Lyman713

I've done Worldpoints within 2-3 weeks from sailing. I'm guessing you can do it even sooner.

When I called the number on the Worldpoints site for point redemption, they found my reservation and forwarded me to my PCC, who, as he told me, was recently trained in accepting Worldpoint rewards. Just FYI - your PCC should be able to take care of redemption and get you a receipt the same day.

Good luck!

Hi all Worldpoints folks!

I know others have mentioned this - but be sure to bring your receipts with you when you redeem Worldpoints for OBC or casino credit.

We got aboard our cruise on the Sun last week and the ship had no record of our OBC or casino credits. They checked with their office in Miami and got the OBC applied by Monday. The casino credits took longer, as no one knew how to handle it (no one in the casino, including the Asst Casino Manager even knew what the slot credit through Worldpoints was!). By late Wednesday night on the cruise, they figured out the casino slot play credits.

The PCCs seem to be doing the Worldpoints directly now, and the learning curve seems to be taking time.

Just a heads-up for people redeeming points for their cruise!

Has anyone tried to get an award on the new card yet?

For the OBC, do you have to book with any particular travel agent, or can you get OBC applied to cruises that you are currently booked on (through NCL or some other travel agent)?

Also, has anyone tried the slot or table game credit. On the table games, it sounds like the $100 is a single $100 bet!

Thanks!!

Please completely disregard what I mentioned several posts ago about the card having potential through shopping online and getting bonus points. I got bonus points last month, to the tune of about 5% of what I thought I would get.

I've tried calling BOA - once I was transferred to NCL (I'm not sure why the BOA rep did this - the NCL rep was apologetic and asked me to call BOA again). The second time, the rep really didn't know anything about the program, and she didn't have a number to call, but instead, tried to educate herself and sent an electronic request for reconsideration of bonus points. I asked when we might hear back, and she didn't know when (or even if she would hear back). The BOA rep actually told me to call the merchants and gave me the numbers of the merchants! I tried one, and the guy tried to be helpful, but had no clue why BOA was asking me to call them.

Does anyone have a phone number for Worldpoints directly?

It's strange, when I called for Compass Reward questions last month, I was transferred to Worldpoints and now, I can't seem to find anyone that knows anything about the program!

Oh well... put a tick mark down for me being a past BOA customer.

Thank you for the link. This could be worthwile if you shop online a lot... The bulk of our charges are utilities, groceries, gas, drugstore, restaurant, and that sort of thing, with some brick and mortar store purchase and travel once a year. When we do any online shopping, we tend to use Amazon. I am not sure if we would get that much value from the World Points Mall. For online shoppers, though, the points could add up!

It just goes to what you mentioned several posts (pages?) before - there is no one good card for everyone. Sometimes an annual fee is well worthwhile, or Costco rewards, or hotel stays, or airline miles, etc...

Sadly, for NCL cruisers, Compass Rewards was an excellent program which will be missed!

Happy sails!

Where are you finding the bonus point merchents? All I see posted is the NCL cruise reward chart for World Points, which is not impresive (or flexible).

If you sign into your credit card account, there are four tabs on the page when you click on your account. One of them is rewards (the fourth one). If you click here and go into the Worldpoints Mall for shopping, there are many merchants that give 2-10 bonus points per dollar (2 bonus points, plus the one original point, if I'm thinking right, would give the same 3% as Compass Rewards).

Ok - Just found it...

https://rewardsshoppingmall.bankofamerica.com/worldpoints/jsp/home.jsp

This is the Worldpoints shopping mall. If you buy through the links here, you are supposed to earn bonus points. I tried a couple last month and I'm curious whether they will get the bonus points right (should know next week!).

c breeze --

Before the Compass Rewards, I used the Cap. One card with the no hassle rewards. One thing I noticed was that points were applied to complete purchases. So, if you booked a cruise for $1000, you needed enough points to cover the entire amount. Do you know if this is still the case?

One thing to do, is that when you apply the reward online, you pick and choose which travel-related charge to apply your rewards. Once you pick it, you can tell the system how many days or people or something like that, so it breaks the total down into bite-sized chunks (so you can apply your rewards).

So, you can tell the system that your $1000 cruise is for 7 nights, and it will break it out for $xx / night and you can apply less rewards... (yes, you can get cash also, but I think that cost more points per dollar).

Ok, that probably didn't make much sense, and is really off topic, but I thought I'd put it out there.

