Carnival Master Card

[firemanbobswife]

I have thought about these cards as well. I read a few years ago a guy on here used it for his business expenses and ended up with free cruises. With my business I spend over $100,000.00 per year using my VISA debit. We love cruising and normally take people with us and pay their way. If I can do it free would be much nicer! Anyone know with the amount I already spend, if I switched to this card how much credit towards a cruise I would receive?

 

 

There are much better cards like the Capital One Venture card. Sign on bonus of $400 worth of points and 2x points on everything, everyday. You redeem for any type of travel expense by charging it to your card and then having them "erase" the purchase.

 

I have numerous cards from hotels, airlines, the Carnival card, etc. If you know how to work the system for sign up bonuses and such you won't need to pay for hotels or travel in general ever again.

 

My debit card is somewhere in my purse. Haven't seen it in awhile. I never use it. By using your debit card you are giving away free money! Throw that thing in the trash :)

[drosphot]

I believe you have to make a charge of $1500 or more and then your points will be worth 1.5 cents when redeemed against that charge. But, it's been a while for me to think about this card so do a search here, there are quite a few threads that cover it.

 

That is correct, charges for over $1500 get a higher redemption value. Also your S&S charged to the card earns double points and then you can use those points to pay towards the charge itself up to 180 days after the charge posts to your account.

 

I plan to have a future $2200 charge for the balance of our Nov 2016 Hawaii cruise to be paid off with points when the time comes. 90k and building...

Edited October 9, 2015 by drosphot

[kidstwo2]

Zanpa.. I know this is an old post .. I have the carnival MasterCard , but after reading so many posts I am confused on how I can get 1.5 credit for my points ? I already have 50,000 points on MC and I have a cruise booked in Jan 15 ... I will be paying for the final payment next week using my MC , how can I get the most for my points ? We only usually charge less than 500 dollars to our room and I will be using my carnival MC as my CC on board . Your post said you had 60,000 points and got 900.00 off , but my online shows 50,000 and only 500 dollars off , I'm sorry but I'm so confused .. Please help , Thank You

 

 

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As I understand it the key to getting 1.5 credit vs. 1 credit is that you must be applying your points to a single Carnival charge of at least $1500. Any charge you are applying points to less than $1500 will only provide 1 credit per point. As others have stated one of the best values for using the Carnival card is to pay for your cruise with your card and get the double points for that charge. Then anytime up to 18 months after that charge you can apply the points.

Simple example:

Book cruise for $1500 (or any amount greater than $1500)

Pay for cruise with Carnival cc. Receive 3,000 Carnival points

When bill comes due apply the 3,000 points to your $1500 charge and get $450 (1.5) credit on your cc bill.

Net due from you to pay cc bill $1,050.

 

If you book cruise for $1200 (or any amount less than $1500)

Pay for cruise with Carnival cc Receive 2,400 Carnival points

When bill comes due apply the 2,400 points to your $1200 charge and get $240 (1) credit on your cc bill.

Net due from you to pay cc bill $960.

 

If my understanding is not correct I too would appreciate clarification.

[ready2cruzagain]

As I understand it the key to getting 1.5 credit vs. 1 credit is that you must be applying your points to a single Carnival charge of at least $1500. Any charge you are applying points to less than $1500 will only provide 1 credit per point. As others have stated one of the best values for using the Carnival card is to pay for your cruise with your card and get the double points for that charge. Then anytime up to 18 months after that charge you can apply the points.

Simple example:

Book cruise for $1500 (or any amount greater than $1500)

Pay for cruise with Carnival cc. Receive 3,000 Carnival points

When bill comes due apply the 3,000 points to your $1500 charge and get $450 (1.5) credit on your cc bill.

Net due from you to pay cc bill $1,050.

 

If you book cruise for $1200 (or any amount less than $1500)

Pay for cruise with Carnival cc Receive 2,400 Carnival points

When bill comes due apply the 2,400 points to your $1200 charge and get $240 (1) credit on your cc bill.

Net due from you to pay cc bill $960.

 

If my understanding is not correct I too would appreciate clarification.

