topic Re: BOA 99/500 Rewards in Credit Card Approvals

BOA 99/500 Rewards UPDATE! APPROVED!!

grillandwinemaster — Mon, 08 May 2017 14:58:44 GMT

So I found this old thread from about a year ago on the BofA secured card that i found rather interesting. Several posters indicated they took the 99/500 BofA counter offer, DESPITE the fact that they ALREADY had 10k+ credit limits with other banks!

Can somebody shed some light on this reasoning?? Why is getting in with BofA that important??

I'm not judging at all, I seek enlightenment! I was also offered the BofA 99/500 offer...

I'm contemplating...

Here's the link to the original, locked post:

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Cards/BOA-99-500-Rewards/m-p/4439684/highlight/true#M1276172?filter=location&location=forum-board%3Acreditcard&q=BOA+99%2F500+Rewards

Re: BOA 99/500 Rewards

Revelate — Sat, 06 May 2017 03:26:18 GMT

Pretty certain that was a one off.

The 99/500 card was something of a unicorn back in the day for people that were on the cusp of BOFA approvals... BOFA was one of the earliest to "recover" a more friendly lending profile than Amex/Chase after the mortgage crisis at least from an anecdotal reports perspective.

The biggest common thread here was "I applied for BOFA unsecured and they offered me this 99/500 card, what should I do?" and the overwhelming response was "take it."

Wasn't much beyond that, partially secured card with a rewards package (at the time they were close to the only one with a real rewards package on a secured card) and it was a pretty good every day card for those of us who were building back from credit ugliness, and the 3-2-1 card UW at a lower FICO than the BCE did at that point, and Sallie wasn't a thing yet, and other than the low credit limit for a $99 deposit you card a card that was identical to the unsecured, and it would graduate... so if you got the product you wanted and you already took the hit, why not accept it? Makes virtually no rational sense to decline.

Re: BOA 99/500 Rewards

grillandwinemaster — Sat, 06 May 2017 04:27:42 GMT

@Revelate wrote:
Pretty certain that was a one off.

The 99/500 card was something of a unicorn back in the day for people that were on the cusp of BOFA approvals... BOFA was one of the earliest to "recover" a more friendly lending profile than Amex/Chase after the mortgage crisis at least from an anecdotal reports perspective.

The biggest common thread here was "I applied for BOFA unsecured and they offered me this 99/500 card, what should I do?" and the overwhelming response was "take it."

Wasn't much beyond that, partially secured card with a rewards package (at the time they were close to the only one with a real rewards package on a secured card) and it was a pretty good every day card for those of us who were building back from credit ugliness, and the 3-2-1 card UW at a lower FICO than the BCE did at that point, and Sallie wasn't a thing yet, and other than the low credit limit for a $99 deposit you card a card that was identical to the unsecured, and it would graduate... so if you got the product you wanted and you already took the hit, why not accept it? Makes virtually no rational sense to decline.

I completely understand the post mortgage meltdown recovery period and BofA dangling a golden carrot for folks in recovery mode. Your absolutely correct in that it makes no rational sense to decline the BofA offer, especially after already sustaining the damage of a hard pull.

In this case, the people accepting the offer already have an established progressively seasoned, rebuilt profile. Some of the replies are from folks well ingrained in the 700's+ Fico score range. At least two or three of them had established credit accounts in the 10k+ range.

That thread that I linked was started, AND completed just last year. That's 2016. Well past the mortgage/housing debacle of ten years past.

So with this in mind, WHY would a seasoned rebuilder with an established credit profile be so inclined to accept a semi secured BofA card?

I can't imagine the same profile considering a Discover secured, or, to a greater extent, a Cap1 secured.

I truly am intrigued as to the rationale of this BofA offering and subsequent acceptance of the offer from well seasoned rebuilders.

Re: BOA 99/500 Rewards

Revelate — Sat, 06 May 2017 04:33:53 GMT

@grillandwinemaster wrote:
@Revelate wrote:
Pretty certain that was a one off.

The 99/500 card was something of a unicorn back in the day for people that were on the cusp of BOFA approvals... BOFA was one of the earliest to "recover" a more friendly lending profile than Amex/Chase after the mortgage crisis at least from an anecdotal reports perspective.

The biggest common thread here was "I applied for BOFA unsecured and they offered me this 99/500 card, what should I do?" and the overwhelming response was "take it."

