Bank of America Rewards: Card Points and Cash Back

Two layers of rewards

Bank of America groups its consumer cards into cash back, points, travel and airline rewards categories, and lets applicants filter the range by features such as no annual fee or no foreign transaction fee. [1] The bank also publishes a comparison tool for its most popular cards and a prequalification check that it says has no impact on a credit score. [1]

The rewards a card earns are only the first layer. The second is BofA Rewards, the relationship programme behind the card portfolio: enrolled members holding an eligible Bank of America card receive a bonus on the rewards that card produces, and the size of the bonus depends on the member's tier. [3] The bonus applies to eligible cash back, points and travel rewards cards. [3]

Enrolment requires an open, qualifying Bank of America personal checking account, and there is no fee to join or to maintain membership. [3] The entry Member tier carries no minimum balance, although the checking account itself may charge a monthly maintenance fee if its own waiver conditions are not met. [3] Balances in qualifying Bank of America deposit accounts and in Merrill investment accounts both count toward the tier calculation. [3]

Tiers and the relationship bonus

Tiers are set by the combined average balance across qualifying accounts: Member has no minimum balance, Preferred Plus starts at $30,000, Preferred Honors at $100,000 and Premier at $1,000,000. [3] Bank of America reviews balances every month, moves qualifying customers up within three business days, and warns that newly earned benefits can take up to 30 days to become active. [3] If balances fall below the requirement at the annual review, the member is notified and given a three-month grace period to restore them before being moved down a tier. [3]

The credit card bonus attached to each tier is 10% for Member, 25% for Preferred Plus, 50% for Preferred Honors and 75% for Premier. [3] Members who have an eligible card when they join have the card benefit applied without further action. [3] The same tier structure is what the Bank of America Preferred Rewards profile describes from the banking side. [3]

How the bonus lands

On eligible cash rewards cards, the relationship bonus is applied after all base and bonus cash rewards for the purchase have been calculated. [3] Bank of America's own illustration is a $100 purchase earning 3%, or $3.00: the same purchase then earns $3.30, $3.75, $4.50 or $5.25, depending on the tier in force when it posts to the account. [3] For other eligible card types the arithmetic is expressed in points, so 100 base points become 110, 125, 150 or 175. [3] The tier that counts is therefore the tier at the moment of the purchase, not the tier at the moment the reward is later redeemed. [3]

The bonus is not paid on the bonus earn of certain programmes, and it is not applied to any account-opening bonus or to non-standard rewards that form part of a special offer unless Bank of America indicates otherwise. [3] Where a card already carries a 10% customer bonus, the BofA Rewards bonus replaces that bonus rather than being added to it. [3] The bank publishes a complete list of cards that are not eligible. [3] The bonus is a multiplier on earning rate, so the result still depends on the rate the individual card pays before the bonus. [3]

What is not stated

The 3% figure above exists only as the input to Bank of America's illustration of the bonus calculation. [3]

Exceptions and limits

• Consumer only. BofA Rewards is exclusively for consumers; business banking customers may instead be eligible for a separate Preferred Rewards for Business programme. [3]
• Airline cards.
• Earlier enrolment. Customers who enrolled in Preferred Rewards before 26 May 2026 may have a card eligible for an extended card benefit, which the bank says must be checked in the account rather than assumed. [3]
• Special eligibility. Bank of America Private Bank clients qualify to enrol at the Premier tier regardless of balances, and bank employees and retirees may be offered membership on customised terms. [3]
• No approval guarantee. Programme status does not guarantee approval for lending or credit products; the bank's standard underwriting and credit policies still apply. [3]
• Changeable terms. Rates, tiers and conditions are published figures that can change without notice, and benefits are non-transferable. [3]

Related pages

Relationship programme: Bank of America Preferred Rewards. Background: credit cards in the United States, category bonus, earning rate, cents per point, and the full glossary of terms.

Sources

Sources checked on 18 October 2026. Business cards, the Preferred Rewards for Business programme after 26 May 2026 variations in card benefits, airline rewards cards and Merrill investment products are not covered here; where the sources do not state a card's earning rate, cap or redemption value, this page leaves it unstated.

1. Bank of America credit cards overview, checked 18 October 2026
2. BofA Rewards programme benefits, tiers and credit card bonus terms, checked 18 October 2026