Carnival Mastercard. & Rewards Boost

[ShakyBeef]

Well, let's see how Lowes does with the rewards boost. We are doing some pretty big home renovations, and I needed a new bathroom vanity. I went on the Barclay site and saw that they were offering a 3x point boost, so I ordered the vanity from them. Hopefully they will be pretty quick about awarding the points!

 

Lowe's is my go-to RB store for a lot of things. In fact, I was on their site, shopping for garden fencing earlier today. They have always awarded my points in a timely manner. Homedepot used to offer 3 points per dollar as well, but now only offer 2. But HomeDepot has also always been good about the points.

 

PetSmart came through with my points, but I'm still waiting for part of my order to show up.:(

 

I'm currently waiting to see if the 6 points per dollar from a Paul Frederick order come through...

[ShakyBeef]

Praise for RewardsBoost seller, Uncommon Goods: 5 points per dollar, awarded in a timely manner, and when one of the products I bought did not live up to expectations, they sent me a free replacement. Very friendly customer service and they stand by all their products, unconditionally, forever. That's a pretty strong warranty!:)

Edited April 20, 2016 by ShakyBeef

[almitra]

Praise for RewardsBoost seller, Uncommon Goods: 5 points per dollar, awarded in a timely manner, and when one of the products I bought did not live up to expectations, they sent me a free replacement. Very friendly customer service and they stand by all their products, unconditionally, forever. That's a pretty strong warranty!:)

 

That is really good to know. Customer service seems to be a dying art form these days, so it's great to hear that some folks still make it a priority. TY!

[pirate4me2]

I got my rewards points from Lowes today, and the order was placed about 5 days ago. Good job Lowe's!!

[ready2cruzagain]

I have no clue why but I always forget about the rewards boost. Thanks guys, will have to look into it since I am always ordering things online. Duh me...why not get the extra points.:rolleyes:

[ShakyBeef]

I just got the email today (4/22) from Barclays RewardsBoost - I have received my 1266 extra points for my $211 Paul Fredrick purchase made on 4/14. That's 8 days from purchase to points hitting my account and the package (free shipping) arrived on Tuesday (4/19). Very smooth transaction all around, and my husband loves the clothes that I got him.:)

 

In summary:

Paul Fredrick: 6 points per dollar, thumbs up.:D

[almitra]

I just got the email today (4/22) from Barclays RewardsBoost - I have received my 1266 extra points for my $211 Paul Fredrick purchase made on 4/14. That's 8 days from purchase to points hitting my account and the package (free shipping) arrived on Tuesday (4/19). Very smooth transaction all around, and my husband loves the clothes that I got him.:)

 

In summary:

Paul Fredrick: 6 points per dollar, thumbs up.:D

 

Saweet!

[almitra]

I got my rewards points from Lowes today, and the order was placed about 5 days ago. Good job Lowe's!!

 

You GO, girl!

[almitra]

My extra pts came in today from my Walmart dot com order 4 days ago. Not shabby at all. :)

[tea4ular]

I will be paying off my Apirl 2017 cruise in monthly increments, with final payment due Feb 2017. I will use my Barclay card online @ Carnival each month to make a payment, starting in Sept 2016. I also have the 10k points given for applying for the card.

 

When would be the optimal time to apply my earned points (I will not use the card on the trip at all). Would my best bet be to apply all the points accumulated in Feb 2017? And how far back will I be able to credit at that date?

 

I don't intend to begin accumulating more points for at least another year, so I don't want to hold them, I know I'd rather just take the credits earned. This program has confused me more than any other I've done before due to its specific nature.

 

TIA -

[ShakyBeef]

I will be paying off my Apirl 2017 cruise in monthly increments, with final payment due Feb 2017. I will use my Barclay card online @ Carnival each month to make a payment, starting in Sept 2016. I also have the 10k points given for applying for the card.

 

When would be the optimal time to apply my earned points (I will not use the card on the trip at all). Would my best bet be to apply all the points accumulated in Feb 2017? And how far back will I be able to credit at that date?

 

I don't intend to begin accumulating more points for at least another year, so I don't want to hold them, I know I'd rather just take the credits earned. This program has confused me more than any other I've done before due to its specific nature.

