Carnival Credit Card

Just got our Carnival FunPoints credit card, and just wondered about others' experience with it. When you redeem points towards the cost of your cruise(or other travel) are there specific amounts you have to redeem, or can it be any amount you choose? Thanks.

We had their card a few years ago. They changed programs and made us use it or loose it. We didn't have enough points for the free cruise we were saving for so we had to go anyway. With the extra points we sent fruit baskets to a lot of people on our roll call. We gave up on the Carnival card and went with a Chase rewards card. Now we can use cash on any cruise line or airline no restrictions no blackouts. Best choice ever.

It's no better than other rewards cards that give cash back anyway

Just got our Carnival FunPoints credit card, and just wondered about others' experience with it. When you redeem points towards the cost of your cruise(or other travel) are there specific amounts you have to redeem, or can it be any amount you choose? Thanks.

I had 15,000 points and I just redeemed for 150.00... It came up with a choice for me of 50.00, 100.00 or the 150.00. My guess is that it can only be done in 50.00 allotments

Thanks, bigdog1958. That is what I wanted to know.

The thing I like about the card is that you get double points when you use it to pay for your Carnival cruises and onboard charges. Since lately I only redeem points for Carnival cruise travel, I thought the Carnival card would be a way to get more points.

Thanks, bigdog1958. That is what I wanted to know.

 

The thing I like about the card is that you get double points when you use it to pay for your Carnival cruises and onboard charges. Since lately I only redeem points for Carnival cruise travel, I thought the Carnival card would be a way to get more points.

If that's what you're looking for something like Barclay's Arrival Plus Elite MasterCard or the Capital One Venture get 2% on ALL purchases. Plus they come with 30,000 or 40,000 points which are worth $300/$400 in a statement credit.

The Barclay Carnival card you do get 2% on Carnival transactions but I believe that's it. The other cards get that amount on everything vs. just Carnival. But, the Carnival card is free, those others have annual fees.

I just got the Barclay one only because there was no annual fee. I was going to transfer over other cc (otherwise I pay them off) but it was charging me a huge fee. Wasn't worth it for the points vs the fee.

Just got our Carnival FunPoints credit card, and just wondered about others' experience with it. When you redeem points towards the cost of your cruise(or other travel) are there specific amounts you have to redeem, or can it be any amount you choose? Thanks.

Hello Rose,

My DS just asked me to research info concerning her credit card & how to maximize her points. I cut and pasted a lot of info and emailed it to her. I'll be more than happy to email it to you if you like. Below is a portion of what I sent her:

Also, I think I recall reading that you can get double points when using it at certain businesses like Lowe's. I believe you get double points when using it at vacation spots like a hotel. Someone can correct me on this if I am wrong.

Sorry for the big letters and bold color---I couldn't change it when I was cut and pasting.

You actually get MORE BANG FOR YOUR BUCK by applying points to your statement balance...it took me 5 years to figure this out as I always used my points for OBC's.

When you redeem your points towards a Carnival transaction of at least $1,500, your redemption rate is 1.5% - i.e., those 100,000 points are now worth $1,500. If you redeem those same points towards a transaction under $1,500, the redemption rate is only 1%.

The best rate of return on the Carnival card is to redeem points towards a transaction of at least $1,500. And you can do partial redemption - if your S&S bill was for $1,700, and you have 20,000 points, you can redeem those points towards a $300 statement credit against that $1,700 transaction. Those same points are only worth $200 against a $1,400 transaction.

Wait for the $1,500 transaction to redeem points! And don't cash in for OBC - redeem against the purchase after the fact instead, you have six months after the transaction date to redeem them.

I will have about $1600 due for final payment. I have at least 20,000 "points" on my Carnival card. As I understand it, if I pay the balance weigh my carnival card I get 2 for 1 points. So, do I pay using the card then when I get my card call them and ask for the 20,000 to be applied afterward or do I call Carnival and tell them I want to apply the 20,000 to the balance and pay for the rest with my card right when I make my final payment? Trying to figure out how to get the most bang for my buck.

Make the final payment with your card and get the 3,200 points. That'll give you about 23,200 points. Then go online and apply the points as a partial redemption to that transaction. (You can use the 3,200 points you just earned on the transaction, and turn around and apply them to the same transaction as a reward.) That should give you a $348 statement credit. Best use of your points on this card!

Hello Rose,

My DS just asked me to research info concerning her credit card & how to maximize her points. I cut and pasted a lot of info and emailed it to her. I'll be more than happy to email it to you if you like. Below is a portion of what I sent her:

Also, I think I recall reading that you can get double points when using it at certain businesses like Lowe's. I believe you get double points when using it at vacation spots like a hotel. Someone can correct me on this if I am wrong.

Sorry for the big letters and bold color---I couldn't change it when I was cut and pasting.

 

You actually get MORE BANG FOR YOUR BUCK by applying points to your statement balance...it took me 5 years to figure this out as I always used my points for OBC's.

 

When you redeem your points towards a Carnival transaction of at least $1,500, your redemption rate is 1.5% - i.e., those 100,000 points are now worth $1,500. If you redeem those same points towards a transaction under $1,500, the redemption rate is only 1%.

The best rate of return on the Carnival card is to redeem points towards a transaction of at least $1,500. And you can do partial redemption - if your S&S bill was for $1,700, and you have 20,000 points, you can redeem those points towards a $300 statement credit against that $1,700 transaction. Those same points are only worth $200 against a $1,400 transaction.

Wait for the $1,500 transaction to redeem points! And don't cash in for OBC - redeem against the purchase after the fact instead, you have six months after the transaction date to redeem them.

