Royal Caribbean VISA card

[LeCricket]

Good morning. I'm going to book a cruise on RC within the next few days am contemplating booking it with the RC Visa, which I haven't applied for yet. I plan to cruise mid-April. In your experience, did you get your card number soon after approval or did you wait for it in the mail. Do you think I would be able to apply the OBC I would earn to an April cruise? I'm a little concerned that the benefits wouldn't hit me until after I cruise.

 

Thanks,

Cricket

[stones902]

Good morning. I'm going to book a cruise on RC within the next few days am contemplating booking it with the RC Visa, which I haven't applied for yet. I plan to cruise mid-April. In your experience, did you get your card number soon after approval or did you wait for it in the mail. Do you think I would be able to apply the OBC I would earn to an April cruise? I'm a little concerned that the benefits wouldn't hit me until after I cruise.

 

Thanks,

Cricket

 

The card should be issued fairly quickly, perhaps within a week.

 

In order to earn OBC, you will need to accumulate a good number of points - basically 1 pt. per dollar. Since you are planning on charging your cruise to the card you will receive 2 pts for every dollar charged by RCI (double points). OBC may be purchased in increments, the smallest increment being $50 (5000 pts.) so if you aren't planning on running up many charges between now and a couple of weeks prior to your April cruise it might not work for you.

[molly361]

You should have enough time to at least apply the bonus points for $100 OBC if you apply shortly.

 

Usually those are posted in the first or second billing cycle.

 

All you have to do to earn them is make one purchase of anything.

[LeCricket]

Thanks for the info. :)

 

 

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[suzyStAug]

Be aware you do have to apply for OBC at least a week prior to sailing. I made the mistake of waiting until 6 days prior and was unable to transfer the credit -- so we just had to book another cruise :D

[LeCricket]

Good to know. :). I think we are going to book tonight, so regular CC for us. Next time, though. I'm so excited!!!

 

 

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[Cowcrazy65]

Do the OBC you receive on your visa have a expiration date?:confused: Thanks Lisa

[derrick22]

Do the OBC you receive on your visa have a expiration date?:confused: Thanks Lisa

 

You receive points, not OBC, for purchases which expire after 5 years.

 

OBC is only one of the ways that you can use the points.

 

I have traveled twice to the Caribbean with my DH and paid less than $100 for 7 days.

[Amos83]

I applied for the Visa card when I booked my res a few weeks ago. I was approved and got the card within 10 business days. Just paid the remaining balance with the card and plan on paying the card balance off next week.

 

So to answer your question... the card comes pretty quick.

[aftop]

Slightly OT but what bank issues the RCI Visa card?

[molly361]

Slightly OT but what bank issues the RCI Visa card?

 

Bank of Amiera

[jchiefs13]

It use to take much longer to 'cash in' on your points, but now a days it is FAST _and_ EASY. I love having my RC card. I use this as a secondary card, so I don't put a lot on it other than my RC travel purchases and onboard expenditures, but I still manage to cash in every couple of cruises for OBC.

 

Also - BofA's website to see info on your card is decent. I've seen better, but it does what you need it to - including scheduling/making payments from their site, viewing your statement, etc.

 

Judy

[aftop]

Bank of Amiera

 

Thanks.

[jewopaho]

As a veteran traveler and cruise enthusiast (RC is our line of choice) I've come to the conclusion that those proprietary credit cards are not the most advantageous manner of accumulating freebies. What we each did was to apply for the RC card, spend enough to have the bonus points credited, cash them in for the $50 OBC (x2), and retire them to the safety deposit box (we eventually canceled them after about a years' inactivity).

 

Generally speaking, cruises are cheap ... it's the airfare that takes the biggest bite out of a vacation cost. For that reason, we both use the Capital One Venture Card. Every purchase gets us double miles; usable on any airline at any time (no blackouts); no expiration date; no foreign currency transaction fees; always an initial incentive (ours was 40,000 bonus miles after spending $3000 over three months ... we each have our own card, so we picked up 80,000 miles); no fee the first year ($59 annually thereafter ... a small price to pay); miles transferable to another Venture card; outstanding customer service. We're not fans of banks (our accounts are in credit unions), especially BOA ... another topic for another time. The Venture card is the only one we use ... there's an exception to every rule.

 

We run just about everything through the cards, and points accumulate quickly. We're flying free to Alaska in May ($1600 we don't have to pay), and should have sufficient miles accumulated for our trip to Australia and New Zealand next year ... and in the event we don't, we can purchase our flight and deduct whatever number of miles we have (dollar for dollar), and only pay the difference. We're looking at a $2600 cruise and an $1800 flight per person ... we could never have accumulated enough BOA points for a free cruise, but $3600 we won't be spending is more than adequate compensation. We're also free to choose whichever airline's schedule works best for us.

 

I guess the BOA RCI card works for some ... not so much in our situation.

 

Al

[FLACRUISER99]

As a veteran traveler and cruise enthusiast (RC is our line of choice) I've come to the conclusion that those proprietary credit cards are not the most advantageous manner of accumulating freebies. What we each did was to apply for the RC card, spend enough to have the bonus points credited, cash them in for the $50 OBC (x2), and retire them to the safety deposit box (we eventually canceled them after about a years' inactivity).

 

Generally speaking, cruises are cheap ... it's the airfare that takes the biggest bite out of a vacation cost. For that reason, we both use the Capital One Venture Card. Every purchase gets us double miles; usable on any airline at any time (no blackouts); no expiration date; no foreign currency transaction fees; always an initial incentive (ours was 40,000 bonus miles after spending $3000 over three months ... we each have our own card, so we picked up 80,000 miles); no fee the first year ($59 annually thereafter ... a small price to pay); miles transferable to another Venture card; outstanding customer service. We're not fans of banks (our accounts are in credit unions), especially BOA ... another topic for another time. The Venture card is the only one we use ... there's an exception to every rule.

 

We run just about everything through the cards, and points accumulate quickly. We're flying free to Alaska in May ($1600 we don't have to pay), and should have sufficient miles accumulated for our trip to Australia and New Zealand next year ... and in the event we don't, we can purchase our flight and deduct whatever number of miles we have (dollar for dollar), and only pay the difference. We're looking at a $2600 cruise and an $1800 flight per person ... we could never have accumulated enough BOA points for a free cruise, but $3600 we won't be spending is more than adequate compensation. We're also free to choose whichever airline's schedule works best for us.

 

I guess the BOA RCI card works for some ... not so much in our situation.

 

Al

I'm with you as I recently switched to the Barclays bank Arrival+ with 2% points on all purchases. IMO the RCI card was ok until the last changes in combinability. However with its 3% foreign transaction fee it was useless to use out of the USA.