More on topic -- Is anyone thinking of staying with BOA? I don't want to admit it, but I might. The bonus point merchants are quite a few and, if you buy a lot online, it can be th same (or, in a few select cases, better) than the Compass Rewards. (I can't believe I just said that!!)

Of course, for everyday purchases, it doesn't compare to the old program.

 

Now, I have to call BOA and get them to correct the World Points balance for my January statement, in case I ever decide to use the points/card.....

 

Happy sailing!

c breeze --

I just got my Feb. statement and they fixed (within 10 points) the incorrect January statement point balance automatically. I would suggesting until your Feb statement is ready and see if they add up!

Good luck!

OK, we are getting posts about recent arrivals of certificates, both correct and incorrect. However, what I, and I assume most others want to know - Has anyone that originally got the incorrect certificates, now gotten a second mailing of corrected certificates on the same account, as BOA has promised ?????? If, so: 1. are they correct this time? 2. are you a person that complained by phone or mail? Thanks!

Not yet here... We received the correct amount for a card that we weren't sent the wrong amount. On the card that they sent the wrong amount originally, we haven't heard anything yet.

The message didn't say what happens to the certificate I already received. My guess is that what I receive next will be the "delta" amount of certificates needed to satisfy the total rewards I had as of 12/31/2008.

This is what I'm afraid of... if they (BOA) figure that they already paid us for Dec <closing date> - Dec 31, they will just give us certificates for the Dec statement balance. The problem is that many of us relied on the end of the year to put us over the 500 point threshold.

I guess we all will know in the next week or so!

Some good news ---

I received my rewards yesterday (correctly) for one card. On this card, I hadn't heard from BOA at all in the past (with this card, I didn't receive incorrect certificates).

With the other card (I received incorrect certificates with this one), I haven't heard any news yet. I'm waiting to see if they get resent by today and if they might arrive next week.

To reply to a post one or two above, I never received the 1/5 letter that says 6-8 weeks. The last letter I had from BOA said that I would receive my certificates by Jan 31.

Good luck to everyone!!

We have never had a problem with credit, and we do not carry a balance on any of our cards. I have been home a lot the past year and had the news on quite a bit. Of course there are always financial advisors on and every one has advised against closing old accounts (unless, of course your are paying fees for these credit cards). They all recommend putting the card(s) away, and using them one or two times a year to keep them active, since they will be canceled if inactive. Just passing this along for people to be aware. Everyone has to do what is best for them.

 

Closing old credit cards

Another component of your credit score, 15%, is the length of your credit history - longer credit histories are better. Closing old credit cards, especially your oldest card, makes your credit history seem shorter than it really is.

http://credit.about.com/od/creditreportscoring/tp/credit-score-hurts.01.htm

 

Credit Scoring Myths-

Closing accounts can help your credit score

No, no, no. For the umpteenth time: Closing accounts can never help your credit score, and may hurt it.

 

Every time I write this, I get more e-mail from people who say their mortgage lenders told them exactly the opposite. It's true that having too many open accounts can hurt your score. But once you've opened the accounts, you've done the damage. You can't repair it by shutting the account, and you may actually make things worse.

 

The credit score looks at the difference between your available credit and what you're using. Shut down accounts, and your total available credit shrinks, making your balances loom larger, which typically hurts your score.

 

The score also tracks the length of your credit history. Shutting older accounts can also make your credit history look younger than it actually is, which can hurt your score.

 

Of course, credit scores aren't the only thing lenders look at when making decisions. They typically consider other factors, such as your income, assets, employment history and credit limits. Mortgage lenders in particular might look at your total available credit and ask you to close a few accounts as a condition for getting a loan.

 

But if your goal is to improve your credit score, you generally shouldn't close accounts in advance of such a request. Instead, pay down your credit card debt. That's something that actually can improve your score.

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Banking/YourCreditRating/4creditScoringMyths.aspx

I should have read your post before I commented!

Thanks for doing the research and posting info - you said it much better!

Exactly. We've dropped cards throughout our lifetime and it has never had a negative impact on our credit rating. In fact' date=' just as you mentioned, the less cards you have, the easier it is to get large loans such as mortgages, as long as you have a good record of past credit card account payments.[/quote']

 

I have to agree with this logic as well.

