Royal Caribbean Visa users.

[harry0]

I am looking for a new credit card and wondered if I should consider this.

I had it many years back and was able to get a few free cruises from the rewards. I cancelled it because we traveled outside the country quite often and they charged an exchange rate. We are not traveling internationally much anymore but still cruise

Does anyone out there still use it-I cant find the perks list. Are the rewards still decent?. We pay off very month so the interest rate dosent matter-its no fee and now they are offering $100 OBC for newbies.

Thanks in advance

[NatsFanOnBoard]

I got it earlier this year when there was a sign up offer for $175 OBC. Aside from that though, I wouldn't use it to earn RC points. You can get a better return on your credit card purchases with a good cash back credit card and then just use the cash for your vacation budget. I don't even use the RC card to pay for cruises since I get better cash back on travel expenses with my Costco Visa (3% vs. 2%).

[Clarea]

I am looking for a new credit card and wondered if I should consider this.

I had it many years back and was able to get a few free cruises from the rewards. I cancelled it because we traveled outside the country quite often and they charged an exchange rate. We are not traveling internationally much anymore but still cruise

Does anyone out there still use it-I cant find the perks list. Are the rewards still decent?. We pay off very month so the interest rate dosent matter-its no fee and now they are offering $100 OBC for newbies.

Thanks in advance

OBC and cruise discount are about the only worthwhile uses anymore.

 

 

Rules:

http://media.royalcaribbean.com/content/en_US/pdf/visa/royal_rewards_chart_10_05_2016.pdf

[harry0]

Thanks for quick replies and link to rewards-If I read it right after 125000 points ( valued at $1250) you get a minimum ocean view cabin cruise for 2-up to $2500-seems like a decent deal if you use this-agree?

[NatsFanOnBoard]

Thanks for quick replies and link to rewards-If I read it right after 125000 points ( valued at $1250) you get a minimum ocean view cabin cruise for 2-up to $2500-seems like a decent deal if you use this-agree?

Too much fine print for too little value IMO.

 

The card earns 2 points per dollar spent on Royal Caribbean and 1 point per dollar spent everywhere else. For illustration, let's just say you spent all the necessary money on Royal Caribbean to earn those 125,000 points. So you spent $62,500 to earn that reward worth potentially up to $2,500. Now if I had used my Costco Visa to pay for the same $62,500 worth of cruises, I would have earned $1,875 cash back to spend any way I want with no strings attached. The gap narrows even more if you only earn the 1 point per dollar on your other purchases compared to other cash back cards or airline cards where you can get closer to 1.5 or 2 cents per dollar, depending on the card and the type of purchase.

[harry0]

Good point-No costcos around here-I have Capitol One Venture-might just keep it.

[Clarea]

Thanks for quick replies and link to rewards-If I read it right after 125000 points ( valued at $1250) you get a minimum ocean view cabin cruise for 2-up to $2500-seems like a decent deal if you use this-agree?

Yes, but it's valued at whatever is the minimum available OV stateroom, which may be much less than $1250pp.

[SilkySal]

We always use our RCCL Visa Rewards card, charge everything under the sun, and always pay the balance when due, so they are not making any money off of us using the card!! No annual fees either!! We have been very happy with the card and will continue to use it to accrue our OBC for our cruises!!:hearteyes: Cashing in the rewards on-line is easy peasy too!!;) If they ever start charging an annual usage fee, we'll be done with it!!:* Whatever works best for you!!

[Punchy]

Got the RCCL for the initial reward but the rewards are low compared to other cards out there.

[LarryHD2]

Thanks for quick replies and link to rewards-If I read it right after 125000 points ( valued at $1250) you get a minimum ocean view cabin cruise for 2-up to $2500-seems like a decent deal if you use this-agree?

 

You're going to charge $125,000 on a card?... in how many years?

 

The RCI card is a 1% return... other cards have a better return

[iuki]

Got the RCCL for the initial reward but the rewards are low compared to other cards out there.

