credit card points

[inlovewithsailing]

:mad:

okay so i got the carnival credit card. I am a 20 year old college student who loves to cruise. IS CARNIVAL CRAZY. that point system is dumb? does anybody else agree with me. Carnival needs to change this and fast. Very unhappy with this point system

[firefly333]

thats why I have a RCL VISA card. You can get as little as $50 off if you dont charge much. They give you $150 off just for taking out the card. I expect to get $300 off my next RCL cruise .. again.

 

Carnival used to be worse, and you had to only go thru their TA .. I hear its better than it used to be.

 

Or just get a card that lets you decide what to buy?

[Onearmbandit]

Why is it dumb? I just received $400 obc on mine.

[ShakyBeef]

:mad:

okay so i got the carnival credit card. I am a 20 year old college student who loves to cruise. IS CARNIVAL CRAZY. that point system is dumb? does anybody else agree with me. Carnival needs to change this and fast. Very unhappy with this point system

 

What about the FunPoints system do you think is "dumb" / "crazy"?:confused:

 

As Firefly says, the SeaMiles that it used to be was more difficult to collect rewards. I'm glad they changed over. I'm perfectly happy with the new FunPoints system. It's free money for cruising.:D We use our Carnival MC for everything, pay it off every month, have never paid a dime in interest, and rack up points to cash in for use on our cruises.

 

After our Pride cruise in 2009, we cashed in points and paid off our entire sail & sign balance with it.:cool:

 

Sure, it takes a lot of dollars spent to = dollars back; but it's all "free" money!:D

[Chris41]

No problem with it so far....200 OBC and some wine

[golfadj]

Works for us but only pays for us to use it for Carnival stuff where we get double points.

 

Have an Amex card that gives us 2% back so Carnival card is backup for places that do not accept Amex.

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

:mad:

okay so i got the carnival credit card. I am a 20 year old college student who loves to cruise. IS CARNIVAL CRAZY. that point system is dumb? does anybody else agree with me. Carnival needs to change this and fast. Very unhappy with this point system

Credit card { cash back is king ]

[Unknotted]

I have both carnival and NCL cards. But until Mar 31 the NCL card is giving 5%, so I am just using it for now. I use whichever is offering the most at any given time, and sometimes it's the Carnival card. It works for me.

[MEOWSMURPHY]

Sorry you think the card is lame, but we LOVE it...I've had it for 5 years...charge everything we can and pay it off each month so no interest. In 37 days we will be sailing on the Carnival Freedom in an aft ext balcony on an 8 day cruise to the Panama Canal and it is costing us NOTHING, ZERO, NADA...all fees, gratuities, excursions have been paid for with points...I still have plenty of points left to cover the S & S bill when we return..to me this card is GREAT!!

[golfadj]

Wow that is awesome.

[MEOWSMURPHY]

Wow that is awesome.

Thanks...we think its great...when we got the card my DH, who was 65 at the time, couldn't understand why I was so adamant that I get the card...told him so we could cruise for free and he said he'd be ninety before we could take a free cruise...well guess now he's a believer when I said 6 yrs max;)..did it in 5:D

[Lady_Jag]

OP, can you please ellaborate on what you think is dumb about the points system? I'm curious as to what kind of program were you expecting when you signed up?

 

I've had the card since June, and have redeemed points 3-4 times now for $50 each. As long as I have a Carnival cruise booked, I'll continue to use the Carnival card as my primary credit card (paying it off in full each month) so that I can keep making full or partial payments with points. :cool:

[Cruise, J.D.]

It's not the best reward card (1% for non-Carnival purchases), but it works fine and it is easy to redeem the points.

[scm1063]

Using the Chase Seamiles to get $ off cruise. Working with the Seamiles TA to do this. Planning on using FunPoints to receive OBC. Should work out fairly well...

[dclark]

The CCL card is lame because it is chintzy- a 1% return is paltry. for the poster who thinks it is wonderful, it gave a "free" cruise, keep in mind that takes many, many $1000's in purchases and fact is, you could have gotten better rewards from a different card. The old CCL Capital One card was great, $600 in purchases was enough for a bottle of Korbel champagne, $9K in purchases was enough for $200 obc or $200 cruise discount- see how the return is greater than %1??

A 1% return is for suckers. Here are my recomendations:

1) Continental Visa- Got one last month, gave $50 credit and $30K miles after $2500 in purchases.

2) Wife just got a AA Amex, got 50k miles, almost enough for two free rt.

After a year, you cancel, keep your points.I also signed up with United Air, will get their points, later this year they will combine points. I did this with Northwest and Delta.

Don't want to fly? How about hotels? The sweet thing about hotel rewards is that free rooms don't incur room taxes, which account for up to 20% the price of a room. So the actual return can be pretty high. Starwood will give 6000 points for their AMEX, enough for a $100+ room, plus when you get 20K points, you can exchange them for 25000 miles (they give a 5K mile bonus) so they actually give you a better deal than the air line cards.