 

There are some circumstances where you shouldn't cancel a card - for example - 1. This is one of your only cards (showing you have credit / credit history); 2. You have no balance on this card and are maxed out on the other ones (typically, credit folks look at the ratio of the total balances : total credit available); 3. The card is old and other cards are much newer (showing a long credit history).

 

I've canceled cards in the past without any noticable FICO score change. But, your situation may vary and, if it might be a concern (mid-level credit rating and you might be trying to get a mortgage soon), then it might be good to talk with a credit specialist (and, by that, I don't mean Suze Orman - in my opinion, she doesn't often give the best advice!).

 

Either way, I would be very interested to see how much less is charged from last year to this year!

 

On another note - still waiting here -- On one card, I haven't heard anything, on another card, I got the wrong points (2-100 point certificates instead of 2-$500 certificates!).

 

Good luck to everyone - hopefully these next few days will bring happy news to everyone's mailboxes!!

example, you got 503 pts, they first send out that you have 3 pts, and round to the $100 upgrade cert and mail that now. the $500 cash certificate to follow in 1-2 weeks.....THAT IS WHAT They said

 

OR IF YOU have 499 points, they put aside the 400 points for 4 $100 upgrade certificates (to be mailed in 1-2 weeks) and round your 99 to 100 for the worthless upgrade sent out now

 

they said,..."give it till mid Feb to get your certificates for the non-rounded points"

..

 

I haven't gone through all the weekend postings yet, but your second example could be an issue. If you had 399 points on your Dec statement, and earned 150 points from Dec statement date - Dec 31, do you get your 150 rounded up now to 2-100 point upgrade certificates, then your 399 later as 4-100 point upgrade certificates?

When I called NCL, it sounded like this might be the case - if so, we could end up with 6 100-point upgrade certificates and no $500 certificates!

So, while they could iron out the problem and send out certificates for the Dec statement point balance, some of us that made the 500-point milestone could still have a problem...

Good luck - time will tell!

SO BEING nice does help.

I completely agree, having worked in an in-bound call center for a little while in my distant past...

Thanks for the info. It was encouraging that they didn't just give you the address to send your dispute and shoo you away like was done when I called a couple days ago!

I've been on the phone with them for over an hour and i'm almost done with my call. Once i'm dont ill come post what they told me. Stand by!

Thanks!

I tried calling NCL as someone else suggested - they were at least well aware of the problem and said they are working to get it resolved. They took my name and info (a current reservation number works, if you have one) and said they would call back in 3-5 days! So, I wonder if BOA has changed what they are saying or if we still have to write in -- good luck Hazel!!

I agree about the class action - I want my full value, not a few dollars on a future cruise. I've had some luck in the past by filing a complaint with the state Attorney General (PA) might try this.

 

However my main message this morning: NCL, DO YOU READ THESE BOARDS? - Isn't time to post a statement on your website explaining exactly what happened, and exactly HOW YOU ARE GOING TO FIX IT.

The NCL cardholders are among your best customers. I know if screwed out of my reward ($1500) its never again for NCL, and I'm sure most others will do the same.

I, too, totally agree about not going class action now... I was suggesting that approach in a couple of months, once those that know they have been screwed have worked and reached a resolution. The intent of the class action would be to protect those (and, yes, I know, not a great windfall, but...) that didn't realize they were screwed (for example, perhaps getting the mailing as to what happened, it might prompt these people to look into it more closely and opt out of the class and get their proper resolution...).

I'm of the belief that we here on CC are only a small percentage of the BOA Compass Rewards customers. I can only imagine how many people outside of CC have Compass Rewards problems!!

Great: 5 $500 certificates plus an upgrade coupon for my card that hasn't been used since Nov., 2008.

 

Poor: 1 upgrade certificate for the 500+ points I had on the new card I diligently used until Dec. 31st. It looks like the problems arose when we all kept charging until the end of the fiscal year. Class action suit, I say! Let's wait a week and see what happens.

 

BTW- both cards are retired.

I would think we should wait a month or two until we all get the correct certificates, then contact a class action attorney. While our certificates might then be correct, just imagine all the other people that either don't know how badly Bank of America messed up, or just don't care to jump through all the hurdles that Bank of America is making us jump through.

Good luck to everyone for a quick and easy resolution!!

I promise you guys there is a Tyron. I've been in the Charlotte area for 5 years, and I was duped by thinking it was a misprint when I was trying to find an address. Tryon is a huge, major street in Charlotte, and Tyron is less known. If the rep. says Tyron, they know there could be confusion. What I don't get is why there's a misprint. But if you call them and they're telling you it's Tyron, then I guess I'd go with that. It's an easy mistake that can be made by whoever printed the address. Good luck!!