 

I agree. They charge foreign exchange rates, and they don't have trip insurance coverage.

 

 

We pay for our cruises on our Chase/Sapphire VISA which covers trip cancellation and trip delay. When we go to shore, we use the Chase card for purchases, because there is no foreign transaction fee. In addition, we prefer their cash back program.

 

 

We use the RCCL VISA as the default card on the ship. You get double the points for any charges on board a RCCL ship. Haven't used any of the points yet. The only reason we haven't closed this account is because the credit available on any credit card gives you a higher FICO score due to the low debt to higher credit ratio. However, if you don't use a credit card at least once a year, credit card companies sometimes close the account for inactivity.

 

 

Ok. Off the soap box now. 😉

[maryjaden]

You're going to charge $125,000 on a card?... in how many years?

 

The RCI card is a 1% return... other cards have a better return

I have a friend that charges all of their farm expenses on a credit card. Personally was with them one time when they charged a $50,000 piece of equipment. This was an AMEX card. They pay it off each month. They have property in Hawaii and use the points to fly back and forth. So there are circumstances that would result in high charges through an account.

[harry0]

Yes, but it's valued at whatever is the minimum available OV stateroom, which may be much less than $1250pp.

 

True-but I have done this years ago-if you are flexible with dates you can find a cruise that has limited OV available cabins and the price is high and many available balconies and the cost is reasonable. So you book the OV and upgrade to balcony for a small fee.

 

To the poster that asked about getting to the 125000. It takes just over a year and I pay for everything I can with the card-down payments on cars and other large purchases, vacations, utilities,etc.

[cruiseguy1016]

You're going to charge $125,000 on a card?... in how many years?

 

The RCI card is a 1% return... other cards have a better return

 

The points accrue and are good for 60 months. If you use the card for day to day expenses, the points add up quickly.

[Clarea]

True-but I have done this years ago-if you are flexible with dates you can find a cruise that has limited OV available cabins and the price is high and many available balconies and the cost is reasonable. So you book the OV and upgrade to balcony for a small fee.

 

To the poster that asked about getting to the 125000. It takes just over a year and I pay for everything I can with the card-down payments on cars and other large purchases, vacations, utilities,etc.

This is true, and we used to do this years ago too. One change that was made was that the balcony discount can no longer be used with the free cruise redemption, but the discount can be used with the straight discount redemption. They also do funny stuff with the fake sales prices. So you have to look at the bottom line cost both ways.

[geomancer]

Spending $125k on a run of the mill 1.5% cash back card (these are a dime a dozen) gives you $1875 in cold hard cash.

 

$62.5k spent on travel (and/or restaurants) with Costo's 3% rewards gives you $1875 in cold hard cash.

 

This doesn't even consider other perks like no foreign transaction fees (the royal card does have this one), free trip interruption & cancellation, free rental car insurance, free extended warranty, etc.

 

There are a lot of considerations with cards, but this one definitely seems to be on the low end in terms of rewards and benefits.

[Davidlmc]

We have had the BoA RCI card for 13 years. We have saved enough points for a free 4 night cruise (minus port fees) and multiple discounts and OBC. We tend to spend a lot on this card so the points add up pretty fast. Sure there are other cards that may have better return rates but we are happy with the benefits we get with it.

[Spa girl nana]

I've had the Royal, Bank of America Visa for years, charge everything/everywhere that will accept a credit card. Pay off every month, no interest & no annual fees. It's works pretty well for me. I also like that I get a print out at the end of the year, categorized for tax purposes.

HOWEVER, curious about some of these cards that pay out a better perk and don't have annual fees. What about the Costco card, does it have an annual fee and do you have to have a Costco membership to get the card. I avoid the big membership clubs so I don't get caught up in impulse purchases or the big bulk items I don't have anywhere to store.

[skiiergirl]

When they raised the points required to sail on new ships we quit using the points ("free cruise"). We now have points about to expire so have submitted to use them for OBC. We are researching for a different card to replace this one as we don't feel the "perks" meet our needs.

