Royal Caribbean Signature VISA Card...Your Experiences?

[cjdixon4]

I received an invitation to sign up for the RCI Signature VISA card. I was looking at it, but I'm not certain whether I want one or not. Anyone who currently has a card, can you tell me whether you like/dislike it? What advantages are there to applying for one, in terms of using the card for RCI purchases or points? Thanks for the insight.

[Clarea]

I received an invitation to sign up for the RCI Signature VISA card. I was looking at it, but I'm not certain whether I want one or not. Anyone who currently has a card, can you tell me whether you like/dislike it? What advantages are there to applying for one, in terms of using the card for RCI purchases or points? Thanks for the insight.

The card used to have better redemption options, but lately they have changed the terms so just about all you can get is OBC. The card will give you 1% back on all purchases, and 2% back on Royal purchases.

[nacdcruiser]

For newbies to the card it's a decent deal for one shot (we tried it for the longer term and the experience wasn't good for our expectations). Meet the minimums - get the bonus points, cash it in for OBC and after that - run. Forget about the card and then get any of the myriad of cards that give you the same 1% or more cash back (there are plenty) no matter where you want to use the benefit.

 

Others love the card and that's great - it's just not even close to the best value for us.

[parrotfeathers]

I'm pretty satisfied with mine. Will use some of my points to pay for much of my November cruise. Probably could do better as far as benefits but probably won't bother changing.

[scottrn7]

We pay all our items such as phone bill, water bill, anything that we would normally pay by check monthly on our card to earn more points. We have cashed in hundreds of dollars towards cruises and also on board credit. I try to use them towards purchase of the cruises since my wife finds ways of spending the money on board! :)

[molly361]

Like Bob said above it used to be a better value than it is right now.

 

I agree with nacdcruiser, get the card, meet the minimum which is just one purchase of any value and get the 10,000 points which will get you $100.

 

There are better cards out there than that one.

[cruiseguy1016]

We use it for most of our purchases. The points we earn are part of our vacation fund. Is it the best deal out there? No. There are cards that give a better return on your money. But, we love to watch our points build up throughout the year. We use the points to pay for our cruise every year. You can use it for upgrades, you can use it for OBC or you can use it to reduce your cruise fare. We usually use it to reduce the cost of our fare and then use what's left over for OBC. Again, there are cards that pay a higher return but we love to use the card with the RCI ship on it knowing that it'll be paying for another cruise for us.

[Cruzaholic41]

I received an invitation to sign up for the RCI Signature VISA card. I was looking at it, but I'm not certain whether I want one or not. Anyone who currently has a card, can you tell me whether you like/dislike it? What advantages are there to applying for one, in terms of using the card for RCI purchases or points? Thanks for the insight.

 

Unless you cruise a lot and RCI is the only way you ever travel, and you never fly or stay in hotels anywhere, I don't see what draws people to cards like this. There are so many good travel credit cards out there that reward so much better.

Edited March 5, 2015 by Cruzaholic41

[jticarruthers]

When I first got it with the bonus and being able to use it for "higher" value redemptions (Basically free cruises and companion fares if I recall correctly gave you double the value of your redemption) I liked it.

 

When it became OBC/Credit only and I had used up the bonus points the value just wasn't there anymore and I switched over to a 2% on everything card ... double the reward on everything not RCL and able to redeem for cash against any travel expense including non RCL.

 

Wouldn't recommend it to anyone at this point, but I used too :)

[jstewie23]

So what "travel" cards do people recommend?

 

I have 125K points on the RC card and I know it will drive me insane trying to use the points for the free Caribbean cruise b/c nothing will be eligible.

[kruzerci]

So what "travel" cards do people recommend?

 

I have 125K points on the RC card and I know it will drive me insane trying to use the points for the free Caribbean cruise b/c nothing will be eligible.

 

Capital One Venture is a fantastic card. Double points on every purchase with a very low annual fee waived the first year and great signup bonuses. Why bother with a Royal Caribbean card that you can only get double points for Royal Caribbean purchases and virtually only redeem for OBC at this point with Royal Caribbean?

 

Chase Sapphire is also a great card.

[Rockymaya]

We had 150,00 points on our card and used it to pay for a Celebrity cruise because you could not use it to reduce the price of a cruise on Royal because of their ongoing promotions.There are better cards out there that give you 2% car back.

[cruiseguy1016]

We had 150,00 points on our card and used it to pay for a Celebrity cruise because you could not use it to reduce the price of a cruise on Royal because of their ongoing promotions.There are better cards out there that give you 2% car back.

 

Ummm.... It shouldn't matter what promotions are going on. The points are used as cash. We booked our upcoming cruise with the BOGOHO deal and we used our points to reduce the price.

[kruzerci]

Ummm.... It shouldn't matter what promotions are going on. The points are used as cash. We booked our upcoming cruise with the BOGOHO deal and we used our points to reduce the price.

 

Most of us have been told we cannot do that.

[bilyclub]

Besides the inability to redeem the high percentage rewards the points expire in 5 or 6 years. There is no warning when points expire, unlike most other programs.

[Janet524]

I love it. I've only used it for OBC's and it's worked great for me. Sailing in a little over a week on Serenade and I have $400 in OBC. I charge everything on it to accumulate points for my OBC's. Of course, I always pay it off completely every month.

[molly361]

Most of us have been told we cannot do that.

 

They just changed that rule recently. Now you can use them for money off a cruise that has BOGOHO on it. Apparently, they were getting a lot of complaints.

Edited March 5, 2015 by molly361

[kruzerci]

They just changed that rule recently. Now you can use them for money off a cruise that has BOGOHO on it. Apparently, they were getting a lot of complaints.

 

 

Thanks so much. I have a final payment due this week and points to burn!!

[cjdixon4]

OP here-

Thanks for all of the input. Now I'm REALLY not certain that this is the best card for me...LOL You have all given me some things to think about. Although I'm a frequent cruiser, it doesn't appear that I'll be getting a whole lot of benefits for my usage. :(

[Clarea]

They just changed that rule recently. Now you can use them for money off a cruise that has BOGOHO on it. Apparently, they were getting a lot of complaints.

Makes sense. The rules change right after I pay off the only 4 day cruise I have booked.

[kruzerci]

Makes sense. The rules change right after I pay off the only 4 day cruise I have booked.

 

 

Ha that's the way it always goes.

[LMaxwell]

Got it for the sign up bonus, haven't used it since. Not a very good rewards card. Check out Nerdwallet.com for better travel card deals.

[flowers44]

Can you pay off your cruise final payment on the card and get the points added to your account? Do you get 2 points for each dollar on the payoff balance? My card has the 10,000 points for the first usage and then, if I put 3000 more on in the next 90 days, I get another 7,500 points. With the other charges, I would be able to get another $100 of OBC or our upcoming repo cruise in October. Just didn't know if paying off the cruise would add points to the card.

[sjb317]

I've had one since 2003 and I use it for RC purchases with double points. I've used it in the past for free cruises and more recently, for OBC. I find it to be easy to redeem , much more so than some of the other cards I have had that had better rewards.

 

Sherri:)

[Clarea]

Can you pay off your cruise final payment on the card and get the points added to your account? Do you get 2 points for each dollar on the payoff balance? My card has the 10,000 points for the first usage and then, if I put 3000 more on in the next 90 days, I get another 7,500 points. With the other charges, I would be able to get another $100 of OBC or our upcoming repo cruise in October. Just didn't know if paying off the cruise would add points to the card.

Yes and Yes.