Loving my Carnival Credit card right now

[drfnw]

We used to use this card and have taken a couple of free cruises with the points.

 

A while back someone on this board clued me into the Arrival Master Card. There was a 40k sign on bonus and you get double points for every purchase. When you redeem the points they even give you 10% back. There is a fee with the card but in my opinion the fee is worth the extra money we make on the card. We have already paid for a cruise this year and have only had the card for 6 months.

 

I saw this thread and logged into my barclaycard account. I only got the card in January, but put lots of routine stuff on it--even my church offering. Got the $400 initial bonus credit. I was able to apply $450 from my rewards to defray my $474. charge from my family's cruise on the Pride last month. So, yes, the $400 sign up bonus is real, and very achievable. The Carnival card avoids the fee, but the Barclay card gives 2 pts per $--so you have to decide which works better for your own situation.

[BaseballMomof4]

Could you explain to me how to do this? I know how to get a statement credit when you buy the cruise, and I know how to get onboard credit. For this sailing, we will have about 5,000 pts or so before we go. How do we use that for bar credit?

 

Yes, you would get a $50 bar credit. they have $25, $50, $75, etc. Go to redeem credits and then click on the drop down menu and select on board credits

[BaseballMomof4]

Don't forget the points expire after 5 years so make sure you use them!

[tbrenk1973]

so far I have a $200 OBC and a $75 bar credit. After a couple of more trips to the grocery store I should have a $20 photo credit. Add that to my $100 booking OBC and my $100 shareholder OBC and I should be able to cruise in May without owing anything at the end of the cruise! :D

 

This is my first time cashing in the points for OBC. I have $400 for our August Breeze cruise. Do they show up anywhere on my paperwork, or will they appear when we get on board? I am so afraid of not getting them.

[Ellijay Sharon]

I use money gram to pay house and car payment so I can use my credit card on line to pick up points...

[Stateroom_Sailor]

You get more bang for your buck getting the statement credit on a single charge of $1500 or more. For example if you redeemed 10,000 points against a card charge of $1,499 you would get a statement credit of $100 but the same points used against a charge of $1,500+ would get you a credit of $150. Our final cruise payment is usually this and more so once the charge is posted on the card account we use our points for the statement credit then.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

It sounds like the Carnival card is better than I thought. If you can get the equivalent of 1.5% cashback, you're doing good. I already have a Capital One and 5 other cards already doing this, but if I was starting out I would give them an eye.

[cruise_girl2002]

I love my card! I always use it for bar credits, obc, and sometimes the strawberry cake..yum!! I was just paying mine off yesterday and noticed they raised my credit line...uh oh lol. I told my brother and he said..."you can book a cruise!!" wish I could

[PSkinner]

Can bar credits be used to off set Cheers Package purchase?

[Bobkat26]

Quick question. We just got the card. We are paying for our daughters upcoming wedding and I have the cash to pay for it over the next two months. If I instead charge those items and pay off the card each month, how soon can I redeem the points.

I have a back to back on the Dream and Freedom in August/Sept.

 

Thanks,

Kathy

[mikel24m]

Quick question. We just got the card. We are paying for our daughters upcoming wedding and I have the cash to pay for it over the next two months. If I instead charge those items and pay off the card each month, how soon can I redeem the points.

I have a back to back on the Dream and Freedom in August/Sept.

 

Thanks,

Kathy

 

You can use them as soon as they post .Mine post in a few days.I would pay everything you can with the card then pay the balance off and a few days later pay something else and get the max points you can

[sassykitten74]

Just got a $75 bar credit for our cruise in Nov.! Good advice to use this card as much as possible before then to get more points!!! Will just keep paying it off!

[bunchesofun]

Here is a really good explanation which Barclaycard is better.

http://www.thesimpledollar.com/barclaycard-review/

[Whimsy88]

We use it to book the cruise (initial deposit) and that gives us double points. Then we cash them in for a "payment" on the card. Then we make the final payment/balance payment when due and do the same thing. We wound up paying the equivalent of one of our kid's fares that way without ever charging anything else!

[mpcaruth]

I got a mailer a few weeks ago offering 3 extra points per dollar for all travel purchases made with the card though the end of May. Perfect timing, as I was to book the next week 6 train tickets to NYC and two hotel rooms. I got 4% back in points.

 

We sail on a Carnival ship in a few weeks, and we have already redeemed some of our card points for pre-paid gratuities.