I am thinking your calculations are wrong. It is 20,000 points for $200 so how are you coming up with $240 credit on a $1200 charge??? Or $450 credit on $1500 charge??:confused:

[drosphot]

As I understand it the key to getting 1.5 credit vs. 1 credit is that you must be applying your points to a single Carnival charge of at least $1500. Any charge you are applying points to less than $1500 will only provide 1 credit per point. As others have stated one of the best values for using the Carnival card is to pay for your cruise with your card and get the double points for that charge. Then anytime up to 18 months after that charge you can apply the points.

Simple example:

Book cruise for $1500 (or any amount greater than $1500)

Pay for cruise with Carnival cc. Receive 3,000 Carnival points

When bill comes due apply the 3,000 points to your $1500 charge and get $450 (1.5) credit on your cc bill.

Net due from you to pay cc bill $1,050.

 

If you book cruise for $1200 (or any amount less than $1500)

Pay for cruise with Carnival cc Receive 2,400 Carnival points

When bill comes due apply the 2,400 points to your $1200 charge and get $240 (1) credit on your cc bill.

Net due from you to pay cc bill $960.

 

If my understanding is not correct I too would appreciate clarification.

 

The time to pay off the Carnival charge with points is 180 days, not 18 months.

I have had it apply to part of a >$1500 charge when I did not have enough points to pay the whole charge. It still applied it at the 1.5x rate for the amount of points I had in 5000 point increments. I don't know if it still does that though. We've saved over $4600 to date.

Edited October 9, 2015 by drosphot

[kidstwo2]

I am thinking your calculations are wrong. It is 20,000 points for $200 so how are you coming up with $240 credit on a $1200 charge??? Or $450 credit on $1500 charge??:confused:

 

You are thinking correctly and my calculations are wrong:)

 

The credit for 3000 points on a $1500 or more charge would be $45 NOT $450 as I posted. Leaving a balance due on $1500 of $1455.

 

The credit for 2400 points on a charge of less than $1500 would be $24 NOT $240 as I posted. Leaving a balance due on $1200 of $1176.

 

Apologies on doing math in my head! I won't try that again.

[kidstwo2]

The time to pay off the Carnival charge with points is 180 days, not 18 months.

I have had it apply to part of a >$1500 charge when I did not have enough points to pay the whole charge. It still applied it at the 1.5x rate for the amount of points I had in 5000 point increments. I don't know if it still does that though. We've saved over $4600 to date.

 

Thanks for the clarification on the 180 days and not 18 months as I indicated.

 

Lesson learned no more responses with numbers in them from me....I appreciate all the quick corrections...thanks again!

[kidstwo2]

The time to pay off the Carnival charge with points is 180 days, not 18 months.

I have had it apply to part of a >$1500 charge when I did not have enough points to pay the whole charge. It still applied it at the 1.5x rate for the amount of points I had in 5000 point increments. I don't know if it still does that though. We've saved over $4600 to date.

 

 

That is very helpful to know about the 5000 point increment. We will have a >$1500 charge coming up for Vista I will not have enough points to pay the whole charge but close and now I know to make sure and accumulate as close as possible with the 5000 increment.

[29dawgs]

I have thought about these cards as well. I read a few years ago a guy on here used it for his business expenses and ended up with free cruises. With my business I spend over $100,000.00 per year using my VISA debit. We love cruising and normally take people with us and pay their way. If I can do it free would be much nicer! Anyone know with the amount I already spend, if I switched to this card how much credit towards a cruise I would receive?

 

Hi Craztfrazee,

 

If you are a business owner you should look at the Chase Ink Business Plus Card. 60K bonus for spending $5K in the first 3 months. 5X points on all phone, cable TV, cell phone, internet, and office supply stores. 2X points on all gas and hotels and 1X on everything else. I use this for the 5X points and use my Barclay Arrival for everything else.

[crazyfrazee]

Hi Craztfrazee,

 

If you are a business owner you should look at the Chase Ink Business Plus Card. 60K bonus for spending $5K in the first 3 months. 5X points on all phone, cable TV, cell phone, internet, and office supply stores. 2X points on all gas and hotels and 1X on everything else. I use this for the 5X points and use my Barclay Arrival for everything else.

