Discount Carnival Cards

[rukkian]

2 hours ago, cmichael1279 said:

I keep posting this, but check out Raise.com - you get 10% back on Carnival cards to use on the site.  Spend $1,000, get $100 back right away.  Use that $100 to buy a discounted Southwest airlines gift card to pay for your flight.  No surveys, no promo codes, it's by far the easiest way out there to get a discount.  And you can get points for Raise through shopping portals.

I would much rather not spend the money, than to spend the money just to get some credit to spend some more money.  I am glad there are options, but just not enticing to me in the least, especially with allstate and how easy it is to get more points than I will ever use.  I have started spending them on sweepstakes because I have so many (220k atm after all purchases I need).

[cmichael1279]

18 minutes ago, rukkian said:

I would much rather not spend the money, than to spend the money just to get some credit to spend some more money.  I am glad there are options, but just not enticing to me in the least, especially with allstate and how easy it is to get more points than I will ever use.  I have started spending them on sweepstakes because I have so many (220k atm after all purchases I need).

To each their own.  It's pretty simple.  Spend $1,000, get a $100 credit.  Use that $100 credit on another Carnival card.  $1,100 gift card for $1,000.  And they're e-delivery.  I'll continue saving money by doing nothing while you waste time with AllState and spend more money!  Use a shopping portal for a few thousand airline miles on top of that! 

[rukkian]

15 minutes ago, cmichael1279 said:

To each their own.  It's pretty simple.  Spend $1,000, get a $100 credit.  Use that $100 credit on another Carnival card.  $1,100 gift card for $1,000.  And they're e-delivery.  I'll continue saving money by doing nothing while you waste time with AllState and spend more money!  Use a shopping portal for a few thousand airline miles on top of that! 

Like I said, you can do what you want, but you are not spending less money.  I can get 1100 for 990, not 1000, so you are actually spending more.

[jbethel11]

3 hours ago, cmichael1279 said:

No, the Carnival cards are not used gift cards.

Let me restate what I meant. They are gift cards (most likely old) that have been bought by customers elsewhere, and then sold at a discounted rate on Raise. Unlike Allstate or AARP, Raise doesn't purchase discounted gift cards.

3 hours ago, cmichael1279 said:

You posted their BBB link showing they have an "A" rating, which means they're legit.

But did you look at the reviews? 2.8 stars normally don't come with A rated businesses. 

[jbethel11]

3 hours ago, Joe817 said:

Thanks for the link jb. I just read many of the reviews. I'm going to stay away from them. Too risky.

That's exactly what deterred me from raise.com. I'll stick with Allstate and AARP for now.

[pcvtmom]

1 hour ago, 13cheermom said:

So this is another option, if you have a Target Red Card you can purchase the cards online and get a 5% discount.  They are sent within 4 hours through email and I haven't had any issues with them.  I have been using them for Carnival & Princess gift cards.  I do miss the 10% but 5% is better than nothing. 

I have a Target Red Card, but I don't see Carnival or Princess gift cards on their site.  There are some airlines, Disney, and Airbnb.  I keep checking back, but no luck.  Perhaps they've discontinued the Carnival cards?

[Organized Chaos]

33 minutes ago, pcvtmom said:

I have a Target Red Card, but I don't see Carnival or Princess gift cards on their site.  There are some airlines, Disney, and Airbnb.  I keep checking back, but no luck.  Perhaps they've discontinued the Carnival cards?

 

I don't see them on their site right now either. It could be that they're just out of stock online, I don't know. But they do definitely have them in-store. At least around here they do. We don't buy them from Target, but my wife's cousin works at one in our area and she gets them there.

[13cheermom]

55 minutes ago, pcvtmom said:

I have a Target Red Card, but I don't see Carnival or Princess gift cards on their site.  There are some airlines, Disney, and Airbnb.  I keep checking back, but no luck.  Perhaps they've discontinued the Carnival cards?

I just looked again on my phone and they are there $50, $100, $500 amounts, email delivery for Princess but not Carnival.  I always get the $500 amounts so I don't have to have so many cards to enter for final payment.  You are limited however based on your credit limit for the card, mine is like $2,500 so I usually go in and pay the card off early to release my credit allowance, lol.  Maybe as others have stated they might be out now, but they do also have them in our local Target store but in smaller increments as a physical card.  Sorry for any confusion.