Wasn't much beyond that, partially secured card with a rewards package (at the time they were close to the only one with a real rewards package on a secured card) and it was a pretty good every day card for those of us who were building back from credit ugliness, and the 3-2-1 card UW at a lower FICO than the BCE did at that point, and Sallie wasn't a thing yet, and other than the low credit limit for a $99 deposit you card a card that was identical to the unsecured, and it would graduate... so if you got the product you wanted and you already took the hit, why not accept it? Makes virtually no rational sense to decline.
I completely understand the post mortgage meltdown recovery period and BofA dangling a golden carrot for folks in recovery mode. Your absolutely correct in that it makes no rational sense to decline the BofA offer, especially after already sustaining the damage of a hard pull.

In this case, the people accepting the offer already have an established progressively seasoned, rebuilt profile. Some of the replies are from folks well ingrained in the 700's+ Fico score range. At least two or three of them had established credit accounts in the 10k+ range.

That thread that I linked was started, AND completed just last year. That's 2016. Well past the mortgage/housing debacle of ten years past.

So with this in mind, WHY would a seasoned rebuilder with an established credit profile be so inclined to accept a semi secured BofA card?

I can't imagine the same profile considering a Discover secured, or, to a greater extent, a Cap1 secured.

I truly am intrigued as to the rationale of this BofA offering and subsequent acceptance of the offer from week seasoned rebuilders.

I was just offering the historical context of the card, but really this isn't all that strange of an occurence here.

Why does someone need a metal card? (far more cashiers seem to think my CSR is sexy as compared to the general population regarding me in my recent Tinder experiment run back here in LA since returning... just sayin!).

Why does someone need 250K+ in unsecured credit limits?

Why does someone need 25+ credit cards?

There's no real explanation for all of human behavior even simply looking at the little slice of the pie chart on this forum; just because it doesn't make sense to you or me, and presumably we each think ourselves rational humans, doesn't mean it doesn't make sense to someone else.

Re: BOA 99/500 Rewards

Anonymous — Sat, 06 May 2017 05:07:08 GMT

@grillandwinemaster wrote:
@Revelate wrote:
Pretty certain that was a one off.

The 99/500 card was something of a unicorn back in the day for people that were on the cusp of BOFA approvals... BOFA was one of the earliest to "recover" a more friendly lending profile than Amex/Chase after the mortgage crisis at least from an anecdotal reports perspective.

The biggest common thread here was "I applied for BOFA unsecured and they offered me this 99/500 card, what should I do?" and the overwhelming response was "take it."

Wasn't much beyond that, partially secured card with a rewards package (at the time they were close to the only one with a real rewards package on a secured card) and it was a pretty good every day card for those of us who were building back from credit ugliness, and the 3-2-1 card UW at a lower FICO than the BCE did at that point, and Sallie wasn't a thing yet, and other than the low credit limit for a $99 deposit you card a card that was identical to the unsecured, and it would graduate... so if you got the product you wanted and you already took the hit, why not accept it? Makes virtually no rational sense to decline.
I completely understand the post mortgage meltdown recovery period and BofA dangling a golden carrot for folks in recovery mode. Your absolutely correct in that it makes no rational sense to decline the BofA offer, especially after already sustaining the damage of a hard pull.

In this case, the people accepting the offer already have an established progressively seasoned, rebuilt profile. Some of the replies are from folks well ingrained in the 700's+ Fico score range. At least two or three of them had established credit accounts in the 10k+ range.

That thread that I linked was started, AND completed just last year. That's 2016. Well past the mortgage/housing debacle of ten years past.

So with this in mind, WHY would a seasoned rebuilder with an established credit profile be so inclined to accept a semi secured BofA card?

I can't imagine the same profile considering a Discover secured, or, to a greater extent, a Cap1 secured.

I truly am intrigued as to the rationale of this BofA offering and subsequent acceptance of the offer from well seasoned rebuilders.

Maybe that was their only way in with BofA at the time so they took it. While they had other cards (lenders) with larger limits, perhaps BofA didn't approve a regular card and the person wanted in with BofA for one reason or another. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Re: BOA 99/500 Rewards

happypill — Sat, 06 May 2017 07:02:41 GMT

The BofA secured is different from most other secured cards in a number of ways. First, it unsecures at around 5-12 months pretty reliably. Looking back several years, most scured cards did not unsecure, though it is more common today. Second, the BofA secured card offered fairly competitive rewards (for the time). Finally, the BofA secured card did not carry a stignma once it unsecured. With many other secured cards, they either stayed secured forever or if they did unsecure, they were still stuck with low limits and no rewards. There are many stories of the BofA secured card eventually becoming a Travel/Cash Rewards or a BBR or something and ended up with big limits.