From my research, I'm 95% certain BOA has it wrong and it is Tryon. As MM pointed out above, however, with the company specific zip code, it shouldn't matter too much... unless I send fed ex as was planned... I may have to rethink that one!

Good luck - I guess it's now time to wait for replies...

I did find this on the internet - which seems to confirm the address BOA is giving out (do NOT write to this person - it was just found in a random search!). Oddly, none of the map sites has this address...

Kenny Halas

Student Lending — National Sales Executive

Bank of America

201 North Tyron Street

NC1-022-07-10

Charlotte, NC 28255

Phone: (704) 386-7359

Cell: (704) 232-1312

E-mail: Kenneth.halas@bankofamerica.com

Term expires: Sept. 2010

Good luck!!

As an edit - a search for the "201 Tryon street" with the zip 28255, does come up with several entries for BOA... the Tyron street spelling only came up with one entry (not including a link to this thread!).

Hi Lyman.. it is Tryon. I live in the area and am often on that street. It's a pretty major street in the Charlotte area. :)

Thanks! 201 Tyron Street is a skyscraper that even has a Wikipedia entry!

BOA owns the building, but I don't know if they are there... their headquarters (BOA) is 100 North Tryon Street...

The rep at BOA didn't help much when I said there is no Tyron street in Charlotte (there is a Tyrone street, but the numbers don't match up).

Good luck everyone!!

hey you all, here's a shocker, the correct address is actually tryon street. i asked her to spell it for me and she did but incorrectly. i am from n. carolina and there is no tyron street in charlotte, just check google maps. it's actually tryon street. that's where the big bank of america building is, downtown charlotte. just trying to help here. too bad it has come to this.

I was spelled out the same street Tyron... I'm glad I found this before sending out fed ex tomorrow. I'll have to call BOA again to verify. If it really is Tryon, and reps are spelling the street name wrong to everyone, that is really, really bad. Imagine how ticked-off folks will be when then get their dispute resolution returned to sender - no such address!

I received my Final Compass Rewards Balance as of 12-31-08 today in the mail... My December 18th statement showed 894 points. We earned 143 points between that date and the end of the year.

The balance, according to Bank of America -- 125 points!! Two upgrade certificates.

I called and once was transferred to Worldpoints (and I asked the rep on the phone when she said she was going to transfer me - I ask, "This is not the Worldpoints number you are transferring me to, right? That is a completely different program." She told me no, it wasn't, transferred me, and, sure enough, it was Worldpoints!).

The second time I called, I was told I had to send in copies of all my documentation and wait 4-6 weeks. The address was the same one I saw posted above...

If I had a final payment in the next couple weeks, I would really be upset. But, BOA really is holding on to people's money here. I wonder how many people are in this situation... I haven't read today's posts in this thread, but if a handful of CC folks have had this problem, I'm guessing many others have had it as well... sounds like the starts of a class action...

I could see not catching the 143 for the interim period, but to give 125 points - there is just no rhyme or reason where that number came from. Oh well, a letter will go out tomorrow morning!

Good luck to everyone else. If you, or someone you know has had this problem, please post here - perhaps we can get something going on this sooner than a month or two, as is BOA's current resolution estimate.

Marlissa,

Any news today? Sounds like you and I are in the same boat (no pun intended, unless, of course, you are on the Majesty next week). I had to earn about 100 points from Dec. 15(ish) through the end of Dec and did that with charges to spare.

We won't have a statement here until another week or so, so I can't see what's happening with our points.

Has anyone else had a Jan. closing date and earned points for December?

Thanks!

I just got yet another mailing from the new Worldpoints card wanting me to apply for one. I thought our old card automatically converted to the new card but now I'm beginning to wonder. Anyone know for sure? Has anyone received the new cards without applying for them?

From what I've read (including that on the NCL web site), our current cards are automatically enrolled in the Worldpoints program as of Jan. 1. So, we won't be receiving new cards but should (being overly optimistic) seemlessly be transferred into the new program on Jan 1, with our Compass Rewards points calculated at the end of the year.

Now it's just time to find a better card! (Although, I'm still waiting to see if the NCL rewards are any better than those posted at the web site -- $50,000 in charges for $500 back - no thank you!)

Happy sails!!