Best "Points" credit card?

[squirrellee01]

Did you all fill out the application online? I really need to do this, I am always so apprehensive about applying for credit cards.

I really want to do the NCL Bermuda cruise.:)

We did the NCL Crown to Bermuda and it was great. I loved staying at one island for so long. One morning I woke up early and got off the ship before it sailed around to the other side, I watched it sail away and I was all alone with my 1 year old (tells you how safe you feel on the island), I walked to the beach, collected some sea glass then caught the bus with the kids going to school (and others going to work) and got off at the next port. It was a great way to spend the morning!

Sheryl

[Nickymjw1]

Yes! Thank you so much! We are relatively young, (24 and 27) and it's amazing how fast debt can add up. We had a good system of paying it down and averaged about 5% interest, so that kept me from totally getting stressed out over it. But now that's its gone, We just need to continue to be diligent to keep it that way. I had no problem with that before I got married, how strange what marriage and kids will do to ya!

 

Sheryl

 

For those in debt and for the ones out of debt and want to stay there, Dave Ramsey has a great program called total money make-over. Y0u can get his book or read up on his website DaveRamsey.com

[squirrellee01]

I got approved too. I even asked to get it ASAP because I am leaving for our NCL cruise on Wednesday. He said I will have it in hand either tomorrow or Monday. Woo Hoo! extra points for NCL on board account. YAY!! (I called. I was a little apprehensive about using the link when you can't get there from navigating from the BOA website) SHERYL

[klct39lg]

I got approved too. I even asked to get it ASAP because I am leaving for our NCL cruise on Wednesday. He said I will have it in hand either tomorrow or Monday. Woo Hoo! extra points for NCL on board account. YAY!! (I called. I was a little apprehensive about using the link when you can't get there from navigating from the BOA website) SHERYL

 

Yaaay for you!

 

I know what you mean about the link, I had it bookmarked for a week and a half before I signed up.

 

I am not currently booked for a cruise, but I have read a Majesty to Bermuda review that makes me all glassey eyed.:D

[bigwally]

I, however, think Chase bank is the WORST bank out there

 

Unfortuantely that's beyond our control in that they bought this particular card off Citibank.

 

It's still the best card for us based on how we travel, and all Chase is able to get out of us (because we play by their rules and pay off in full each month) is the yearly fee for having the card (and we even get 2,035 miles for re-upping).

 

Now admittedly they've done some things to p*** us off when it comes to trying to grab extra cash, specifically when it comes to paying our statement:

 

First of all you couldn't make payment with a live advisor without a fee.

 

Then you couldn't make more than one payment per day on a card (my wife and I used to divide the bill and pay our own purchases, one right after another). Now I just write my wife a check and we pay the whole thing out of her account.

 

Then you couldn't make a payment on weekends or holidays and have it credited same day.

 

Then you couldn't make a payment on a weekday after 4pm Eastern time and have it credited same day.

 

Then you couldn't use their automated phone payment system without a fee.

 

So now, the only way to make a payment and not get hit for any fees and interest is either making payment by mail (I don't like making payment by mail because they have claimed to have not recieved it in time before) or on the Chase web site, making sure that they receive it by 4pm on a non-holiday weekday before your payment is due. :)

 

All that said, we still love what the card gives us, and when they move the line in the sand we'll figure out how to move with it. I think the only thing that might be a deal breaker for us is if they make it so you can't make your payment AT ALL without incuring a fee of some kind.

[squirrellee01]

Unfortuantely that's beyond our control in that they bought this particular card off Citibank.

 

It's still the best card for us based on how we travel, and all Chase is able to get out of us (because we play by their rules and pay off in full each month) is the yearly fee for having the card (and we even get 2,035 miles for re-upping).

 

Now admittedly they've done some things to p*** us off when it comes to trying to grab extra cash, specifically when it comes to paying our statement:

 

First of all you couldn't make payment with a live advisor without a fee.

 

Then you couldn't make more than one payment per day on a card (my wife and I used to divide the bill and pay our own purchases, one right after another). Now I just write my wife a check and we pay the whole thing out of her account.

 

Then you couldn't make a payment on weekends or holidays and have it credited same day.

 

Then you couldn't make a payment on a weekday after 4pm Eastern time and have it credited same day.

 

Then you couldn't use their automated phone payment system without a fee.

 

So now, the only way to make a payment and not get hit for any fees and interest is either making payment by mail (I don't like making payment by mail because they have claimed to have not recieved it in time before) or on the Chase web site, making sure that they receive it by 4pm on a non-holiday weekday before your payment is due. :)

 

All that said, we still love what the card gives us, and when they move the line in the sand we'll figure out how to move with it. I think the only thing that might be a deal breaker for us is if they make it so you can't make your payment AT ALL without incuring a fee of some kind.

