Jump to content

NCL Mastercard FAQ


Host CMLA
 Share

Recommended Posts

The discover card cash back can be used for anything... it's simply cash back. The NCL card points can only be used for NCL cruises/upgrades. None of them is "better" if you are gonna buy a cruise with cash or use your points. The only advantage with NCL is that you get bonus points for any dollar spent with NCL in addition to the regular 3 percent, you get an additional 1 percent on NCL purchases.

 

The only other difference is that discover is not as widely accepted as MasterCard worldwide.

 

OK, so NCL points cannot be used for anything other than a cruise. I didn't know that, not that I would want to use them for anything else.

 

And yes, I agree, the discover card is not widely accepted. Thank you for the response.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Last year I stopped using my SW credit card and switched to NCL because the way I have figured it, with out considering the bonus points for NCL, it takes me approximately $16667. in purchases to get my $500 certificate vs $19200. (less any points for flights taken) to get a ticket that I can usually buy for less than $200. :D

 

I no longer use any credit cards that don't give me some kind of bonus. :cool:

 

Interesting, I have never sat down to figure it out. I guess I should.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I paid off my cruise the last week of December but did not get enough points until my January CC statement to get $500 off. I called and requested my $500 off coupon as soon as it showed up on-line on my credit card statement. I recieved the coupon about 10 days after I requested it. I filled it out and mailed it in the next day 1/28 via certified mail. I received a $500 credit on my credit card on 2/7 (not the NCL one but the one I originally put my reservations on, weird) . Overall, I am pleased.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Missed talking to my TA yesterday. Sent NCL certificate and received my little green postcard back last week so I am assuming that my cruise is paid. At least I hope so. :eek: Certificate was more than I owed so I was hoping to see a credit on my card or some sign that all is OK. Ordered another from Hubby's card and hoping to get it sent before 2nd part of back 2 back is due next week. When I called for this one the account was in Hubby's name so I could not request it....finally tied him down long enough to approve the transaction and the person I got didn't ask to speak with him. :D

 

Is there any way I can check to see if my balance is paid? I remember seeing it somewhere for our last cruise but not sure where I was on the website. Second cruise is not anywhere near the $500 since I had to put a deposit down to book online and then put my $250 I put down during our last cruise toward the balance. Hopefully they will give me credit for the $200+ extra? They can even charge my credit card if it doesn't get there before the due date as long as they give me a credit later. :rolleyes:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Den...how cum I had to find out about NCL points by myslf? ;)

 

Received my statement from 1st part of my cruise. I have negative ($36.64) but no mention of a refund. Does this come from NCL or my travel agent? Sent out another certificate for balance due tomorrow. This one is overpaying by about $250.00. Sure hope I'm not the 1st one to loose the difference! :eek: My original plan was to reqeust and pay with 1st certificate with time for them to apply the difference but time went by faster than I could get around to it. :mad:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Den...how cum I had to find out about NCL points by myslf? ;)

 

Received my statement from 1st part of my cruise. I have negative ($36.64) but no mention of a refund. Does this come from NCL or my travel agent? Sent out another certificate for balance due tomorrow. This one is overpaying by about $250.00. Sure hope I'm not the 1st one to loose the difference! :eek: My original plan was to reqeust and pay with 1st certificate with time for them to apply the difference but time went by faster than I could get around to it. :mad:

 

If you put your previous payment on a credit card, the refund will be credited back to your card. However it may take a few billing cycles to show up. I've overpaid with points several times and always got the credit. Just not very quickly.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have PIF for my cruise and am sailing on March 23rd...When I get my next statement which will be aroun the 14th of March I will have 500 points...I am going to request my certificates the day i get my statement. If I send them to NCL say after my cruise will they still honor them and credit my credit card the 500.00?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes' date=' lets be honest. I believe that this is a open board and if I want to ask a question, I can. If it is the wrong place, I am sure that the moderators would remove it. If you don't like the question, you are free to move on just as I am free to ask this question.

 

Now as for my question. I was only asking because the NCL card and the discover card seem to be the same and my husband I are at odds at which to use. We were wondering if any others on the boards had any input as to which is better. I use the NCL card and my husband uses the discover, which is the same points, but you get cash back instead of credits to send towards your cruise. Whether you send cash or whether you send cruise credits, does it make a difference.