So, if you've already taken the hit, might as well get the card that can pretty reliably unsecure in less than a year and wind up as very useful with a nice limit.

Re: BOA 99/500 Rewards

newhis — Sat, 06 May 2017 14:46:05 GMT

Why? I think several people are afraid to 'waste' a HP. For me this is the main reason someone with a few unsecured cards will apply for BofA and take the 99/500 card.

If they don't fall in the 'waste' category, then they think that in less than a year, with good use, they will have a regular BofA card anyway and most of the time, if you use the card, they will CLI to 5K, 10K and more without issues.

Another great thing about the BofA secured card, is that if you are new to the credit game and have extra money, you can get the secured card as first card, put 5K on it and in less than a year have other cards with high limits.

Re: BOA 99/500 Rewards

grillandwinemaster — Sat, 06 May 2017 15:33:28 GMT

@happypill wrote:
The BofA secured is different from most other secured cards in a number of ways. First, it unsecures at around 5-12 months pretty reliably. Looking back several years, most scured cards did not unsecure, though it is more common today. Second, the BofA secured card offered fairly competitive rewards (for the time). Finally, the BofA secured card did not carry a stignma once it unsecured. With many other secured cards, they either stayed secured forever or if they did unsecure, they were still stuck with low limits and no rewards. There are many stories of the BofA secured card eventually becoming a Travel/Cash Rewards or a BBR or something and ended up with big limits.

So, if you've already taken the hit, might as well get the card that can pretty reliably unsecure in less than a year and wind up as very useful with a nice limit.

So here we have concrete features and benefits unique to the BofA secured card. The ability of this card to unsecure and grow to a decent limit, 5k+ would, in my opinion incentivize a moderately successful rebuilder to accept this card. The ability to earn cash back travel rewards while it's in secured status would also incentivize someone to accept the card.

Thanks Happypill for your thoughts.

Re: BOA 99/500 Rewards

grillandwinemaster — Sat, 06 May 2017 15:39:43 GMT

@newhis wrote:
Why? I think several people are afraid to 'waste' a HP. For me this is the main reason someone with a few unsecured cards will apply for BofA and take the 99/500 card.

If they don't fall in the 'waste' category, then they think that in less than a year, with good use, they will have a regular BofA card anyway and most of the time, if you use the card, they will CLI to 5K, 10K and more without issues.

Another great thing about the BofA secured card, is that if you are new to the credit game and have extra money, you can get the secured card as first card, put 5K on it and in less than a year have other cards with high limits.

Hey Newhis,

I'm starting to get a clearer, brighter picture. I suppose it comes down to good marketing on the part of B of A. Since a HP has already been administered, and regular, unsecured card has been instantly declined, a counteroffer has been made. This alone is pure marketing genious on the part of BofA. The difference in accepting a secured card would be that. The counteroffer.

Thanks Newhis!

Re: BOA 99/500 Rewards

grillandwinemaster — Sat, 06 May 2017 15:43:02 GMT

In reality, $99 DOES NOT secure $500. Just the same as $1,000 would not secure $5,000. Or would $5,000 secure $50,000? The math is the same. In retrospect, I think BofA has done an excellent job marketing this card. I theorize that people receiving this counteroffer, would have been algorithmically approved internally by Bank of America for a $500 starting limit. So why not "hold' $99 for ransom for 6-12 months? This is genius on the part of Bank of America.

I'm still not knocking the card, I'm simply enjoying being enlightened by the market positioning of this strange little card. :-)

Re: BOA 99/500 Rewards

grillandwinemaster — Sat, 06 May 2017 15:44:46 GMT

@Revelate wrote:
@grillandwinemaster wrote:
@Revelate wrote:
Pretty certain that was a one off.

The 99/500 card was something of a unicorn back in the day for people that were on the cusp of BOFA approvals... BOFA was one of the earliest to "recover" a more friendly lending profile than Amex/Chase after the mortgage crisis at least from an anecdotal reports perspective.

The biggest common thread here was "I applied for BOFA unsecured and they offered me this 99/500 card, what should I do?" and the overwhelming response was "take it."

Wasn't much beyond that, partially secured card with a rewards package (at the time they were close to the only one with a real rewards package on a secured card) and it was a pretty good every day card for those of us who were building back from credit ugliness, and the 3-2-1 card UW at a lower FICO than the BCE did at that point, and Sallie wasn't a thing yet, and other than the low credit limit for a $99 deposit you card a card that was identical to the unsecured, and it would graduate... so if you got the product you wanted and you already took the hit, why not accept it? Makes virtually no rational sense to decline.
I completely understand the post mortgage meltdown recovery period and BofA dangling a golden carrot for folks in recovery mode. Your absolutely correct in that it makes no rational sense to decline the BofA offer, especially after already sustaining the damage of a hard pull.

