Bank of america cash rewards card
No annual fee
15,000 points
$500 initial spend
($140 net value, .29/$)
Signup Bonus Chart3-5.25% on 1 category of your choice
2-3.5% Groceries and Wholesale Clubs
1-1.75% Everything Else
3%% Foreign Transaction Fee
For anyone who can move $100,000 in investment or retirement assets to Merrill Lynch, this card earns a 5,25% reward rate on your choice of bonus categories (Gas, Online Shopping, Dining, Travel, Drug Stores, and Home Improvement + Furnishings). You can even change your category every month.
If you can't qualify for the higher reward rates, the reward rate is 3%, and the card is much less interesting.
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Bank of America Preferred Rewards Program
Bank of America operates a "Preferred Reward" program that provides extra benefits to their customers, based on the total amount of assets they have at Bank of America and Merrill Edge. Among the most valuable benefits is a boost to the rewards earned from many of Bank of America's credit cards. Preferred Reward Program.
If you have over $100,000 in assets, you'll be a Platinum Honors member, and get a 75% reward bonus. If you have between $50-100,000 in assets, you'll be a Platinum member, and get a 50% reward bonus. And, if you have at least $25,000 in assets, you'll be a Gold member, and get a 25% reward bonus.
This can make a big difference in how competitive a Bank of America rewards card is, compared to the competition. For example, this card earns 3% on the category of your choice, which is pretty good. But, if you have $100,000 in combined assets at BOA and Merrill, you'll get a 75% reward bonus, and the card will earn 5.25% instead. Similarly, the Travel Rewards cards earns 1.5% on everyday purchases, which is less attractive than a good no-annual-fee cash-back cards (which earn 2%). However, with the 75% bonus, it earns 2.625% instead, which is the best permanent cashback rate of any no-annual-fee card.
Even if you have that much money, you don't want to keep tens of thousands of dollars around in a low-interest rate checking account. But, you don't have to. If you have existing investment assets, you can transfer them over to Merrill Lynch and qualify for the extra rewards without any substantial additional expense. Your existing mutual funds, ETFs, bonds, stocks, and other investments should transfer over, without you having to sell them, and you won't incur any fees, except potentially a small account transfer or closing fee at your existing broker. Rates for any future sales or purchases are comparable to what is available elsewhere. And you don't need to move over all your assets, just enough to qualify.
Unfortunately, Bank of America doesn't count personal assets for bonus rewards on business credit cards or vice versa. If you want higher rewards from this card (and the business Travel Rewards Card), the assets will be associated with your business. However, depending on the type of business you have, you may easily be able to transfer personal assets to a business-titled account in order to qualify for the extra bonus.
Collecting the Signup Bonus
- When the $500 signup offer is available, it is worth signing up for this card just for the bonus. The $300 normal bonus is less attractive. However, since the card isn't affected by most of Bank of America's restrictions and doesn't show up on your personal credit report, there isn't much of a downside to get the card. And you'll likely earn a few extra bonus points from its bonus categories during the first year.
- Most of Bank of America's restrictions don't apply to their business cards. For example, you can still be approved even if you've signed up for more than 3 cards in the last 12 months (7 for Bank of America customers). There are no explicit rules about having multiple copies of this card.
Bonus categories
You can choose to earn a base rate of 3% on one of six categories:
- Gas
- Office Supply Stores
- Travel
- TV, Telcom & Wireless
- Computer Services
- Business Consulting Services
Bonus Category rewards from your choice of 3% category and the fixed 2% on dining are capped at $50,000 in spending each calendar year. This is much higher than the personal version's $2,500 in spending each quarter.
At the maximum Preferred Rewards level, the 3% rate turns into a 5.25% rate. You can even change your category every calendar month, so you could earn 3-5.25% on computer services during one month, and 3-5.25% on office supply stores during another month.
Other Notable Benefits
- Access to Mastercard luxury hotel program. When you book at one of the participating hotels, you'll get an number of valuable benefits, like free breakfast, a $100 hotel credit, a room upgrade, and late checkout.Take Advantage of Luxury Hotel Programs for Valuable Extra Perks
- Free ShopRunner membership. Like all World Elite Mastercards, your card entitles you to a complimentary ShopRunner membership, which provides free two-day and return shipping from around 150 of the largest online retailers. ShopRunner
- DoorDash and Hello Fresh discounts. Cardmembers who have a DoorDash membership get $5 off their first two orders each month when paid for by their Mastercard. If you don't have a free membership from Chase, you can get your first three months membership for free through Mastercard. You also get a 5% credit back on each HelloFresh purchase.
- Free museum entry. As with all Bank of America credit cards, you'll get free admission to hundreds of museums on the first weekend of every month. Admission is for the cardholder only. Guests are not included, nor are any special exhibitions and other ticketed shows. Museums on Us.
- BankAmeriDeals. Bank of America has a shopping discount program that works like Amex Offers. To get each discount, you'll need to "activate" it through their website. Once activated, discounts are automatically applied when you use your card for the corresponding purchase. Most deals are cash-back based (typically 10%). BankAmeriDeals.
Getting Rid of the Card
Make sure to cash out your rewards before cancelling your card.
If you aren't currently using your Cash Rewards card, consider keeping it anyway. You aren't paying an annual fee and, sometime in the future, you may decide that you are willing to make the extra effort to maximize your rewards using its flexible bonus categories.