Bluegreen Encore vs RCI Elite Rewards Mastercards

[Jessica Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Jessica]

My husband and I have had the Bluegreen Encore Rewards Mastercards for a couple years, and have been happy with the ability to pay maintance fees with the rewards.

We upgraded to Silver members this week, and we were offered the RCI Elite Rewards Mastercard. They stated that it is only for VIP owners. They also said that Bluegreen maintance fees can be paid with the rewards at a lot higher rate than the Bluegreen Encore Rewards card.

I have a few questions.

1. Can Bluegreen maintance fees be paid with the rewards?
2. Is the reward rate higher than 1% ($100 charge/$1 maintance fee)?

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

Who offers Elite Rewards MasterCard.

We Elite Rewards Visa from BOA, and they have tried to flip us to another card.

Now that we probably have little to no need to timeshare, we probably should switch, but we have a 4.99% rate and a beaucoup credit line.

We have an exchange, plus some, in our account already.

[Jessica Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Jessica]

It is offered by BOA also.

[rdtkhine Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close rdtkhine]

I use to have the RCI card before I applied for the Bluegreen card. I dropped the card when they were going to raise the interest rate for no reason. I also couldn't apply my rewards toward my Bluegreen maintenance fees. There were a few items purchases that would give more than a 1 reward point/$1 dollar purchase, but none that used. Unless they have changed something, the RCI card won't help you much for Bluegreen.

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

Why can't you use it to pay resort maintenance fees just because they are Bluegreen. I thought you could for all RCI affiliated resorts.

RCI Resort Dollars® Card
Take your Rewards on vacation! When you redeem your Rewards for an RCI Resort Dollars® Card, you will receive either a $250 or $500 pre-loaded card—almost as good as cash—to spend on your RCI vacation, wherever MasterCard® is accepted. Use your RCI Resort Dollars® Card for anything the resort provides, from maintenance fees to activities to a Champagne toast! For all your vacation needs—it's the smart choice.

[sdwagers Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close sdwagers]

about that RCI Elite Rewards Card

The Program and How It Works:**

Earn one Reward for every net retail dollar you spend.
Earn 2 Rewards for every net retail dollar you spend with RCI and Bonus Reward Partners such as Avis, Howard Johnson® and Ramada®.
Shop with our Partners and Online Shopping Partners, and earn Bonus Rewards with each purchase.

pretty similar to Bluegreen as far dividends / rewards earning - as you'll spend the bulk of your purchase on regular retail.

on the redeeming of rewards for MFs

For greater flexibility redeem your Rewards for RCI Member Dollars® credits or an RCI Resort Dollars® card.***

RCI Member Dollars® credits is a flexible and easy way to pay for RCI products and services (excluding RCI Travel). When you redeem for RCI Member Dollars® credits, you will receive a credit to your RCI membership account that lets you pay for RCI products or services including Membership Renewal, Exchange Fees and more. Once redeemed, simply call RCI Member Services to apply your RCI Member Dollars® credits for RCI products and services. Weeks members call: 1-800-338-7777 and Points members call: 1-877-968-7476.
When you redeem for an RCI Resort Dollars® card, you will receive a preloaded card that lets you pay for onsite activities, maintenance fees or other expenses at RCI affiliated resorts that accept MasterCard®.

so basically you get a giftcard to redeem that you can use any where Mastercard is accepted - including pay for MFs as Bluegreen takes Mastercard for this (might be more tricky with a giftcard depending on hwo much is own it )- no different that getting a bluegreen MC giftcard (from dividends or an owner update) and using it to pay MFs

I d reco staying with the Barclay BG card just for simple easy of online use of dividends in your BG acct. Yes the dividends don't transfer as fast as we'd like sometimes - but a lot less transferring here and there for basically the same rate of return - unless you got a better interest rate - which probably isn't worth moving for anyways.

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

Since this came back to life . . . I wanted an itme that cost 16000 points, and I had 15770. I said you could use 16000 or any amount 1-???? plus cash.

When I tried to do it, it declined it. I inquired and was told it will not take more than 14400, plus cash.

Quirky.

I'm sure I have the 16000 now.

[sdwagers Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close sdwagers]

sorry for any confusion on this one . I don't have the RCI but had looked at it getting it.

Some retail places will allow you to use multiple forms of payment (credit card plus gift card). I would assume that you would have to use a gift card balance first and then cash/credit. So with this you would have have enough rewards to get a qualifying gift card first (e.g. 5000 dividends for a $50 gift card for the BG Barclay card).

so with your example the reason I believe it's not working for you is that you didn't have enough points for the item in the reward system My example applies only once you have the reward - in this case a gift card - and then use cash/credit to make the difference up (e.g. buying an Xbox at Walmart with a $50 rewards gift card and then paying the difference with cash /credit).

again sorry for the confusion - I was just trying to show that I don't believe the RCI card gives an advantage over the BG card.

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

so with your example the reason I believe it's not working for you is that you didn't have enough points for the item in the reward system .

I can see I don't do well posting in McDonalds parking lot at night.

In My example it said I could use 16000 points or any amount up to that, plus cash.

But it would now work with 15770.

They told me the most points, plus cash, it will do is 14220, or something like that, the explanation being because that's the way it is. Well, one person answering said any amount up to 16000, and the second person said the 14220 figure.

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

I can see I don't do well posting in McDonalds parking lot at night.

In My example it said I could use 16000 points or any amount up to that, plus cash.

But it would now work with 15770.

They told me the most points, plus cash, it will do is 14220, or something like that, the explanation being because that's the way it is. Well, one person answering said any amount up to 16000, and the second person said the 14220 figure.

This morning I had 16,060 points, so as my brother would say, it is now a mute point.

Traded it for $200 RCI Bucks, so I can get a wonderful vacation to an exotic, sunny destination. Maybe SW FL.