I am sorry if this is a stupid question, but I thought it wouldn't hurt to ask.[/quote']

 

I don't think it was a stupid question but this is a thread about NCL's credit card. Every type of card has its own benefits and negatives. Its really about how you intend to use the card. If you are going to use a credit card to cruise on NCL, you might as well use NCL's card- which I think has among the best benefits of a cruise lines card. If you want it for cash back and not to cruise you need to use something else. I have a discover card which I hardly use. I have an American express card because it is widely accepted overseas allows me to cash checks overseas(although they are closing their offices because of ATM's). and it has a special on South African Airways that I can use to save thousands of dollars. Their are American express credit cards that allow a free first class companion fare if you buy one on several airlines at full price-not that I have one of those Capital one doesn't charge added fees for overseas use. NCL charges 3% overseas. So it really depends on how you want to use your card. Discover has a promotion that gives 5% to some limit but you will have to look that up your self. Actually I think your question is lazy because you expected us to know the benefits and your usage of your card- so if you want to discuss the universe of credit cards please do so but you really need to tell us more if you want our opinion of your usage of it.

 

Do you want protection when you purchase an item? NCL's is limited others have more. Is car insurance on a car rental important to you? We don't know.

 

To the poster who is being charged a fee....I have a simple suggestion to you get to your next reward cert- and apply for a new NCL Bof Account now and when you get the cert close the account they are charging you an annual fee- the current NCL card doesn't have one and you must have an older one or one that we don't understand.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Help...has anyone ever not received credit back when overpaying with a certificate?

I have one cruise that they have a negative balance of $36. It's been a couple of weeks and no sign of a credit on my credit card. Meanwhile I've sent a second certificate and they applied $140 to make it come out to a zero. My balance was $250 but they somehow have included the insurance that was billed seperately in the calculation. Part that makes me nervious is that they are not reflecting the whole $500 on the line for the compass points. Now I am wishing that I had just paid the balance due on the 2nd cruise and left the points to accumulate until another cruise.

We bought into that $250 deposit on our cruise last year but had no way to apply it when I booked online so it ended up as a payment in addition to the deposit. It's not like the cruise was less than the $500.

Maybe someone with more experience using points can tell me if I should call and ask or wait it out? :o :mad: :eek:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Help...has anyone ever not received credit back when overpaying with a certificate?

I have one cruise that they have a negative balance of $36. It's been a couple of weeks and no sign of a credit on my credit card. Meanwhile I've sent a second certificate and they applied $140 to make it come out to a zero. My balance was $250 but they somehow have included the insurance that was billed seperately in the calculation. Part that makes me nervious is that they are not reflecting the whole $500 on the line for the compass points. Now I am wishing that I had just paid the balance due on the 2nd cruise and left the points to accumulate until another cruise.

We bought into that $250 deposit on our cruise last year but had no way to apply it when I booked online so it ended up as a payment in addition to the deposit. It's not like the cruise was less than the $500.

Maybe someone with more experience using points can tell me if I should call and ask or wait it out? :o :mad: :eek:

 

yes and it can get confusing. They will use it up to th total amount of the cruise but not credit you beyond that to use on the ship. Also sometimes if you use a TA they wrongfully ask the TA to refund their commission. I have gotten back my deposit(or most of it)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have PIF for my cruise and am sailing on March 23rd...When I get my next statement which will be aroun the 14th of March I will have 500 points...I am going to request my certificates the day i get my statement. If I send them to NCL say after my cruise will they still honor them and credit my credit card the 500.00?

 

 

anyone know?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

anyone know?

 

It all depends. There is no hard and fast rule. There use to be a survey/poll on here and at the time it was pretty even (if I remember). That being said I have overpaid with certificates and both times I got a credit on my credit card for the difference. I was not PIF when I did that though. They last 3 years (really 4 if you time it right) so I if your thinking of cruising in the future that might be the safest route.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I still have a charge on my credit card and a previous statement from my TA showing a zero balance but only listing half of the amount for my Compass points.

