We really like this "Fun Points" change to the Carnival credit card.

[frankhouse]

This is the 4th different Carnival credit card I have had and it looks like the best so far. I hated the Sea Miles and ended up closing mine. On the Fun Points card I think you are better not getting the OBC as it takes more points then it would to come home and apply a credit toward your S&S bill on the credit card plus you get double points on your total bill. A $100 OBC is 12,500 points, you can go to your statement and take $100 off for 10,000 points. A $200 OBC is 20,000 points but you can get 400 more points by having that extra $200 on your S&S bill. I hope you can see what I am saying. You can also apply your points toward your air fare on your statement.

 

John

 

So, are you saying that it doesn't cost as much to cash the points out as credit on you card then it does to use it as OBC? Then you would be right, just using your card for your S&S would give you double points and then you could cash it in at the end and get more for your dollar. Am I correct?

[palmtre2]

Signed up 2 1/2 weeks ago, got the card and made a Bon Voyage purchase and an excursion purchase for our upcoming cruise. That added to the 5k points they give you got us some nifty gifts and drink coupons for this sailing. It's got a good (not great) interest rate, so I'm liking this card already.

[lollylew]

Unless they give you 25 times that many points. Just sayin'... it could happen. :D

 

Yeah that would great wouldn't it??? :D

[lollylew]

So now I have a call in to my PVP to find out the pros & cons of doing the whole thing at once. Am I still going to be able to take advantage of any credits if the price of our cruise goes down?

 

I would think that if you book early saver, whether or not you pay in full, you should still get the credit if the price drops between now and 2 days before you sail. I think splitting the payment is just more of a convenience that Carnival offers to their customers.

 

I would still call though just to be safe because if paying in full costs less points, I would rather do that. :)

[willycruise]

Had the card just over 3 years, and used it for EVERYTHING, personal, business, you name it, we charged it. Next week we leave on the Dream in a Balcony room that was "free". Since we never had a balance roll, we paid no interest on thes purchases, thus a nice perk, a free cruise for 2!!!!! Wish they kept it this way. I realize many may not be able to charge business on a personal card, but it REALLY helped us get the points needed.

 

Just my 2 cents....

[rudi_mentle]

OP's comment - I'm sure it's not as good as some cash back credit cards, but the fact we are getting OBC makes me very happy.

 

Redemption rates are about the same between a Fun Point card and a Cash Back card, but I prefer a Cash Back card for the flexibility.

Most CB cards will offer 1% CB which is only slightly better than FP redemption ($100 OBC: CB - $10,000 v. FP $12,500). But the real advantage is when you us the CB cards with the various promotions they offer (5% on Travel, Gas, Groceries, etc.). The FP card only gives double points with Carnival Corp purchases.

Plus, with a CB card you can redeem for cash which can be used anywhere, anytime. Of course, this time we are using CB for an OBC! :D

[beach410]

Luv luv luv it! The previous program was horrible, I ended up cashing in a huge amout of pts to save a measly $150, there prices always seemed higher then Carnival's. I was considering cancelling the card until I learned they were changing the program.

 

They have elliminated the major hastle of using this card and made it much simpler..hooray! Working on getting this cruise paid in full just with my points or perhaps upgrading to a suite!

[garpmqt]

We received the offer this week, and are thinking about it. The interest rates can be very high on the card, so be warned if you carry a balance. I think the top rate was over 19% while the low rate was about 14%. We have a BOA Elite card that is fixed at 9% and has points for everything. We generally carry a balance (damn teenagers) so not sure if this is the card for us unless we pay the balance off monthly.

[beckaboorulz123]

:eek: I have had a God awful time trying to redeem funpoints. The Barclay company does not have what the fun points earn on their website. I have called 3 times, and each time am told a service call will be put in about the website and that a supervisor could not talk to me, because they were all busy (every time I called). Needless, to say, noone calls, and I dont know how to redeem funpoints nor do I know what the fun points earn. HELP! Anybody know where I can find out how to redeem funpoints?:eek:

[bmwmj]

Well still basing my purchase on the online conversion calculator & cancelled my original booking (not ES, used PG) and started over again with the full amount paid. Carnival accounting said they couldn’t cancel my original deposit & re-charge at the full amount-whatever, do it the hard way or the easy way. Said they could do it if I wanted to use a different card? PVP tried explaining why to no avail. The PVP was the one doing all the work; I just want my FREE cruise! Hopefully Barclays will update today & see how many points they REALLY want vs the calculator! Will keep all informed if it goes back to what it quoted me originally. I went ahead & did my insurance as well so hopefully I can cover all of it on this one transaction. Again, we’ll see. It does however look pretty simple to cash it in once it has posted correctly. Sure hope so!

