We recently wondered wether we should invest in Carnival Corporation & PLC (CCL), the parent company of P&O Cruises, and if the shareholder rewards were worth it enough to make it benefit that would work for us.
Share history and current price
Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, CCL shares were trading at 3,708gbx (£37.08) per share, but dropped significantly in 2020 as restrictions fell into place and hit the cruising industry hard, the shares are currently trading at 655gbx (£6.55) a share, as of March 21 2023 on the FreeTrade app. Although there have been some ups and downs in the last few months the share price is remaining fairly low. This is why we began looking into the shareholder benefits.
Who is CCL?
Carnival Corporation & PLC operate many cruise lines in different territories: (see below list)
Northern America Brands
Carnival Cruise Line, Princess Cruises, Holland America Line, Seabourn, Cunard
Continental Europe Brands
United Kingdom Brands
Australia Brands
What is the shareholder benefit?
If you purchase 100 CCL shares, you can send off a request for onboard credit (OBC) to be applied to any booking you have within the next 3 months. The OBC does vary depending on cruise duration, and territory. The current OBC reward is shown in the below table:
North America Brands | Continental Europe Brands | UK Brands | Australia Brands | |
14 days + | $ 250 | € 200 | £ 150 | A$ 250 |
7 - 13 days | $ 100 | € 75 | £ 60 | A$ 100 |
6 days or less | $50 | € 40 | £ 30 | A$ 50 |
How do you purchase shares?
We made the mistake of starting off by purchasing CCL shares through Hargreaves Lansdown (HL). Although HL are a popular company to trade and invest with, for us, as newbies to the investing world, we have no need for all of their expertise (and high commission rates). For every trade with HL, we were also charged a high rate of commission, and as we were purchasing shares on a month by month basis to build up to the 100 shares, we knew we would be charged a small fortune long term.
This is when we opened an account with FreeTrade. FreeTrade is exactly how it sounds, the trades don't come with those high rates of commission. There are a couple of monthly membership options which may offer a good deal for you, but for us, we didn't feel the need to subscribe to a monthly plan.
Within a couple of months we had our 100 shares, and sent off our first request for OBC.
FreeTrade free shares
If you have a FreeTrade account you can also share your code (similar to that of UberEats) to gain some free shares along the way too!
Are the shares worth it?
This depends entirely on what you need from your shares. If it's just to invest, then I wouldn't want to give any trading advice, especially as the share price has been so volatile in recent years. However, if it's to make some use out of the OBC reward, then work out if you can make it work for you.
We recently wondered whether we should invest in Carnival Corporation & PLC (CCL), and if the shareholder rewards were worth it enough to make it benefit that would work for us.£270 back in OBC. It is worth pointing out you can only claim the shareholder benefit once per stateroom; therefore if you and your travelling partner are both shareholders, you will only get the one OBC
Claiming your OBC
You will need to send of the below information to the relevant cruise line to claim your benefit:
Legal Name
Proof of Share Ownership
Booking reference
Ship Name & Date of Travel
I have copied the CCL shareholder benefits link which details relevant contact information for each of the Carnival Corporation & PLC brands below:
We hope this blog post has been helpful for you, and has assisted in your research into CCL shares.
Happy Cruising!