[Organized Chaos]

1 hour ago, cmichael1279 said:

To each their own.  It's pretty simple.  Spend $1,000, get a $100 credit.  Use that $100 credit on another Carnival card.  $1,100 gift card for $1,000.  And they're e-delivery.  I'll continue saving money by doing nothing while you waste time with AllState and spend more money!  Use a shopping portal for a few thousand airline miles on top of that! 

 

I was never going to get involved or comment after the multiple times you posted about Raise in the Allstate thread and others related to AARP, but since you've decided to make a snarky comment towards those of us who use Allstate & AARP Rewards, I feel compelled to finally say something. In all honesty, I had always thought you should create a separate thread for your Raise info. instead of piggy-backing off the popularity of the Allstate thread.

 

Waste time with Allstate? Spend more money? As rukkian has already pointed out, we get $1,100 worth of Carnival cards for $990. That's less than you spend for the same amount on Raise. $10 is $10. You're doing nothing? You have to spend a minimum of $1,000 with Raise. But with Allstate, we can spend a minimum of $90 or $450, depending on the card denomination. You have to spend $1,000 on Raise just to get your 10% discount. With Allstate, our 10% discount only costs us some virtual points that cost us $0.00 to begin with. So please tell us again how we spend more money.

 

I'm guessing you participate in Allstate Rewards considering you read and post in that thread. Am I right? If you do, then why sit here and accuse us of wasting our time with it? Wouldn't that mean you're wasting your tie too? If you don't use Allstate Rewards, then I can only assume you're posting in that thread to use its existing user-base to promote Raise. If Raise works for you, that's great, all power to you. But don't try to put us down for not wanting to use it ourselves or for using Allstate. Especially if you use Allstate yourself.

 

4 hours ago, cmichael1279 said:

I keep posting this, but check out Raise.com - you get 10% back on Carnival cards to use on the site.  Spend $1,000, get $100 back right away.  Use that $100 to buy a discounted Southwest airlines gift card to pay for your flight.  No surveys, no promo codes, it's by far the easiest way out there to get a discount.  And you can get points for Raise through shopping portals.

 

There are no surveys with Allstate. AARP does have their quizzes, but with their new rewards program, buying Carnival cards no longer requires points, so quizzes aren't necessary. You could argue that they do now require a membership, which means an annual fee, but that membership comes with a heck of a lot more. Including many ways to save that ends up paying for the membership multiple times over. Even back when points were necessary, taking a very short quiz, that didn't even require correct answers, was a small price to pay to save hundreds of dollars on a cruise. In regards to promo codes, it doesn't take any time at all to copy/paste a promo code. With Allstate, one promo code is good for, at least, 10% off one $100 card. Other codes are worth more. Again, very little effort to save a lot of money. So I don't agree with you at all that Raise is the easiest way to get the discount. I don't see having to spend a minimum of $1,000 as being the "easiest way by far."

[Galatz]

I have been burned buying gift cards before. They claim their is a 1 year warranty, but when I submitted a claim they found a reason to reject it. Here is my first hand experience.

 

I bought a $100 Dunkin gift card for $90. I was very happy to get the discount, just like you were. I registered the card to my account and the next day went to use it and the funds were gone. I called up Dunkin to see why and they said it was flagged as fraud. The card was purchased in Wisconsin and registered 1 week later to someone in NJ, which to them is a red flag. Unless I could provide a receipt showing valid purchase they would not reinstate it. I said I bought it through raise and could provide that receipt, but they told me that second market sales are a violation and they therefore would no longer unlock the card. I contacted Raise and they told me they sold me a valid card, that the fine print of Dunkin says I may not be able to register the card, so I was outside the scope of their guarantee. In short, I was out $90.

