Bank Of America Premium Rewards Credit Card
After months of speculation and waiting Bank Of America has finally released their new Premium Rewards credit card. It comes with a nice sign up bonus and a reasonable annual fee. But it comes with underwhelming perks and earning structure for a “premium” card.
Details on the Bonus
50,000 bonus points – a $500 value – after you make at least $3,000 in purchases in the first 90 days of account opening. The 50,000 points can be redeemed in the following ways:
- Redeem for cash back as a statement credit.
- Redeem into your eligible Bank of America or Merrill Lynch accounts including checking, savings and 529.
- Use to purchase travel (air, car, and hotel) through the Bank of America Travel Center.
- Redeem for gift cards.
Remember Bank Of America has instituted new rules for applications.
Earning Structure
The Bank Of America Premium Rewards credit card has the following earning structure:
- 2 points per dollar on travel purchases
- 2 points per dollar on dining purchases
- 1.5 points per dollar on all other purchases
Cardmember Perks
The Bank Of America Premium Rewards credit card comes with the following perks:
- $100 Airline Incidental Statement Credit annually (calendar year – YES!!!) for qualifying purchases such as seat upgrades, baggage fees, in-flight services, and airline lounge fees – automatically applied to your card statement. Only applies to domestic-originated flights on certain U.S. Domestic airline carriers.
- $100 Airport Security Statement Credit towards TSA Pre✓ ® or Global Entry Application fee, every four years
- No foreign transaction fees
- Eligible for Bank Of America Preferred Rewards. Enjoy 25% – 75% rewards bonus on every purchase. That means you could earn up to 3.5 points per $1 on travel and dining purchases and up to 2.62 points per $1 on all other purchases.
- Access to BankAmeriDeals (similar to Amex Offers)
Sign Up Bonus Value $500 (net $405)
Each point is worth 1 cent a piece so 50,000 points is worth $500. After you pay the $95 annual fee you are left with a net of $405. This does not take into account the $100 (x2) in incidentals you get which should help offset the annual fee.
Analysis
While it is nice to see Bank Of America release a new product I don’t know that I can call it a “premium” product. I think most of us would have liked to see some transfer partners involved (Hello Alaska Airlines!!!). The lack of transfer partners or any other meaningful perks make the offer underwhelming. If this was supposed to compete with the CSR they had a large miscalculation. It doesn’t even really compete will with the CSP.
The sign up bonus on the other hand is pretty generous. $500 cash bonuses are becoming a rare sight these days. The fact that the $100 incidental credit is per calendar year is also good news. This allows you to get $200 in credits for the first $95 annual fee. It will be interesting to see if gift cards trigger the incidental credit like with some other credit card providers, even if not technically a qualifying purchase.
Conclusion
The new Bank Of America Premium Rewards credit card is definitely worth getting for the sign up bonus. $500 in cash is a pretty substantial bonus. The $95 annual fee is offset by the $200 in incidental credits that you will receive in the first cardmember year.
As far as for everyday spend, the card is not all that enticing unless you are a BOA preferred client. Even then the no annual fee version will get you the 2.62% earning rate as well, if redeemed for travel credits. 3.5% earning on dining and travel is decent but it is beat out by a few different premium cards.
I plan on signing up for the card and then downgrading it to the free version after 12 months. I just don’t think the earning structure is worth the annual fee even with the yearly incidental reimbursement.
Are you planning on applying? Let us know how the application goes in the comments!
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is the old king of travel rewards cards. Right now
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Learn more about this card and its features!
Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
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Do you know if points from the other cards are combinable with this one (like chase freedom is with the CSR?) That would make this more valuable.
I think the only card that would be possible is the no annual fee travel rewards card but I don’t think that is an option at this point.
Just a thing to note, on the no fee card points are only valued at .6 cpp when redeemed for cash (instead of statement credit against travel purchases.
Excellent point Rob! If you are MSing a large amount then that would make a difference and make the AF tolerable for sure. I will update the post….thanks for the comment.
Then there’s always the “refundable airline ticket” trick. Should work with this card.
You can get straight cash or a statement credit with the new premium card so you don’t need to do the refundable airline trick….that trick does work very well with the no annual fee version though!
I froze my Ex report when applying for Cap One Spark, then forgot to unfreeze it. Would that have any bearing on this?
Yes if they pull from there it may. I would call in and see if that is the case and ask them to pull from one of the other bureaus.
Y’know, after I posted my last comment, I realized something. None of my credit monitoring services alerted me of any. Refit pulls. So now, even more, I’m hoping I was declined because they couldn’t pull my EX report. I’ll know when I receive their letter explaining why I was turned down. There’s always hope.
I wouldn’t even wait for the letter I would just give them a call. Let us know what they say either way. Good luck!!
I called today. No one could give me any answers, except to wait 7-10 days for the letter. I’ll probably wait until then. Does BofA even have a recon dept?
Btw, in one of my recent comments, my phone’s autocorrect typed “refit pulls.” That was meant to be Experian pulls. I’m hoping that BofA tried to pull Experian, which I recently had frozen. If that’s the case, I’ll just unfreeze it and reapply.
1-866-224-8555
1-866-224-7803
1-800-354-0401
1-866-505-7481
8am-7pm I would give one of these a try tomorrow if you just called the regular number tonight.
Thanks!
Good news. I called recon today, and they confirmed that they’d tried to pull EX, which I had frozen. So, instead of my having to hang up, unfreeze EX, then call back, I asked the rep if she could pull EQ instead. She did, and I was approved, with a$12K credit line. Thanks for your help.
Shot down.
Dang….how many BOA cards do you currently have? Have you closed any recently.
One personal, one business. Opened the business card about three months ago. My FICO scores are in the mid-700’s, and I have a checking account with BofA (which I will probably close now).
Hmm surprising that you did not get approved. Did you call recon? Have you applied for a lot of cards from other banks in the last 12 months?
Just got the Merrill+ card and yet to meet min xspend. I am waiting to see some data points on this one as far as buying Airline GCs as you mention. Nice thing for me though is having my investments already at ML so I get the bump. Looking forward to more info on this one.
Yeah having investments with ML makes hitting the premium banking goals a lot more doable for most. I hope the airline GC’s work…would make the benefit that much better!