I opened a brokerage account at Merrill Edge and a checking account at Bank of America in August. I’m expecting the up to $1,000 bonus in a few months. See previous post Merrill Edge + Bank of America = Free Trades + Free Checking + No ATM Fee.
After three months, I qualified for Bank of America’s Preferred Rewards program. In addition to free trades and a free checking account that reimburses ATM fees with no minimum balance or direct deposit requirement, the third component I put into the Preferred Rewards program is a BankAmericard Travel Rewards credit card.
On its own feet, this chip-and-signature Visa card gives 1.5% rewards on every purchase with no special categories or caps. It has no annual fee and no foreign transaction fee. There’s a small $100 sign-up bonus.
The Preferred Rewards program makes it much nicer.
75% Bonus
When you enroll in the Preferred Rewards program, you get a boost in the credit card rewards. $100k in assets at Merrill Edge puts you at the highest tier (Platinum Honor), which gives you a 75% bonus on the credit card rewards. 1.5% rewards on everything then becomes 2.625% rewards on everything.
See this screenshot. A $71.30 purchase earned 187 reward points worth $1.87. That’s 2.6%.
Like some other travel cards, the reward points are worth the most when you redeem against past travel charges (100 points = $1). As long as you put travel expenses on this card once in a while, you should be able to redeem the points easily.
* You get the 75% bonus after you enroll in Preferred Rewards. If your checking account is new, it has to go through 3 month-ends before you qualify.
This Bank of America card with 75% bonus beats Fidelity AmEx in every way: more rewards, no foreign transaction fee, wider acceptance. It’s also better than the new Citi Double Cash card because it gives more rewards and it has no foreign transaction fee.
Auto Pay Full Balance
It’s not obvious how you set up for automatically paying the full balance every month. You set it up at this special website:
https://choosedirectdebit.bankofamerica.com/
What Count As Travel
You get the best redemption rate when you redeem the points against travel charges. What count as travel then?
After you use the card for some time, you can see your list of travel charges online when you click on Rewards -> Redeem Points -> Travel Credit -> Redeem for a Travel Credit. In my account, these charges all counted as travel:
- airlines (both tickets and baggage fees)
- hotels
- Airbnb
- car rentals
- Uber
- taxi
- public transit (bus, subway, light rail)
- ski resort passes and lunch at ski resorts
The minimum number of points for redemption is 2,500 points (earned by spending $952 at 2.625%). You have one year from the time of the charge to redeem points against it. You can redeem points against the same charge multiple times until the charge is fully covered by points redemption.
***
This card is becoming my primary card. Of course it works to its full potential only if you also have Merrill Edge and Bank of America accounts and you make it to the Platinum Honor tier with $100k.
[Photo credit: Flickr user Adam Fagen]
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indexfundfan says
I think the “up to $1000” offer requires you to wait for 180 days before you get the bonus. The “up to $600” offer requires only 90 days.
KD says
I saw on other online forums that the average balance has to be over $100K for 3 months and the balance determination is done on the third of the month. So if you put in over $300K at the end of the month, then technically you should be able to sign up for preferred rewards and get the 75% bonus starting 3rd of the next month right?
Harry Sit says
Only if you already have a B of A checking account for more than 3 months and you link it with the new Merrill Edge account.
smk says
If you transfer the points to the Fidelity Amex card, do you still get the full 2.625% or is it reduced? Thanks.
Harry Sit says
The bonus is given in points before the transfer (see screenshot). The transfer is 1:1 in points, then 100:1 as cash to Fidelity. So yes, you still get 2.625% if you transfer the points after you get the bonus.
Bob says
Harry Sit:The bonus is given in points before the transfer (see screenshot). The transfer is 1:1 in points, then 100:1 as cash to Fidelity. So yes, you still get 2.625% if you transfer the points after you get the bonus.
======================
That has me interested. I have the BofA Travel Rewards and the Fidelity Amex cards. How do I transfer points from the the BofA Travel Rewards to the Fido Amex? I looked at both the BofA and the Fiacardservices websites but cannot even figure out how to link the FidoAmex to the BofA site or the BofA travel rewards to the fiaccardservices website.
Any help appreciated.
Harry Sit says
Bob – At the B of A website, Rewards tab, Transfer Points button is right below the Redeem Points button.
Bob says
Thanks, worked well. I just entered the Fido Amex account number in the box and it accepted it. So, yes, this card is superior to the Fido Amex but you need to have it for this gambit to work. We do not travel much and directly redeeming the points would result in lower payout.
The Fido Amex is still a good card to have. I have had it for years and Fidelity has not fooled with its payout while others like the Schwab 2% come and go.