In this case, the people accepting the offer already have an established progressively seasoned, rebuilt profile. Some of the replies are from folks well ingrained in the 700's+ Fico score range. At least two or three of them had established credit accounts in the 10k+ range.

That thread that I linked was started, AND completed just last year. That's 2016. Well past the mortgage/housing debacle of ten years past.

So with this in mind, WHY would a seasoned rebuilder with an established credit profile be so inclined to accept a semi secured BofA card?

I can't imagine the same profile considering a Discover secured, or, to a greater extent, a Cap1 secured.

I truly am intrigued as to the rationale of this BofA offering and subsequent acceptance of the offer from week seasoned rebuilders.
I was just offering the historical context of the card, but really this isn't all that strange of an occurence here.

Why does someone need a metal card? (far more cashiers seem to think my CSR is sexy as compared to the general population regarding me in my recent Tinder experiment run back here in LA since returning... just sayin!).

Why does someone need 250K+ in unsecured credit limits?

Why does someone need 25+ credit cards?

There's no real explanation for all of human behavior even simply looking at the little slice of the pie chart on this forum; just because it doesn't make sense to you or me, and presumably we each think ourselves rational humans, doesn't mean it doesn't make sense to someone else.

Human behaviour truly is a powerful dynamic! Oftentimes, actions without explanations ensue. Thanks for the historical context, Revelate, on this strange little card. I alwyas enjoy your ensightful comments!

Re: BOA 99/500 Rewards

grillandwinemaster — Sat, 06 May 2017 15:52:50 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@grillandwinemaster wrote:
@Revelate wrote:
Pretty certain that was a one off.

The 99/500 card was something of a unicorn back in the day for people that were on the cusp of BOFA approvals... BOFA was one of the earliest to "recover" a more friendly lending profile than Amex/Chase after the mortgage crisis at least from an anecdotal reports perspective.

The biggest common thread here was "I applied for BOFA unsecured and they offered me this 99/500 card, what should I do?" and the overwhelming response was "take it."

Wasn't much beyond that, partially secured card with a rewards package (at the time they were close to the only one with a real rewards package on a secured card) and it was a pretty good every day card for those of us who were building back from credit ugliness, and the 3-2-1 card UW at a lower FICO than the BCE did at that point, and Sallie wasn't a thing yet, and other than the low credit limit for a $99 deposit you card a card that was identical to the unsecured, and it would graduate... so if you got the product you wanted and you already took the hit, why not accept it? Makes virtually no rational sense to decline.
I completely understand the post mortgage meltdown recovery period and BofA dangling a golden carrot for folks in recovery mode. Your absolutely correct in that it makes no rational sense to decline the BofA offer, especially after already sustaining the damage of a hard pull.

In this case, the people accepting the offer already have an established progressively seasoned, rebuilt profile. Some of the replies are from folks well ingrained in the 700's+ Fico score range. At least two or three of them had established credit accounts in the 10k+ range.

That thread that I linked was started, AND completed just last year. That's 2016. Well past the mortgage/housing debacle of ten years past.

So with this in mind, WHY would a seasoned rebuilder with an established credit profile be so inclined to accept a semi secured BofA card?

I can't imagine the same profile considering a Discover secured, or, to a greater extent, a Cap1 secured.

I truly am intrigued as to the rationale of this BofA offering and subsequent acceptance of the offer from well seasoned rebuilders.
Maybe that was their only way in with BofA at the time so they took it. While they had other cards (lenders) with larger limits, perhaps BofA didn't approve a regular card and the person wanted in with BofA for one reason or another. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Herein lies my dilemma. What is so special about BofA? I suppose it is a prime lender. Is it along the lines of Citi or Chase, as far as credit card offerings are concerned? Of course the answer is subjective. However, I certainly don't place B of A along the same lines as say, Amex. However, if given the opportunity to accept a secured card with Amex, with the possibility of allowing it to graduate in a years time, I suspect people would be flocking to Amex.

Thanks SoLong!

Re: BOA 99/500 Rewards

Anonymous — Sat, 06 May 2017 21:47:49 GMT

I'm actually curious, though; is this card even still offered? I looked up BoA's various cards yesterday and didn't see it, only the "regular" secured Visa where you have to put down something like $200-300 minimum. Or is this card only offered to people as a counteroffer when they apply for an unsecured card and are declined?

