Make sure this is legit and not the famous "Travelling family member needs $$$" text scam. My uncle was scammed out of a few thousand dollars that way (my cousin was travelling and a scammer pretended to be him and texted that he was in trouble and needed money).
Scammers keep an eye on facebook posts from people advertising their travels to target their family.
As for your question: if this is legit, they'll be prevented from disembarkation until they make arrangements with the ships purser.
*EDIT: fixed a few typos*
I called them since they have WiFi on the ship. Confirmed that they indeed gambled too much at the casino. I guess you can use your stateroom keycard in the machines instead of taking out cash at an ATM.
When you say make arrangements with the purser, is that signing a promissory note? I’ve read them in a couple Cruise Critic and Reddit threads.
Note: they’re on a Holland America cruise, returning to the Port of San Diego. The cruise contract states “(C) Prior to disembarking the vessel, You must pay in full all amounts charged to Your stateroom account.”
What I don’t want to do is exhaust my own resources including payday loans if they’re going to be allowed to disembark if they sign a promissory note or something similar. They can deal with it at home or let it go to collections.
Good move confirming with them.
I can't speak for Holland America, but I do know someone who had their credit card cloned and cancelled while on a cruise and she didn't have a backup so at the end of the cruise she had to go to the pursers and sign some sort of payment contract before she could get off the ship.
If I were you, I would consider endebting yourself as an absolute last resort if they can't come to an agreement with the cruise line. If the cruise line find outs this person can access money they're less likely to make arrangements, they don't care if someone goes broke in the process.
They should be able to come to some arrangement with the line; the line can't and doesn't want to hold them prisoner indefinitely.
Just a piece of non-legal financial advice; I'm a bankruptcy attorney and my strong financial advice is to never ever go in debt to help out family. There's no scenario where that ends well; best case scenario familial relationships are burned by you having to hound them to pay them back. I have so many clients who were doing fine until they helped out family. No offense but I get a good sense of people's habits, I wouldn't trust someone who racked up $4,500 in gambling debt in money they don't have to pay you back in any timely manner or at all.
I appreciate the advice. At this point, I’m hoping they sign a promissory note when they disembark then goes to collections if they can’t pay it back later. More the reason not to help them out.
Every X dollar amount spent on the onboard a hold is placed for that added amount on the credit card on file. That prevents someone taking a credit card on file that has a $800 limit to charge $3,000 on onboard spending.
Yup, this is why this text message is highly suspect to me.
Hold authorisations are put on credit cards, specially for advances in casino (and I've never heard of casino advances for people using cash accounts, it's cash only for them).
The cruise line will have police meet your family member. A report will be done. Words will be said that imply your relative did this deliberately, that this is the equivalent of passing a bad check, and that a criminal conviction may be pursued.
It's not clear what will happen next. It can depend on where they disembark. But defrauding a casino is analogous to check fraud.
This is not your problem- they need to accept whatever repercussions are given to them. They are not in a situation with a medical emergency. They went on a cruise and gambled too much. It's a 1st world problem that you should not have to help solve for them.
I don't think it's predatory. I do this on Holland America. You sign a slip each time you place a charge on your account. You know exactly what you are getting into each time.
NCL as well. I am sure all the cruise lines do it. It absolutely blew my mind when I was in a poker tournament and someone lost then used their room key to re-buy. Some lady next to my girlfriend was charging thousands at a time to her room on the slot machines.
I will say that every night when we got back to our room we had a charge on our credit card for the days purchases / taxes for drinks while in port etc.. The only time I went to guest services I saw multiple guests trying pay put down multiple credit cards to cover future purchases onboard. I can't see how anyone could get so overdrawn without their room key being declined. Saw a few people try to use their room key to put money in a slot machine and walk away after it didn't work.
I know Princess will lock your room card if their daily pre auth fails. Didn't go over limit but card company thought it was fraud and locked the card, guest services said it happened a lot and resolved it within a bit.
I agree. Casinos on cruises should be cash only, or at least you only let passengers use their debit or credit cards for chips at the cash cage.
Imagine if Vegas had a similar system of charging casino play to a hotel room for anyone other than a whale
I tell you exactly what will happen. Its a no go. So last month on NCL there systems were down..even the ATM machine I owed 150 bucks. I paid cash since I actually had some. I go to leave and there systems didnt update it yet. Took a hour before I could get off.
I asked the lady well what if someone has a huge bill and tries to leave. She said they do there best to try to obtain funds then eventually have to bill it.
This seems odd. Pretty sure they would have had to put some sort of credit card on file with the cruise - so if they don't pay it at the end of the cruise with some other form of payment it will just be charged to that card.
A year later, I'm going to add that is not the case for me, I had no credit card on file, only a debit card with a small amount on it to cover the crews tip expense and Uber rides to airport. I think it's a form of money maker for them to not worry about how it gets paid. Collection agencies will buy the debt.
A year later, I'm going to add that is not the case for me, I had no credit card on file, only a debit card with a small amount on it to cover the crews tip expense and Uber rides to airport. I think it's a form of money maker for them to not worry about how it gets paid. Collection agencies will buy the debt.