 

It should have been lesson learned, but it was not. I bought a similar discount on a Starbucks card. I tried registering it, but they said I could not register it because it was already registered to someone else. I figured, ok so I need to use the physical card, no big deal. I got my drink, and my $100 card now had $97 in it. The next week, I bought a drink and had a balance of about $55. Meaning whoever sold the card waited until I used it and then started using it again. I contacted Raise and they said unless I could prove which purchases are mine and which are not they could not help me.

 

So yeah, not messing with them again. You are welcome to risk it and save money, but once you get burned you will learn to stop. I would rather spend 5 minutes entering codes that I know will get me gift cards I dont have to worry about, than save the 5 minutes and risk losing money.

[cmichael1279]

2 hours ago, rukkian said:

Like I said, you can do what you want, but you are not spending less money.  I can get 1100 for 990, not 1000, so you are actually spending more.

Actually, you spend $1,100 up front, you get $110 back, no shipping charges and it's immediately delivery.  So I'm actually spending less.  Get 3 miles per dollar spent on JetBlue's shopping portal, that's 3,300 free airline miles and you save $1.18 on shipping.  So yes, it is spending less.

[rukkian]

2 minutes ago, cmichael1279 said:

Actually, you spend $1,100 up front, you get $110 back, no shipping charges and it's immediately delivery.  So I'm actually spending less.  Get 3 miles per dollar spent on JetBlue's shopping portal, that's 3,300 free airline miles and you save $1.18 on shipping.  So yes, it is spending less.

You don't get 110 back, you get 110 credit, which you have to then spend again.  In your example, you spent 1000, then get$100 credit, but you still spent 1000.  You then turn around and send that 100 to buy another card, and get 10 credit.  That is not the same as only spending 991 to begin with.  

 

Again- do what you want.  I will take the immediate 9.9+% discount.  

[Brad1972]

You guys might want to check Raise again.  It’s not 10% cash back anymore, it’s now 6.5% cash back

[Joe817]

3 hours ago, Galatz said:

I have been burned buying gift cards before. They claim their is a 1 year warranty, but when I submitted a claim they found a reason to reject it. Here is my first hand experience.

 

I bought a $100 Dunkin gift card for $90. I was very happy to get the discount, just like you were. I registered the card to my account and the next day went to use it and the funds were gone. I called up Dunkin to see why and they said it was flagged as fraud. The card was purchased in Wisconsin and registered 1 week later to someone in NJ, which to them is a red flag. Unless I could provide a receipt showing valid purchase they would not reinstate it. I said I bought it through raise and could provide that receipt, but they told me that second market sales are a violation and they therefore would no longer unlock the card. I contacted Raise and they told me they sold me a valid card, that the fine print of Dunkin says I may not be able to register the card, so I was outside the scope of their guarantee. In short, I was out $90.

 

It should have been lesson learned, but it was not. I bought a similar discount on a Starbucks card. I tried registering it, but they said I could not register it because it was already registered to someone else. I figured, ok so I need to use the physical card, no big deal. I got my drink, and my $100 card now had $97 in it. The next week, I bought a drink and had a balance of about $55. Meaning whoever sold the card waited until I used it and then started using it again. I contacted Raise and they said unless I could prove which purchases are mine and which are not they could not help me.

 

So yeah, not messing with them again. You are welcome to risk it and save money, but once you get burned you will learn to stop. I would rather spend 5 minutes entering codes that I know will get me gift cards I dont have to worry about, than save the 5 minutes and risk losing money.

Galatz, I'm grateful to you for relating your horror story using that reseller. All one has to do is refer back to jbethel11 post number 22 of this thread, and click on the link and read the reviews. I feel badly you lost money. That was a hard lesson. BUT you alerted us of the pitfalls of using them. 

 

Here's the link again. Read the reviews, and see that you horror story is but one of many:

 

https://www.bbb.org/us/il/chicago/profile/gift-cards/raise-marketplace-inc-0654-88432988

[1GaPeach]

Does anyone know how often AllState adds Carnival gift Cards to their rewards options.  Currently it lists the $500 for $450 but is marked as sold out.  Didn't know if they add at the beginning of a month or if its random.

[Organized Chaos]

23 minutes ago, 1GaPeach said:

Does anyone know how often AllState adds Carnival gift Cards to their rewards options.  Currently it lists the $500 for $450 but is marked as sold out.  Didn't know if they add at the beginning of a month or if its random.