Bigwally,

 

Chase hasn't really gave me any problems, But they did move the payment date to earlier in the month one month and I pay all my payments automatically with my bill payment from my bank and that would have pushed me close to being late and could have jeopordized my 5.9% balance transfer. They did horribly raise my husband's purchase apr from 7.9 to over 22% (no we didn't pay late or any other creditor late), we paid them off and vowed never to use chase again.

 

It seems a little like too much work to pay your credit card! Does your bank offer any type of bill payment? Ours does for free and it even sends the payments eletronically and we can schedule all we want. One (or more) every day if we wanted.

Just an idea.

 

Sheryl

[squirrellee01]

Wouldn't you believe it that in today's mail my husband got one of those "pre-approved" offers for the NCL Bank of America card, just after I applied for it. So we went ahead and applied for this one for him so we'd both have one and can rack up the points. Well I'm jealous as anything, he got 4 times the credit limit I got!!! (I think it's because I already have a Bank of America card and several more cards than him, maybe I'm more of a risk.) But still, this guy I married would be writing bad checks if he didnt' marry me 5 years ago, and since we've met I got him straight and I take care of paying all the bills.... I just think it's so funny!

 

Sheryl

[klct39lg]

How odd...I'll have to pay more attention to the offers we get. I don't think I've ever seen the NCL offer in my mailbox,though.:)

[squirrellee01]

I'm pretty sure this was the first time I've gotten it. It was for my husband too which I thought was strange because he never had a BOA card before. I guess they are trying to recuit new users. Well I'm glad we got two now because if we make larger purchases we don't want to go over the 250 month limit. (Which I still think would be pretty hard for us to do. That's somewhere between 6k-8k limit depending on wheter you get 3 or 4 points per $100) That's a lot to spend in one month! We only do that if we buy some used truck or something. (Which we already did two months ago!)

 

Sheryl

[Marlissa]

Wouldn't you believe it that in today's mail my husband got one of those "pre-approved" offers for the NCL Bank of America card, just after I applied for it. So we went ahead and applied for this one for him so we'd both have one and can rack up the points. Well I'm jealous as anything, he got 4 times the credit limit I got!!! (I think it's because I already have a Bank of America card and several more cards than him, maybe I'm more of a risk.) But still, this guy I married would be writing bad checks if he didnt' marry me 5 years ago, and since we've met I got him straight and I take care of paying all the bills.... I just think it's so funny!

 

Sheryl

 

I think BOA has an online credit increase (but maybe that was MBNA). Anyway, they could probably do an increase or I have heard that some people have had their credit lines/limits reallocated. Maybe they would move some limit from one of your non-NCL cards to the NCL. That would really help if the new card's limit is lower than what you need to maximize the NCL points.

[squirrellee01]

Yep, that's excatly what the rep who approved me said. He said they can move the some of the credit limit from my old card to my new one. Considering the 250 month cap for NCL points, I have almost enough credit for that anyway. But maybe in time I could ask for a credit limit increase or if I'm spending that much, I'd be better to just apply for ANOTHER card entirely because I may be maxing out the 1000 year limit anyway. We'll have to see how it goes with the two cards.

Thanks!

[klct39lg]

I got my NCL card today!!!!

 

I am now doing Dana Carvey's "Church Lady Dance"!:D

[gizmo]

First of all you couldn't make payment with a live advisor without a fee.

Lousy and a rip off.

 

Then you couldn't make more than one payment per day on a card (my wife and I used to divide the bill and pay our own purchases, one right after another). Now I just write my wife a check and we pay the whole thing out of her account.

Lousy and a rip off.

 

Then you couldn't make a payment on weekends or holidays and have it credited same day.

Very common. Not all banks or Credit Unions will do this. The payment would stay in the "Pending" status until the next business day.

 

Then you couldn't make a payment on a weekday after 4pm Eastern time and have it credited same day.

Very common also. All banks and credit unions have a cutoff time which is usually anywhere from 2:00 to 4:00.

 

Then you couldn't use their automated phone payment system without a fee.

Lousy and another rip off.

[squirrellee01]

I've had my card for nearly a month and I just love it! I'm using it for everything and just used it on our NCL cruise (yay 4%). I've even made two payments already because having a bill come in at $x,xxx can be a shocker, so it's best for us to just pay as we use it. Looks like we are adding up the points fast, which is great because we want a Hawaii cruise jso we are saving up. It's very expensive to fly from VA.

 

 

SHERYL

[bigwally]

Lousy and another rip off

 

I completely agree, but we love the miles. Just cashed in 240,000 for Business Class air to Europe in September. Actually thinking now of ponying up a further 60,000 and going First Class instead. I could never pay to do either.

