Princess Visa Card makes it difficult to redeem points

[NavyVeteran]

I don't understand the new rules, I've used the Princess Visa card for quite a while and always waited until I had 80,000 points to redeem for $1,000 as a credit on my account. Now, as I understand it, it's not as easy to do this. I currently have 60,000 points and was going to wait until I had 80,000 points to redeem.

 

In January, I charged a cruise for $4,100 and if I understand the new rules, I have 180 days to redeem this at 2%???? So, if I redeemed 60,000 points for $750 now, how much would I receive as a credit on my account? How much OBC would I get if I decided to do that?

 

Can someone explain this to me as I'm feeling kind of dumb right now.

:rolleyes:

Thanks for any info.

 

Since your Princess purchase was $4,001 or more, you will get 2% for however many points you redeem. If you redeem 60,000 points, you will receive $1,200. Under the old rules, you would have received a maximum of 1.25%, so you are better off under the new rules. You will receive $200 more for 60,000 points than you would have received for 80,000 points under the old rules.:) You lucked out by spending a little over $4,001; if you had charged exactly $4,000, then you would not have received as much.

 

The maximum you would receive for OBC is 1.25%, so you are better off redeeming for a statement credit. Note that my comment on OBC is based strictly on reading the conditions on their website. I have not redeemed for OBC, and I do not intend to do so, so I have no personal experience with this.

 

Note that the percentage you receive for a stateroom credit depends only on the amount of the Princess charge; unlike the old rules, it does not depend on the number of points you redeem.

 

There is one possible reason to wait for more points before redeeming. You can only redeem once against each Princess purchase. If you redeem 60,000 points against the purchase of $4,100, you can't redeem more points later against the same purchase. Depending on how often you sail on Princess, you may want to wait until closer to the 180 day deadline to redeem more points. Since I usually have at least two cruises of $4,100 or more each year, I don't have that problem.

 

I would be interested to hear if someone else has successfully redeemed their points for a statement credit on their website. I hesitate to call the problem fixed because it worked for one person. If we hear from a couple of other people for whom it worked and no one new with a problem, then maybe it really is fixed.

[trvlwrld]

just redeemed my points for credit on my statement-same dollar amount as OBC and it showed up on my statement in 2days👍

[NavyVeteran]

just redeemed my points for credit on my statement-same dollar amount as OBC and it showed up on my statement in 2days👍

 

How large was your Princess purchase, how many points did you redeem, and how much did you receive as statement credit? I would like to verify if they are redeeming for the percentage they state in their policy.

[PescadoAmarillo]

I would be interested to hear if someone else has successfully redeemed their points for a statement credit on their website. I hesitate to call the problem fixed because it worked for one person. If we hear from a couple of other people for whom it worked and no one new with a problem, then maybe it really is fixed.

I can't say it's fixed, but Barclay just updated their app on 3/28/17. I downloaded it yesterday and immediately noticed that there is now a way to redeem points for statement credit in the app. Previously, this ability did not exist, redeeming points on the Barclay website did not work and after two very long phone conversations where I was promised our points would be redeemed, our points remained in our account and no statement credit appeared.

 

Last night I redeemed 10000 points for $200 in statement credit. The points disappeared immediately, the redemption shows as a pending activity and the credit was promised within 24 business hours. So far it is not there, but it is a Friday and I will give it until Monday. If it works, I can finally say I'm pleased with the new system. If it doesn't, I'll have an even bigger issue to resolve since the points have now been subtracted from the original balance.

 

I also don't know if I will ever be able to redeem the remaining points (less than 5000 points, or $50) for statement credit. It has been six months since this new system was introduced and it's baffling that we are still dealing with trying to make it work without human intervention on the Barclay side and that some basic redemption policies remain unclear (at least to me).

 

I will report back on Monday or when the statement credit appears on our account.

[NavyVeteran]

I can't say it's fixed, but Barclay just updated their app on 3/28/17. I downloaded it yesterday and immediately noticed that there is now a way to redeem points for statement credit in the app. Previously, this ability did not exist, redeeming points on the Barclay website did not work and after two very long phone conversations where I was promised our points would be redeemed, our points remained in our account and no statement credit appeared.

 

Last night I redeemed 10000 points for $200 in statement credit. The points disappeared immediately, the redemption shows as a pending activity and the credit was promised within 24 business hours. So far it is not there, but it is a Friday and I will give it until Monday. If it works, I can finally say I'm pleased with the new system. If it doesn't, I'll have an even bigger issue to resolve since the points have now been subtracted from the original balance.

