BOA Travel Rewards

[Anonymous]

Is this a decent card? Research suggests yes for a no annual fee travel card and opening a BOA checking account seems to improve the earnings.

For all practicality, I'm in the garden for a while, but having 5 solid cash back cards (Freedom, Discover It, Quicksilver, Amex BCP, and Citi DC) makes me yearn for one modest travel card.

[Anonymous]

If you get the chase sapphire you can transfer the points of your freedom card into the sapphire and use that to book travel ! The anual fee is only $95. They are currently offering 40,000 pts after $4k spend in 3 months. I thinks its a pretty good deal unless you're ballin' and can afford the amex platinum AF 

[Anonymous]

CSP denied me after my 5 card success streak and the recon person was harsh about my recent applications/credit seeking. Also brought up 11 year old bankruptcy in which included a 2500 limit Chase card. I apped about one month after Freedom approval. That is ideally the card I want most right now.

[kdm31091]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Is this a decent card? Research suggests yes for a no annual fee travel card and opening a BOA checking account seems to improve the earnings.

For all practicality, I'm in the garden for a while, but having 5 solid cash back cards (Freedom, Discover It, Quicksilver, Amex BCP, and Citi DC) makes me yearn for one modest travel card.

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The problem is that the BOA Travel card is no better than either your Quicksilver or Double Cash.

Frankly, the Quicksilver is basically the same exact thing (1.5%, no AF, no FTF) but you can use that 1.5% cash for anything, whereas with the BOA Travel, it's 1.5%, but only for travel expenses. I see zero advantage, other than the initial sign up bonus.

IMO, I'd pass on the BOA card. It's no more of a "travel card" than anything else, other than redemption restrictions.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the feedback. I suspected the glowing reviews were from Boa customers who don't understand rewards and still use Boa for checking.

Credit unions all the way for checking accounts here. Not interedted in the rigid direct deposit policies and fees associated with big bank checking.

[Psmith]

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@kdm31091 wrote:

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The problem is that the BOA Travel card is no better than either your Quicksilver or Double Cash.

Frankly, the Quicksilver is basically the same exact thing (1.5%, no AF, no FTF) but you can use that 1.5% cash for anything, whereas with the BOA Travel, it's 1.5%, but only for travel expenses. I see zero advantage, other than the initial sign up bonus.

IMO, I'd pass on the BOA card. It's no more of a "travel card" than anything else, other than redemption restrictions.

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The BofA Travel Rewards card actually earns 1.5%, 1.65%, 1.88%, 2.25%, or 2.65% for travel expense redemptions, depending on your relationship with Bank of America. At the 2.65% level, the rewards are quite attractive. From my perspective, the card is undesirable due to BofA's attrocious customer service and problem resolution practices. I'd rather use a lower reward earning Amex.

[GeorgiaBulldog]

The card is decent, and that's it.  Nothing really great about it.  I have a use for it (Bank Amerideals and no FTF primarily), but the lion's share of my usage goes to Discover and Double Cash.  3% back booking travel through BofA's portal might be good, but I haven't been in a position to use it lately and see how it compares with booking elsewhere.