 

Thank you! I haven't even thought about paying all the bills with it like you mentioned. We have most of the utilities set up on auto draft but looks like we should change this as well.

[Stokeset]

Just a reminder, but the points can count toward affiliate cruise lines also. Received and used points in booking our most recent HAL land/cruise.

[taymiss2]

Did you switch to the Carnival Barclay Mastercard because you only get 1 point for every dollar you spend on that except when paying for anything pertaining to Carnival.

 

Carnival Mastercard does not give double points for everything.

 

 

We do noT have a Carnival card. It is a Barclay arrival plus MasterCard. Double points on every purchase. We spend $5000 to 8000 a month on our card which means 10,000 to 16000 points per month. We charge everything and pay it off. The redemption is basically $100 travel credit for every 10,000 points. Can use for any travel purchase so not limited to any certain airline, hotel,cruise line. The best part for us is how much faster we accrue with 2x points on everything. I figure we will easily get 120000 points a year which would only have been 60000 points with southwest's 1x points.

[Donfairview2001]

We do noT have a Carnival card. It is a Barclay arrival plus MasterCard. Double points on every purchase. We spend $5000 to 8000 a month on our card which means 10,000 to 16000 points per month. We charge everything and pay it off. The redemption is basically $100 travel credit for every 10,000 points. Can use for any travel purchase so not limited to any certain airline, hotel,cruise line. The best part for us is how much faster we accrue with 2x points on everything. I figure we will easily get 120000 points a year which would only have been 60000 points with southwest's 1x points.

As someone not doing this, I'm wondering how to pay bigger bills like mortgages each month without additional bill paying fees. How do u actually transfer the funds from your card?

[ready2cruzagain]

We do noT have a Carnival card. It is a Barclay arrival plus MasterCard. Double points on every purchase. We spend $5000 to 8000 a month on our card which means 10,000 to 16000 points per month. We charge everything and pay it off. The redemption is basically $100 travel credit for every 10,000 points. Can use for any travel purchase so not limited to any certain airline, hotel,cruise line. The best part for us is how much faster we accrue with 2x points on everything. I figure we will easily get 120000 points a year which would only have been 60000 points with southwest's 1x points.

Well you stated Barclay Card All the Way and that is where it got confusing since this thread is about the CARNIVAL Barclay Mastercard. The Carnival Barclay Mastercard does not give the points that you were stating. Big difference.

[nhraformula00]

We have the Spirit airlines M.C. The two of us have flown 11 times now R.T. N.S.using rewards points which are discounted several times during the year to only M.C. holders over the last 3 years. When you first apply and use your card you get 15,000 reward miles and 2 miles there after for every dollar spent. Have to use the card once a month to maintain your points and the first year the waive the $50 annual fee. On average we pay $18 dollars to upgrade to a larger seat and $40 for 1 bag (carry on's are one bag each under the seat) and $5-10 to use your points, so like under $100 for the 2 of us one way. If you don't upgrade your seat and are under 5-8, less than $50 each way off peak. We have never had a flight delay more than 20 min or any other problems with Spirit. You can use the card absolutely free for one year, and if its not for you cancel it. You can also gift your point to someone else to fly anytime. We go from Chicago to Ft.Lauderdal, Ft.Myers, and Las Vegas each once a year.

[taymiss2]

Well you stated Barclay Card All the Way and that is where it got confusing since this thread is about the CARNIVAL Barclay Mastercard. The Carnival Barclay Mastercard does not give the points that you were stating. Big difference.

 

 

I didn't know the Carnival card was a Barclay card. Some one else had posted the info about the Barclay card I have so was commenting about that. Should have quoted his post when I commented. Sorry for the confusion. I guess my point was also that no the carnival card is not worth it. You can get bigger bang for you buck with something else. I am pissed about all the lost opportunity I had with the southwest card. Had 150000 points which could have been 300,000 points. Oh well live and learn.

[ready2cruzagain]

I didn't know the Carnival card was a Barclay card. Some one else had posted the info about the Barclay card I have so was commenting about that. Should have quoted his post when I commented. Sorry for the confusion. I guess my point was also that no the carnival card is not worth it. You can get bigger bang for you buck with something else. I am pissed about all the lost opportunity I had with the southwest card. Had 150000 points which could have been 300,000 points. Oh well live and learn.

I agree, the Carnival card is pretty sad. I have a Carnival World Mastercard through Barclays and dh was comparing points the other day and that is when we realized just how sad it is. Will be looking into another one.

[belkin]

My wife and I used the Carnival Mastercard for about a year and a half until I learned about the Barclay Arrival Mastercard. Barclay is the same bank which hosts the Carnival card, yet the rewards are more than double what you'll get with the Carnival card! Here are the perks:

 

*One time $400 statement credit (40,000 'miles') with new account if you put $3,000 on the card in the first four months of use

*2 'miles'/points per dollar spent, regardless of whether or not it's on travel

*10% of all points you redeem are returned to you... that makes the total cash back to you 2.2% on every purchase.

 

Of course there is an $89 annual fee with the Arrival card, but that's waived the first year AND as long as you spend more than $4,040 a year with the card you'll break even on that with the points you'll receive.

 

Bottom line... I'm much happier with the Arrival card than the Carnival card.

 

I agree with you. We switched over to the Arrival Card and have never looked back. Best thing we could have done as far as credit cards go.

 

One thing that is different is that a few months ago we got a notice that stated starting in November the will only be returning 5% of your points when you redeem.

[AmativeDame]

We recently picked up the carnival Barclay card. I also have a Capital One quicksilver card and an amex blue sky.

 

Customer service wise Barclay is the worst I have dealt with, and there are cards with better perks. Both the capital one and amex give you 2% on everything vs the 1% on Barclay. Amex has higher cash out values to redeam but the capital one lets you cash out to cover a purchase, recieve a check or get a statement credit for very low amounts. If I was going to get a card for the points I would not go with Barclay at all!

 

Aim for something that gives 2% on everything all the time. You have a lot of options...

[mikel24m]

I used to use my Carnival card for years until I found American Express preferred Cash card.6% cash back at grocery stores.3% gas and 1 % everything else. $75 annual fee but so far this year I got about $500 back and paid not one cent in interest. And the best part is you get 6% cash back at grocery stores even buying gift cards like visa cards or Carnival cards

[firemanbobswife]

We recently picked up the carnival Barclay card. I also have a Capital One quicksilver card and an amex blue sky.

 

 

 

Customer service wise Barclay is the worst I have dealt with, and there are cards with better perks. Both the capital one and amex give you 2% on everything vs the 1% on Barclay. Amex has higher cash out values to redeam but the capital one lets you cash out to cover a purchase, recieve a check or get a statement credit for very low amounts. If I was going to get a card for the points I would not go with Barclay at all!

 

 

 

Aim for something that gives 2% on everything all the time. You have a lot of options...

 

 

My card of choice is the Capital One Venture card. Same 2% on everything, all the time. Love the 40,000 point bonus (equals $400 in free travel or $200 statement credit for anything else). Also the first year fee is waived. After that it's only $59/yr.

[Davey Wavey]

My card of choice is the Capital One Venture card. Same 2% on everything, all the time. Love the 40,000 point bonus (equals $400 in free travel or $200 statement credit for anything else). Also the first year fee is waived. After that it's only $59/yr.

 

There are several sites, like Bankrate, that allow you to compare cards in several categories. Barclay Arrival is ranked best for travel rewards with 2% points on all purchases plus a bonus during redemption that amounts to 2.1-2.2% cash back on all purchases. Second is Capital One Venture with 2% on all purchases and 40,000 ($400) sign up bonus. Use one of these and get 2% cash back on Carnival cruises, S&S expenses and all travel expenses...and every other purchase.

 

You forfeit half your cash back for the privilege of carrying around the Carnival card. If you need to be that loyal, buy a Carnival sticker and put it on a better card. :D

[firemanbobswife]

 

 

 

You forfeit half your cash back for the privilege of carrying around the Carnival card. If you need to be that loyal, buy a Carnival sticker and put it on a better card. :D

 

 

Totally agree! The only thing worse than the Carnival card would be to use a cc with no point accrual or a debit card.