 

It'll be random. Yesterday, the $500 cards were gone, but showed up a little while later. They still had the $100 cards, but now those are gone too. I think the influx of new rewards members fleeing AARP's new (subpar) program has caused a strain on Allstate's supply. This is the first time they've run out in the last year or so. Before then, we had to wait for them to be restocked all the time. Sometimes we'd wait as long as 2 weeks. You just never know. You can keep an eye on the Allstate thread. If it's going to go back to the way it used to be (running out all the time) then someone will probably post whenever they're back in stock. https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2363984-allstate-drive-wise-cards-too/page/72/?tab=comments#comment-59104200

[1GaPeach]

26 minutes ago, Organized Chaos said:

 

It'll be random. Yesterday, the $500 cards were gone, but showed up a little while later. They still had the $100 cards, but now those are gone too. I think the influx of new rewards members fleeing AARP's new (subpar) program has caused a strain on Allstate's supply. This is the first time they've run out in the last year or so. Before then, we had to wait for them to be restocked all the time. Sometimes we'd wait as long as 2 weeks. You just never know. You can keep an eye on the Allstate thread. If it's going to go back to the way it used to be (running out all the time) then someone will probably post whenever they're back in stock. https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2363984-allstate-drive-wise-cards-too/page/72/?tab=comments#comment-59104200

Thanks so much.  I will stalk the thread and the websites.  While AARP has lower denominations, I may order from them as well.

[216Cruiser]

On 1/8/2020 at 4:21 PM, Galatz said:

I have been burned buying gift cards before. They claim their is a 1 year warranty, but when I submitted a claim they found a reason to reject it. Here is my first hand experience.

 

I bought a $100 Dunkin gift card for $90. I was very happy to get the discount, just like you were. I registered the card to my account and the next day went to use it and the funds were gone. I called up Dunkin to see why and they said it was flagged as fraud. The card was purchased in Wisconsin and registered 1 week later to someone in NJ, which to them is a red flag. Unless I could provide a receipt showing valid purchase they would not reinstate it. I said I bought it through raise and could provide that receipt, but they told me that second market sales are a violation and they therefore would no longer unlock the card. I contacted Raise and they told me they sold me a valid card, that the fine print of Dunkin says I may not be able to register the card, so I was outside the scope of their guarantee. In short, I was out $90.

 

It should have been lesson learned, but it was not. I bought a similar discount on a Starbucks card. I tried registering it, but they said I could not register it because it was already registered to someone else. I figured, ok so I need to use the physical card, no big deal. I got my drink, and my $100 card now had $97 in it. The next week, I bought a drink and had a balance of about $55. Meaning whoever sold the card waited until I used it and then started using it again. I contacted Raise and they said unless I could prove which purchases are mine and which are not they could not help me.

 

So yeah, not messing with them again. You are welcome to risk it and save money, but once you get burned you will learn to stop. I would rather spend 5 minutes entering codes that I know will get me gift cards I dont have to worry about, than save the 5 minutes and risk losing money.

 

Wow, I was planning on doing this tomorrow for CCL cards. I was going to buy $1000 worth. Use that on the drink pass which would have a little left over and then use that leftover and the $100 "for free" bonus just as cruise cash or OBC whatever. But now, I'm hesitant. Thanks.   

[Organized Chaos]

1 hour ago, 1GaPeach said:

Thanks so much.  I will stalk the thread and the websites.  While AARP has lower denominations, I may order from them as well.

 

Don't forget, AARP now only allows us to buy one card per month. And you have to be a paying member to buy the Carnival cards.

[1GaPeach]

10 minutes ago, Organized Chaos said:

 

Don't forget, AARP now only allows us to buy one card per month. And you have to be a paying member to buy the Carnival cards.

Yes. I read that. I am thinking long and short term. $100/mo is easily budgetable and could just be part of my monthly expenses since I know a cruise will routinely be on the horizon. And take advantage of the higher $ Allstate ones when available/able/needed. 