Harry Sit says
Bob – Besides airline and hotel, public transit, taxi and Uber also count as travel.
TJ says
So you don’t get a higher % if you redeem against travel than if you transfer to fidelity rewards? Weird.
Harry Sit says
The question should be asked the other way around. So you still get 2.6% if you don’t travel at all? Great!
John Paul says
What’s your assessment of the BoA Travel Reward card if one were to qualify for the Platinum level, but not the Platinum Honors level? Would you still say that the Barclaycard Arrival Plus is a better choice?
Harry Sit says
I would say so. Thank you for asking. I’m going to add it to the article.
Obviously the rewards are similar (2.25% at Platinum level vs 2.22%), but you don’t have to do the tie-in with Merrill Edge if you otherwise don’t want an account there. Faster redemption via transfer to Fidelity is only applicable if you already have a Fidelity card (not worth applying for one just for this purpose). The Arrival Plus card has several other perks the B of A card doesn’t have:
(1) The option to pocket the $444 bonus before the annual fee break-even period if you find something better, such as qualifying for Platinum Honor.
(2) Use at Sam’s Club, which doesn’t accept Visa.
(3) The price protection benefits.
(4) The trip cancellation insurance.
(5) Free FICO score every month.
(6) Setting a PIN for the chip makes it work at more places in other countries.
jc says
Why not just get the BofA cash reward which gets you 3% on gas, 2% on groceries and 1% on other, plus 75% bonus for Plat Honors, plus 10% customer bonus for redeeming into BofA checking/savings? So effective total back would be 5.77% on gas, 3.85% on groceries, and 1.92% on other if I am doing the math correctly. Are there any benefits to using points (or points converted to cash) to travel vs. getting more back in cash and then straight up buying the travel yourself?
Harry Sit says
The 75% bonus will replace the 10% bonus; you don’t get both. The gas and grocery categories have caps ($1,500 in purchases each quarter). If you want only one card, with 5.25% on gas and 3.5% on groceries subject to caps, and 1.75% on everything else, it may or may not come ahead of 2.625% on everything. Of course you can get both. Many people use two cards, one for special categories, and another for everything else.
jc says
Thanks for the response, I’m a big fan of your site and have learned much from your articles over the past few months. Anyway, I just got off a chat with a BofA rep and she confirmed that we are able to stack the 10% with the Platinum rewards (25%–75% depending on tier). That said, my new card was just sent out in the mail and I will have to do the math afterward to see if it really works. You are right that it depends on what you spend on that determines if you end up ahead. More than 50% of my card spending is on gas and food combined so it makes sense for me (and i am mindful of the $1500/qtr cap)
Edgar says
JC, I wonder if you have confirmed that the 10% for redeeming into a BOA account gets stacked with the 75% bonus for preferred rewards platinum honors as described to you by the BOA rep? Thanks.
jc says
Harry was right, no stacking. Platinum rewards program replaces older customer bonus. They added a footnote now to make it clear. Still not a bad deal. I use this card as my nongrocery (gas, etc) card and amex blue cash preferred for groceries. That way I avoid blowing thru the reward limits.
alcwj says
Would be nice to see how you like Merrill Edge brokerage account so far, been hearing too many horrible stories regarding their services.
BH says
Does this BofA card use the same processing company as the Fidelity AMEX – FIA Services? I have seen the really bad review for the FIA Services processing on the Fidelity AMEX….bad customer service, poor website design, lack of ability to pay in full, etc. I was surprised that AMEX would not handle the processing….instead, it appears they have outsourced it to FIA services.
Harry Sit says
FIA Card Services issues it. Bank of America services it. The card shows up on bankofamerica.com, together with your B of A checking account. Don’t believe the bad reviews. There is never the lack of ability to pay in full. I gave the link in the article. There’s a similar link for Fidelity AmEx. B of A website is first rate.
Bobson says
Long time FIA customer here. The reviews were valid in that FIA only recently (last year and a half or so) gave us the ability to autopay our balances in full.
Harry Sit says
You always had the ability to auto pay in full. Previously you had to call customer service to get a form in the mail which you fill out and return. Later they added a button that links to the online form but many mistakenly thought the button was an ad.
Daddy Warbucks says
Also long time FIA card customer – and have had full autopay for so long I have no recollection of how that was done.
My problem is that FIA’s fraud detection algorithms are set on hair-trigger. They routinely deny me routine online transactions, and once, I had them decline my card *at the grocery store where I shop EVERY SINGLE WEEK* . as a result, I have had my card # changed 4 times now (by them – I never get a choice in the matter), which is a pain in the ***.
has anyone else experienced that level of frustration with FIA and the card being recommended here? I was sold until I saw it was FIA – am getting ready to dump that one.