 

So they move the line in the sand, and we deftly step back behind it. The only thing that I find annoying, more than anything else, is that we've generally found out about these "enhancements" as we've gone to pay our bill, leaving use without time to react without paying the fee at least one time. :mad:

[squirrellee01]

I can't believe it but I earned 215 points last month. (Counting the special 25 point bonus for new cards.) I didn't realize how much we spend. I did set it up to pay a lot of our bills, like phone and car insurance and such, but WOW! It won't take any time to earn a free cruise.

 

Plus I've set up a system where I log on (pretty often) and pay it whenever it reaches $1,000 so I'm paying it pretty often but at least I'm not going to let it get where it doesn't get paid!

 

I may have to look for a good airlines miles card now so I can fly to Hawaii for the NCL cruise. Or I wonder if you do the cruise /air combo can the certificates be used for all of that since it will all be through NCL? Did anyone see the great prices for air with transfers, cruise (balcony), 2 nights hotel stay pre cruise in honolulo?

[klct39lg]

Squirrellee01,

Thanks for keeping us updated. I have mine and I am using it for the things I normally buy, and then paying it off. I love having a goal!:)

 

P.S. I hope you had a great cruise!

[Marlissa]

I may have to look for a good airlines miles card now so I can fly to Hawaii for the NCL cruise. Or I wonder if you do the cruise /air combo can the certificates be used for all of that since it will all be through NCL? Did anyone see the great prices for air with transfers, cruise (balcony), 2 nights hotel stay pre cruise in honolulo?

 

Congrats on the points. Kinda fun to pay those bills when you receive 'cruise points', huh.

 

I have read (but not experienced it myself) that you can use the points for air travel (and maybe even pre/post cruise hotel stays) when you book thru NCL.

[cruzdreamin']

nickymjwi - I know this is a dumb question, but here goes...this NCL MasterCard thru BOA...are the points only redeemable on NCL? It sounds like a really good deal, but I've never sailed NCL before and don't know if I'd like freestyle cruising or not. Thanks and have a wonderful day!

[klct39lg]

Hi cruzdreamin',

 

I am fairly certain that the BOA certificates are only accepted on NCL. There is a sticky at the top of the Norwegian Forum specifically for the NCL Mastercard.

 

We have sailed with Disney and Princess previously, and will be taking our first Norwegian cruise in March 2008. We will use 2-$500 certificates, $1000 off a cruise...I think I am willing to give freestyle a try!:)

[cruzdreamin']

Hi klct39lg!! Thanks for the information! I think with that kind of savings I'd be willing to give free style cruising a try too! I think I'll go check out that "Sticky" you were talking about! Thanks again!

[jjm34957]

I have found that most cards give 1 point per dollar spent. Then they throw in bonuses, like 2 points per dollar at grocery stores or home improvement centers etc. Capital one has a card with 1.25 points per dollar. The rewards are cash or air or other other goods. I have found that redeeming for cash is the best option, because you can spend it anywhere. I had points with WorldPoints Mastercard, tried to use for airfare but the number of points plus cash I would have had to pay was outrageous. I was able to get cash reward and found cheaper airfare.

 

The rewards with an affinity program would have to be greater than with a general rewards card to be worth losing flexibility.

 

Joe

[illiniwahoo]

Most the the rewards program cards can have fees of about $60/year. I can't comment on NCL, but other cards (united airlines for example) do. Most cards boil down to giving you 1% back, which is exactly what NCL's card is doing. So unless it has no fee, or you're getting free perks like upgrades or special sales, it's not worth choosing a specific card over just a discover or capital one that gives you 1% cash back. Jus set up a special savings account to put that 1% in and save it.

[squirrellee01]

Most the the rewards program cards can have fees of about $60/year. I can't comment on NCL, but other cards (united airlines for example) do. Most cards boil down to giving you 1% back, which is exactly what NCL's card is doing. So unless it has no fee, or you're getting free perks like upgrades or special sales, it's not worth choosing a specific card over just a discover or capital one that gives you 1% cash back. Jus set up a special savings account to put that 1% in and save it.

 

Yes it true to watch out for fees, but rest assured this card doesn't have an annual fee. Also this card give you 3 points per $100, so unless I’m doing my math wrong that's 3% (or 4% on NCL charges!) which makes it one of the BEST rewards cards. My next cruise in Jan. I only paid $50 for and the rest was paid with cruise points. Can't beat that!!

[ninetyfeet]

I have the Worldpoints card that is now under BOA. No fees, I get 1 pt per $1 spent (which means $100 gives me 100 points versus the 1 from NCL - just doing a comparison).

 

Once I get to 25,000 points I can request a check for $250 cash to use whereever I want. I can also use my points on other things but I usually get the cash because it has the most value to me. It looks like the amount I would need to spend $50,000 to get a $500 check and you would spend $50,000 to get a $500 gift cert to use on NCL. I suppose if you're going on a cruise it doesn't matter but why limit yourself to a specific cruise line?

 

I'm probably looking too far into this but I'm a numbers gal and started doing math as soon as I read this thread :D

 

Just my $0.02