Bank of America Premium Rewards Credit Card Review
2023.6 Update: The new offer is 60k. This is the highest offer on this card.
Contents
Application Link
Benefits
- 60k offer: earn 60,000 points after spending $4,000 in first 90 days. This is the highest offer on this card.
- Points can be redeemed as statement credit or deposited into BoA Checking/Savings account at fixed ratio 1.0 cent/point. You can also use them in BoA Travel Center or choose to redeem for gift card. Therefore the 60k offer means $600 value.
- Earning 2x points per dollar spent on travel and dining, earn 1.5x points elsewhere.
- BofA Rewards credit card rewards bonus: if you have a BoA checking account and your combined assets in BoA bank accounts + Merrill Edge investment accounts reach certain thresholds, you can receive a credit card rewards bonus. The most useful tiers include: Preferred Honors, which requires more than $100k in assets and provides a 50% rewards bonus; and Premier, which requires more than $1M in assets and provides a 75% rewards bonus.
- $100 airline incidental credit per calendar year, you can use it on seat upgrade, baggage fees, lounge fees or inflight purchases.
- $100 credit toward TSA Pre or Global Entry.
- No foreign transaction fee.
Disadvantages
- $95 annual fee, not waived first year.
Recommended Application Time
- We recommend you apply for this card after you have a credit history of at least one year.
- 2/3/4 Rule: BoA will only approve you for at most: 2 cards per rolling 2 months; 3 cards per rolling 12 months; and 4 cards per rolling 24 months. Because their IT system hasn’t been fully updated yet, you may not get declined because of this rule. Instead, you may get approved at first, and then the account will be closed because of “approved in error”.
- 24 month churn rule: This card will not be available to you if you currently have or have had the card in the preceding 24 month period.
Summary
This is basically a cash back card. A $95 annual fee paired with 2x on travel and dining and a 1.5x base earning rate is not too bad. Compared with cards like the CSP, it lacks the ability to transfer points to travel partners — although BoA has never offered that feature anyway. One highlight is the $100 annual airline incidental credit per calendar year, which is relatively easy to trigger, so at least the annual fee should be fairly easy to offset.
One of BoA』s biggest advantages is the rewards boost for customers with substantial assets. Suppose you have $100k in assets at Merrill Edge and qualify for the Preferred Honors tier. With the +50% rewards bonus, you would earn 3x on travel and dining and 2.25x on all other purchases! That is a very strong return for uncategorized spending. If you have $1M in assets and qualify for the Premier tier, you would earn 3.5x on travel and dining and 2.625x on all other purchases, which is even better.
If you ever decide that you no longer want to pay the annual fee on this card, don』t forget that BoA also offers the BoA Unlimited Cash and BoA Travel Rewards as downgrade options. Both have no annual fee, earn 1.5x on all purchases, and are also eligible for up to a 75% rewards bonus.
Related Credit Cards
- BoA Customized Cash
- BoA Unlimited Cash
- BoA Travel Rewards
- BoA Premium Rewards (this post)
- BoA Premium Elite Rewards
Best Downgrade Options
After Applying
- Click here to check BoA application status.
- BoA reconsideration backdoor number: 800-732-9194. It seems that the number is changing. Please inform us at once if it fails. The representatives here can get in touch with decision-makers directly.