A Costa Cruises crew member send a message saying that since the company changed crew payroll from JP Morgan debit cards to Ocean pay, shipboard employees are facing difficulties with withdrawing cash from ATM’s. Furthermore, the crew is feeling cheated because every time they withdraw their hard earned money there is a fee.

“I would like to bring to your attention how Costa Cruise lines are dealing with the crew payroll (Salary). We have been given new Ocean pay debit cards and have been told we can use it anywhere in the world with minimum charges. But to let you know the card hardly works to withdraw cash money. It’s been so difficult and every time we are supposed to pay extra fees why so?  It’s our hard earned money why should we pay extra money to withdraw our own money. No ATM onboard, before with JP Morgan we had ATM onboard now no more. It’s very much inconvenient for all and I am sure Costa Cruise Lines is making hell lotta money from this.

The fees just depend on the bank ATM You withdraw money from....it’s really cheating as a crew we face this difficulty of cash crunch all the time...even sometimes when we go outside and try to withdraw from ATM the machine do not accept this cards and we are out of funds. It is really difficult situation.

Just wanted to convey this message and hope it can help crew members like us to get our hard earned money without extra charges. Also to mention sister companies of Costa have the same Ocean Pay card and they have ATMs onboard...haha isn’t it funny...thank you.”