Question on BofA Travel Rewards...

[Open123]

Say, for BofA Privileged, do you receive the 75% bonus on the 1.5% when spent, or only when it's deposited into your checking account, like the cash rewards?  My reason for asking is because I'm assuming I'll earn 2.625 pts per spend, which can then be transferred to my Fid Amex for 1:1 cash redemption.

By the way, is there still a Privileged Travel rewards earning 2 pts per spend with the 75% bonus?

[Anonymous]

don't travel rewards get credited to the travel purchase?

[Open123]

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@Anonymous wrote:

don't travel rewards get credited to the travel purchase?

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Ordinarily, yes.  But, if you have a Fid Amex, you can transfer the Travel Rewards World Points into the Fid Amex World Points for the 1:1 cash redemption into a Fid CMA.

[axlm]

Not really sure about privilege rewards, but I have a 10% relationship bonus and it gets applied immediately (while earning points, not redeeming). Basically 1.65% cashback for travel.

[Anonymous]

I found the following informatio on the BoA site:

https://www.bankofamerica.com/credit-cards/products/bankamericard-travel-rewards-credit-card.go

[longtimelurker]

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@beautifulblaquepearl wrote:

I found the following informatio on the BoA site:

https://www.bankofamerica.com/credit-cards/products/bankamericard-travel-rewards-credit-card.go

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And a key bit seems to be:

Bonus will vary based on your type of rewards program. BankAmericard Cash Rewards™ and BankAmericard Privileges® with Cash Rewards bonuses apply to rewards redeemed into a Bank of America® checking or savings account or a Merrill Lynch Cash Management Account®. BankAmericard Travel Rewards® bonus applies to customers with a qualifying account. For these cards, if enrolled in Preferred Rewards, your base reward earnings will increase by 25%, 50% or 75%, depending on eligible tier.

So it looks like different treatment, for the cash cards, you DO need to redeem into BoA account to get the enhanced bonus, whereas the travel cards get the rewards at the time of purchase    

[Anonymous]

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@Open123 wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

don't travel rewards get credited to the travel purchase?

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Ordinarily, yes.  But, if you have a Fid Amex, you can transfer the Travel Rewards World Points into the Fid Amex World Points for the 1:1 cash redemption into a Fid CMA.

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Good to know...thank you!

[Open123]

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@axlm wrote:

Not really sure about privilege rewards, but I have a 10% relationship bonus and it gets applied immediately (while earning points, not redeeming). Basically 1.65% cashback for travel.

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Thanks!  

Just wanted to make sure I undertood how it worked before funneling a portion of my expenditures on it.  Now, let's just hope Fid keeps their relationship with Amex, but with FIA, more importantly.

[Open123]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Open123 wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

don't travel rewards get credited to the travel purchase?

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Ordinarily, yes.  But, if you have a Fid Amex, you can transfer the Travel Rewards World Points into the Fid Amex World Points for the 1:1 cash redemption into a Fid CMA.

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Good to know...thank you!

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It's a pretty neat way to increase cashback with a Visa card.  

I had been intending to do this for a while, but never got around to it, since with all the great sign-up bonuses, there just wasn't a great need for a general cashback card for me.  However, with Issuers clamping down on multiple bonuses and Costco switching to Visa next year, it seems to be a good time for a Visa card offering 2.5%+ as pure cashback.  I've got several friends who shop at Costco quite a bit who can benefit from being AUs on this account.  Naturally, I always pass the full rebate back to AUs who use my cards (of course, I use Serve to pay them with funds loaded from Fid Amex).  

I can't imagine if the old Privilege Travel Rewards offering 2% would still be available, but the 75% bonus would place this at 3.5% cashback.  Hailing from the school of thought that "nothing is too wonderful to be true," I may walk into a BofA Branch just to see if I can app/upgrade for this card.  

*Edited*  PS - Since BofA upped the bonus on their Travel Rewards to 20K and I was app'ing for their Amtrak card, just decided to app for both simultaneously.  Ordinarily, $200 isn't enough of an enticement for me to App, but combined with the potential 2.65% cashback, especially with a Fid Amex/CMA structure already in place, it was worth a new TL.

PS 2 - Also, always liked this card for (1) EMV chip (meaningless now, since everyone has it) and, (2) no FTF and no annual fee.

[CreditDunce]

PR is the new rewards structure.  Once you switch to the PR, you loose the old reward structure.  The TR with 1.5% is the best you can do.