Princess Visa card woes

[Cobra427SC]

"Not appearing on the Barclay's statement" is the same thing I heard several times for the cruise I paid for in November. Yet, it clearly appeared on my bill and I paid for it.

 

How can it not appear on my statement to be used for redemption but yet it somehow magically appears on my statement when it is time to pay them for it?

 

????????

[Cobra427SC]

Yeah! Finally got the problem resolved. My approximate-200,000 points paid for an approximate $4,000 cruise. Will trade in the rest of my 200,000-plus points for Amazon gift cards. Hope that is easier than this was. Then close out the account. Not going through this again.

 

Good luck to all of you going through this mess.

[satxdiver]

I became a member of the cashless society some time ago and so I have several cards from banks like Citi, BOA, USBank etc. I can say that the worse one to deal with is Barclay beyond any doubt. Of those that I mentioned the best to deal with has been Citi. What happened was I used my Barclay card at a local restaurant for a meal. Someone there copied the information on my card and used it to make three charges at a local grocery store (same store no less in single day). Luckily I had set up notifications and was notified when the last charge came through. I called Barclay, had the card canceled and told them what happened. It took 3 months, several letters sent by registered mail (they did not answer them) and numerous telephone calls to get the three charges ($1400+ total) removed from my monthly statement. Every time I called them they wanted to argue that the charges were mine!

 

I had two different occasions where my Citi card had been used by a restaurant to charge me for two different meals (one valid one not) by a dishonest waiter (greatly different amounts so not a mistake). One call to Citi and the charges were reversed immediately. Problem solved.

[ar1950]

Funny thing, both DW and I applied for a Princess charge card after reading about the benefits last year. During the application process we each received letters asking for two different things. She was asked to unlock her credit report at one of the three agencies (we have had our credit reports locked for a long time now, cuts way down on the offers that we use to get plus a good way to help nip identity theft in the bud) and I was asked for a utility bill that had our address on it. DW did a "specific inquiry" unlock and when she called to let the card company know they said they needed a "global" unlock. No thanks to that. It just told us they use a third party for credit verification. I did send my utility bill along with a copy of the request letter asking for it. We never heard another thing from them. We have other reward cards, so, no big deal I guess. :)

[Cobra427SC]

thanx for all of your help. steve

[FoghornLeghorn]

I'm not sure what all the problems are that people are having but we haven't had any issues with the card whatsoever; in fact, we have been receiving our double points for Princess charges, single points for all other charges and have recently redeemed points for credit toward our payment. Sorry for those that have had the issues.

 

Same here.

Applied got my receipt from them showing the OBC.

Not been on the cruise yet, so hopefully no problems using them.

[latebloomer56]

Same for me.......no problems !!!!!!

 

We were lucky I guess and had no issue in May with 500. OBC. I applied on line and didn't see this on my princess account. Called 2 weeks before the trip and the next day made a copy of it from my princess. It was under gifts or pre-paid can't remember but used every penny on the Regal.

Charging 3 cabins on the Ruby next week for final payment will hope we get the same treatment this time :).

[pompeii]

Same problem here. I wanted to redeem 40,000 points for a $500 statement credit and was told that only my AA seat upgrade charge of about $150 qualified. I've paid for 2 cruises in the last 180 days, which should count. But the rep told me that none of those appeared as eligible travel charges. She opened a ticket to have someone look into it.

 

I redeemed points for a statement credit in August with no problems whatsoever, so I don't know what the problem is now.

[seacruise9]

Hi,

 

I also have this problem. My charges to airlines and other cruise lines (Cunard) appear as eligible travel charges. However, my recent payment for a Princess cruise does not appear as an eligible charge. Hopefully, they will resolve this problem soon.

 

Chuck

[doctrd]

Cobra: by the way, love the car!

 

How did you get resolution? I too have 200,000 points to pay for my cruise, but still shows no eligible purchase....

 

 

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[delidan]

Don't understand this post. I've never had a problem with my princess card. Just used my points again for Christmas cruise.

[soccergang]

Cobra, I had posted this earlier, but no feedback, since there was a link already started. I would love to know how you got it resolved.

 

We are very disappointed with the change in the Visa card. We have had it for many years, and I was holding off on redeeming the points for a longer cruise we are making this year. Now, we have "lost" $1000 in statement credit. (we have over 200,000 points, which used to equal $3000 in statement credit--now it is only $2000) After spending 70 minutes on the phone with Barclay, they have told me that it was Princess that changed the program, not them. If that is the case, I think it would have been nice for them to notify us in advance. If so, I would have used on our last cruise.

[TracieABD]

Cobra, I had posted this earlier, but no feedback, since there was a link already started. I would love to know how you got it resolved.