 

TIA -

 

The best way to redeem your FunPoints is on a Carnival purchase of $1500 or more. That gives you the better redemption rate. A $1500 statement credit will "cost" you 100,000 FPs, whereas a $1499 statement credit will cost you 14,900 FPs. So the best time to redeem points really depends on if you will have 100,000 or more FPs accumulated / if you will have a Carnival brand purchase of $1500 or more. You have 180 days from the date of the qualifying purchase to redeem points toward it. Although you run out of time to redeem for particular purchases, your FunPoints don't expire. So if you don't have 100,000 FPs to cash in, I'd recommend waiting until you do. But since you pretty much said you don't want to do that - I would say the best time that fits within your parameters to redeem the points is whenever you have the largest amount of FPs within the 180 day window of the purchase you want to put them towards.

 

Because you are making monthly payments on your cruise fare, I don't think the cruise fare will end up being lumped back together at the end as one qualifying purchase, but I don't know. I've never paid that way.

 

I hope this helps.:o

[zeroyankee]

A $1500 statement credit will "cost" you 100,000 FPs, whereas a $1499 statement credit will cost you 14,900 FPs.

 

You forgot a zero there. $1499 credit will run 149,000 FPs! ;)

[ShakyBeef]

You forgot a zero there. $1499 credit will run 149,000 FPs! ;)

 

Dangit, I did it again.:mad: Sorry about that.:o

[tea4ular]

I would say the best time that fits within your parameters to redeem the points is whenever you have the largest amount of FPs within the 180 day window of the purchase you want to put them towards.

 

 

So based on what you've said here, it sounds like if I start making payments in Sept 2016, in Feb. 2017 (final payment date) I should be able to apply some of the points to each of the 6 monthly payments?

 

Or in Oct 2016 apply some points to the Sept payment, in Nov apply some of the points to the Oct payment, etc.?

 

What happens if I pay off (with $ NOT points) my credit card balance each month (meaning I don't carry a balance), what would I apply the points to? Would I then have a $ credit balance on my card?

[ShakyBeef]

So based on what you've said here, it sounds like if I start making payments in Sept 2016, in Feb. 2017 (final payment date) I should be able to apply some of the points to each of the 6 monthly payments?

 

Or in Oct 2016 apply some points to the Sept payment, in Nov apply some of the points to the Oct payment, etc.?

 

What happens if I pay off (with $ NOT points) my credit card balance each month (meaning I don't carry a balance), what would I apply the points to? Would I then have a $ credit balance on my card?

 

As long as you are within 180 of the purchase date (in this case, the date of the installment on your cruise fare), and you have enough FunPoints to apply towards the purchase, you should be able to redeem points after each installment, if you wish.

 

Carrying a balance on the credit card has nothing to do with redeeming FPs. I have never carried a balance on the card in all the years I've had it. I pay it off, in full, every month. I've never paid any interest or fees. And I have cashed in large amounts of FPs on 4 separate occasions. When you "cash in" FPs for a qualifying purchase, you do so for a statement credit. What you're really doing is "paying yourself back" for the purchase you already made and paid for. So, yes, to answer your last question, you would have a credit balance on your account if your recent charges on the card were less than the statement credit received from the redemption of the FPs. Otherwise, your account balance would just be decreased by the credit amount. Is that all about as clear as mud?:p I hope I'm making sense.:o

[tea4ular]

As long as you are within 180 of the purchase date (in this case, the date of the installment on your cruise fare), and you have enough FunPoints to apply towards the purchase, you should be able to redeem points after each installment, if you wish.

 

Carrying a balance on the credit card has nothing to do with redeeming FPs. I have never carried a balance on the card in all the years I've had it. I pay it off, in full, every month. I've never paid any interest or fees. And I have cashed in large amounts of FPs on 4 separate occasions. When you "cash in" FPs for a qualifying purchase, you do so for a statement credit. What you're really doing is "paying yourself back" for the purchase you already made and paid for. So, yes, to answer your last question, you would have a credit balance on your account if your recent charges on the card were less than the statement credit received from the redemption of the FPs. Otherwise, your account balance would just be decreased by the credit amount. Is that all about as clear as mud?:p I hope I'm making sense.:o

 

I think I understand - I'll let you know in October when I start the game!:eek:

[zeroyankee]

I've been slipping on checking up on some missing points. Last summer I used the link to book a hotel stay at Candlewood Suites. I never did see any points issued so after the 45-day wait, I inquired. They were going to look into things, but I never received anything after that.