[golfadj]

I just went to the website for the first time and found two things I am not happy with.

 

1. You have six months from the time you make a purchase to redeem the points. Had no idea about that before and that sucks.

 

2. I could have sworn they told me on the ship that you get $ 50 obc for every 5000 points. Not true it is 50 bucks for the first 7500 points.

 

Was easy to use 7500 points to get my first obc though

 

Have to rethink using this card instead of my discover card now though.

[erinmarie424]

I just went to the website for the first time and found two things I am not happy with.

 

1. You have six months from the time you make a purchase to redeem the points. Had no idea about that before and that sucks.

 

2. I could have sworn they told me on the ship that you get $ 50 obc for every 5000 points. Not true it is 50 bucks for the first 7500 points.

 

Was easy to use 7500 points to get my first obc though

 

Have to rethink using this card instead of my discover card now though.

 

I don't get why you think "it sucks" that they give you six months to redeem your points - I think it's great. Also it costs 7500 points to "buy" the $50 OBC, but only 5000 points to redeem the cost of $50 OBC. So, it is true.

[golfadj]

If I do not have a cruise booked within six months of making a purchase using my card I lose the points.

 

That sucks IMHO.

 

AdmittedlyI did not read the fine print when I was on the ship and shame on me but the idea of losing points after six months leaves a lot to be desired.

[Tiffany1203]

I just went to the website for the first time and found two things I am not happy with.

 

1. You have six months from the time you make a purchase to redeem the points. Had no idea about that before and that sucks.

 

2. I could have sworn they told me on the ship that you get $ 50 obc for every 5000 points. Not true it is 50 bucks for the first 7500 points.

 

Was easy to use 7500 points to get my first obc though

 

Have to rethink using this card instead of my discover card now though.

 

So once you earn your points you have to use them within 6 months?? Is that what their saying? What if your trying to save points for something big? :confused:

[golfadj]

So once you earn your points you have to use them within 6 months?? Is that what their saying? What if your trying to save points for something big? :confused:

 

 

You have to reach enough points to do big rather quickly. Have no idea why they do this but found it on website this morning.

[Tiffany1203]

You have to reach enough points to do big rather quickly. Have no idea why they do this but found it on website this morning.

 

 

That sucks!

[bmwmj]

OK I went back to the cardmember info on rewards & got this:

"You will have 5 years to redeem your Points unless your Account is terminated earlier for inactivity. Points will expire and be forfeited 5 years from the date the earned Points post to your monthly statement. Points will be redeemed on a first-in, first-out basis."

 

I wondere because I've had this card for years & have been building my points for our future cruise. From looking at my previous statement where I've had all the trouble with the points difference from deposit vs balance costing WAY too many points, I understand it that you have 6 months approximatly (it gave the number of days I had to redeem points) to redeem them on a qualified purchase (the cruise in my case).

[AZ Karaoke Girl]

Yes you have 6 months to use funpoints to apply credit toward your qualified purchases. You can still use your funpoints but would be used as OBC etc.

 

I have the card and also considered closing it because their interest rate for me is just out of line. I have a credit score of over 800 and my interest rate for purchases is 25%. That is absurd. But I just use the card now & then and pay it off when the bill comes so they have never gotten anything out of me.

 

In the meantime, I obtained a miles discover card and using it instead. All my miles purchases give me double points. Including cruises on any cruiseline, airfare, etc. I will apply whatever points I have on the CCL card toward my next Carnival cruise in October then I'm done with it. If they gave me a halfway decent rate, I'd keep it. Maybe I'll call their customer service dept and see if they want to keep me as a customer.???

[Tiffany1203]

Yes you have 6 months to use funpoints to apply credit toward your qualified purchases. You can still use your funpoints but would be used as OBC etc.

 

I have the card and also considered closing it because their interest rate for me is just out of line. I have a credit score of over 800 and my interest rate for purchases is 25%. That is absurd. But I just use the card now & then and pay it off when the bill comes so they have never gotten anything out of me.

 

In the meantime, I obtained a miles discover card and using it instead. All my miles purchases give me double points. Including cruises on any cruiseline, airfare, etc. I will apply whatever points I have on the CCL card toward my next Carnival cruise in October then I'm done with it. If they gave me a halfway decent rate, I'd keep it. Maybe I'll call their customer service dept and see if they want to keep me as a customer.???

