Doctor of Credit reports on an exciting development: Bank of America is launching a new cash back credit card called the Unlimited Cash Rewards Card that basically mirrors the Travel Rewards card without the requirement to redeem rewards for travel. That’s great news because it means that while the card will earn a not-exciting 1.5% on all purchases for those without Bank of America Preferred Rewards status, it means that those with Platinum Honors status will earn 2.625% cash back on all purchases with no annual fee. That’s awesome! To add icing on the cake, Bank of America is offering some 3-2-1 cardholders a $200 bonus as a product change after $1K in purchases within 90 days with no credit pull / new account.
The Offer & Key Card Details
For more information and to find a link to apply, click the card information below to go to our Frequent Miler page for this card.
| Card Offer and Details |
|---|
$200 cash bonus ⓘ Non-Affiliate $200 cash rewards bonus after $1K spend in 90 daysNo Annual Fee Information about this card has been collected independently by Frequent Miler. The issuer did not provide the details, nor is it responsible for their accuracy. Earning rate: 1.5% everywhere; Earn up to 2.625% back everywhere with Bank of America Platinum Honors status Base: 1.5X (1.5%) Card Info: Visa Signature issued by BOA. This card imposes foreign transaction fees. Noteworthy perks: Up to 75% bonus for Preferred Rewards banking customers |
- Note that this card is also being offered to some cardholders as a product change to from a Customized Cash Rewards or Travel Rewards card with the same $200 bonus after $1K in purchases in the first 90 days with no application / no credit check
Quick Thoughts
Update: While this card was only initially offered as a product change, it is now available for new applicants as well. That said, those eligible for the product change bonus may find that more appealing since it involves no new account and the same bonus. Picking up an easy $200 cash bonus without adding to one’s 5/24 count could be a nice incentive.
This card is not yet available for new applications and thus far is only being offered via targeted email to existing 3-2-1 Cash Rewards cardholders. The product change offer is great since it gives a $200 bonus after $1K in purchases in 90 days with no application or credit check. That’s a super easy 20% cash back score.
This key that makes this card better than the Travel Rewards card is that rewards do not need to be redeemed for travel but rather can be taken as straight cash back. Again, while 1.5% back is not exciting at all, the key here is for Bank of America Platinum Honors members who receive a 75% bonus on credit card earnings. See this post for more detail: Bank of America cards: awesome if you’ve got $100K lying around (note that in my case, we triggered the requirements with a mix of IRA and other long-term investment accounts via Merrill Edge since there are no annual fees and no fees for trading ETFs and stocks).
I’ll be interested in seeing what this means for the Premium Rewards card. That card also offers a flat 1.5% back on most purchases (2.625% back with Platinum Honors) and 2% dining and travel (3.5% with Platinum Honors). While the card has a $100 annual travel incidental credit, it probably isn’t worth paying the $95 annual fee on that card for most people since 3.5% back on travel and dining aren’t unbeatable returns. The Premium Rewards card is also offering 2% back on grocery purchases through 12/31/21 (3.5% with Platinum Honors), but I could imagine product changing after that unless something changes.
Overall, great news here for those receiving the product change offer and great news whenever this becomes available to the masses.
H/T: Doctor of Credit
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I got offer to switch my 3-2-1 card to new card. Accepted it. Hope I made the right decision. Anyone has success in closing one BAC credit card and transferring credit limit to another BAC card ? I am thinking about cancelling my $95 and travel card.
Received a mailer today saying they’re converting my super old Accelerated Rewards American Express card into this one…no $200 bonus for any spend mentioned, unfortunately. That Amex has been sock-drawered but helping my AAOA for a long long time. At least this is moderately useful, except not overseas.
The 3% foreign transaction fee is disappointing.
https://www.bankofamerica.com/credit-cards/terms-and-conditions/?campaignid=4051617&productoffercode=W6&locale=en_US
My husband and I have Platinum Honors status and between us have the following:
I meant $100 travel credit
I don’t understand why you’d ever get this instead of the Premium Rewards card. The very easy to use $200 airline credit more than offsets the $95 annual fee and it earns the same rates.
