Q: RCCL Visa Card

[Kellie Poodle]

We are Crown and Anchor Gold having done 2 RCCL cruises in the past. We are about to embark on #3 in October and are also booked on #4 in February.

 

We use our Discover card and get cash back of 1% to 5% depending upon the promotion for that month. I was looking at the RCCL Visa card and if you sign up you get $150 shipboard credit then amass more RCCL credits. We pay our bills in full each month so the interest rates don't mean anything to me.

 

Does anyone here use the RCCL Visa and if they do, are there any real benefits to using it? I'm thinking that we'll need to use a Visa card in Australia and New Zealand anyway as Discover might not be taken, so getting credit with RCCL seems like a good idea.

 

I sure would appreciate some information from someone who has and uses this card. I don't want any surprises like those shown in the Capitol One commercials :o

I don't want to apply for another useless card. I have enough of them from department store promos.:(

 

Thanks in advance

 

Janet

[want2go]

I loved this card until June... when they acted just like the commercial. Huge change in my opinion. I mainly got it for the free cruise 125,000 point level.

 

I would get it for the $150 perk...

 

but weigh pros and cons of each card.

 

I'm in the CC market again...

[SA Traveler]

We use it for the $500 discount on any cruise for 50,000 points. Thus far there is no change there. Points add up fast when you use it for your RCCL cruises and onboard charges since you get double credit. The $50 onboard credit for each 5000 points hasn't changed either.

 

We too pay it off every month so don't worry about the interest rate.

 

So far I'm still very happy with the card.

[alexkrn46]

I loved this card until June... when they acted just like the commercial. Huge change in my opinion. I mainly got it for the free cruise 125,000 point level.

 

I would get it for the $150 perk...

 

but weigh pros and cons of each card.

 

I'm in the CC market again...

We just paid off this card, the service was fine when MBNA but went down hill with Bank of America. We used to pay our son's college tuition ( always paying right off) but the service has gone down hill

[cruiseguy1016]

We got rid of our Discover card because we found it wasn't accepted in a lot of places. We love our RCI Visa and use it for cruise discounts, upgrades and lots of OBCs.

[AFT_LOVER]

or read it at the library about Capitol One. The lowest rated company for credit cards.

 

I have Discover since I was 19, so that is many decades & now I have it only for the 5% on gas purchases which I exchange for 7 Blockbuster movie rentals ($35 value for $20 cashback). As for purchases they give .25% for purchases up to $1000, then it goes to .50% up to $3000 then 1% which really bites. So I just use it for gas. Or for restaurants during the months they do that for 5% on meals.

 

We have AMEX Platinum with the free air, etc but we got the RCCL Platinum Plus VISA & Celebrity's Worldpoints VISA. If you buy Celebrity you must charge it to Celebrity VISA to get double points, same with RCCL. Amex doesn't work with RCCL so we don't get $300 Platinum cardholder OBC from them.

 

We average 15,000 points each 2 week cruise. So that is $150 added to the stockholder credit of $250 for 2 week cruise & the Next Cruise OBC of $200. So we can average $600 a cruise.

 

VISA now has a warranty of 1 year added onto any manufacturers warranty of 1-5 years. Auto rental insurance which is them paying deductible on the rental accident.

 

SO I'd get it over Discover, or with it for the good 5% deals.

 

 

We are Crown and Anchor Gold having done 2 RCCL cruises in the past. We are about to embark on #3 in October and are also booked on #4 in February.

 

We use our Discover card and get cash back of 1% to 5% depending upon the promotion for that month. I was looking at the RCCL Visa card and if you sign up you get $150 shipboard credit then amass more RCCL credits. We pay our bills in full each month so the interest rates don't mean anything to me.

 

Does anyone here use the RCCL Visa and if they do, are there any real benefits to using it? I'm thinking that we'll need to use a Visa card in Australia and New Zealand anyway as Discover might not be taken, so getting credit with RCCL seems like a good idea.

 

I sure would appreciate some information from someone who has and uses this card. I don't want any surprises like those shown in the Capitol One commercials :o

I don't want to apply for another useless card. I have enough of them from department store promos.:(

 

Thanks in advance

 

Janet

[lauren0309]

We always benefit from using our Visa card. We accumulate points, then call up to redeem the coupons for onboard credit. Its like free cash to us. On our last cruise we had $200 on board credit and used it for drinks, photographs, gifts we bought. We used the whole $200 while on board and was just left with having to dish out $63.00 when our credit card bill came when we arrived home. This time we've accumulated enough points for a free passenger on a 4 day bahamas cruise which we weren't planning on doing since we have done that one already but we said what the heck. It won't cost us too much.

 

We charge college tuition, food, utilities, etc. to keep adding on the points but make sure to pay it off in full at the end of the month or you can run into trouble and then its not worth it.

[kenandlaura06]

We've been happy with it. Only issue I've run into is that this past billing cycle, they didn't credit us the Royal Points because the deposit was billed to Celebrity cruises, not Royal Caribbean. Will be calling C&A this week to rectify it. Otherwise, no issues. Like PP have said, as long as you pay off your balance each month, the rewards cards are great. If you carry a balance, you shouldn't be looking for a rewards card as much as a card with the lowest interest rate. For those of us who pay off the balance each month, interest rate doesn't matter and rewards are the perks we look for.

[Kellie Poodle]

or read it at the library about Capitol One. The lowest rated company for credit cards.

 

I have Discover since I was 19, so that is many decades & now I have it only for the 5% on gas purchases which I exchange for 7 Blockbuster movie rentals ($35 value for $20 cashback). As for purchases they give .25% for purchases up to $1000, then it goes to .50% up to $3000 then 1% which really bites. So I just use it for gas. Or for restaurants during the months they do that for 5% on meals.

 

SO I'd get it over Discover, or with it for the good 5% deals.

 

 

We've had Discover since they first came out, maybe 20 years ago. The one thing I like about them is that there is no limit on the 1% like our Visa has and we get at least $20 in cash off of our bill every month. Most months it well over that. I sign up for all the 5% awards and use them, too. I don't need videos. I have a big movie package and a DVR from Dish network:) We have had very good service from them over the years and twice when we needed it, they increased our credit limit, with no problems or hassles, over the phone so I'm not about to "get over" them.

 

I did sign up for the RCI Visa, I figured it would be a good idea to charge our excursions and shipboard expenses on it and amass some credits for the second RCI cruise we are taking in February.

 

Thanks all.