We have not paid for air fair or a hotel room in a few years. There are more examples I could give, but these are just a few examples.Yes, we are "card churners" we have doing it for years, we have excellent credit.

[golfadj]

Thanks...we think its great...when we got the card my DH, who was 65 at the time, couldn't understand why I was so adamant that I get the card...told him so we could cruise for free and he said he'd be ninety before we could take a free cruise...well guess now he's a believer when I said 6 yrs max;)..did it in 5:D

 

I have been taking it in increments of $ 50 and just use it as an OBC.

 

Mostly use it for Carnival stuff so it accumulates much slower than yours.

[Cruiser from MS]

We are very happy with our Fun Points. We are getting a good discount on our cruise for February. Anything that gives me a discount on cruising is great.

[nomoredyess]

Yeah, the new system is WAAAAAAAAYYYYYYY better than it used to be!!! My wife and I are cruising for free in Feb...Are you sure you dont have the seamiles card??? Cause the funpoints card is different

[ShakyBeef]

The CCL card is lame because it is chintzy- a 1% return is paltry. for the poster who thinks it is wonderful, it gave a "free" cruise, keep in mind that takes many, many $1000's in purchases and fact is, you could have gotten better rewards from a different card. The old CCL Capital One card was great, $600 in purchases was enough for a bottle of Korbel champagne, $9K in purchases was enough for $200 obc or $200 cruise discount- see how the return is greater than %1??

A 1% return is for suckers. Here are my recomendations:

1) Continental Visa- Got one last month, gave $50 credit and $30K miles after $2500 in purchases.

2) Wife just got a AA Amex, got 50k miles, almost enough for two free rt.

After a year, you cancel, keep your points.I also signed up with United Air, will get their points, later this year they will combine points. I did this with Northwest and Delta.

Don't want to fly? How about hotels? The sweet thing about hotel rewards is that free rooms don't incur room taxes, which account for up to 20% the price of a room. So the actual return can be pretty high. Starwood will give 6000 points for their AMEX, enough for a $100+ room, plus when you get 20K points, you can exchange them for 25000 miles (they give a 5K mile bonus) so they actually give you a better deal than the air line cards.

We have not paid for air fair or a hotel room in a few years. There are more examples I could give, but these are just a few examples.Yes, we are "card churners" we have doing it for years, we have excellent credit.

 

 

Well, I guess I'm a "sucker", then.:rolleyes: (Congrats, MEOWSMURPHY, on the free cruise!:D)

 

I've had the card for 6 years, have racked up hundreds of thousands of SeaMiles-then-FunPoints, gotten thousands of dollars spent back, and have never given Barclays Bank a dime in interest or fees. (BTW, I, too have EXCELLENT credit.;):rolleyes:) Maybe it's not the BEST credit card reward system out there, but it works for me. It is all "free" money if you pay it off each month. So what if it takes many thousands spent to return a few thousand cash back - FREE money is FREE money. It's a reward, not something I got "suckered" into. They get nothing from me.

 

I, personally, have better things to do with my time and energy than "churn" credit cards. To each their own.:)

[brich669]

I have had a carnival mastercard for 5 years or so. I didn't use it much but did rack up about 15000 points. In January 2010, I received a letter that due to inactivity they were closing my account and the points were still there. A few weeks later, I received a letter from them saying that since I was such a good customer they upgraded me to a Platinum card. When I called to inquire about this, they said no your account is closed due to inactivity. It only was a few months of inactivity.

 

Now I am leaving in 2 weeks to go on a cruise, I called to redeem what points I had, and they told me they were gone since my account is closed. I informed the CSR that I did not close the account and that I should not lose them since they closed my account not me.

 

Well I got no where. Lost my points. Oh well, live and learn I guess. But I will not be signing up for another.

[Rena921]

No issues here - just got $1000.00 off my next cruise with my SeaMiles.:D

[Nav-Tex]

I love the FunPoints system. I paid my deposit with the points earned for our May 5th sailing.

[kbmeow]

:mad:

okay so i got the carnival credit card. I am a 20 year old college student who loves to cruise. IS CARNIVAL CRAZY. that point system is dumb? does anybody else agree with me. Carnival needs to change this and fast. Very unhappy with this point system

 

 

I think 20 year old college students do not need credit cards. You do not need the bills that young

[2 cruzen]

I think 20 year old college students do not need credit cards. You do not need the bills that young

 

I think ANY kid who is living by themselves should have a credit card as long as they know it is for emergencies and not for buying stuff they can't afford. What if they have a flat tire and Dad/Mom are not around to hand over their card? College kids HAVE BILLS!

[kbmeow]

I think ANY kid who is living by themselves should have a credit card as long as they know it is for emergencies and not for buying stuff they can't afford. What if they have a flat tire and Dad/Mom are not around to hand over their card? College kids HAVE BILLS!

 

 

yes they need something but too many kids get themselves in big debt because if cards. A amex would be better.