Novac na brodu – Tempus Agency

Money on ship

Bank Accounts

Cruise ships are made up of crew members from all over the world, so paying everyone their salary into their local bank accounts in each individual currency would be almost impossible for the cruise line to do successfully. The way they get around this is to set up a bank account for each crew member once they are on board. Some of the accounts they use a lot are as follows: My Crew Wallet, Ocean pay, Brightwell. The company will pay your monthly salary in American dollars, usually into this bank account no matter where in the world you are from.

My advice would be to get your money out of this bank account as quickly as possible as they are difficult to use and don't offer the protection that a normal bank account can offer.

I would set up a digital bank account with either: Starling, Monzo, TransferWise, or Revolut. I have a TransferWise account because exchange rates are low and it's really easy and quick to send money to various bank accounts all over the world. If you know you will be sending money regularly to other bank accounts then I would definitely open a TransferWise account.

When setting up your digital bank account with any of the banks I have mentioned, you want to set it up in the same currency that you will be paid in. For example, I am paid in American dollars, into a Brightwell account by my cruise ship company so, I set up my TransferWise account in American dollars. This means that when I transfer money from Brightwell to TransferWise there is a very low fee to pay because there is no currency exchange involved. Once the money is in my TransferWise account I can then decide to transfer it to my English account and pay the low exchange fee, or any other currency I choose.

It is also useful to have an American dollar account while my ship is sailing in American waters because it means if I withdraw cash from an ATM in port, or I pay for something using my American card, there will be no charges.

Once you have your digital bank account and you get on board, I would set up a standing order with your cruise ship bank account so that as soon as you are paid your salary, it goes from your cruise ship bank account straight into the digital bank account.

Cash

Although we are almost in a cashless society, I would recommend taking a little bit of cash on board with you because some cruise ships are still in the dark ages and only accept cash when you want to top up your cruise account. You can use your cruise account to buy Wi-Fi, Snacks and essentials from The Crew Shop, and drinks from The Crew Bar.

I would aim to take about $30 to $40 onboard with you, which should last you for about the first two weeks on board.

Cruise ship ATM

On every cruise ship, there is an ATM machine, but I would only use this if you urgently need cash as the fees that you will incur by using the cruise ship ATM machine will be very high. If you can, I would always wait to use an ATM machine outside in a port that offers better prices.

Outgoings

Living on land can be incredibly expensive. You will either be paying for a mortgage or rent, you will most likely have a car to run and a commute to and from work that can end up being quite expensive, paying for your weekly food shop is no joke, and then we all have other expenses on top of these like a gym membership, subscriptions to Netflix, phone bills etc. And after paying for all of these things, you’re really not left with a lot which can make saving for your future very difficult.

One of my favourite things about working on cruise ships is that it’s so easy to save money. The only expenses you take with you on a ship from the list above is your phone bill. Of course, you can keep paying for Netflix and Disney+ but as I mentioned in the ‘let's get techie’ guide, usually people sell a hard drive with movies because the Wi-Fi on board a cruise ship is unreliable.

Tax

Unfortunately, when it comes to tax, there is not one answer that will suit all, but I can tell you what I do know, which has honestly taken me years to learn. If you are employed directly through a cruise line it is likely that your tax will come out of your salary before you get paid. This is ideal, but as I mentioned in the ‘Ace Your Interview’ guide, most cruise ship jobs require you to go through a recruitment agency, and in this case, you will have to sort your own tax out.

Recruitment agencies hire people from all over the world, so it would be almost impossible for a recruitment agency to organise everyone's tax in multiple different countries with multiple different tax laws. This being said I would recommend hiring an accountant, or at least having a meeting with an accountant who can explain the tax laws in your country.

For example in the UK (where I am from) if you work outside the UK for more than six months a year you are exempt from tax.