I will have about $1600 due for final payment. I have at least 20,000 "points" on my Carnival card. As I understand it, if I pay the balance weigh my carnival card I get 2 for 1 points. So, do I pay using the card then when I get my card call them and ask for the 20,000 to be applied afterward or do I call Carnival and tell them I want to apply the 20,000 to the balance and pay for the rest with my card right when I make my final payment? Trying to figure out how to get the most bang for my buck.

Make the final payment with your card and get the 3,200 points. That'll give you about 23,200 points. Then go online and apply the points as a partial redemption to that transaction. (You can use the 3,200 points you just earned on the transaction, and turn around and apply them to the same transaction as a reward.) That should give you a $348 statement credit. Best use of your points on this card!

You are exactly correct and this is the way to go. It took me a bit longer to figure it out though sadly.....;)

Thanks for posting that tip!

I had 15,000 points and I just redeemed for 150.00... It came up with a choice for me of 50.00, 100.00 or the 150.00. My guess is that it can only be done in 50.00 allotments

If applying towards your CC balance it is not in $50 increments. I applied an odd number towards my balance not too long ago.

The best deal that I see is the Sam's Club Mastercard at 3% back on travel. If you buy giftcards during their 10% off sales, that's about a 13% discount!

I really only use my card to purchase Carnival cruises and excursions. I get double points plus 5000 for signing up. We leave in June and we'll have 12,000 pts. Most items come in increments i.e. bar cash, photo,..... Be aware of using points for gratuity. You have to have enough points to redeem for everyone in the cabin.

With our onboard credit and 12,000 cc points, we're hoping to have enough to pay for drinks, and 1 excursion. Not bad.

Engineerstar's description is accurate.

We use it for all purchases and pay it off monthly. When we book our cruises we try to make it cost at least $1500, so sometimes we prepay gratuities to get the total over $1500 to apply the 1.5X redemption rate.

Also use it for Sail & Sign and get the double points.

To date we have redeemed over $4600 on Carnival charges on the card. :cool:

So are you saying to use points on my credit card balance or my booked cruise balance ?? Thanks

So are you saying to use points on my credit card balance or my booked cruise balance ?? Thanks

Points can only be redeemed on Carnival purchases on the credit card. You use the points to pay off the Carnival charges on the card. So instead of redeeming points to get on board credit or things like that you can charge the Sail and Sign for that cruise to the card, then you will get double the points and have 180 days to apply earned points to that charge, including the points earned from that charge itself.

Say you have 46,800 points and charge $1,600 to S&S, they give you 3200 points (double points for Carnival purchases) and your point balance is now 50,000. You can redeem the points now to pay off part of the $1600 charge or you can keep earning points and apply it to the $1600 charge up to 180 days after the charge is posted to the account. So depending on your amount of spending on the card you can take six months to earn points to pay it off completely or accumulate as mush as possible and pay off in $100 increments to as much as you can with earned points, i.e pay off $1600 of it with 106,667 or say you have 90,00 points you can get credited $1300 of it with 86,667 points redeemed.

They key to ALWAYS pay the off card balance, it has no bearing on the amount of credit you can apply towards charges and paying interest fees will make it pointless to try to save money this way.

Another key point is to try to have a $1500 or greater charge to redeem the points against, the redemption rate is 1.5x per dollar instead of 1x for purchases that are under $1500.

For our cruise coming in April up I booked and charged it in July and had to add prepaid gratuities to get it over $1500. Then I waited almost 180 days to accumulate points to apply to the charge. I applied 86,67 points towards the charge to get $1300 knocked off the current balance. Combined with Early Saver reductions credited as OBC on this cruise we are paying $50 for the cruise and have $200 in OBC from the price drop.

The best tip for using fun points I have found is when making payments to carnival never pay more than $1500.01 at a time. They will add carnival charges together( to get you to 1.5% = $1500 back on statement credit) to use up as many points that you want to use.

The best tip for using fun points I have found is when making payments to carnival never pay more than $1500.01 at a time. They will add carnival charges together( to get you to 1.5% = $1500 back on statement credit) to use up as many points that you want to use.

I have never seen them add charges together for redemption. They always show up as separate charges to redeem for me.

Probably should have read up on it BEFORE getting it..

But, you can log in and look at the points reward levels as well.

https://www.barclaycardus.com/apply/img/smc/CarnivalFunPointsBrochure.pdf

So, even trickier...if I use my Carnival mastercard to buy $1700 in Verizon carnival gift cards and use the gift cards to pay for my cruise, does buying the Verizon gift cards count as a Carnival purchase so that I can then redeem my carnival mastercard points toward that $1700 purchase? I find this all so confusing-it involves math!

I have never seen them add charges together for redemption. They always show up as separate charges to redeem for me.

I had three charges on card to carnival 750. 250. &1800. They said they would add the first two or use the 1800. This is when I figured out I screwed up. I have 104,000 points. I should have paid 1500 and 300

So, even trickier...if I use my Carnival mastercard to buy $1700 in Verizon carnival gift cards and use the gift cards to pay for my cruise, does buying the Verizon gift cards count as a Carnival purchase so that I can then redeem my carnival mastercard points toward that $1700 purchase? I find this all so confusing-it involves math!

It depends who actually sells the gift card to you, Verizon or Carnival? It's charges by Carnival that qualify for redemption. I don't know for sure, not a Verizon customer so I can't get those cards as far as I know.

Carnival gift cards through verizon are billed as a verizon charge so you won't be able to double dip the discount.