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Royal Caribbean credit card

Sunseeker20

By Sunseeker20,
in Royal Caribbean International

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Sunseeker20

Sunseeker20

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Posted

Hi everyone!

Not sure if this is the appropriate place to ask but I was thinking about getting a Royal Caribbean credit card. Couple questions-

- Does anyone have one and find it useful?

-Are Canadian citizens allowed to use these or are they strictly for Americans?

If this post is not ok feel free to delete!

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cruisinfanatic

cruisinfanatic

Posted
Posted (edited)
5 minutes ago, Sunseeker20 said:

Hi everyone!

Not sure if this is the appropriate place to ask but I was thinking about getting a Royal Caribbean credit card. Couple questions-

- Does anyone have one and find it useful?

-Are Canadian citizens allowed to use these or are they strictly for Americans?

If this post is not ok feel free to delete!

Nothing wrong with it, but there are better cards. How about Citi's 2% cash back on everything, not just cruises

Edited by cruisinfanatic
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Clarea

Clarea

Posted
Posted
7 minutes ago, Sunseeker20 said:

Hi everyone!

Not sure if this is the appropriate place to ask but I was thinking about getting a Royal Caribbean credit card. Couple questions-

- Does anyone have one and find it useful?

-Are Canadian citizens allowed to use these or are they strictly for Americans?

If this post is not ok feel free to delete!

 

I don't know if the card works for Canadians.

 

It's useful to get the $100 OBC for signing up.  We only use it for RC cruise expenses, and for those we get 2% back.

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ZoeyVictoria

ZoeyVictoria

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A lot of us had it and loved it several years ago, then the program changed to make it very difficult to get good value when redeeming points.  A lot of people switched to BarclayCard or Citi Card for 2% on everything, which can be used on many other travel expenses instead of just Royal.  I let my Royal Caribbean card expire for lack of use.

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Paulette3028

Paulette3028

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Sunseeker20 said:

Hi everyone!

Not sure if this is the appropriate place to ask but I was thinking about getting a Royal Caribbean credit card. Couple questions-

- Does anyone have one and find it useful?

-Are Canadian citizens allowed to use these or are they strictly for Americans?

If this post is not ok feel free to delete!

We use ours regularly and redeem the points for OBC's that cover our tips many times.  There have been times that we have accumulated enough points to redeem them and get $500 taken off the cost of the cruise.  Now that Royal allows you to use OBC to pay for excursions prior to cruising, when we know what shore excursion we are going to take, we redeem points for OBC and then use those to pay for the excursion....in the end, it keeps our out of pocket costs down while we enjoy cruising.

 

You will hear plenty of people feel the card doesn't give them enough value.    

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smc99

smc99

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You’ll get $100 on board credit just by getting the card and using it once, even if just for a couple of dollars. 

If you also use it to pay for a $2,500 cruise you get another $50 OBC.

That’s $150 OBC just for using the RCCL card to pay for what you were going to buy anyway. 

 One warning: the card has high interest rates and very high late payment fees, so only use it for something you’re paying off right away and on-time.

 

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Paulette3028

Paulette3028

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, Sunseeker20 said:

-Are Canadian citizens allowed to use these or are they strictly for Americans?

 

I do a lot of business in Florida with Canadians.  They all have credit cards, but I have never seen one of them have a Bank of America credit card and that is who the partnership with Royal is through.....so I do wonder if they would issue a card to a Canadian.  Let us all know the answer.

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dadroy

dadroy

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Make sure you will cruise often enogh to makeuse of the points.  Points expire at 5 years.  Made the mistake of finding cruises on other lines thinking i could save up the points.  Yup, lost them by the time i found a cruise on royal we wantedto do.

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mattb31

mattb31

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I looked at this card briefly but ended up going with the Sapphire Reserve/Freedom Unlimited/Freedom combo. The Royal Caribbean card really only provides value when you are on the ship and it's 2x. The Sapphire gives 3x points for anything travel related and at a minimum you can redeem for 1c pp. Meaning if you spend $5000 on a cruise, you get 15,000 points which would equate to $150 (could be applied via statement to your onboard expenses AND you would earn points). If you spend $5000 on the RCL card (on a RCL purchase) you're only getting 10000 points which is $50 less in OBC. The Freedom Unlimited gets you 1.5x points on everything else (as opposed to RCL's 1x points on everything else), and the Freedom gets you 5x on rotating categories up to $1500 a quarter (these are fairly easy to max, which is an easy 7500 points per quarter).