Harry Sit says
Daddy Warbucks – I’m not sure which FIA card gave you trouble. I never had any decline problems, not with this card since I started using it not too long ago, nor with Fidelity Visa which I used for several years. They replaced Fidelity Visa a couple of times due to merchant breaches. I imagine I would still have my card replaced if I used a different card at the merchant anyway.
washerdreyer says
Really interesting post, something to keep in mind next time I’m looking for a bank promo and/or a credit card, which is pretty frequently. On a sort of related topic, are you still making a 3.0% reward checking account work for you? My wife and I each had one, and then recently some rule changes combined with merchant code changes have made them much more difficult to maintain.
Harry Sit says
I closed that one. I don’t want to track whether I used it on 4 transactions over $50 yet. I had to keep the account open with $200/month deposit until it aged past 12 months; otherwise they charge you $10 to close it. Disappointed by that credit union.
Troutfisher says
I have the Fidelity AMEX. The interest on the B of A checking account is .05 of 1 percent, likewise their Money Market. Banking at Everbank, I get .45 of 1 percent on checking and .61% on a Money Market. No costs of any kind. So, switching to Bank of America costs some money although I could just set up an account with the required minimum balance and never use it … but then I do have to set up a Merrill account and fund it. I would be nice to just transfer checking and money market … but that would cost too much in lost interest.
Harry Sit says
I agree this is not for you if you are not willing to open a Merrill Edge account.
Sam R says
Harry, I just got the card. When I asked about the WorldPoints Mall, the rep in the bank said it was an old program. They don’t have the program anymore. Is that so?
Harry Sit says
Click on the link in the article. I received bonus for my Christmas shopping.
Sam R says
I have just got this Visa (Yay! Thanks, Harry!), and I”ll move $200k to Merrill in 10 days.
However, since my BofA checking account was opened just yesterday, I have to wait 3 months from before I can enroll in Preferred Rewards.
My question: If I start using this Visa now, instead of waiting for 3 months later (when I am eligible for Preferred Rewards), will all the purchases I made today qualify for the 75% “customer points bonus”?
I ask this, because IF the purchases I make today and the next 3 mo won’t get “customer points bonus”, I won’t make this Visa my primary card until 3 months later, when I’m enrolled in Preferred Rewards.
If this Visa don’t give ‘customer point bonus’ for charges made before I enroll in Preferred Rewards, I’ll just charge those purchases with Fidelity Amex, that gives 2% cashback, vs 1.5% cashback from this Visa.
(Of course I’ll spend at least $500 using this Visa within 3 mo to get the 10,000 point signing bonus)
Thanks so much for the input.
Harry Sit says
You won’t get the Preferred Rewards bonus until you are in the program. The bonus is given as each purchase is made, not at the end of a month or year. You missed the opportunity to turn the $100 bonus into a $175 bonus as suggested in the article.
Chino says
The 75% (or 50, 25) does not apply to the sign up bonus. I am at the 50% tier and I got a $100 signup bonus after spending $500. Still a good overall deal for the card though.
Sam R says
Harry, what do you think of this Visa vs bank of america better balance rewards Visa.
We can earn $120 a year with it.
If one already has Travel Rewards Visa, can one get Better Balance Visa, too?
I want to know your thoughts. Thanks.
https://www.bankofamerica.com/credit-cards/products/better-balance-rewards.go
Harry Sit says
If you want to get another one, I think the Cash Rewards card for gas and groceries is better. You can calculate which one earns more based on how much you spend on gas and groceries.
Sam R says
Cash Rewards Visa gives 2% CB for groceries. Well, I get the same 2% CB when I use my existing Fido Amex. And for gas, I use Sams club mastercard (5% CB on gas). So the BofA Cash Rewards visa won’t give me more value.
By the way, didn’t you once post that u use Amex Blue Preferred for groceries?
May I know why you are not interested to get the Better Balance Visa yourself and get $120 a year?
Thanks, Harry.
Harry Sit says
Too small to bother with another card. Don’t forget the 75% bonus. 2% becomes 3.5%. 3% becomes 5.25%. Depending on the spending level and mix between gas and groceries, the cash rewards card may be better than the AmEx Blue Preferred after the annual fee. Two cards are ideal for me. One primary, one for gas and groceries.
Sam R says
The bank staff who helped me open a checking account said I would get a FREE small safe deposit box rental (worth $47/yr), when one has 50k balance in merrill or BofA.
Did you take advantage of this?
