Mazeylab Posted February 19, 2023 Report Share Posted February 19, 2023 Went on 1st RC cruise in November, decided to get the visa card shortly after. I understand it has nothing to do with RC, its run thru Bank of America. First several times using it on Amazon had to contact BOA to authorize, repeatedly. Uber and Lyft same, had to continually get on phone with BOA. Last used with Jetblue, on their website, said your bank will text a security pin-even after doing all that card was denied because of security issues. Boa then figured the number was the issue, so sent me new card. Same results. I spent maybe 4 hours on phone with over a dozen different people. I got the 300$ OBC, but wasn't worth the aggravation. Just closed the card. Fyi for anyone thinking about getting it. WAYNO and DoomSlayer 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teddy Posted February 19, 2023 Report Share Posted February 19, 2023 I’m not a BOA fan. We had an AAA Visa card issued by BOA for many, many years. About six or so months ago, Comenity (sp?) Bank started issuing AAA Visa cards, so we were sent new ones through them and told our old BOA ones were no longer valid A month ago we decided to bite the bullet and get a RC card. BOA declined our app because we don’t have any other accounts with them. Both of our FICO scores are over 800 but that didn’t matter….they didn’t even do a credit inquiry. The actual written reason (and only reason) for declining our app was “Insufficient or no active accounts with Bank of America”. WAAAYTOOO, Kay45 and WAYNO 1 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smokeybandit Posted February 19, 2023 Report Share Posted February 19, 2023 The RC BOA card is a horrible card for accruing points unless you cruise multiple times per year. teddy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biaggio Posted February 19, 2023 Report Share Posted February 19, 2023 Applied on my cruise in January, Bank of America approved it on February 6th, and here it is on the 19th and still haven’t received it. They say 10-15 business days. It should come overnight. I want to use it to prepay my gratuities for 4 upcoming cruises. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kathleen Posted February 19, 2023 Report Share Posted February 19, 2023 We’ve had a BOA RC Credit Card for years and never had any of these issues. We’ve never had any other BOA accounts so I suspect that is a more recent policy. Yes, it’s not the best rewards CC but we’ve managed to cash in a number of rewards cash over the years and liked the simplicity of it. There are better ones but it works for us. WAAAYTOOO and ChessE4 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fireclan Posted February 19, 2023 Report Share Posted February 19, 2023 1 hour ago, teddy said: I’m not a BOA fan. We had an AAA Visa card issued by BOA for many, many years. About six or so months ago, Comenity (sp?) Bank started issuing AAA Visa cards, so we were sent new ones through them and told our old BOA ones were no longer valid A month ago we decided to bite the bullet and get a RC card. BOA declined our app because we don’t have any other accounts with them. Both of our FICO scores are over 800 but that didn’t matter….they didn’t even do a credit inquiry. The actual written reason (and only reason) for declining our app was “Insufficient or no active accounts with Bank of America”. I agree. I'm not a fan of BOA either. It isn't a very good travel card (one of several reasons why I stopped using it) and maybe they did you a favor by declining your app! By the way, just my opinion! WAYNO and teddy 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teddy Posted February 19, 2023 Report Share Posted February 19, 2023 We had decided to get it because we cruise two to three times a year and figured it would be a way to get something back. We use our debit card to pay our cruise fares or use the AAA card if the fare is over the debit card daily max and pay it off before the billing cycle ends. Oh well. Screw ‘em fireclan and WAAAYTOOO 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mazeylab Posted February 19, 2023 Author Report Share Posted February 19, 2023 I was able to use it in person no problem. But anything online was always declined. Even several times with Amazon alone. After which a phone call should have resolved it. But nope. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DoomSlayer Posted February 19, 2023 Report Share Posted February 19, 2023 I guess I never really saw the value in this card to be honest. There are a lot better points cards out there that will give you more value in my opinion and you can find a lot better deals with. Going through their docs on MyCruise points associated with this card, it appears that each point is valued at roughly $0.01. You receive 2 points for RCL purchases ($0.02 per dollar spent) and 1 point for non RCL purchases ($0.01 per dollar spent). These points are only redeemable with RCL or charity donations. My Navy Federal Flagship card on the other hand offers me 3 points for any travel purchases ($0.03 per dollar spent) and 2 points for any other type of purchase ($0.02 per dollar spent). These points are redeemable as cash which I can then use to save for a cruise (at a faster rate than the RCL card), use to pay for my RCL tab at the end of the trip, or use to make non RCL purchases. In my view, cash is defiantly king as I can use it for whatever I want. As far as sign-up bonuses, RCL seems to be offering 10,000 points as a bonus if you meet their spend requirement ($100). Navy Federal Flagship is offering 30,000 points if you meet their spend requirement ($300). Final thought -- Navy Federal Flagship caps interest at 18% and it will not go higher. The RCL card interest rate seems to start at 18% and caps about 24%. My Amex platinum card is a good card for cruise travel too. @teddy there is no good reason not to use a credit card to pay for your cruise entirely -- especially if you have the money to pay it off before the statement date / billing cycle cutoff to keep from accruing interest. Most credit cards offer additional protection and insurance on your major purchases that debit cards don't. The cards I use to purchase my cruises (and other travel) offer decent travel insurance at no extra cost just for paying for it using their card, meaning that is one less expense I have to pay for on my cruise. I would not advocate anyone use their card to buy a cruise they don't have cash in the bank to pay off, but that is a different topic for a finance form and not this awesome cruise forum. Cactus527, teddy and PL8SWPR 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChessE4 Posted February 19, 2023 Report Share Posted February 19, 2023 The last email offer from Royal to my wife listed a bonus of 30,000 points to sign up. So there are periodic promotions. I never had the problems described above, but I wouldn't be patient with BofA or any other company which treated me that way. Kathleen 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PL8SWPR Posted February 20, 2023 Report Share Posted February 20, 2023 As stated, there are too many better cards out there with higher rewards percentages and no restrictions on where it can be spent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BRETTB Posted February 26, 2023 Report Share Posted February 26, 2023 UPDATE- After refreshing the page a bunch of other comments loaded which seem to support the argument this may not be a good card to get, even if I only wanted to use it for cruises. BTW I always pay off every credit card monthly so interest is not a factor for me. Original Post: I have been on RCCL 23 times (typically 1-2 a year), and never considered the credit card until now after booking a 10k room on Icon. That would be a good chunk of points. The card details outline how many points you get for Royal purchases, but do any of you know if that would apply if I book through a travel agent? I think technically the charge comes from my agent and not Royal, and don’t want to sign up if that is the case since I never booked directly with Royal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smokeybandit Posted February 26, 2023 Report Share Posted February 26, 2023 51 minutes ago, BRETTB said: I think technically the charge comes from my agent and not Royal, and don’t want to sign up if that is the case since I never booked directly with Royal. My charges come from RC directly via my TA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ditchdoc Posted February 26, 2023 Report Share Posted February 26, 2023 The RC card returns $10 for every $1000 you charge. You have to charge about $60,000 to get in the BOGO range. If you have that level of cash flow, go for it. You do get double for charging RC cruises and recently there were bonuses for 'Valentine's' meals in February. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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