Don't Get Ripped Off When Buying a Cruise
by Wendy Perrin
Note: Please see my 12/18/08 update to this post (by clicking here).
Some cruise lines are charging a currency-exchange fee of 3 percent when you purchase a cruise, even though you're paying in the U.S. in U.S. dollars. A couple of years ago I warned about Oceania Cruises and MSC Cruises doing this, but now Regent Seven Seas and Sea Dream Yacht Club have gotten into the act too, according to Richard Turen, one of my most trusted cruise specialists on the list of the world's top travel agents that I update annually in Conde Nast Traveler. Here's what Richard has written about "Luxury Cruise Lines and the Great Credit Card Rip-Off" on his must-read Travel Truth blog:
"Oceania Cruises has been running U.S. bank-issued credit cards through a financial institution based in Dublin, Ireland. This has resulted in scores of Oceania passengers, many of them unaware, being charged an additional fee of up to 3% on their cruise deposits and final payments.
"In the last year, Oceania and Regent Seven Seas were both sold to the cash-rich Apollo Investment Group. Now there are reports that Regent Seven Seas guests are also being charged additional fees on payments made on some Visa, MasterCard, and American Express Cards . . . . [And] we have learned that Sea Dream Yacht Club has just started running some credit card payments through a bank in Norway. (Sea Dream has Norwegian owners.)
"Oceania and Regent respond that this is happening to very few of their guests and that when they are made aware of the credit card penalty charges, they will issue an onboard credit in the amount of the extra charge. But this has been handled on a 'need-to-know' basis and we can find no example of guests being warned about these unanticipated credit card charges by the cruise lines involved .... Sea Dream has not indicated that they would issue an onboard credit to all guests hit with the extra charges.
"The consumer rarely knows about these charges prior to their cruise. The 3% will usually not turn up as final payment, with the extra percent tacked on, until the ship has already sailed, so to speak. Sadly, many of those paying 3% more for their vacation than anticipated will never notice the additional percentage tacked onto their credit card statement."
Many thanks, Richard, for this important warning.
I'd love to hear from any travelers who've been assessed a foreign-purchase fee by a cruise line even though they paid in U.S. dollars. Please click on "Comments" to tell me about it.
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I was just hit by a 2% fee on one of my credit cards for charging a final cruise payment to Oceania; which I've learned has financial ties to Ireland, though based in Miami, and it was a US funds payment.
Since they are aware of it, why in the world they can't automatically do the credit back to the customer is beyond me; instead, they make me jump through hoops sending them copies of my credit card statement to prove it, before they'll give me a shipboard credit for the fee - they appear not to care about the customer all that much - really! Just hide the added charges hoping the customer won't notice the little extras added is their mode of operation - definitely not customer friendly!
Posted by: weglarz | November 27, 2008 at 10:54 AM
Thanks for the information. I will not be spend my valuable vacation time or money being ripped off by Oceania and/or Regent Seven Seas. I assume they treat their customers the same way once they get on board their ship, if they are being less than honest before the customer sails.
Posted by: ltatarsky | November 27, 2008 at 11:14 PM