Bank of America Premium Rewards

The Bank of America Premium Rewards card is kind of a sleeper. On paper, it's a $95 travel card with a decent 2x/1.5x earning structure, some travel credits, and no foreign transaction fees. Fine. Not exciting. But here's where it gets interesting: if you bank with Bank of America or Merrill and have some assets parked there, the BofA Rewards program (which replaced Preferred Rewards in May 2026) can supercharge this card into something genuinely elite.

At the Preferred Honors tier ($100K+ in combined balances), your earning rates jump by 50% — turning that 1.5x base into 2.25x on everything and that 2x on travel and dining into 3x. Park $1M+ and the Premier tier's 75% boost takes you to 2.625x and 3.5x. Suddenly this modest $95 card is out-earning premium cards that cost five times as much. The catch? You need the BofA relationship to make it sing.

• 2x on travel and dining, 1.5x on everything else: Clean, simple earning structure with no caps or categories to track.
• $100 Airline Incidental Credit: Calendar-year statement credit for baggage fees, seat upgrades, in-flight purchases, and airline lounge fees on most U.S. airlines — no need to pick one.
• TSA PreCheck / Global Entry Credit: Up to $100 reimbursement every four years. Skip the line on BofA's dime.
• BofA Rewards Boost: 10% to 75% more points depending on your tier — 50% at Preferred Honors ($100K+ in combined balances), 75% at Premier ($1M+). This is the card's entire personality.
• No foreign transaction fees: Use it abroad without getting dinged.
• Visa Signature benefits: Auto rental CDW, extended warranty, purchase protection, travel and emergency assistance.

Use the $100 airline credit and you're already net positive on the $95 fee. Throw in the amortized Global Entry credit and you're making money before you earn a single point. For a mid-tier card, the fee math works out really well.

Earn 60,000 bonus points after spending $4,000 in purchases within the first 90 days. Heads up: you may not be eligible if you have (or had) this card in the past 24 months.

At the fixed 1 cent per point value, that's $600 in travel through the BofA portal. For a $95 card, that's a very strong first-year proposition. No transfer partner acrobatics needed — just book and go.

BofA Rewards tiers (based on combined BofA deposit and Merrill investment balances): Member (10% boost, no minimum — you just need an eligible BofA checking account), Preferred Plus (25% boost, $30K+), Preferred Honors (50% boost, $100K+), Premier (75% boost, $1M+). Heads up: BofA Rewards replaced Preferred Rewards on May 26, 2026, and the 75% boost that used to kick in at $100K now takes $1M. If you enrolled in Preferred Rewards before May 26, 2026, your existing card may keep its old bonus (75% for former Platinum Honors members) for a while, but new cards earn at the new tier's rate. Points are worth a flat 1 cent each when redeemed for travel or cash back. No guessing games, no devaluation anxiety — just clean, simple math.

• Travel portal: Book flights, hotels, and car rentals at 1 cent per point through the BofA travel center.
• Statement credit: Redeem at 1 cent per point. Cash is cash.
• Cash back: Deposit into a BofA checking or savings account.
• Gift cards: Also 1 cent per point, the same as cash, so there's no penalty (or advantage) to choosing them.

Here's the tradeoff you make with BofA: there are no transfer partners. Zero. You can't move points to Hyatt or United or anyone else. That means no 3-cent-per-point redemptions on aspirational first class flights. But it also means no agonizing over sweet spots or watching your points get devalued overnight. You always know exactly what your points are worth. For a lot of people, that simplicity is the point.

• $100 Airline Incidental Credit: Automatically applied each calendar year for incidentals (baggage fees, seat upgrades, change fees, in-flight purchases, airline lounge fees) on most U.S. airlines — no need to pick one (Allegiant, Spirit and Sun Country don't count).
• $100 TSA PreCheck / Global Entry Credit: Statement credit every 4 years when you charge the application fee to your card.
• No foreign transaction fees: Clean for international use.
• Visa Signature perks: Auto rental CDW, baggage delay and lost luggage reimbursement, trip delay and cancellation/interruption insurance, roadside dispatch.

Without a high BofA Rewards tier, this card trails the competition — the CSP and Venture offer better earning and transfer partners at the same price. But at Preferred Honors ($100K+)? Suddenly you're earning 2.25x on everything (2.625x at Premier, $1M+) — no other $95 travel card can touch that. The BofA Premium Rewards is the ultimate "loyalty pays" card.

• BofA and Merrill customers with $100K+ in combined balances — the BofA Rewards boost is the whole value proposition
• People who want one card that just works everywhere without chasing bonus categories or managing transfer partners
• Travelers on a budget who want a low-fee card with airline credits and Global Entry reimbursement

Let's be direct: if you don't have meaningful BofA/Merrill balances, the Chase Sapphire Preferred or Capital One Venture will serve you better. This card's superpower is rewarding banking loyalty — and few banks do that as aggressively. (One rival worth knowing: U.S. Bank's no-fee Smartly card pays up to 4% cash back if you keep $100K+ in U.S. Bank Smartly Checking or Safe Debit accounts and also have a Smartly Savings account, though only on the first $10K of purchases each billing cycle.)