Re: BOA 99/500 Rewards

grillandwinemaster — Sat, 06 May 2017 21:56:01 GMT

I believe the 99/500 is only available as a counter offer. BofA can flat out deny you and NOT make a counter offer. So YMMV.

Re: BOA 99/500 Rewards

Anonymous — Sat, 06 May 2017 22:10:07 GMT

@grillandwinemaster wrote:
I believe the 99/500 is only available as a counter offer. BofA can flat out deny you and NOT make a counter offer. So YMMV.

Yes, that's what I thought. This will be most relevant in a few months once I'm ready to start Visa-hunting; I've been thinking on and off about BoA though my first choice is still Penfed or another CU such as Navy, but I'm on the fence about whether, if I go in to the local branch (I've kind of mentioned before that I prefer to do that for things like this!) and ask them for a Visa, and they come back with a 99/500 offer, whether I should take it or leave it. Hard to say...

Re: BOA 99/500 Rewards

grillandwinemaster — Sat, 06 May 2017 22:44:59 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@grillandwinemaster wrote:
I believe the 99/500 is only available as a counter offer. BofA can flat out deny you and NOT make a counter offer. So YMMV.
Yes, that's what I thought. This will be most relevant in a few months once I'm ready to start Visa-hunting; I've been thinking on and off about BoA though my first choice is still Penfed or another CU such as Navy, but I'm on the fence about whether, if I go in to the local branch (I've kind of mentioned before that I prefer to do that for things like this!) and ask them for a Visa, and they come back with a 99/500 offer, whether I should take it or leave it. Hard to say...

Personally, between B of A and Navy, I would go Navy all the way.

Best credit wishes to you, Joe, with whatever decision you decide to make.

Re: BOA 99/500 Rewards

betax — Mon, 08 May 2017 01:43:49 GMT

Hello
In the past BofA would only offer me full secured version. I recently apped for 123 rewards and was declined, but first time ever offered the 99/500. They pulled exp and noted fico score of 642 . Couple late pays on auto loan that was payed off 2 yrs ago. 3 collections about 5 years old of which one was paid 6 months ago and 69% overall utilization. Hope this helps

Re: BOA 99/500 Rewards

grillandwinemaster — Mon, 08 May 2017 15:16:14 GMT

So, curiosity got the best of me...

I've been instantly declined in the past for any and all BofA products in the past because once upon a time, I had a home mortgage with BofA that went south during the mortgage meltdown of 08-09.

Long story short, I received a "check for offers" from BofA, and there it was, Rewards card offer. I pulled the trigger and was declined, BUT this time I received the counter offer for the $99/500 secured card. Instant approval! In the past, I wouldn't EVER get the semi- secured offer from BofA. They just wanted nothing to do with me, instantly decline me and tell me to get off their website and stop wasting there time.

I'm curious about this card, and now I get to experience first hand what all the fuss is about.

I'm interested in the graduation process, AND the option of getting more than one secured card with them. There's another recent thread about somebody getting two secured $99/500 cards a couple weeks or so apart.

Hmmm... Dare I say it?? Is BofA becoming "the New Cap1??"

Re: BOA 99/500 Rewards

Anonymous — Tue, 09 May 2017 03:24:15 GMT

@grillandwinemaster wrote:
So, curiosity got the best of me...

I've been instantly declined in the past for any and all BofA products in the past because once upon a time, I had a home mortgage with BofA that went south during the mortgage meltdown of 08-09.

Long story short, I received a "check for offers" from BofA, and there it was, Rewards card offer. I pulled the trigger and was declined, BUT this time I received the counter offer for the $99/500 secured card. Instant approval! In the past, I wouldn't EVER get the semi- secured offer from BofA. They just wanted nothing to do with me, instantly decline me and tell me to get off their website and stop wasting there time.

I'm curious about this card, and now I get to experience first hand what all the fuss is about.

I'm interested in the graduation process, AND the option of getting more than one secured card with them. There's another recent thread about somebody getting two secured $99/500 cards a couple weeks or so apart.

Hmmm... Dare I say it?? Is BofA becoming "the New Cap1??"

So you did want in just weren't able to. Anyway, congrats! It will grow quickly, and that's the biggest incentive over say Chase who rarely ever (if at all) does auto CLI.

Re: BOA 99/500 Rewards UPDATE! APPROVED!!

creditlady43 — Wed, 10 May 2017 11:06:14 GMT

Congrats!