 

We are very disappointed with the change in the Visa card. We have had it for many years, and I was holding off on redeeming the points for a longer cruise we are making this year. Now, we have "lost" $1000 in statement credit. (we have over 200,000 points, which used to equal $3000 in statement credit--now it is only $2000) After spending 70 minutes on the phone with Barclay, they have told me that it was Princess that changed the program, not them. If that is the case, I think it would have been nice for them to notify us in advance. If so, I would have used on our last cruise.

 

You may want to try again. Also, if you are getting a remotely located call center- ask to speak to someone in the US. One of the problems with CSRs in call centers is they are often not empowered to "leave the script", whereas their US counterparts have much more flexibility.

[pandora518]

We just use my Barclays/Princess card for the OBC. We do a lot of Princess shorex, I typically buy a wine package, and we enjoy dining in the Crown Grille a couple of times per cruise, so OBC is fine with us.

 

I just wanted to offer this recent experience: we were book on a B2B November Caribbean cruise and had to cancel 3 days before we were to sail (DH's dad died suddenly.) We were insured so it wasn't a problem, but when I contacted Barclay's to try to get the points back I was told simply, "We cannot help you. Try Princess." The guy was curt and didn't even try, nor did he offer condolences. I'm sure call center folks don't make a lot but it's a service job, which means you're being paid to provide service.

 

I called Princess, expecting nothing, but the Cruise Counselor with whom I spoke bent over backwards to help us. She said she didn't know why people even bother calling Barclay's because they are seldom helpful. She was able to pull up our cancelled cruise and all OBC associated with it, saw the Barclay's OBC, and was somehow able to "pull it" and set it aside for our next cruise. As it turned out, 2 weeks later we booked a summer Med cruise. I called her back to let her know and, sure enough, she routed the Barclay's OBC to our account. I was blown away by her professionalism, her desire to make things right, and her ability to do what she did. Of course I contact Princess to let them know of the exemplary service I had received.

[doctrd]

They are really having problems with the rewards center. They answered my email saying they had a system issue last week, and all is good now.

Well, on website, they don't even show my points anymore. Their app is not working ( again), and a phone call to customer service says their system is down!

 

 

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[Cobra427SC]

Glad you like the car. One of my favorites and great fun to drive (when it works).

 

Finally got my initial problem resolved by talking to a supervisor. As others previously posted, when you talk to the call center, they "have their script" and that does not include helping you. I finally got a very nice lady who agreed redeeming rewards on the the Princess Barclays card is difficult. She said I was the second person she'd spoken to that day who had problems. She said she'd monitor my situation and promised to call me back w/an update in a few days. Hard to believe, but she did call back w/the good news that I got the reward credit.

 

However, now, I want to get credit for a cruise I paid for in late August. Have called and cked Barclays website but everything "is down". Cannot get any information. When I finally get thru on the phone, I am asking for a manager straight away. Not dealing w/the call center.

 

I do have a question that, maybe someone knows the answer.....can you redeem points for Future Cruise Credit that you have charged to the Princess/Barclays card?

 

In re-reading this post, it is striking how most of the comments are negative about the Princess/Barclays card. So negative that most of us have either canceled the credit card or plan to do so. Too bad. This used to be a great card but not anymore.

[cboyle]

Like a number of others, I have had difficulty redeeming my points for a statement credit. My Princess purchase was made on 11/29/16. The entry read "Princess Cruise Passage" and I received double points for it.

 

When I tried to redeem my points on 12/02/16, this purchase did not appear as a eligible purchase on the Barclay web site. I contacted Barclay by secure message and was told it would take 5-10 business days to "investigate" my request.

 

After 10 business days, I again contacted Barclay and was told that my case had been "expedited" but that it might take 30 business days to resolve.

 

I just returned from the cruise that I had purchased on 11/29/16 and was astounded to discover that the statement credit had finally been issued on 01/07/17 and my points balance was now 2.

 

Like many of you. I will never use this card again. However, I am not going to cancel it because it helps my credit score to have available credit that I am not using.

[yoyosma]

Congratulations Carolyn. I am still waiting for mine to be resolved but my story is similar. I made final payment for my next cruise on 11/29 but didn't try to get a statement crecit until 12/26. I have had my case "escalated" but still no resolution. I was thinking that they were stalling until the purchase no longer qualified. :-) but now I see there may be hope after all. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

[gotta cruise again]

I had posted our woes about redeeming points on another one of the threads on this topic but to recap:

--called early Dec to redeem 40K+ points at 2% as very close, if not right at, to the 180 day point of the Princess qualifying purchase

--of course, that purchase didn't show a qualifying, nor did the 3 subsequent Princess purchases

--rep from some place far, far away couldn't help but neither could her supervisor however the supervisor took the time to look back at the June statement and saw the purchase; supervisor could do no more than put in an investigation request

--about 2 weeks later, I messaged them as to status of investigation; was then told that it might take another 30 days!

