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The Bank of America® Premium Rewards® credit card has the potential to be one of the highest-earning cash-back rewards cards on the market, but it carries qualification requirements and, of course, an annual fee. Let's review the benefits of the card to help you decide whether the $95 annual fee is worth paying for card membership.
Bank of America Premium Rewards Card earning structure
The amount of financial holdings you have within Bank of America and Merrill will determine how much cash back the BofA Premium Rewards card will earn. The card works in conjunction with Bank of America Preferred Rewards Program, so make sure you understand the infrastructure and tiers of that rewards system. Based on your tier within the Preferred Rewards Program (which you need to sign up for separately), the Premium Rewards Card will earn the following points:
| Spend Categories | Regular Cardholder | Tier 1 – Gold ($20,000 – $50,000) | Tier 2 – Platinum ($50,000 – $100,000) | Tier 3 – Platinum Honors ($100,000 – 1,000,000) | Tier 3 – Diamond Honors ($1,000,000+) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Travel/Dining earnings | 2 points per dollar | 2.5 points per dollar | 3 points per dollar | 3.5 points per dollar | 3.5 points per dollar |
| Other purchase earnings | 1.5 points per dollar | 1.875 points per dollar | 2.25 points per dollar | 2.625 points per dollar | 2.625 points per dollar |
Each point is worth 1 cent toward cash back into your Bank of America deposit account or Merrill Lynch or 529 college savings account. You can redeem points for covering travel purchases or gift cards, but I recommend you just stick to cash back. With the basic rewards structure of the card covered, let’s look at all the card benefits and decide which ones could make the annual fee worthwhile, and which ones could make paying $95 hard to justify.
Which benefits are worth the $95 annual fee?
Sign-up bonus
With this card, you earn 60,000 online bonus points after spending $4,000 in the first 90 days of account opening. That’s worth $600 deposited into your checking, savings or investment account. It’s a pretty easy decision to pay $95 and get $600, assuming you have an easy plan to meet the minimum spend requirement. This bonus, of course, is not repeated for subsequent years of card membership, when you’ll still have to pay $95.
Airline incidental fee
You’re also eligible to receive an annual up to $100 airline credit to cover purchases such as seat upgrades, baggage fees, inflight services and lounge fees. Airfare is not included in what qualifies for reimbursement, though purchasing a seat upgrade could qualify, depending on the airline.
You receive the credit every year, and if you’re able to use the full amount, you’re essentially getting paid $5 a year to be a cardholder. Take away any other benefits listed here, and you’re already coming out ahead if you can maximize the credit.
Rewards for Platinum and Platinum Honors Preferred Rewards Members
If you have an average daily balance for three months of at least $50,000 in assets between your Bank of America accounts and Merrill accounts, you qualify for the Platinum tier in Preferred Rewards — significant for pushing your baseline rewards earnings over the 2% cash-back level.
Several cards, like the Citi Double Cash® Card (1% back when you buy plus 1% when you pay; see rates and fees) and the Fidelity Rewards Visa card, can earn anyone 2% cash back on all purchases, so being at least Platinum pushes the Premium Rewards Card past most of the other competition.
The information for the Fidelity Rewards Visa Card has been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.
Once you've attained Platinum Honors status, earned with an average daily balance over $100,000 over the course of three months, your baseline cash back is 3.5% on travel and dining and 2.625% on all other purchases. That’s significant compared to other competitor cards, most of which don’t offer the other benefits listed in this section. While earning transferable points can often give you a higher value, you still need cash-back rewards to cover the expenses of travel those transferable points cannot erase.
TSA PreCheck/Global Entry credit
The cardholder will receive an up to $100 Global Entry credit every four years, which can be used to cover the Global Entry or TSA PreCheck enrollment fee. If you have not yet signed up for Global Entry, this card will effectively pay you $5 to sign up or re-up your membership once every four years.
Which benefits are not worth the $95 annual fee?
Duplicate benefits
If you hold other premium rewards cards, some of the benefits of the BofA Premium Rewards card can be duplicative or less generous.
Many cards also offer Global Entry credits, which you only really need to use once every four or five years. If you hold an American Express, Citi or Chase card to earn those point currencies, you likely already have many of the travel benefits covered, and they may offer more protection.
Rewards for Regular and Gold Tier Preferred Rewards members
If you hold no tier or only Gold tier status in the Preferred Rewards Program, your baseline cash back is less than 2%. As previously mentioned, other cards can therefore earn you more cash back, even with no annual fee like the Citi Double Cash Card.
Secondary rental car insurance
This collision damage waiver (CDW) coverage will only kick in after your personal insurance covers the maximum allowed in your policy. That makes the secondary coverage not very valuable, in my opinion, and doesn’t stack up to the primary coverage the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card (see rates and fees) and [Chase Sapphire Reserve® (see rates and fees) provide.
Bottom line
If you qualify for the Platinum or Platinum Honors tiers in the Preferred Rewards program, you should consider signing up for the Bank of America Premium Rewards credit card. The ability to earn up to 2.625% cash back on the majority of purchases and up to 3.5% cash back on travel and dining is fantastic. That much cash back can easily subsidize your transferable points earnings and cover cash travel expenses.
Even without top-tier Preferred Rewards membership, a 60,000-point bonus ($600 value) and the $100 annual airline incidental fee means the card practically pays you to hold it.
Apply here: Bank of America Premium Rewards credit card