Harry Sit says
Not yet. I heard horror stories if you don’t visit your box often some states force the banks to treat it as abandoned and send the content to the state. I don’t know if it’s true. I sure don’t want it to be less safe than at home.
Sam R says
For getting this Visa, I almost didn’t get the $100 signing bonus.
I went to BofA bank branch & applied for the Visa with a Merrill rep in the bank branch, after he helped me open a Merrill Edge account.
The next week, that person quit work! He no longer works at Merrill.
The Visa’s customer service on the phone said I wouldn’t get the signing bonus, because the application was not done online.
What???
The Merrill Edge rep that helped me apply for the Visa didn’t inform that signing bonus is only given for application done online.
So I had to talk to & convince the bank branch manager to honor the bonus.
Oh, BofA!
Sam S says
Hi Harry,
Want to know your response to these 2 questions:
1)Can you tell if BOA travel rewards visa signature reports the credit limit to agencies? I’m planning to convert from better balance visa to travel rewards visa if it reports the same way?
If the signature version doesnt report the CL, is there a Platinum Plus version of the card?
2) Planning to roll over prior 401K to Merryl Lynch to take advantage of the Platinum Honors status. How are the funds availability in ML, does it have Vanguard ETF, low expense funds and service?
Appreciate your help
Harry Sit says
1) Don’t know. I haven’t checked my credit report since I got the card. 2) It’s a brokerage account. All mainstream Vanguard ETFs should be available, but of course I didn’t check every single one. Vanguard mutual funds cost $20 per trade. Some readers reported that certain non-Vanguard ETFs weren’t available. QVAL, USO, UNG were mentioned. See
http://thefinancebuff.com/merrill-edge-commission-free-etf-no-atm-fee.html#comment-15932
Sam S says
I called BOA 5 times this week to convert better balance visa to travel rewards visa. They are saying this BB visa card cannot be transferred to any other card.
Any success with conversion so far?
Anthony says
When redeeming points on the BoA Travel Rewards Visa, is the structure similar to the old platinum rewards card? Can you redeem points for cash? Does 50,000 points still get you $500.
Harry Sit says
Don’t know anything about the old platinum rewards card. On this card, you can redeem for cash, as opposed to a statement credit against a previous travel charge, but you don’t get the full value if you want cash.
sita says
You think Bank of America business card – WorldPoints® Travel Rewards for Business Visa® Card is regular Travel Rewards card?
http://business.bankofamerica.com/creditcard/products/travel-rewards-business-credit-card
https://www.bankofamerica.com/credit-cards/products/bankamericard-travel-rewards-credit-card.go
Harry Sit says
It’s not. Business cards are not eligible for Preferred Rewards bonus.
http://info.bankofamerica.com/preferred-rewards/#footnote2
Click on the link at the end of footnote 2 for a list of ineligible cards.
sita says
Thank you Harry!
B says
May be a silly question, but I assume you can withdraw whatever funds you deposited to qualify for this card and you still qualify to earn at the highest level (2.6%) indefinitely, correct?
Harry Sit says
Not correct. If you fail to maintain the status you will lose the bonus and fall back to 1.5%.
Tom says
Is there a listing of other cards the BoA travel reward points are transferable to?
Harry Sit says
I’m not aware of any listing. Any WorldPoints-based cards by FIA or B of A would be a good start. If you are thinking of the B of A Cash Rewards card, that one isn’t eligible, because its rewards are expressed as cash, not points.
Casey says
I’ve talked to BoA about this, and it sounds great. I have already opened my IRA with them and am in the process of funding it with a transfer from one of my Vanguard accounts.
Can you please say what steps the other requirements, such as opening the checking account and credit card, should be done in?
Thanks!
Harry Sit says
You can open the checking account online or in a branch. After it’s opened link your Merrill Edge account to it. The credit card has a signup bonus only if you open it online; don’t open it in a branch.
TJ says
Apparently if you book travel through the Bank Of America travel portal, there is a stacking point bonus which brings it closer to 4% cashback ?
Harry Sit says
The travel portal is operated by Orbitz. Booking through a third party can create a finger-pointing problem if you ever have to make a change or if there is any problem with your reservation. I used it once. I don’t find the extra 1.5 points worthwhile.
Bob says
Fidelity is converting their 2% AMEX to VISA.
https://www.fidelity.com/cash-management/cardmember-faqs
I have been using the transfer of the BofA travel rewards points to the Fido Amex points to cash them out at the full 2.6+% rate. Now that the Fido card is no longer through FIAcardservices, it looks like this method will no longer work. I think the transfer only worked because FIA is part of BofA.
Questions:
Can you think of alternate schemes to cash out?
