Over the last year and a half, my husband and I haven’t applied for too many new rewards credit cards. The last one I applied for was the Chase Ink Unlimited, and that was only because I was lucky enough to get a pre-approved offer from Chase. For the most part, we’re laying low and waiting for awesome offers on new cards to come along. We’ve also been leveraging the cards we already have to the hilt so we can maintain an ongoing stash of rewards to burn.
Currently, however, I’m considering signing up for a credit card from a bank I’ve never used before — the Bank of America Premium Rewards Card. There are two reasons I’m considering signing both of us up:
- Since we’ve never had a Bank of America card before, I should be easily approved.
- This card offers a big signup bonus.
Bank of America Premium Rewards Card
If you sign up for the Bank of America Premium Rewards Card, you can earn 50,000 points after you spend $3,000 within 90 days of account opening. You also earn 2 points per $1 spent on travel and dining and 1 point per $1 spent on all other purchases.
The downside of this card, at least for me, is that this isn’t a travel credit card. Points are worth one cent each, and you can only redeem for “cash back as a deposit into Bank of America® checking or savings accounts, for credit to eligible Merrill Edge® and Merrill Lynch® accounts including 529 accounts, as a statement credit to your credit card, or for gift cards and purchases at the Bank of America Travel Center,” according to Bank of America.
Since I’m not one of their banking customers, I would simply accept the statement credits and use them to cover travel purchases made with my card. I would also probably check out the Bank of America Travel Center to see if any options were worthwhile.
Another intriguing benefit of this card is the fact you get a $100 credit for TSA Precheck or Global Entry. My husband and I already have Global Entry, but our children do not. Our memberships are also set to expire next year, so I could see us using the credits to cover our children’s Global Entry and using credits from other cards to cover ours. We initially used credits from the Platinum Card from American Express to pay for our first Global Entry memberships, so we still have credits left on our Chase Sapphire Reserve cards.
This card does have a $95 annual fee, and it is not waived the first year.
The Bottom Line
If you’re looking for a new card to sign up for, the Bank of America Premium Rewards Card is one to consider. It’s not a travel card, but anyone could benefit from having cashback to spend on travel incidentals, hotels, and more.
Will I sign up? I’m going to think it over for a few weeks before I decide.
Would you ever sign up for this card? Why or why not?
[Image: Flickr/ Mike Mozart]
Source: frugal travel guy