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Bank of America: A Poor Man's Credit Card?

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kdm31091
Super Contributor

Re: Bank of America: A Poor Man's Credit Card?

BOA is basically the type of bank where they want a relationship. If not, the cards are very average in most cases.

 

If you have a relationship with a decent amount of assets and can qualify for the extra rewards, the cards become very respectable.

 

Many consumers just choose a card and stick to it. If they happen to bank with BOA they will likely just get a Cash Rewards card and call it a day, even if it's not optimal for all situations.

 

If you do not bank with them and/or have assets with Merrill Lynch, then the cards are nothing special at all although BOA can be generous with limits over time.

Message 11 of 18
MrDisco99
Valued Contributor

Re: Bank of America: A Poor Man's Credit Card?

I'm not quite understanding the relationship between a card's rewards structure and how wealthy its customers are...?

Message 12 of 18
K-in-Boston
Credit Mentor

Re: Bank of America: A Poor Man's Credit Card?


@MrDisco99 wrote:

I'm not quite understanding the relationship between a card's rewards structure and how wealthy its customers are...?


http://info.bankofamerica.com/preferred-rewards/

 

Wealthier customers tend to have assets.  If a good chunk of those assets are with BOA/ML, you get up to a 75% bonus on your credit card rewards.

Message 13 of 18
K-in-Boston
Credit Mentor

Re: Bank of America: A Poor Man's Credit Card?


@Anonymous wrote:

@K-in-Boston wrote:

Have you considered asking them for a credit line increase?  Unless you have a very low income, with your scores it doesn't look like that's happened lately.  Try asking for $50k or more and they'll counter.  You may be surprised to immediately see that limit dwarf all of your others - then try again 90 days later.  And as already stated, your relationship with them can make virtually all of their cards very worthwhile.  If the Cash Rewards isn't working out for you, BOA is pretty flexible about doing a product change - it may just take a month to get the new physical card.  BoA is a relationship that I was very neutral on until the past 2 years - now I'll likely be a lifelong cardmember.  They have truly surprised me with the improvements they have made in their customer service, as well.  I would honestly put them on par with NFCU these days.


Do you think BoA would be a good match for me then as far as CC's go? I've been a checking customer of theirs for three and a half decades, counting predecessor regional banks, so in that respect I've had a relationship with them for pretty much my entire adult lifetime. I did have a secondary mortgage with them that was included in my 2014 BK but it's getting close to 3 years now.


My understanding from what I have seen here is that they are quite BK unfriendly.  That could really go either way.  Hopefully someone with experience will chime in.

Message 14 of 18
wasCB14
Super Contributor

Re: Bank of America: A Poor Man's Credit Card?

A small share of the people who bring over $100k+ will be willing to pay AUM fees. BofA can make a lot of money with one such customer, so their reward costs are relatively minor with others. I've heard signing up for Preferred Rewards means getting a lot of sales calls from BofA. Personally, I'm passing so long as Starpoints are good.

Plus, some people will only have the assets in an IRA and may still pay interest when carrying a balance. The minimum spend bonuses are nice but not enormous.
Personal spend: Amex Gold, Amex Schwab Plat., BofA PR+CCR(x2), Costco
Business use: Amex Bus. Plat., BBP, Lowes Amex AU, CFU AU
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Message 15 of 18
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Bank of America: A Poor Man's Credit Card?

I love BofA. I opened my Visa with them in 2001; it was a targeted offer for 9.9% fixed and it has stayed that way for 16 years. I find them to be honest and transparent. As the second poster of this thread stated, BofA is a relationship bank and if you qualify for the Preferred Rewards you can really clean up with bonuses.

 

Having said that, BofA has clearly made the decision not to go after the higher wealth clients the way Chase and Amex do and maybe that works for them (as it has for Wells Fargo). Its all about business models. First Premier, Credit One and to some extend Capital One go for the rebuilders/builders; Wells and BofA go after their own customer (though BofA is more agressive going after outside customers); Discover wants to be your friend and Amex/Chase go after higher income, sign up bonus chasers. Not all businesses can or need to be the same. Take Toyota, great appliances, no soul; VW used to go for the younger crowd that wanted to be different and wanted German engineering at a lower cost and didn't mind higher maintenance/lower reliablity in order to have a fun, good looking car. Spirit Airlines; they give you a darn good ticket price but do not care as much as bigger airlines (recent news stories excluded) about customer service. I could go on and on. 

 

So BofA isn't as flashy; they are for the man and woman that do not need to be validated by their plastic (metal) Smiley Wink

Message 16 of 18
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Bank of America: A Poor Man's Credit Card?

I'm going to tell myself that you're right and that is the reason they still deny me with 750-770 credit scores, no negatives, over a decade of history, and AAoA of nearly 3 years even after all these newish cards...

 

yes, poor man's card... they are telling me that I'm not poor enough to join their club haha Smiley Happy

Message 17 of 18
grillandwinemaster
Valued Contributor

Re: Bank of America: A Poor Man's Credit Card?


@Anonymous wrote:

I love BofA. I opened my Visa with them in 2001; it was a targeted offer for 9.9% fixed and it has stayed that way for 16 years. I find them to be honest and transparent. As the second poster of this thread stated, BofA is a relationship bank and if you qualify for the Preferred Rewards you can really clean up with bonuses.

 

Having said that, BofA has clearly made the decision not to go after the higher wealth clients the way Chase and Amex do and maybe that works for them (as it has for Wells Fargo). Its all about business models. First Premier, Credit One and to some extend Capital One go for the rebuilders/builders; Wells and BofA go after their own customer (though BofA is more agressive going after outside customers); Discover wants to be your friend and Amex/Chase go after higher income, sign up bonus chasers. Not all businesses can or need to be the same. Take Toyota, great appliances, no soul; VW used to go for the younger crowd that wanted to be different and wanted German engineering at a lower cost and didn't mind higher maintenance/lower reliablity in order to have a fun, good looking car. Spirit Airlines; they give you a darn good ticket price but do not care as much as bigger airlines (recent news stories excluded) about customer service. I could go on and on. 

 

So BofA isn't as flashy; they are for the man and woman that do not need to be validated by their plastic (metal) Smiley Wink


I enjoyed your targeted explanation, Colorado Guy! I agree with you completely. It's all about marketing and target markets. In this case, BofA has chosen a specific market segment contrary to other lenders, and this has proven profitable to them. 


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Message 18 of 18
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