 

I also don't know if I will ever be able to redeem the remaining points (less than 5000 points, or $50) for statement credit. It has been six months since this new system was introduced and it's baffling that we are still dealing with trying to make it work without human intervention on the Barclay side and that some basic redemption policies remain unclear (at least to me).

 

I will report back on Monday or when the statement credit appears on our account.

 

The amount of the statement credit does not depend on the number of points redeemed. You must redeem a minimum of 5,000 points to get a statement credit. If you redeem 5,000 points against a Princess purchase of $4,001 or more, then you will receive $100 for the 5,000 points - twice as much as the $50 you would have received under the old policy.

 

This is described on the BarclayCard webisite. It asks the question "What is the best redemption value among eligible transactions?" and I believe the answer is reasonably clear.

[coopco]

I've used my Barclay's card twice to pay for Princess cruises, the first time in 2013 and again this year. I feel very fortunate because I haven't had a problem. Both times I've gotten $1,000 credit on each cruise. The first time I called because I wasn't sure how it worked. The second time I just waited for the appropriate option to appear on the website after I paid for my cruise (not the deposit, but when I paid the cruise amount minus the deposit). I was given several options depending on how many points I wanted to spend. I've even seen options appear for airline or Carnival cruise payments. I've been very satisfied and use my credit card to pay for everything (including parking and groceries so I can get points). I love that I can charge what I would have paid by debit or cash to my credit card and pay it off at the end of the month and get $1,000 off my cruises every few years. Win/win in my mind!

[floridalover5623]

I can't say it's fixed, but Barclay just updated their app on 3/28/17. I downloaded it yesterday and immediately noticed that there is now a way to redeem points for statement credit in the app. Previously, this ability did not exist, redeeming points on the Barclay website did not work and after two very long phone conversations where I was promised our points would be redeemed, our points remained in our account and no statement credit appeared.

 

Last night I redeemed 10000 points for $200 in statement credit. The points disappeared immediately, the redemption shows as a pending activity and the credit was promised within 24 business hours. So far it is not there, but it is a Friday and I will give it until Monday. If it works, I can finally say I'm pleased with the new system. If it doesn't, I'll have an even bigger issue to resolve since the points have now been subtracted from the original balance.

 

I also don't know if I will ever be able to redeem the remaining points (less than 5000 points, or $50) for statement credit. It has been six months since this new system was introduced and it's baffling that we are still dealing with trying to make it work without human intervention on the Barclay side and that some basic redemption policies remain unclear (at least to me).

 

I will report back on Monday or when the statement credit appears on our account.

 

Same situation here. I've been patiently waiting since 3-19-17 to see the credit appear on the Princess account. :mad:

[PescadoAmarillo]

I'm (more than) thrilled to report that the $200 statement credit has appeared in our account this morning. I completed the entire transaction through the Barclay app, not the Barclay website, but their 3/28/17 app upgrade seems to have successfully fixed the redemption for statement credit issue. I have not looked at the website for two weeks to see what, if anything, has changed there. Two weeks ago it was still not working correctly for me.

 

Before last fall when this change was (poorly) rolled out, it required 25000 points to get a $250 statement credit. We always waited until we had 40000 points to get a $500 statement credit. The points never expired and we did not have to have a Princess Cruises charge within the prior 180 days to redeem points for a statement credit.

 

Now I am able to redeem 10000 points for a $200 statement credit, so it would appear to be more lucrative. However, I am unclear about whether our remaining 3950 points will ever be redeemable or will simply expire (for statement credit purposes). I can only redeem points for statement credit if I've had a Princess charge in the past 180 days. And I'm only getting the 2% redemption rate because the total Princess charges were over $4000.

 

i think the new program is more beneficial than the old in certain circumstances. If we purchase more than $4000 in Princess Cruises at one time, it's a good thing. However, if we do a quick last minute cruise getaway at a cheap fare, and then no additional Princess cruising for more than six months, it seems to be less lucrative than the old system.

[NavyVeteran]

Barclay may have fixed their problem. I was waiting to get to 50,000 points to redeem for a $1,000 statement credit (2%). When I logged on to their website today, it allowed the redemption with no issues. Everything worked easily with no problems.