[Joe817]

2 hours ago, 1GaPeach said:

Yes. I read that. I am thinking long and short term. $100/mo is easily budgetable and could just be part of my monthly expenses since I know a cruise will routinely be on the horizon. And take advantage of the higher $ Allstate ones when available/able/needed. 

Don't forget. 1.) With AARP Carnival Gift Cards, they are E-cards...not the plastic credit card sized that Allstate sends you.

2.) The only method of payment purchasing from AARP is through Pay-Pal. No credit/debit cards accepted.

3.) There have been issues with the e-cards AARP emails to people. Carnival has rejected many. But that was a while back. Hopefully that issue has been straightened out. YMMV. 

[Organized Chaos]

I've mentioned this in another thread, but I've seen two or three CC posters recently say that Guest Services refused to take their e-cards for their S&S accounts. They were told they're no longer accepted onboard. I don't know if these were just cases of some overzealous GS workers or if it's actually policy now. I haven't see anymore talk about it.

 

A year or two ago, they were having trouble with fraudulent gift cards that people bought online. So anytime someone brought gift cards to Guest Services, they were told they had to be verified first, and that took 24 hours. That lasted for a little while, but I didn't hear of it happening after that. We used a physical gift card last month in NOLA. That was in the terminal, not onboard, but they added it no problem. I guess it's possible they decided to refuse e-cards altogether, I don't know for sure. I bought one last month, but used it towards our balance. Just to be safe, if I do buy more from AARP, I'm going to use them online and will only take physical cards with us.

 

Anyone have any recent experiences with e-cards onboard the ship?

[1GaPeach]

3 hours ago, Organized Chaos said:

I've mentioned this in another thread, but I've seen two or three CC posters recently say that Guest Services refused to take their e-cards for their S&S accounts. They were told they're no longer accepted onboard. I don't know if these were just cases of some overzealous GS workers or if it's actually policy now. I haven't see anymore talk about it.

 

A year or two ago, they were having trouble with fraudulent gift cards that people bought online. So anytime someone brought gift cards to Guest Services, they were told they had to be verified first, and that took 24 hours. That lasted for a little while, but I didn't hear of it happening after that. We used a physical gift card last month in NOLA. That was in the terminal, not onboard, but they added it no problem. I guess it's possible they decided to refuse e-cards altogether, I don't know for sure. I bought one last month, but used it towards our balance. Just to be safe, if I do buy more from AARP, I'm going to use them online and will only take physical cards with us.

 

Anyone have any recent experiences with e-cards onboard the ship?

Per the carnival website they still take the e-cards on board. I also read that for an e-card the PIN comes in a separate email which seems like a bit of a PIA but not a deal breaker. 
 

hate that there have been problems but as with most things “proceed with caution” is in play to some degree. 

[Organized Chaos]

7 hours ago, 1GaPeach said:

Per the carnival website they still take the e-cards on board. I also read that for an e-card the PIN comes in a separate email which seems like a bit of a PIA but not a deal breaker. 
 

hate that there have been problems but as with most things “proceed with caution” is in play to some degree.

 

No surprise there...their policy says one thing but their employees do another.

 

I haven't heard about the PIN's coming separately. I bought mine on Dec. 17th. The email included a link and the linked page had both the card number and PIN. That's how it was back when the old AARP Rewards for Good and Allstate Rewards sold e-cards. Then they stopped selling them sometime in late 2018, if I recall. Allstate still doesn't sell them. They're handy, but if Carnival is going to start hassling people who use them, I'll just buy physical cards.

[1GaPeach]

45 minutes ago, Organized Chaos said:

 

No surprise there...their policy says one thing but their employees do another.

 

I haven't heard about the PIN's coming separately. I bought mine on Dec. 17th. The email included a link and the linked page had both the card number and PIN. That's how it was back when the old AARP Rewards for Good and Allstate Rewards sold e-cards. Then they stopped selling them sometime in late 2018, if I recall. Allstate still doesn't sell them. They're handy, but if Carnival is going to start hassling people who use them, I'll just buy physical cards.

The separate email for the PIN was referenced on the carnival website so it may only apply to purchases directly with carnival. 
 

hopefully Allstate will resupply soon.