 

My husband exclusively uses his Carnival card, while I switch up rewards card to maximize on special promotions and new sign-up bonuses.

[mpcaruth]

This is my first time cashing in the points for OBC. I have $400 for our August Breeze cruise. Do they show up anywhere on my paperwork, or will they appear when we get on board? I am so afraid of not getting them.

 

 

We used our points to get free pre-paid gratuities. A few days later, our cruise documents show the pre-paid gratuities.

[djcass4199]

Don't forget that any "travel" related purchases should get you double points too. This includes hotels and resorts. We went to Disney World in April and I booked the trip using my Carnival Mastercard. I got 3,400 points for a $1,700 Disney reservation. And then double points again for everything we charged to our room account.

 

You can really earn points fast for using this card. I love it!!

[djcass4199]

Here's a question for you all.

 

Do any of you get triple points on your card for Carnival purchases? My Carnival card gets me triple points for any Carnival purchase I make. My wife has a Carnival Mastercard in her name and her card only earns her double points on Carnival, so we use my account as our every day account and for all Carnival purchases and her card is locked up (she is an authorized user on my account). Just wondering if anyone else has this perk.

[Shipbound]

Love ours too. We let the points build up. Last year we cashed in 100,000 points for $1500.00 credit on our statement. That only took us 21 months because we put everything possible on the card & pay it in full every month. Back up to over 70,000 points right now again.

 

Wow, 21 months to get 100,000 points that is an average of 4792 points per month. Even if I put everything on the card it is only about 600 points . It would take me years and years to get that many point built up. You must have huge bills. Don't get me wrong I think that is great.

 

Gary.

Edited May 17, 2014 by Shipbound

[Engineerstar]

Here's a question for you all.

 

Do any of you get triple points on your card for Carnival purchases? My Carnival card gets me triple points for any Carnival purchase I make. My wife has a Carnival Mastercard in her name and her card only earns her double points on Carnival, so we use my account as our every day account and for all Carnival purchases and her card is locked up (she is an authorized user on my account). Just wondering if anyone else has this perk.

Hello DJ. When did you get your MC and from where???

[djcass4199]

Hello DJ. When did you get your MC and from where???

 

My offer came in the mail. I didn't get it on a cruise. My wife has a Carnival card under her name and hers was applied for on a cruise.

[Bobkat26]

We've had the card 5 days and already have almost 1000 points. I have been charging everything that I normally pay with my debit card. And since my daughters wedding expenses are coming up, I should be able to rack up the points :)

 

Kathy

[MuffyKismet]

We used our points to get free pre-paid gratuities. A few days later, our cruise documents show the pre-paid gratuities.

 

Just waiting for our Carnival card to come in the mail!!! I am going to use it instead of my debit card and pay it off every two weeks!!!! awesome,k hope we save up enough points by our breeze cruise in Sept to have a nice chunk for on board credit. Some one esle asked but no answer was given can the credits be used for the Cheers program??

[moobear67]

Here's a question for you all.

 

Do any of you get triple points on your card for Carnival purchases? My Carnival card gets me triple points for any Carnival purchase I make. My wife has a Carnival Mastercard in her name and her card only earns her double points on Carnival, so we use my account as our every day account and for all Carnival purchases and her card is locked up (she is an authorized user on my account). Just wondering if anyone else has this perk.

 

Yes, we do. My husband got the offer in the mail, and we noticed it was way better than what is normally offered, so we jumped on it.

[cruz.n.carebear]

Question: After reading this thread a while back, I applied and got a Carnival Master Card. I have been doing my shopping through the links in the site to get the point boosts. I notice that the points for the purchases themselves are there, but not the 8x or 4x the amounts that are stated on the site. Are those applied once a month? Or do I need to look in to it further as to why they aren't there?

[GatorGirl57]

Question: After reading this thread a while back, I applied and got a Carnival Master Card. I have been doing my shopping through the links in the site to get the point boosts. I notice that the points for the purchases themselves are there, but not the 8x or 4x the amounts that are stated on the site. Are those applied once a month? Or do I need to look in to it further as to why they aren't there?

 

They are applied at the end of the promotional period. For example, I think there is something running right now where you get double points on dining. If you read the fine print, it will say that after the end of the promo period (I think June 15?) it is another 4-6 weeks before you get your double points. They do not apply right away.