[Fitzget]

I have the American Airlines AAdvantage Card, and the Bank of American Travel Rewards Card. I really like the BofA Travel Card program, and I've gotten some nice benefits off that one.

[BNBR]

Too much fine print for too little value IMO.

 

The card earns 2 points per dollar spent on Royal Caribbean and 1 point per dollar spent everywhere else. For illustration, let's just say you spent all the necessary money on Royal Caribbean to earn those 125,000 points. So you spent $62,500 to earn that reward worth potentially up to $2,500. Now if I had used my Costco Visa to pay for the same $62,500 worth of cruises, I would have earned $1,875 cash back to spend any way I want with no strings attached. The gap narrows even more if you only earn the 1 point per dollar on your other purchases compared to other cash back cards or airline cards where you can get closer to 1.5 or 2 cents per dollar, depending on the card and the type of purchase.

 

You would get $1875 back if you spent $62,500 on travel. Maybe you travel a lot, I don't know.

 

The point is still valid, though. You would basically need to spend $125,000 to get $2,500, whoopie. That's a standard 2% return that you can get on many cards. I don't see the value, at all, in the Royal Caribbean Visa.

 

Depending on the airline you typical fly, an airline card may have more value than the cruise card. Or cash back cards. Figure out your typical spending and compare a few cards. Note that cards that offer 4%, 3%, etc... it's always on a very limited amount of purchases, and they offer 1% on everything else. For me, as I put large amounts on credit cards, I use a few cards but mostly my 2% Capital One card.

[NatsFanOnBoard]

You would get $1875 back if you spent $62,500 on travel. Maybe you travel a lot, I don't know.

 

The point is still valid, though. You would basically need to spend $125,000 to get $2,500, whoopie. That's a standard 2% return that you can get on many cards. I don't see the value, at all, in the Royal Caribbean Visa.

That was basically my point too. The $62,500 was just a simple example to get you to the 125,000 points that a previous poster had pointed out.

 

The posters who said "we put everything on the card and are happy with the rewards" are just leaving money on the table. Nothing wrong with that, but it doesn't make the RC card a very good deal.

[BNBR]

That was basically my point too. The $62,500 was just a simple example to get you to the 125,000 points that a previous poster had pointed out.

 

The posters who said "we put everything on the card and are happy with the rewards" are just leaving money on the table. Nothing wrong with that, but it doesn't make the RC card a very good deal.

 

Unless I'm missing some perk that they don't advertise on their site, the RC Card appears to not only be "not a good deal" but pretty much as bad as it gets for consumer credit card rewards.

[coast2coast]

We've had the card since 2003, and we'll be going on our 6th free cruise this January. It's been a great card for us. However, we are getting rid of it as it's getting too hard to find a cruise that meets our requirements (dates, ports visited, departure port, etc.) We were really hoping to cruise out of Port Canaveral in January as our daughter is now going to college in Orlando. Unfortunately, the Freedom is no longer doing 7-day cruises there. Only one of their smaller ships (Majesty, I think?) for the short cruises, and Oasis (which you can't use the 125,000 points for). I wish they hadn't changed the rules on the ships. We were able to use a free cruise certificate on the Allure when she was brand new back in 2011. Wish the 125,000 certificate would allow for an 8-night cruise as Freedom was doing a great itinerary towards the end of January. Didn't want to use the certificate on the cruises on Rhapsody out of Tampa as the prices at that time were "too cheap" and we wouldn't get the most out of our points. So we're flying to Galveston to cruise on the Liberty. Haven't been on that ship but have been on that itinerary too many times... Long story short, we're getting rid of the card. Just applied for the 2% cash-back Citi card.

[Clarea]

Unless I'm missing some perk that they don't advertise on their site, the RC Card appears to not only be "not a good deal" but pretty much as bad as it gets for consumer credit card rewards.

If the card is used exclusively for Royal Caribbean purchases, then it returns 2% towards either RC on board credit or cruise discounts. I would not use it for any other purchases.