Bank of America is releasing a new Visa Infinite rewards card and details have leaked per Doctor of Credit. The card will be available to the public November 22.
For a $550 annual fee they’ll offer,
- $150 in statement credits for food delivery, fitness subscriptions, rideshare and streaming
- $300 airline incidental statement credits which will be similar to the Amex Platinum perk that’s limited to ancillary charges like seats, baggage, and lounge
- Global entry or PreCheck application fee credit every 4 years)
- 20% discount paying with points through BofA’s travel center
- 2x on travel and dining, 1.5x on everything else, plus Preferred Rewards bonus
- Priority Pass Select
It’s been 7 years since I first covered earning more on a Bank of America credit card when you deposit investable funds at the bank. Based on your account balances you earn a 25% – 75% bonus, so it’s possible to earn 3.5x on travel and dining and 2.625x on other purchases.
If you use the statement credits the net cost is $100 for a good travel rebate card whose points don’t transfer to miles. Earning 2.625 points per dollar on unbonused spend is good, and then those points go farther with the 20% discount on redemptions (using points for paid travel). Think of this as their Sapphire Reserve card without airline and hotel points transfers, but with better earn on unbonused spend. Applications will be through a financial advisor.
There’s not a ton to get truly excited about here in a new product – the core benefit is already available in a BofA card. It’s the Bank of America Premium Rewards card with add-on benefits, more or less. Here’s a primer on their card application rules.
BoA trying to create an innovative credit card? Let’s see what Sears comes up with next.
Hwong Kim, agree there are parts where they are copying Chase and Amex, but missed the mark on this one. There is not even a good way to earn back the annual fee and the 20% discount requires going through their portal I’m sure which will lead to major difficulties if you need to change anything.
As LT Evil Bank of America customer (?) I keep answering surveys to have a points to miles conversion card but do they listen??? No
Slowly moving checking account activity to Citi and earning Thank You points 🙂
The bonus will determine if this is a good card for a year or not. It’s definitely not a keeper. The $300 incidental is useless. A lot of people aren’t traveling as much as before Covid. Internationally, business class includes all these incidentals. The categories are worse than many no fee cards.
As I noted in a previous post, banks don’t make money with these premium cards. Those who will have the credit to apply and who apply will likely not carry a balance. The small banks don’t offer anything over $100 for a sub like PNC. The big banks use these premium cards to cross sell mortgages, loan products, deposits, and brokerage to these premium card holders. Bofa probably has some data that makes them think some people in their premium rewards program want a card with these features so they don’t go to Amex.
I can’t even find ways to use the Amex Gold 100 incidentals credit, 300 is madness.
I’ve been boycotting this bank for a decade so no problem for me to ignore this
Using the $300 incidentals credit is problematic. And who reading this doesn’t already have TSA/Global and Priority Pass already covered by other cards (for sub $100 AF)? I just don’t see anything that even slightly gets my attention.
The welcome bonus better be great!
Let’s hope BoA leaked this to get feedback, and they’ll come out with something a little more exciting after seeing all the yawns.
A very typical credit card based on outdated concepts. It will be a failure.
B of A = Failure.
Again.
Yawn…
Bank of America is allegedly in competition with Chase Sapphire credit card.
Matthew, could you yawn a little less loud, I’m trying to sleep thru this launch
No transferrable points = hard pass.
Hope they do the fee rebate with Diamond and Diamond + status, matching what Schwab do with the Amex Platinum.
Something like $200 fee reduction for Diamond and $300 fee reduction to Diamond +, would make it pretty competitive for Merill account holder.
Boa equals poison tainted bank
Almost as good as the trustworthy Wells Fargo
This is good card for someone who values simplicity and has decent Priority Pass options at home airport. I’m down if the discount works for hotels or activities
@Jackson…I kinda agree with you on that $300 thingy. When you look at the bigger picture, who can do anything with $300 today? We know Bank of America can come better than that to entice credit card applicants.
Airline fee credits only help a very narrow segment of customers who fly enough to incur significant fees but not enough to earn status that waives said fees. As a UA 1K, AA EP and DL Platinum, I literally have nothing to spend those credits on.
Will the B of A Priority Pass Select benefit include Priority Pass restaurants as well as lounges? That would differentiate it from Amex’s cheapskate Priority Pass benefit.
Never heard it called BofA over BoA. Gary, are you trying to bait someone into a BofA Deez?
no transferable points, no perks that i need, hard pass. BofA portfolio pretty much useless except for Alaska cards though I have a legacy Amtrak card.
This is $450 more than the regular travel rewards card. What are they thinking…? That card also comes. With $100 in incidental credits, which can be had on the cheaper card.
But the 2.625% cash back on the cheaper card remains best in class. Got hundreds back paying my taxes this year…
David with the 20% back your breakeven is at about 65k of spend. Plus you get the 300 airline credit.
That’s about 3.3% back.
@ Bill n DC
Seriously fuk off. BofA doesn’t play the churners’ game nor does it think that competition is doing exactly what everyone else is doing. Do you want to convert points to miles? Great, do to AMEX, Citi, Chase, or even Capital One.
The customers wanting cash back clearly outnumber those playing the points game at BofA. Besides, no one serious about rewards would be investing in points when the airlines all devalue them constantly anyway.