Bank of America Travel Rewards Credit Card Review
[2026.9 Update3] The additional cashback offered by Rakuten is now increased to $400, which is the best ever offer! We no longer track the additional cashback from Rakuten (unless there’s a best ever offer) because it changes too frequently.
[2026.9 Update2] The additional cashback offered by Rakuten is now increased to $375, which is the best ever offer! We no longer track the additional cashback from Rakuten (unless there’s a best ever offer) because it changes too frequently.
[2026.9 Update] The additional cashback offered by Rakuten is now increased to $350, which is the best ever offer! We no longer track the additional cashback from Rakuten (unless there’s a best ever offer) because it changes too frequently.
Contents
Application Link
- BoA Travel Rewards regular version via Rakuten. (Click here to sign up for Rakuten and earn $50)
- BoA Travel Rewards for Students. Note: student version has the same benefits as the regular version except the sign-up bonus. We suggest students apply for student version, non-students apply for non-student version, as suggested by their names.
Benefits
- $250 offer: earn 25,000 points after spending $1,000 in first 3 months. The value of these points is $250.
- Earn 1.5x points per $1 spent on all purchases.
- How to redeem the points: you can redeem the points for statement credit to cover travel expenses at a fixed ratio 1 cent/point. You can also redeem the points for cash or gift cards, but the ratio is very low.
- 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.
- No foreign transaction fee.
- No annual fee.
Recommended Application Time
- You can get it even without SSN and with no credit history at all! We recommend you go to the branch in this situation.
- 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
As a credit card that can be applied for without an SSN and with zero credit history, this card is well worth considering! If you have no credit history, you must apply at a branch. Note that branch applications do not come with a sign-up bonus, but for your very first credit card, the sign-up bonus should not be a major concern. Once you have built up enough credit history, you can apply for cards with much better rewards.
The card’s base earning rate of 1.5x points on all purchases is nothing special. However, suppose you have $100k in assets at Merrill Edge and qualify for the Preferred Honors tier. With the +50% rewards bonus, you would earn 2.25x points on all 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 2.625x points on everything, which is even better. With the rewards bonus, this card becomes a solid no-annual-fee, one-card solution for everyday spending.
Compared with the very similar BoA Unlimited Cash Rewards, the points earned by this card are redeemed at a fixed value of 1 cent per point, but they are still not quite the same as straightforward cash back because you need eligible travel purchases to redeem them against. That makes it slightly less convenient. The upside is that this card has no Foreign Transaction Fee (FTF), so you can continue using it as your one-card setup when traveling abroad.
Related Credit Cards
- BoA Customized Cash
- BoA Unlimited Cash
- BoA Travel Rewards (this post)
- BoA Premium Rewards
- BoA Premium Elite Rewards
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.
Historical Offers Chart
Note: Third-party platforms such as Rakuten sometimes offer additional bonuses. This chart does not include such bonuses, as they change too frequently.
Application Link
- BoA Travel Rewards regular version via Rakuten. (Click here to sign up for Rakuten and earn $50)
- BoA Travel Rewards for Students. Note: student version has the same benefits as the regular version except the sign-up bonus. We suggest students apply for student version, non-students apply for non-student version, as suggested by their names.