We do not travel much and when we do we use airline points for the tickets. Can you use the BofA travel rewards to pay for rental cars? Uber or Lyft? How about rental houses through VRBO or AirBNB?
The BofA is still a good card but no longer my slam dunk favorite after Fido cuts their relationship with FIA.
Harry Sit says
Hotel, rental car, taxi, Uber, bus, train, and subway all counted as travel for me. Ski resort pass also counted. I haven’t tried Airbnb or VRBO. Chances are they also count. Even when you pay for airline tickets with miles, there are still fees, especially for international travel.
David Wacker says
How can I transfer points to Fidelity AMEX when Fidelity has officially announced changes to their credit card line-up?
Harry Sit says
You can’t after the Fidelity Amex card is phased out later this year. Transfer while you still can. Redeem the points for travel credit when you can’t.
Bob says
I found this on flyertalk but there was no followup:
“You don’t necessarily have to redeem for travel. The points for this card are WorldPoints and thus you can transfer the worldpoints to any other worldpoint cards such as the fidelity visa or Amex and redeem the cash to your fidelity account…”
post on flyertalk
Can Harry or anyone else here add to this? This looks like a way to redeem points for 100% value for us non-traveling types.
Bob says
Here is some speculation about transferring worldpoints:
Why Bank of America Worldpoints Business Visa might be useful to some
The fly in the ointment seems to be whether worldpoints can be transferred from personal to business cards at BofA.
Harry Sit says
Bob – Scroll up for recent comments on transferring points. Travel is defined quite broadly. Unless you absolutely don’t travel and don’t take taxi, Uber, or public transit, it’s not necessary to get another card just for transferring points. If you must transfer points, I heard the B of A AAA card is good for that purpose.
John says
So with Fidelity dropping Amex, looks like redemption options are limited. Can I enroll my current BofA Cash back card (2% grocery and 3% gas) in this program to get a 75% additional cashback instead of opening a new card?
On the other hand I already have Citi Dividend, Discover and Freedom cards. So rotation of those categories could give me 5% in gas and groceries for at least 2 out of 4 qtrs.
Harry Sit says
John – Redemption options aren’t that limited. See recent comments above. But yes, you also get 75% more when you redeem cashback from the Cash Rewards card. The amount earned still shows up as normal. When you redeem say $100 as a credit to your B of A checking account, you magically get $175.
Bull says
with PH, you also get 4.125% on the first $6000 of travel purchased from the BOA travel center. This beats the Amex PRG’s 3x redeemed at cash rates (.0125 with Schwab) and the Prestige’s 3x redeemed at .0125 for any flight. There are some crazy cash deals on flights that make airline points worth less than 1 cent per point so UR and MR are worth nothing to me. In several examples I see flights from Europe -> US for less than $450 roundtrip.
Walter says
Ok, I’m pretty late to the party. It looks like it may be ending. Or not?
The only reason for me to open a Merrill Edge account and transfer $100K+ account AND open a Bank of America checking account AND apply for a Bank of America credit card in a particular order over a span of time is to be able to do better than 2% cash back on general merchandise purchases. Travel is of no use to me. I loath the special category nonsense. (I ain’t got time to bleed.)
The ability to transfer points to another card at the earned bonus rate that equals 2.6+% cash back is everything. The whole enchilada.
I’ve followed the links, I’ve read Harry’s replies. It seems to me Harry, that you may be avoiding specifics for a reason. Perhaps this method of cashing out is frowned upon by BofA. But maybe another reader can answer then if Harry feels uncomfortable with providing the map to the gold for fear of BofA frowning in his direction.
The $64,000 question:
Has anyone already transferred their points to another BofA card besides the Fidelity cards and gotten the full credit equal to 2.6+%?
If so, please share with us which card that is.
Bob says
Walter, there is a lot of speculation about ways to cash in but until Fido pulls the trigger and ends the Fiacardservices relationship you will probably not get concrete answers since there is no reason to try other approaches.
I did check into it the last time I transferred and it looks like I can transfer to another BofA card that gives a full one cent per point for amounts over 25,000 points. That is a lot of spending (~$9500) but since I pay my taxes (Fed, state income + property tax) I think it is doable.
Also, they have a fairly long look back on travel expenses. I noticed that some items I charged during a trip last Christmas were available for rebates. Travel is so expensive that even if you do not do a lot of it, like me, it provides a way to capture points.
Finally, another reason to set up a Merrill account is the generous bonuses that they pay. They offer $1000 for a 200K transfer fairly often. AFAIK, you can get $600 all the time. That is the reason that I set up my Merrill account and the credit card was just a bonus on that gambit.