 

So, the other night I sent another inquiry. I received an answer tonight saying that the my account was not approved to receive the points. It went on to explain that purchases using discount or coupon codes are not allowed, nor are rooms booked and paid for with IHG rewards points. I had done none of these as I clicked on the link, made a selection, and used my Carnival Mastercard for the booking.

 

The only thing I'm wondering about is if maybe Rewards Boost points are only applied if you check out and pay for the reservation at the time of booking rather than actually when checking out of the hotel and settling the bill later on. There was a mention of Rewards Boost points not being eligible until the reservation has been fulfilled.

 

I asked for clarification on this but I'm not expecting to get the points credited. For the time being, IHG hotels are coming off my list of merchants in this program. Anyone else have any similar experiences?

[almitra]

Mark, I've yet to book any hotel/car ressies via RewardsBoost (but I sure intend to in the future).....but this worries me to hear that you did everything right & STILL didn't get your FP's. Hmmmm....let's see if somebody wuith real experience in this specific area of RewardsBoost can chime in with advice or info. If they are just not honoring it, then I'm putting them on the official unofficial black list.

[ShakyBeef]

The only hotel booking experience I have through RB was a few times, several years ago with Choice Hotels. They always came through with the FunPoints, but, as i said, it was several years ago. So I'm not much help on this. But I'm definitely interested to know if Candlewood Suites comes through for you, zeroyankee. I'll be adding them to my blacklist as well, if they do not. Good luck!:)

[zeroyankee]

I received another email stating that they will open another case into the missing points for Candlewood Suites. So for now, it remains open and I'll update when I hear back.

 

On a separate note, I used the link for TireBuyer.com to purchase some new tires back on 4/27 and have yet to see any points credited for that one. I'll keep an eye on this one and file another report if it gets to the 45-day mark with no activity.

 

The only merchant for me that was spot on about getting points issued within a couple of days has been Toshiba. I bought a new computer a while back and had the points credited quickly. Most others I've had to open inquiries into.

[zeroyankee]

Yesterday I received a letter in the mail stating that after further review, my account was being credited for the missing Rewards Boot points from my purchase through Candlewood Suites last summer. So while they aren't necessarily on my blacklist, they will be on a watch list to make sure points are credited eventually.

[almitra]

I used the 1-800-PetMeds website via the Rewardsboost portal & promptly received my 5pts per dollar about 4 days after purchase. Good site!

[zeroyankee]

I used the 1-800-PetMeds website via the Rewardsboost portal & promptly received my 5pts per dollar about 4 days after purchase. Good site!

 

Good to hear that!

 

I'm still waiting to hear about my inquiry on my TireBuyer.com purchase. I sent the inquiry after the 45-day period and got a response that my points had already been credited. After several back and forth emails, it dawned on me they were talking about the points for the actual purchase, not the BONUS points. So now they are in the process of investigating that. Next week is the deadline they gave for that investigation.

 

I did make a purchase with Norton to update my security software and got the 12X points two days later, so they are easily on the whitelist.

[ShakyBeef]

So... I just logged into my Carnival MC account to do a quick bit of shopping through RewardsBoost and RewardsBoost is GONE!:eek: The website has been updated and has a whole new look and there is no link for RewardsBoost anywhere. I called Barclays 1-866 number and eventually got the explanation that it is just an issue with the site update and the RB link should be back and working within 24-48 hours. Just thought I'd share this with y'all to help save you the "OH NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! REWARDSBOOST IS GONE!:eek:" moment I had upon first discovering it. I was afraid they had discontinued RewardsBost entirely. But 48 hours is no big deal.:o Happy shopping, y'all.:)

[Bases5]

Hey, just this minute got an email from Barclaycard stating that my order from PetSmart (4/8/16) earned me extra RewardsBoost pts--I got 60 pts for my 14.99 order (4 pts for each dollar spent at the site) in addition to the 15 pts I earned for the 14.99 purchase itself (1 pt for ea dollar spent). Not shabby...and awarded FAST!

 

i was wondering if the boost points was for petsmart online only or are they the same for the brick store?