If you do two 6 months contracts on a cruise ship with a two-month break in between, you are definitely going to be outside the country for more than six months a year. However, even though you may not have to pay tax, everything still has to go through the books. If you are from America, I know that you will still have to pay taxes regardless of how many months you are working outside of America. So these are just two examples of how different the laws are depending on where you are from.

If you are young and you have never paid tax before, you may not even have a tax number yet, so that is something that you will have to apply for. Another option is also applying for a Seaman's tax number which can drastically reduce the amount of tax that you will have to pay. I have done both of these things, but I hired an accountant who would do these things for me because I find it very confusing.

Ask your accountant:

If you do not have a tax number, you can ask an accountant to apply for one for you or talk you through the process.
Once you have a tax number, you can ask about applying for a Seaman’s tax number and whether this would benefit you.
How much money can I earn before I am required to pay taxes?
What business expenses can I deduct?
How do you recommend I keep my expenses organised?

So other than your phone bill, what other expenses can you expect to have when living on a cruise ship?

Water

Drinking tap water on a cruise ship is okay in small doses, but I definitely would not be filling up your water bottle using tap water as it contains a lot of chlorine. Most cruise lines are now realising that water should be a basic human right and are placing water machines around the cruise ship so that you can take a reusable water bottle on board with you and just fill it up for free using these water machines.

However, there are still some cruise lines that haven't implemented this yet and you will have something called ‘water day’. One day a week hundreds of packs of 1 L bottles of water will be loaded onto the ship and crew members will line up to purchase the bottles of water for the next week. As I'm typing this I'm realising how ludicrous this sounds but nevertheless, it happens.

Usually, each crew member will purchase two cases of water which will equate to 12 x 1 litre bottles. On every ship I've been on with this system, it was always $3 per case. So your total monthly water charge will be around $24, but hopefully, you end up working on a cruise ship that has free water machines and therefore you won't have to pay for water at all.

WIFI

I have gone into great detail about how to get the best Wi-Fi for the least amount of money in my ‘let's get techie’ guide so be sure to read that if you have not already. Your monthly Wi-Fi bill will very much depend on whether you have access to mobile data or whether you primarily use cruise ship Wi-Fi.

Most cruise lines have a social media Wi-Fi package which grants you access to applications like Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, WhatsApp, and Facebook but you will not be able to access YouTube or regular web browsing, for example Google search, on this social media package.

To use YouTube, Google, and other web browsing features you will have to buy another Internet package which will be a lot more expensive and in my experience is not worth buying. The social media Wi-Fi package will usually be between $15 and $25 every month. And this will give you unlimited access to your social media pages for that month.

The web browsing Wi-Fi packages are usually charged by the minute. Depending on the cruise line, you can pay anywhere between $5 for 15 minutes- $20 for 200 minutes. Please remember that the Wi-Fi is very slow, so a lot of purchased time is going to be eaten up by the web pages loading.

The Crew Bar

Making friends within your department is really easy because you are going to be spending large amounts of the day together. When it comes to making friends outside of your department, which I highly recommend, the best place to do that is at The Crew Bar. Drinks are usually very cheap. When I worked on P&O Oceana I would pay $3 for a double gin and tonic. You just need to try not to get caught in the trap of being tempted to drink every night because it is so cheap. I have done this and was very surprised to see how quickly a $3 gin and tonic every night added up.

Going out in Port

The only other thing that you can expect to pay for is your time off the ship. The amount of money you spend out in port is completely up to you. If you are looking to save money you may take yourself on a nice long walk around the town and treat yourself to a coffee or a small lunch every once in a while. However, if you're not bothered about saving money, you might get off in port and go on a shopping spree every day.

On my first contract, I did not save anything. I went on lots of excursions, I spent way too much money on going to restaurants out in port, I bought clothes and souvenirs in almost every destination we stopped in, but I don't regret it. Now I am a bit older and have been working on cruise ships for a lot longer, I am much more frugal with my money. The amount of money you spend exploring the ports is completely up to you.