 

Wonder if I could have them put the points back on my account and keep the payment they've already charged me for so I can use the whole $500 next cruise?

 

I had one of those $250 deposit certificates I purchased on our cruise last year and when I booked online it would not accept that as my deposit so I had to pay my deposit and have the $250 applied to the balance. What they said about using that as a deposit on any cruise did not work in my case and that is why my balance was only $230.

 

TA was going to look into it but that dept was closed when I called but that was yesterday and he never got back to me. Experience tells me that when someone doesn't get back to me the news is not usually good! :eek: My other cruise showed the whole $500 and a negative balance and I haven't seen a credit for that amount either. :mad:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hmmm.

here's a question that I don't think has been asked, and in light of the above previous posts I am curious.

Has anyone redeemed their points when booked as part of a group booking??? I hope I can do this because I'm thinkiing my next NCL cruise may be a group cruise. It would suck if I can't use my rewards points. :eek:

Does it depend on the TA????? :confused:

 

I booked with a TA as a group. I sent the certificates as explained on earlier threads and had no problems. The only thing was since I sent them to NCL directly my TA said to be sure I told her so that she could note my account with her.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

SassyJ-

 

After reading through this entire thread one more time I think that Smeyer actually summarized it best and also had hit the nail on the head about the deposit. I know people keep saying you wont get an "overpayment from points" back. That is a true statement as I understand it. BUT.. and this is the catch I just figured.. you can get the amount of the deposit back as a credit if you apply points certificates to cover the balance due and some (or all )of the deposit. Make sense??

 

If I understand its like this:

 

I paid $800 in deposits on our next cruise. I owe $2900. If I submit $3500 in certificates I will get a credit for $600 (because I paid $800 originally and I am getting a portion of that back).

 

Same scenario though IF

 

I paid $800 in deposits on our next cruise. I owe $2900. If I submit $4000 in certificates I will only get $200 back as a credit as I was only ever $3700 out of pocket. In this case I lose the $300 I overpaid.

 

ANYWAY... long way of saying that you will get credit back for whatever amount you were actually out of pocket (you actually ever gave them money for). I have had this card for 7 years and used over 7K in certificates and just caught this after reading Smeyers earlier post several pages back.

 

Hope that helps...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I put down a deposit and applied my certificate I bought on our last cruise for $250 as an additional payment. (We only got a $50 OBC but we had an early flight and this got us off the ship in an earlier group.) The excess on the Compass rewards certificate is less than my original deposit before the $250 certificate I purchased on the ship was applied. If they had accepted my $250 deposit certificate as my deposit my balance would have been more than the $500 amount. :mad: The booking info I received from my TA last weekend showed my Compass points amount as $140 which when figured in with the insurance (paid separately) made my bottom line $0. The other cruise we are going on showed a negative balance and I haven't seen a credit from that either. :eek:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So if I have PIF for trip and on next months statement I have the 500.00 and get the certificates..I can send them to NCL even if it's after my trip on March 23rd?

 

I dont think if it is AFTER your trip that it will work. I have never tried that. Someone posted no retroactive submission will work earlier on this thread.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

but them I learned that my TA got additional money off ($100) so she told me to pay off the $360 due & ise the $500 in October for the Canada/NE cruise. Then I am to buy 4 $250 deposits to get $400 OBC that will go for 2009 cruises in advance for BA AFT or cheap mini. We want to get 1 more 11 night cruise for 2008. We have 4 nights left from Canada/NE & a week not booked.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I apologize if this has already been asked. If I purchase a $500 certificate for our December cruise and then have to change it to a different cruise into 2009 will that $500 credit stay on the reservation? Also, if the cruise that I change to is over one year from the certificates issue will the certificate still be valid? Thanks

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ok - All kinds of ?'s I'm hoping someone can help with. BOA states that miles will expire after 3 years & that you must use certs within a year after receiving them. Does this actually give you 4 years? Do the certs need to be redeemed within a year, or must you sail within a year. I have some poisnt that will expire this year, but we're not planning on cruising until fall 2009. Being that I can book more than a year out, if I request 1 or 2 $500 certs will BOA/NCL use the oldest points (closest to expiration) first and use as a partial payment at time of booking?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
 Share

  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...