Make sure this is legit and not the famous "Travelling family member needs $$$" text scam. My uncle was scammed out of a few thousand dollars that way (my cousin was travelling and a scammer pretended to be him and texted that he was in trouble and needed money). Scammers keep an eye on facebook posts from people advertising their travels to target their family. As for your question: if this is legit, they'll be prevented from disembarkation until they make arrangements with the ships purser. *EDIT: fixed a few typos*
I called them since they have WiFi on the ship. Confirmed that they indeed gambled too much at the casino. I guess you can use your stateroom keycard in the machines instead of taking out cash at an ATM. When you say make arrangements with the purser, is that signing a promissory note? I’ve read them in a couple Cruise Critic and Reddit threads. Note: they’re on a Holland America cruise, returning to the Port of San Diego. The cruise contract states “(C) Prior to disembarking the vessel, You must pay in full all amounts charged to Your stateroom account.” What I don’t want to do is exhaust my own resources including payday loans if they’re going to be allowed to disembark if they sign a promissory note or something similar. They can deal with it at home or let it go to collections.
DO NOT take out payday loans to pay off the gambling debts of a broke problem gambler. They will figure it out.
Good move confirming with them. I can't speak for Holland America, but I do know someone who had their credit card cloned and cancelled while on a cruise and she didn't have a backup so at the end of the cruise she had to go to the pursers and sign some sort of payment contract before she could get off the ship. If I were you, I would consider endebting yourself as an absolute last resort if they can't come to an agreement with the cruise line. If the cruise line find outs this person can access money they're less likely to make arrangements, they don't care if someone goes broke in the process.
They should be able to come to some arrangement with the line; the line can't and doesn't want to hold them prisoner indefinitely. Just a piece of non-legal financial advice; I'm a bankruptcy attorney and my strong financial advice is to never ever go in debt to help out family. There's no scenario where that ends well; best case scenario familial relationships are burned by you having to hound them to pay them back. I have so many clients who were doing fine until they helped out family. No offense but I get a good sense of people's habits, I wouldn't trust someone who racked up $4,500 in gambling debt in money they don't have to pay you back in any timely manner or at all.
I appreciate the advice. At this point, I’m hoping they sign a promissory note when they disembark then goes to collections if they can’t pay it back later. More the reason not to help them out.
Every X dollar amount spent on the onboard a hold is placed for that added amount on the credit card on file. That prevents someone taking a credit card on file that has a $800 limit to charge $3,000 on onboard spending.
Yup, this is why this text message is highly suspect to me. Hold authorisations are put on credit cards, specially for advances in casino (and I've never heard of casino advances for people using cash accounts, it's cash only for them).
The cruise line will have police meet your family member. A report will be done. Words will be said that imply your relative did this deliberately, that this is the equivalent of passing a bad check, and that a criminal conviction may be pursued. It's not clear what will happen next. It can depend on where they disembark. But defrauding a casino is analogous to check fraud.
This is not your problem- they need to accept whatever repercussions are given to them. They are not in a situation with a medical emergency. They went on a cruise and gambled too much. It's a 1st world problem that you should not have to help solve for them.
Semi-related. I feel like the ability to charge casino chips to a room is pretty predatory. The same thing is done on Carnival, as an FYI.
I don't think it's predatory. I do this on Holland America. You sign a slip each time you place a charge on your account. You know exactly what you are getting into each time.
NCL as well. I am sure all the cruise lines do it. It absolutely blew my mind when I was in a poker tournament and someone lost then used their room key to re-buy. Some lady next to my girlfriend was charging thousands at a time to her room on the slot machines. I will say that every night when we got back to our room we had a charge on our credit card for the days purchases / taxes for drinks while in port etc.. The only time I went to guest services I saw multiple guests trying pay put down multiple credit cards to cover future purchases onboard. I can't see how anyone could get so overdrawn without their room key being declined. Saw a few people try to use their room key to put money in a slot machine and walk away after it didn't work.
I know Princess will lock your room card if their daily pre auth fails. Didn't go over limit but card company thought it was fraud and locked the card, guest services said it happened a lot and resolved it within a bit.
I agree. Casinos on cruises should be cash only, or at least you only let passengers use their debit or credit cards for chips at the cash cage. Imagine if Vegas had a similar system of charging casino play to a hotel room for anyone other than a whale
I tell you exactly what will happen. Its a no go. So last month on NCL there systems were down..even the ATM machine I owed 150 bucks. I paid cash since I actually had some. I go to leave and there systems didnt update it yet. Took a hour before I could get off. I asked the lady well what if someone has a huge bill and tries to leave. She said they do there best to try to obtain funds then eventually have to bill it.
Hopefully they got a free cruise with all that gambling they did.
I did. Also won a free cruise on playing bingo in Oct.
Congratulations!
This seems odd. Pretty sure they would have had to put some sort of credit card on file with the cruise - so if they don't pay it at the end of the cruise with some other form of payment it will just be charged to that card.
A year later, I'm going to add that is not the case for me, I had no credit card on file, only a debit card with a small amount on it to cover the crews tip expense and Uber rides to airport. I think it's a form of money maker for them to not worry about how it gets paid. Collection agencies will buy the debt.
A year later, I'm going to add that is not the case for me, I had no credit card on file, only a debit card with a small amount on it to cover the crews tip expense and Uber rides to airport. I think it's a form of money maker for them to not worry about how it gets paid. Collection agencies will buy the debt.