 

Keep in mind most people use the points toward travel rather than statement credits. So if you have to fly to port or stay in a hotel, it's pretty easy to get your points to cover all of this. And when you redeem your points for travel they're worth 1.5c pp, which is more than what you get if you redeem for cashback. It's complicated, but definitely well worth it.

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The Fun Researcher

The Fun Researcher

Posted
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2 hours ago, Keri's Cruisin' said:

I opened one for my cruise in May.   Put my cruise on it, payed it off right away as the interest on it is RIDICULOUS, and just cashed in points for $150 onboard credit which I will use to pay our tips.  So it's a good deal if you can pay it off in full each month.  

 

Depends on how you look at it. 

 

  • With the Citi Double Cash card, you get $2 cash for each $100 you spend and pay off on time. 
  • With Royal Caribbean, it's $2 cruise credit for every $100 you spend and pay off on time. 

 

I'd rather have the cash to spend on whatever I want instead of having it tied up with RCCL to use only when/if you cruise.

 

Dan

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clean1owner

clean1owner

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On 1/28/2019 at 1:40 PM, Sunseeker20 said:

Hi everyone!

Not sure if this is the appropriate place to ask but I was thinking about getting a Royal Caribbean credit card. Couple questions-

- Does anyone have one and find it useful?

-Are Canadian citizens allowed to use these or are they strictly for Americans?

If this post is not ok feel free to delete!

 

The initial sign up bonus is pretty good, whether it's 10,000 or 15,000 points. If you have a particular goal in mind, like a free companion pass or cruise for 2, you have to do some comparison math. 

 

I hope I can explain this clearly

 

You sign up for the card, and book a $2500.00 cruise, using the card for payment. You get the 15,000 bonus points (the current offer), plus 2 points per $ spent on the trip, for a total of 20,000 points. You now are only 5,000 points from a free companion fare on a 3-4 night cruise, ocean view cabin. You spend the $5000.00 on whatever and get the 5000 points and you are good to go. In this example, the card is worth it, because you spend $7,500.00 and get enough points for a $350-$400 fare, a 4 1/2% - 5 1/4% return, which is very good for a points card. The companion pass covers the cruise only, you still have to pay port taxes and fees.

 

Once you have received and used the bonus points, the benefit drops sharply, because you only get the 1 point per $ spent on the card. To get the same free companion fare, you would have to spend $25,000.00 with the card, a 1.4% - 1.6% return. 

 

Now compare that to the Citi Double Rewards card, which gives you a 2% return on everything you buy with the card. Spend the same $25,000 and you will have $500.00 to spend on your next cruise.

 

Those examples are only to get the free companion pass. If you are shooting for the 50,000 point free 3-4 night trip for two, or the 125,000 point free 7 night cruise, the differences are even greater. For example, a free ocean view 7 night cruise for two is worth about $1300.00, or barely over a 1% return. You spend the same $125,000.00 on a 2% card, and you have $2500.00 to spend on the same trip! You could get a balcony cabin with $600 to spare, or take 2 cruises in an oceanview.

 

For these examples, I just used a couple random cruises in October, so the numbers don't necessarily apply to all available cruises. 

 

If you plan to spend a lot of money with Royal Caribbean and earn 2 points per $, that would obviously change things.

 

One more thing. These numbers are only accurate if you pay off the card 100% every month. If you pay any interest whatsoever, you have eliminated any benefit from earning the points. 

 

I hope this makes sense and helps you out.

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Mak7464

Mak7464

Posted
Posted

There are a few added benefits.  I do not have the card by my Father-In-Law does. he loves the President's Cruises.  He told me that this past year they had several really nice, high end, events only for RCCL Credit Card holders.

 

Dont know if its worth it.  or maybe get it and dont used it.  Just because it wasnt mentioned yet.

 

Matt

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