Which BOA cards earn bonus points via Preferred Rewards?

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Bank of America’s new Premium Rewards Card (details here) is expected to be released any day now.  The card is most interesting to those who have enough money managed by Bank of America / Merrill Lynch / Merrill Edge to qualify for Preferred Rewards Platinum Honors.  Those with $100K or more in investments and deposits earn 75% more points with select Bank of America credit cards (including this new one).  That means that those $100K+ customers with the new card will earn 3.5% cash back for travel & dining and 2.6% back everywhere else.  That’s a remarkably good “everywhere else” category.

a screenshot of a credit card

This got me wondering about other cards that are eligible for Preferred Rewards.  Bank of America doesn’t make it particularly easy to find them.  If you lookup Preferred Rewards, you can find a list of cards that are not eligible, but finding eligible cards is less intuitive.  A solution is to go to Bank of America’s Credit Cards page, select the View All Cards tab, then filter to Preferred Rewards.

a screenshot of a card

Cards that are eligible for Preferred Rewards

Bank of America® Premium Rewards

  • $95 annual fee
  • Earn 2% for travel and dining, 1.5% everywhere else
  • With Preferred Rewards Platinum Honors: Earn 3.5% travel & dining, 2.625% everywhere else

Click here for more info about the Bank of America Premium Rewards card.

Bank of America® Travel Rewards

  • Earn unlimited 1.5 points for every $1 you spend on all purchases everywhere, every time and no expiration on points
  • With Preferred Rewards Platinum Honors: 2.625 points (worth 2.625% towards travel) for every $1 you spend on all purchases everywhere

Click here for more info about the Bank of America Travel Rewards card.

Bank of America® Travel Rewards for Students

The earning structure for this card appears to be identical to the regular Bank of America® Travel Rewards card, above.

Bank of America® Cash Rewards

  • 1% cash back on every purchase, 2% at grocery stores and wholesale clubs and 3% on gas for the first $2,500 in combined grocery/wholesale club/gas purchases each quarter
  • With Preferred Rewards Platinum Honors: 1.75% cash back on every purchase, 3.5% at grocery stores and wholesale clubs and 5.25% on gas for the first $2,500 in combined grocery/wholesale club/gas purchases each quarter

Click here for more info about the Bank of America Cash Rewards card.

A number of Bank America cards offer the same earning structure as this card (including the Preferred Rewards bonuses). They are:

  • Bank of America® Cash Rewards for Students
  • Pink Ribbon BankAmericard Cash Rewards™ Credit Card
  • MLB®
  • World Wildlife Fund
  • U.S. Pride®

 

Norwegian Cruise Line®

  • Earn 3 WorldPoints® points for every $1 spent on Norwegian purchases.  Earn 1 WorldPoints® point for every $1 spent on all other purchases.
  • With Preferred Rewards Platinum Honors: Earn 5.25 WorldPoints® points for every $1 spent on Norwegian purchases.  Earn 1.75 WorldPoints® point for every $1 spent on all other purchases.

This one seems extremely odd since other cruise line credit cards are not eligible (see “Cards not eligible for Preferred Rewards”, below), but the Learn More page for this credit card specifically states:

Get even more rewards

Bank of America Preferred Rewards clients get an additional 25% – 75% points bonus on every purchase, applied to the base earn of 1 point per $1.

AAA Member Rewards Visa Credit Card

This card is not on Bank of America’s list of cards that are included in the program, but Doctor of Credit says that it does offer a Preferred Rewards bonus.  Doctor of Credit notes the following earning rates:

  • 3x (3% cash back) on travel and on AAA purchases; 2x (2% cash back) on gas, grocery, and drugstores; and 1x (1% cash back) on everything else.
  • With Preferred Rewards Platinum Honors: Earn 3.75% on travel and AAA purchases; 2.75% on gas, grocery, and drugstores; and 1.75% everywhere else.

Note that this card appears to be available only in certain locations, but you can try browsing to this link to see if the card is available to you.  If you see a AAA Dollars Mastercard, that’s not the same card, it is not issued by BOA, and it does not participate in Preferred Rewards.

Cards explicitly not eligible for Preferred Rewards

Non-rewards credit cards, Business purpose credit cards, Bank of America Accolades®, BankAmericard Better Balance Rewards®, Merrill Lynch branded (including Merrill Accolades®, MERRILL+®, Merrill Lynch® Octave® and Private Banking and Investment Group Octave®), U.S. Trust branded (including Bank of America Accolades® and U.S. Trust® Octave®), AAA® Gas Rebate, Alaska Airlines®, Allegiant World MasterCard®, Amtrak Guest Rewards®, Amway™, Asiana Airlines®, Azamara Club Cruises®, Bass Pro Shops®, Celebrity Cruises®, MelaleucaSM, Royal Caribbean International®, Spirit Airlines®, Virgin Atlantic Airways®

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