to ask that question.

[Ryan79]

It’s like using cash…for YOU. For vendors, it’s not the same as processing a cash transaction. Prepaid cards are their own beast that has the drawbacks of both cash and credit cards. 

[Pattycruise]

9 hours ago, Mturk said:

I believe what you could do is, before disembarking, use your prepaid Visa card to pay part or all of your balance owing for your cabin. If the there is a shortfall, then this will be paid with the credit card on file.

I doubt it.  Prepaid cards are a risk.

[GJ_123]

15 hours ago, DoomSlayer said:

I would not suggest that as the way Royal Caribbean does holds is crazy.  Credit card is really the best option assuming you have one, second option would be debit card, but understand that there could be a large hold against it after you get off that will take a week or two to clear.  Essentially, you need to budget for twice of what you expect to spend onboard and have those funds in your debit account.  Their onboard billing system is not friendly for people not using credit cards unfortunately.  Even people that have low limit cards run into issues.

Has this always been the case with RC? I honestly can't get my head around why they do this, what is the purpose? Surely it would make more sense to hold the amounts as they please, and actually just claim the transactions at the end of the cruise. Why do you essentially need to pay again?? 
I was recently on Symphony and I overheard a guest saying they didn't understand how the holds worked, and they basically didn't have enough in their account to cover twice what they had spent... so I've no idea how it was resolved.
For this reason we always do a cash account. We just stick $500-$1000 into our account in cash as soon as we get onboard.

[TessFromFlorida]

Not that this really answers your question, but I used prepaid Visa cards I received through work to purchase a Royal Caribbean gift certificate at 10% off (AARP- you can join at any age; card cash offers 8% off). I then sent the gift certificate to Royal to apply to my next cruise. It took 9 working days to apply to my account. This may be a work around if you need to unload prepaid cards. 

[Atlantix2000]

4 hours ago, GJ_123 said:

Has this always been the case with RC? I honestly can't get my head around why they do this, what is the purpose? Surely it would make more sense to hold the amounts as they please, and actually just claim the transactions at the end of the cruise. Why do you essentially need to pay again?? 
I was recently on Symphony and I overheard a guest saying they didn't understand how the holds worked, and they basically didn't have enough in their account to cover twice what they had spent... so I've no idea how it was resolved.
For this reason we always do a cash account. We just stick $500-$1000 into our account in cash as soon as we get onboard.

It's a quirk of the card processing systems in combination with Royal (and most hotels/resorts/other cruise lines/vendors/etc) trying to save money.  Whenever you run a charge on a card, the vendor gets charge a fee from the payment processor.  There are actually 2 parts to this fee - one set fee per transaction and one variable fee based on the size of the charge.  Therefore, it costs the vendor more to do five $20 transactions than one $100 transaction.  In order to minimize costs, the vendor is allowed to place a hold and modify they size of that hold.  Then, when they know the final bill, they cancel the hold and put through one final/real transaction.  This works great for the vendor but not for the consumer because cancelled holds don't cancel immediately, but the new charge does go through immediately.  This means for a short time, the card appears to have been charged twice.  (The length of this time depends on the policies of the bank that issues the card and cannot be controlled by the vendor.)  So how does this effect the consumer?  It depends on whether the card is credit or debit and whether whether there is enough money to cover both the hold and the real charge.

For a credit card, the issuing bank has plenty of money to cover all possible charges so the hold has no real effect.  The only question is whether the hold plus the real charge plus any previous balance would hit your credit limit.  If you're under the limit, great.  If you're now over the limit, the real charge gets denied and you'll have to use another card or cash.  The important point is that the hold effects someone else's money (the bank's).

For a debit card, the money in your bank account has to cover all the charges and the holds.  Your bank won't know the hold is cancelled so it ties up your money twice.  That can lead to denied charges or overdraft fees depending on your account's rules.  The important point is that the hold effects YOUR money.