Oops I meant $100 travel credit.
When you’re looking at intro bonuses, I agree — the $500 bonus on the Premium Rewards card makes that the clear winner.
But ongoing, why spend $95 per year to lock yourself into having to make sure you use the airline credit to only come out $5 ahead? There’s just not enough advantage to make it worth paying the fee unless you either spend a lot on the card on travel and have no better travel cards or you want it to be the card you use for travel protections. In either case, there are cards that bonus travel or dining more generously than the 3.5% available on the Premium Rewards caard.
To be clear, I don’t think the Premium Rewards card is a bad card and I agree that you can come out $5 ahead, I just don’t think it’s probably worth putting any effort into trying to come out $5 ahead when you could alternatively have this card.
The Premium Rewards card has excellent travel protections such as baggage delay, trip delay/cancellations etc. Those are valuable.
It does have decent travel protections, though they lag behind competitors in some instances.
For example, the trip cancellation insurance on the Premium Rewards card covers up to $2500 per person. The Sapphire Preferred (also $95 annual fee) covers up to $10K per person.
Car rental coverage is secondary on the Premium Rewards — meaning that your personal car insurance would have to pay first, then the card (whereas the Sapphire Preferred and several other Chase cards offer primary CDW).
In other areas, they match the CSP — $100 per day for baggage delay of 6 hours or more for up to 5 days, $500 per ticket in trip delay coverage if you’re delayed 12 hours or more, etc.
Cards like the Sapphire Reserve and Ritz card offer what I would consider to be excellent travel protections: trip delay is defined as 6 hours or more (rather than 12) and they add things like $2500 in emergency medical/dental coverage, up to $100K in emergency evacuation coverage, and $50 coverage toward roadside assistance up to 4 times per year, etc.
If you’re only going to have Bank of America cards, the Premium Rewards card might make sense since it comes with the $100 travel credit, has Global Entry / TSA Precheck reimbursement, and has reasonable travel protections. However, if you’re also going to be invested in the Ultimate Rewards ecosystem, I don’t find the travel protections on the Premium Rewards card worth considering unless I’m missing some place where their benefits excel comparatively.
I tried to downgrade the Premier card. Interestingly I got a retention offer. Spend $1500 in 90 days and I would get a $100 credit to the Premier card.
I just got a jumbo mortgage from BofA last month and also moved quite a bit of assets to Merrill (as part of the mortgage application to get a 0.25% discount on the mortgage interest). Not sure if that’s part of this.
A clear shot across the bow of the new WF card. This one have to jump through some hoops to get that high percent though.
I don’t know if I’d call it “hoops” in plural form. A hoop. You need to move investments to Merrill. In my case, moving my Roth IRA to Merrill made no material difference for me since it has no fees on the ETFs I was already using for my retirement savings. If you are a relatively simple investor, it’s a pretty easy transition. On the other hand, if you’re a day trader or you’re going to move cash out of a higher yield account, this probably won’t be attractive.
Seems like it’s pretty much the same as the Premium rewards card without the $100 travel credit / TSA credit right??
And without the Premium Rewards card bonus categories on dining and travel (and temporarily grocery).
Will this new Unlimited Cash Rewards Card have a foreign currency transaction fee?
I’m not sure, but I assume it will not since the Travel Rewards card does not, but the 3-2-1 Cash Rewards card does have a foreign transaction fee, so it’s not yet clear.
It would be a shame if this replaced 321 Cash Rewards. I fear it’s trending in that direction if they’re sending upgrade offers…
Funny enough I’m targeted for the Unlimited Cash Rewards Card and have top tier BOA status.
I was targeted for this on my Travel Rewards card. I don’t have a 3-2-1 Cash Rewards card.
I hope they revamp the BofA Premium Rewards card into a real premium reward card. I only use it for un-bonused spend.
No thank you. I only need one Pratinum card. BofA PR is perfect as is