TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums British Virgin Islands Room Reservations by credit card Website or Phone?

How do you make room or other reservations from the US if there is not a toll free phone number or secure website for entering credit card information? I could print form and fax it, but how secure is that?
Thanks all.
Deb

The BVI land-line telephone system works and calling there is not an international call (they are in the +1 USA zone), so a normal telephone call rather than a toll-free number shouldn't break the bank and in the grand scheme of things those couple of cents are a good investment.

We made our reservations at Sebastian's by calling their land line. Then they emailed a cc form and I faxed it back to them. No problems.

Calls to the BVI if you don't have some type of international plan are very expensive. It's cheaper for me to call Europe! USVI is fine but beware the costs for a 284 area code. I use Skype now after a couple of expensive lessons!
G

I have to agree with George on this. The calls are to a area code that would make you think that it isn't international, but a few minutes on the phone to make a hotel reservation can be very expensive.

So I call from work now...... <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Wink.gif" alt="" />

If you make many calls (does not have to be many even) then consider getting a calling card type of service if you do not have skype. I use one, money never expires, and I can register up to 5 phones so you do not need to put in an account number or pin to make the call. Just call the state side number or the 800 number and then dial the international number. If anybody is interested let me know and I can provide more information.

E mail works best for the preliminary set up - we do everything by check and email with only the occasional phone call.

We did the same with Sebastian's for the nine years we stayed there and never had a problem.

Rick and Cottagegirl, So you called Sebastian's for your reservation; did you use a calling card as suggested by a few here? I understand its an investment that may be suitable.
Thanks all
Deb

Verizon Wireless has an International Calling Plan intended for use when in the US needing to call internationally. It's $5/month and the rate is $0.05/minute. I am currently on the no cost plan that gets you a rate of ~$2/minute. When I am taking a trip, I just switch over to the $5/month plan. Reasonable cost, easy to do and doesn't require a change in behavior. If I think about something I need to check up on, doesn't matter if I'm at work, home, in the car or at the airport, I can call right then and there while I am thinking about it. Other carriers have similar plans, I am sure. Haven't had a land line at home for years, don't even use my desk phone at work for the most part.

I'm sure there are all sorts of ways to make calls for a reasonable amount. I just think it's important to realize that calling the BVI is not the same as calling from one US area code to another. A few 4 and 5 minute calls to check on availability at hotels showed up on out bill as around a $20 international charge.

Our calling card runs around 35 cents a minute and there are no other charges. If you make occasional calls all the time, then it makes sense. Basically the minutes don't expire, and every time you make a call it tells you how much money you have left, and then you can just purchase some more time.

You better check your carrier, I have never heard of $5 a minute charges from the U.S. My ATT calls to BVI are about .45 a minute, BVI to U.S is $2.00 a minute.

We have Sprint and the standard rate for calls to a BVI landline is $1.59/min. They have an optional International calling plan that is only $.40/min which we didn't think about at the time. My wife made the calls to Myett's, Rhymer's and Riteway not expecting international charges since you don't dial the typical +011-country code. She probably spent 10-15 mins total on all the calls and the charge was around $20 (can't remember exactly).

Any way...not a big deal. Just a surprise.

So, answer the OP's question:

How do you make a reservation in a secure manner with any BVI entity you would like to deal with?

(1) email and ask for a CC authorization form, fill it out and send it back by the easiest means for you.

(2) phone call.

Caveats: you may not always get a response via an email inquiry. fall back: call. If you're going to call see the multiple options for doing that at a reasonable cost above.

I have ATT so, I'm not going to change providers to access better deals. If you are going to get an international plan (ATT Passport for example), you have to assess the value of that compared to the cost of just making one or two phone calla and getting charged for it on a by minute basis. It can be quite expensive that way.

My preference is to use email if I'm making reservation more than a month out then add the ATT PassPort plan that will cover a period both 2-3 weeks before your charter and the charter itself.

Last trip I bought the Passport plan on July 3rd for a charter that went from 7/16 - through 8/2. I made several calls/texts to verify orders before the charter(Caribbean Cellars, DeDe's Car Rental), a couple of local calls while on charter and paid $60 for the voice/data service. I rang up $25 for calls over the 30d period.

You seem to have legitimate concerns about CC Security. If you don't have one, get a Capital One credit card then set it up for alerts. It's the only CC I use when I travel but I carry an extra one (USAA MC) in case I have to freeze my Cap One card. Every time my Cap One card was charged, I got a text alert. I had one unauthorized charge early in the trip, noticed it right away, phoned the CSR at an 800 number and it was removed. It happens. I don't care how security conscious you are. Be prepared for it with approaches like this one.

I also have a travel debit card account with PNC bank. It's not attached to any other bank accounts to prevent misuse (e.g., all my accounts getting drained). I put $250 into it to start and go from there. I use it mostly to get cash if needed but will also use it for payment for goods and services. If I need more cash, I move it on a secure connection via my bank's web site.

Speaking of ATMs outside of RT. IMO, there is only one safe one (others may offer other safe ATMs). Its in Scotia Bank in Spanish town. It's a block from the Harbor and has an ATM both inside the bank (accessible during normal banking hours) and outside (accessible all the time).

" Every time my Cap One card was charged, I got a text alert."

Too funny, when I first enlisted in alerts, it was pretty cool. A few days later I said to my wife "what did you buy at Kohls for $75?" She says " I need a different card for Christmas" <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/jester.gif" alt="" />

I simply filled out the Sebastian's online form, printed it out, and faxed. Easy Peasey!

Sail2wind,
My husband feels the same way. He is a Subway fanatic and eats there most days when working out of the house. One day a charge came thru my card alert that said Einsteins Bagels. I called him and said, what are you getting at Einsteins?? He hates that I always know where he is. Haha

I guess one of the advantages of being a long time land based visitor is I usually just send an e mail saying arriving xxx and leaving xxx+/-. Never get asked for a deposit and I always get the same confirmation #,"OK" <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Grin.gif" alt="" />.
You mail just want to e mail them and ask for them to call you at a specified time for cc info. BVI to US rates are cheap(comparatively).

I just called using my cell phone (we dropped our land line over a year ago). There was a small charge on my cell bill for the call but it wasn't much - don't even remember how much. Didn't take a long call to make the reservation. Most of the info they ask for is on the cc form.
And I second a Cap One card - best customer service!

Personally, I'd have no problem emailing it. You've got a better than 50/50 chance that the email is encrypted anyway and even if it isn't, the odds of someone capturing that specific email at the specific time you send it is minimal.

Unless by someone you mean the Guvmint, in which case the chance is 100%!

I never mind sending information in a scanned document as an attachment to an email but I would not type my credit card, address, phone number, etc in to the body of an email. Emails are easily parsed by software programs. If you have a Gmail account, have you ever noticed that the ads are directed at what is in your email or that Google knows when you are taking a flight. They don't have to look at one email. They look at all the data in millions of emails. Just my 2 cents and I am not someone that is paranoid about this type of stuff.