[DoomSlayer]

6 hours ago, GJ_123 said:

Has this always been the case with RC? I honestly can't get my head around why they do this, what is the purpose? Surely it would make more sense to hold the amounts as they please, and actually just claim the transactions at the end of the cruise. Why do you essentially need to pay again?? 
I was recently on Symphony and I overheard a guest saying they didn't understand how the holds worked, and they basically didn't have enough in their account to cover twice what they had spent... so I've no idea how it was resolved.
For this reason we always do a cash account. We just stick $500-$1000 into our account in cash as soon as we get onboard.

It has been this way as long as I can remember.  I just use cards with big credit limits, so I never personally see the impact.  I don't carry credit card debt and pay my bill in full each month, so money management is not an issue for me.  But by using my card instead of cash, I get a lot of consumer protections by having an avenue to dispute charges I don't agree with (bank will dispute them on my behalf), added insurance on purchases, and I get 3% cash back for everything I buy while on board.

[Mturk]

On 11/9/2023 at 1:38 AM, Pattycruise said:

On 11/8/2023 at 4:08 PM, Mturk said:

I believe what you could do is, before disembarking, use your prepaid Visa card to pay part or all of your balance owing for your cabin. If the there is a shortfall, then this will be paid with the credit card on file.

I doubt it.  Prepaid cards are a risk.

Update.

Just got off Independence yesterday. I had a prepaid digital MasterCard worth $100 that was in my Apple Wallet so I thought I would give it a try and see if I could use it to pay off a portion of my onboard account. Short answer is yes and the remaining balance was charged to the credit card on file when I checked-in. The only thing was that they needed to enter the card information manually as their system was not able to accept Apple Pay.

[GJ_123]

On 11/9/2023 at 2:22 PM, Atlantix2000 said:

It's a quirk of the card processing systems in combination with Royal (and most hotels/resorts/other cruise lines/vendors/etc) trying to save money.  Whenever you run a charge on a card, the vendor gets charge a fee from the payment processor.  There are actually 2 parts to this fee - one set fee per transaction and one variable fee based on the size of the charge.  Therefore, it costs the vendor more to do five $20 transactions than one $100 transaction.  In order to minimize costs, the vendor is allowed to place a hold and modify they size of that hold.  Then, when they know the final bill, they cancel the hold and put through one final/real transaction.  This works great for the vendor but not for the consumer because cancelled holds don't cancel immediately, but the new charge does go through immediately.  This means for a short time, the card appears to have been charged twice.  (The length of this time depends on the policies of the bank that issues the card and cannot be controlled by the vendor.)  So how does this effect the consumer?  It depends on whether the card is credit or debit and whether whether there is enough money to cover both the hold and the real charge.

For a credit card, the issuing bank has plenty of money to cover all possible charges so the hold has no real effect.  The only question is whether the hold plus the real charge plus any previous balance would hit your credit limit.  If you're under the limit, great.  If you're now over the limit, the real charge gets denied and you'll have to use another card or cash.  The important point is that the hold effects someone else's money (the bank's).

For a debit card, the money in your bank account has to cover all the charges and the holds.  Your bank won't know the hold is cancelled so it ties up your money twice.  That can lead to denied charges or overdraft fees depending on your account's rules.  The important point is that the hold effects YOUR money.

You have explained that really well. It never occurred to me that it costs the vendor more to put through multiple transactions, so that explains the holds.

I do just think it's really poor though of RC and as you say it often effects the customer. I personally don't think it's clear enough especially to new customers how the holds work. I know a lot of people will go on a cruise with plenty money but there are also people who won't, and I'm sure there are plenty of customers who can't afford to cover their bill 'twice'. This happened to a customer I overheard on Symphony, they didn't have enough to cover their bill again. I have no idea how it was resolved but it must have been a nightmare for the guy.

We have been on many cruises in the last year and it's also really starting to annoy me how they work their cash accounts, if it's a week cruise you have a $500 dollar limit, and if you go above that your account is locked. But the last few cruises we have been on our account is being locked even if we are no where near the $500 limit. Once we were $200 in credit and they locked the account for no reason! Whenever I speak to Guest Services they blame 'the system' but it's incredibly annoying. They need to look at their cash account system. Under no circumstances should your account be locked unless you are over the agreed limit!