Can I pay for my yacht charter with a credit card?

Daniel Asmus
Yacht charter broker, DMA Yachting

Short answer: sometimes for the first installment, but we almost never recommend it. The card company’s exchange rate plus the processing surcharge, direct or hidden, usually costs you more than any points or miles are worth on amounts this size.

There is also a reason the whole industry runs on bank transfers: chargebacks. Card payments can be reversed months later, so owners and managers price that risk in or refuse cards outright. A transfer clears cleanly, which is also why it gets you the better terms.

Our advice: send a bank transfer, check the exchange rate yourself if you are paying across currencies, and put the card points budget toward the flights instead.