 

I just logged on to the BarclayCardUS.com website and my $1,000 statement credit has already been posted. Everything seems to work great now with no problems. Maybe they actually fixed their software problems (finally).:)

[K D cruiser]

Navy Veteran,

Thanks so much for explaining the redemption of Princess credit cards points. I'll wait a while and see if I can get to 80,000 points, keeping in mind the 180 days deadline. :)

[floridalover5623]

It's been a while since I've cashed in points for OBC but about 2 weeks ago I ordered OBC for a Nov trip. I received confirmation with a dollar amount, booking number & cruise date but don't I recall that after ordering, the OBC shows up on the Princess web site under "payments & credits"? Did this procedure change or did I just forget how it's done?

[Mikel1733]

We have the Carnival Barclay card and I wanted to use points as OBC for our upcoming Princess Cruise. I successfully redeemed the points and received a Princess E-Card Number and Pin Number. I then called Princess and was told they don't accept the points. It took about 30 minutes of phone time and me emailing photo's of my E-Card to finally get a second Supervisor who knew that indeed they do accept Princess E-Cards from Barclay.

[caribill]

It's been a while since I've cashed in points for OBC but about 2 weeks ago I ordered OBC for a Nov trip. I received confirmation with a dollar amount, booking number & cruise date but don't I recall that after ordering, the OBC shows up on the Princess web site under "payments & credits"? Did this procedure change or did I just forget how it's done?

 

Look under Special Services in the Personalizer travel summary

[floridalover5623]

Look under Special Services in the Personalizer travel summary

Princess doesn't include it under "Payments and Credits" like all the other OBC.

They treat it differently & hide it somewhere- if at all.

Right now all I have is my printed confirmation from Barclay showing my order for OBC. Princess tells me to show this paper to them at the PSD to confirm the credit.

It would sure be nice to see it listed with all the rest of the OBC.

[JoAnneNYI]

It is listed in your "travel summary" document you can print out when luggage tags etc are available

[floridalover5623]

It is listed in your "travel summary" document you can print out when luggage tags etc are available

 

My travel summary is available today to print out but the Barclay Credit Card dollars do not show. They're telling me that my ordered credit doesn't appear until the sailing date, which isn't for months from now.

I could have sworn that in past years it did show prior to the sailing date.

[1964pilot]

Thanks for this information. I used this for the 1st time this week and worked like a charm. We didn't need on board credit so decided to try it. Only used 20,000 points but that gave us $400 credit on payment.

 

THANKS AGAIN for the help. JEAN

[cflutist]

Too complicated for me, I just use Costco Citi Visa for 3% cashback on all travel (hotels, airfare, cruises, trains, etc) and restaurants.

[NavyVeteran]

Thanks for this information. I used this for the 1st time this week and worked like a charm. We didn't need on board credit so decided to try it. Only used 20,000 points but that gave us $400 credit on payment.

 

THANKS AGAIN for the help. JEAN

I haven't seen anyone post with any problems redeeming for statement credit since March 31st. Is it too much to hope that they have finally fixed their software problem?

 

Too complicated for me, I just use Costco Citi Visa for 3% cashback on all travel (hotels, airfare, cruises, trains, etc) and restaurants.

I have a Costco Citi Visa also. However the Princess Visa card give me 4% back on my Princess purchases (as well as I always redeem for statement credit against a Princess purchase of $4,001 or more). Since we normally have at least two Princess purchases of $4,001 or more each year, this is a good deal. With the recent website fix, the redemption is very easy.

[cflutist]

NavyVeteran, thanks for the tip. Why do some get 2% and others 4%.

 

Our next big cruise is to Antarctica on Silversea so it doesn't matter anyway.

It is difficult for my hubby to keep track which card offers what so I have taped it onto the plastic itself,

and he still uses the wrong card at times. :D

[NavyVeteran]

NavyVeteran, thanks for the tip. Why do some get 2% and others 4%.

 

Our next big cruise is to Antarctica on Silversea so it doesn't matter anyway.

It is difficult for my hubby to keep track which card offers what so I have taped it onto the plastic itself,

and he still uses the wrong card at times. :D

 

You get 2% for statement credit against a Princess charge of $4,001 or more. Against a smaller charge, you receive less.

 

You get double points for Princess purchases.

 

The 4% was if you charge a Princess purchase and then redeem for a statement credit against a Princess purchase of $4,001 or more - double points on the purchase and then 2% on the redemption for a total of 4%.