 

OH!! OK!! I see now about the 6 month thing...THANK YOU!!! :D

And yes...that interrest rate is ABSURD for you! BOO! :eek:

[AZ Karaoke Girl]

Yep just checked my online statement and my purchases interest is 25.24% and cash advance is 27.24%. Seems pretty crazy since all the banks say what wonderful credit my DH & I have and consider us elite. :confused:

[AZ Karaoke Girl]

So I called barclays today to see about lowering my interest rate and they lowered it a whole 2%. Big Whoop. :rolleyes:

 

So now I'm at 23.24%. I said I am probably going to cash in my fun points and cancel the card. They said that was the lowest rate today and would have to keep calling later to see if any further reductions were available. Yeah right, like I don't have anything better to do than call them & go thru the hold times to speak to a human only to find out no further reductions are available. I'll stick with my Miles Discover card.

[spyder209]

I have had the seamiles card for years and I use it for everything to get the points and then pay it off at the end of the month to avoid interest. I was saving my points for a cruise that was supossed to be on any cruise line. They informed me at the end of 2009 that they were changing to FunPoints. Now I can only use them for Carnival owned lines. I admit that is many to choose from, but I like Rccl too. I then picked a Princess cruise (same company as Carnival) to use my points. I then realized that if I booked the Princess cruise, my points would only cover about $900. So I booked a 7 day balcony for two on Carnival and my points covered the entire cruise plus my excursions and a small amount of airfare.

 

I am glad to be using all my points. I recently opened the seamiles Visa card and will not use the FunPoints anymore. The Visa card gives you more credit for your points, you can use any cruiseline, hotel, or car rental with your points, and if you find a lower price on another website they will match. I like that program better. FunPoints made me book through Carnival, which is not the best deal I could have gotten.

[hullman57@verizon.net]

Be careful how you use your points. i had charged my $225 deposit for a cruise on the carnival dream in july. after reading some other threads, realized that the fact that I was paying for three rooms (for relatives) wasn't going to get me a good deal on usage of the points. each room is considered a separate transaction. so i quickly got the travel agent to backout my deposit for one room, added the total charges including tips so my cost was over $1700. if you play around with the miles calculator on the credit card website you will see that a charge somewhere between 1250 and 1300 dollars requires the same points as a cruise charge of about 800 dollars. my $1700 in charges will only need about 102,000 points rather than the obvious 160,000 points or so.

 

you also have 6 months to keep accumulating your points to achieve maximum value.

 

OK, current dilemma with the “Fun Card” which so far this morning hasn’t been very “FUN”. I used the online calculator to determine how many points for our Miracle cruise in December for our anniversary. Tells me 96,886 (I’ve been saving a LONG time), however when my $600 deposit came up it wanted to use 57,143 points & then another 92,545 for the balance due in Sept. That’s a total of 149,688 an EXTRA 52,802 points. Now apparently if I paid the whole thing at once it would cost me the original 96,886. 52,802 is half of another cruise!! :confused: So now I have a call in to my PVP to find out the pros & cons of doing the whole thing at once. Am I still going to be able to take advantage of any credits if the price of our cruise goes down? I really like the changes from Sea Miles, that one stunk, but since my credits rolled over to Fun Points I WAS thinking it would be better, but I need to weigh my options. It also will work for any CCL cruise company, however you do not get the same dollar for dollar rate. Where I almost have enough points for a suite on the 8 day Carnival, I don’t have half as many as I need for a 7 day inside on a Princess. But hey, once I get everything figured out, it will be a free cruise, I’ll put my S&S on it to work for the next cruise & get the bonus points (I hope). Hopefully I can keep you posted on the positive outcome.

Yes, I use it for almost everything but gas because I get a cash discount on that one. I even offer to buy friends major purchases & they give me the cash!

[golfadj]

Maybe I am wrong but according to the website I have 6 months to redeem the miles or they are lost.

 

I take this to mean that if I buy a $ 1000 item on Jan 1 I get 1000 points.

 

I must than use those points within 6 months or they are taken from me.

 

Is this not correct?

[Touey]

I have had this card for about a year. My seamiles turned into funpoints and I am saving for a cruise for our 25th wedding anniversary. Since I have had this card I have not lost any points and it is my understnding I have 5 years before my points expire. I have seen posts of extremely high interest rates, but mine is 10.24% which I think is reasonable. I also pay my balance in full every month. It shold take me two more years to get a free cruise.:)