--messaged them last week as there was only a couple of days left in the 30 days

--got a reply a couple of days ago!!!

 

I had been avoiding looking at my online account so to not be disappointed in still not receiving a reply or resolution but finally decided to look.

 

Well low and behold! Not only had they replied, they actually took care of the problem!!

 

In my myriad requests, I had repeatedly said that I wanted them to redeem ALL points that had accrued up to the time they were finally fixing this AND to redeem ALL of them at the 2% level. That would mean they'd have to be redeeming points earned on all purchases from before my request and those earned after my request, even though those earned after the request would be PAST the 180 day mark.

 

I really didn't think they would do this but it was to my benefit to ask.

 

THEY DID REDEEM ALL POINTS AT 2% !!!!!!!!!

 

Kudos to their customer service...yes, it was a hassle and a long time coming but they took care of me, which was especially good since there were an addition 10K points included in the redemption at 2%.

 

We still may continue to use this card but likely only for cruises and redeem for whatever percentage we can; of course, may have to use it from time to time just to keep the points active. We are considering some other card that may do more for us with a lot less hassle.

 

As many have stated: the Princess Visa was fun to use because of the ship picture and used to have easy-to-use benefits that were pretty good. Benefits may be a bit higher now if you qualify but just too difficult to use, it seems.

[cboyle]

I just opened a letter from Barclay:

 

"This letter is in response to your recent inquiry on your Princess Rewards Visa Signature Card account. We are currently unable to complete your request."

 

The letter is dated 1/7/17, the same day that my statement credit posted (see post above). Maybe they couldn't complete my request because there are now only 2 points left in my account? Who knows?

 

Anyway, I am hoping that my and Gotta_Cruise_Again's experience means that the logjam has been broken and everyone else will be getting his/her statement credit soon.

[gotta cruise again]

My issue was actually fixed on 1/7/17 but I didn't know/see it until end of last week...about a week later!

 

I show about 300+ points remaining but those likely received after they did the statement credit. I'm not worried about using them as we have a cruise coming up and will likely have enough purchases in the last 180 days to redeem whatever we have for >1% (certainly not 2% though...unless DH lets me go wild in Regal's jewelry stores...not gonna happen LOL).

[cboyle]

My issue was actually fixed on 1/7/17 but I didn't know/see it until end of last week...about a week later!

 

I show about 300+ points remaining but those likely received after they did the statement credit. I'm not worried about using them as we have a cruise coming up and will likely have enough purchases in the last 180 days to redeem whatever we have for >1% (certainly not 2% though...unless DH lets me go wild in Regal's jewelry stores...not gonna happen LOL).

Personally, I do not want to go through that aggravation again. I'll stick with my Citi Double Points Reward and get 2% cash back without having to jump through any hoops.

 

My 11/29/16 charge was for our recent Regal cruise; we just got back Sunday night. She is a wonderful ship! Have a great time!

[MarBear23]

I have been dealing with similar issues: trying to redeem points for a statement credit for a cruise that was purchased in Nov. 2016. Couldn't seem to get any answers, then finally in early January 2017, I got a similar answer that someone else posted about the issue having to do with the way Princess coded their purchases. I was told the issue had been escalated, was given a case number, and was told it would be resolved in 10-15 days. I was hopeful, but now that period has passed and nothing has been resolved. After reading other posts here, I've really lost my optimism...I had no trouble redeeming points prior to the changes that were made to the redemption system :(

 

Please tell me that some of you have had good luck resolving this issue??!!

[cboyle]

I have been dealing with similar issues: trying to redeem points for a statement credit for a cruise that was purchased in Nov. 2016. Couldn't seem to get any answers, then finally in early January 2017, I got a similar answer that someone else posted about the issue having to do with the way Princess coded their purchases. I was told the issue had been escalated, was given a case number, and was told it would be resolved in 10-15 days. I was hopeful, but now that period has passed and nothing has been resolved. After reading other posts here, I've really lost my optimism...I had no trouble redeeming points prior to the changes that were made to the redemption system :(

 

Please tell me that some of you have had good luck resolving this issue??!!

Yes, I got my statement credit. Please see post #42 above.

[gotta cruise again]

See also post #44: as I got my statement credit...finally!

 

However, looked at my account yesterday and they STILL haven't posted any of my Princess purchases as "qualifying" purchases. At this time, I don't have enough points (they redeemed ALL that I had--yay!) to get another statement credit but as soon as I have enough, I want to have all those <180 day Princess purchases to show so that I can redeem my points at 1.5%. And what I've spent with Princess, to get that percentage, will still remain within the 180 days for a couple more months--so back into the fray with Barclay's to get them to also post those purchases!! Ugh.

Edited January 25, 2017 by gotta cruise again