Cash back credit cards: KL shares the link to a new card offer that will provide a bigger rebate on general spending than pretty much anything out there.
- It’s bigger than the 2% cash back on everything with the Fidelity Investment Rewards American Express.
- It’s bigger than the 2.2%+ rebate towards travel from all spending on the Barclaycard Arrival Plus World Elite MasterCard.
But you have to have $100,000 in cash and investments that you can deposit with Bank of America to take advantage of the offer.
Bank of America Travel Rewards gives you 1.5 points per dollar on all spending. That equates to a 1.5% rebate (2500 points = $25).
Bank of America Preferred Rewards members earn an additional bonus of 25%, 50%, or 75% depending on the volume of assets on deposit with BofA.
Here’s the requirements:
- $20,000 or more gets a 25% bonus
- $50,000 or more gets a 50% bonus
- $100,000 or more gets a 75% bonus
Bank of American Travel Rewards provides an annual 10% bonus on points earned for qualifying Bank of America accountholders.
Unfortunately it is not stackable with these other bonuses.
So if you have $100,000 in total assets with Bank of America, you get a 75% bonus on top of 1.5 points per dollar — or 2.625 points per dollar, equivalent to a 2.625% rebate.
But this only makes any sense if you happen to have these investable assets and don’t care who holds them.
You can still have them invested as you wish, the same as if you held the cash or investments with Chase (Private Client) or Citibank (Citi Gold) or any other firm.
This isn’t a play for most frequent flyers, but it will be useful to some.
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BOA is garbage. They don’t have any accounts worth putting $100k in.
WF Propel has a similar deal where you can receive a bonus if you have certain banking relationships. Their top bonus is 50%. I was trying to figure out if you get that on top of the other bonuses or not as it could end up being a potentially lucrative 4.5x points on airfare which can add up fast if you are buying F/J
You can hold the money via Merrill Lynch, and you also get 100 free trades per month with 100k+ (IRAs count as well). It’s not bad at all.
I think you’re underselling this a tad. I’m moving my mutual funds from Fidelity to Merrill Lynch on account of this because… Why not? More cash is more cash. Plus Merrill has a signup bonus for moving the assets. Double win. BofA must be desperate.
This also makes BofA’s 1-2-3 gas groceries card a 1.75% 3.5% 5.25% card. How can this deal last? Although earnings are capped. So if I had to have “one card to rule them all” id go travel rewards.
@Stvr: What’s the cap? I’m not seeing it in the terms.
@Richard “Grocery store and gas bonus rewards apply to the first $1,500 in combined purchases in these categories each quarter.”
That’s why I didn’t mention the card.
Get more cash back for the things you buy most
1% cash back on purchases everywhere, every time
2% at grocery stores and 3% on gas for the first $1,500 in combined grocery store and gas purchases each quarter
…
The travel rewards are not capped, thus the better play. But if you don’t have many travel expenses, 1.75% CB with a Visa starts to look good. With no AF.
I think your calculation is slightly off because the T&C indicate that the bonus is on net purchases for the year and not a bonus on the net points. So the 50% bonus would equal 2% cash back (1.5 base x .5 bonus) and the 75% bonus would equal 2.25% cash back.
“the card account will receive an annual bonus points award of 10% of the amount of net purchases (or 1 bonus point for every $10) made with the card during the year.”
As a wrote on another blog.
Assuming you have Platinum Honors status…
$100,000 spend will get you $2775 or 2.78% return.
$1500 + $1125 (75% bonus) + $150 (10% bonus in the $1500)
Correction based on the T&C’s. You would only get $2725.
@DrStfu – the 10% bonus does not stack per the t&c
https://www.managerewardsonline.bankofamerica.com/cms/draft/root/rps/pdf/TravelEng044370July2014.pdf
“If you are enrolled in Preferred Rewards or Banking Rewards for Wealth Management, the rewards bonus you
receive under those programs will replace the Annual Customer Bonus.”
@Tom — that’s what I thought but on FatWallet someone reports a purchase of $71.87 receiving 108 base points plus 81 points as a Platinum Honors bonus. After you do the math, that’s $1.89 cashback on $71.87. That’s 2.63%.
http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/finance/1335073/?start=40
@stvr: Merril Lynch is owned by Bank of America. I doubt BofA is desperate with any success from Merril.
Bad move. Fidelity and Vanguard have plenty of funds with LOW FEES, and you aren’t going to find that kind of animal front and center at BoA. Most people don’t notice their 401K are getting drained by obscured fees, that are a real long-term problem of a compound interest sort.
Typo. I’m moving securities.
I wonder if a mortgage would count to get you this status.
@Vicente – you can still buy Vanguard and Fidelity funds via Merrill Lynch.
This post, including the comments, is about the most interesting post I’ve ever seen on Boarding Area. At least I haven’t seen this really written up anywhere else. I was going to apply for the Fidelity Amex card but now it looks as though I need to into this first (I already have a qualifying account for the 75% bonus boost). As you say, this isn’t for everyone by any means, but for me this looks as though it might work out pretty well. Thanks to you and everyone above!
Thanks so much for this post. I have never looked at Bank of America cards even though I am a customer of theirs. I have always like these Chase cards the best. But, this one is interesting and I had not looked at it. Many thanks!
Be careful if you are already a Platinum Priviledges client. You have to convert to Preferred Rewards Platinum to get the bonus. Glad I only spent $100 before realizing this. Have to wait 35 days for the conversion to take place.
As for the 100k assets- you can invest them in anything you want, buy the vanguard ETFs if you want. They’re all listed securities.
While I have more than enough credit cards for now, I might think about a Bank of America credit card in the future. Maybe. Not saying I’ll acquire a B o A card.