The Bank of America Travel Rewards Card offers a decent flat reward rate on every purchase. Not only that, you can pay down your purchases with an intro APR offer comparable to many dedicated low-interest cards.
Intro APR: Great length for purchases and balance transfers
The Bank of America Travel Rewards card offers a 0 percent intro APR for 15 billing cycles on purchases and balance transfers made within the first 60 days. A 3 percent balance transfer fee applies for transfers made within 60 days of account opening. After your intro balance transfer fee offer ends, the fee for future balance transfers is 4 percent. After the promotional period, an 19.24 percent to 29.24 percent variable ongoing APR applies.
Compared to competing reward cards that offer a 12-month intro APR period or shorter, this is a fairly lengthy offer that can provide you with more than enough time to pay down a transferred balance or big purchase during the first year. Once your intro APR offer ends, you’ll still enjoy long-term value from the card by earning flat-rate rewards on purchases.
Welcome offer: Decent value compared to similar cards
Bank of America offers 25,000 bonus points when you spend at least $1,000 on qualifying purchases within 90 days of opening your account. If you redeem these points for a statement credit, they’ll be worth about $250 in statement credit toward travel. This is a generous offer for a card with no annual fee.
A $250 value is slightly higher than what you’ll find with other no-annual-fee cards, but remember that some competing cards only require a $500 spend to earn a $200 bonus: You have to spend double with the Bank of America Travel Rewards card to earn an extra $50 in rewards. But on the bright side, the Bank of America Travel Rewards card doesn’t come with an annual fee that eats into your reward earnings.
Rewards: Earn more with the preferred rewards program
The Bank of America Travel Rewards credit card allows you to earn unlimited 1.5X points on all purchases. However, the Bank of America Preferred Rewards® program gives the Travel Rewards card an edge over similar competing cards if you already have an eligible account with Bank of America or Merrill.
Depending on your status tier, you can earn 25 percent to 75 percent bonus points on every purchase. That means Platinum Honors Preferred Rewards members can earn up to 2.62X points on all purchases and up to 5.25X points on Travel Center purchases. Plus, you could receive other benefits like boosted interest rates on savings accounts and reduced interest rates on your home equity and auto loans.
Here are Bank of America’s Preferred Rewards status tiers:
- Gold (at least a $20,000 combined balance): 25 percent bonus rewards
- Platinum (at least a $50,000 combined balance): 50 percent bonus rewards
- Platinum Honors (at least a $100,000 combined balance): 75 percent bonus rewards
The Preferred Rewards program also offers a Diamond Tier status above the Platinum Honors Tier, but it carries the same 75 percent bonus rewards boost and is only available to account holders with a combined balance of $1 million to $10 million.
This boost results in a card with one of the best flat rewards rates available, especially for no annual fee. It could make the Travel Rewards card an exceptional deal since rival cards typically max out at 2X rewards on general spending and 5X rewards on comparable travel portal purchases through the issuer.
Redemption: Fair options for a variety of travel and dining categories
You can redeem your points for gift cards, cash or a statement credit to cover travel-related purchases. Even better, you can request credit for your travel-related purchases up to 12 months after you make them. This feature opens the door to exceptional deals you might not find with other travel reward programs, such as discounted bookings through external travel websites.
You can also redeem points for cash back as a check or direct deposit to an eligible Bank of America checking or savings account or Merrill Cash Management account, though there’s a 2,500-point redemption minimum for travel credits and cash and a 3,125-point minimum for gift cards.
One of the best features of the Bank of America Travel Rewards card’s travel credit redemption is that it covers categories that may not typically qualify as travel or dining. For example, you can redeem points on admission tickets to tourist attractions, bar and nightclub purchases, transit and RV and boat rentals. However, some travel or dining-related expenses, such as in-flight goods and services and duty-free airport purchases, aren’t eligible for statement credits.
Knowing which purchases qualify for credits can get confusing, so here’s a list of Bank of America Travel Rewards card categories eligible for travel credits: