Credit cards on cruise ships

Megthedog_2

I was updating my information online for a cruise to the Med with Princess Cruises and they give you two options about how payments on the card in dollars can be converted to pounds. One is to simply let your credit card do it for you as normal and the other is for them to do it for you and guaranteeing that their exchange rate will equal your cards and they recommend this one. However, what it says in the small print is that they will charge a fee. I have a Nationwide select card and they don't charge fees so I would actually be worse off!

lisyloo

In general getting a shop/restaurant or cruise line to do your currency conversion is more expensive than letting the bank do it.
You need to be very aware because some restaurants do it automatically and the receipts can be confusing.
We had this happen in Egypt very recently. They did it automatically and when we complained they suddenly become a loss less able to speak English.
We did get it sorted but only by being very assertive (being a bit stroppy in a restaurant or shop where there are other customer can work).

System

I would always select your credit card rate as you don't have any loading from Nationwide.

There is possibly not alot in it for standard credit cards.

Megthedog wrote: »

I was updating my information online for a cruise to the Med with Princess Cruises and they give you two options about how payments on the card in dollars can be converted to pounds. One is to simply let your credit card do it for you as normal and the other is for them to do it for you and guaranteeing that their exchange rate will equal your cards and they recommend this one. However, what it says in the small print is that they will charge a fee. I have a Nationwide select card and they don't charge fees so I would actually be worse off!

thebritishbloke

Heng_Leng wrote: »

I would always select your credit card rate as you don't have any loading from Nationwide.

There is possibly not alot in it for standard credit cards.

Most cards now just charge a basic 2.5-3% fee, which in the grand scheme of things is probably cheaper than what you'll pay the company running the card machines.

Wammer

thebritishbloke wrote: »

Most cards now just charge a basic 2.5-3% fee, which in the grand scheme of things is probably cheaper than what you'll pay the company running the card machines.

The Nationwide Select card doesn't charge any fees or loading of the rate.

lisyloo

There is possibly not alot in it for standard credit cards.

In my experience most cards are 3% and most restaurants/shops charge about 4%.
Not a great deal, but there's nothing to stop an unscrupulous establishment charging you a lot more than 4% so safer to go with the bank.