Bank of America to Discontinue Better Balance Rewards Card!

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Two questions:

(1)  How long do you all guess existing BBR cardholders will be allowed to keep their BBR's?  I'm asking for a realistic best guess -- not a cynical One-Month.  :-)  I ask because DoC mentions that if you do want to PC now is the time.  Well, that's so, but you have to weigh the time it takes to get a PC to a BBR (typically many calls) against how many quarters one will likely get the bonus.  If the BBRs will likely be cancelled by year's end, it may not be worth it. Nobody can say with any certainty. My only experience with discontinued BofA cards was with my now Cash Rewards card. It started out as a real (meaning before the buy out of MNBA) Visa Gold card. It stayed a Visa Gold long after BofA stopped offering Visa Gold to new customers. Finally, in 2009 they automatically replaced it (before expiration) to a Visa Signature with World Points card without any input from me. I have; however, received offers on both my BofA cards to change card types over the years. So it coud go either way; a forced product change in the future or an offer to change the card to something else. Also, I believe there was someone here, I want to say MXP but could be wrong, that still has his BofA Accelerated Cash Rewards American Express card. That card was discontinued eons ago but they still issue it to existing cardholders. Of course that card has a paltry 1.25% cash back program compared to the ridiculously easy BBR $100 ($120 with a banking relationship) per year program.

I do have two worthless BOA cards that I'd love to PC if the BBR will be around for another year.

(2)  When the existing BBR cardholders do lose their cards, will BOA deal with it by PC-ing their owners automatically to some innocuous no-annual fee card?  Not by cancelling the card?  My BBR card is my oldest credit card and I would like not to lose it via a mass cancellation. I do not think they would just close accounts. Typically when a card company discontinues a certain card they replace it with another one of their core cards. The obvious exception to this would be co-branded cards or if the bank exits the card business.

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[Mrm-na]

Something I find a bit odd about this card is that the signup promotion includes a long (12mos I think) 0APR period for balance transfers, but the same doesn't apply to purchases.  This has nerfed my usage of the card for large purchases thus far, and seems to contradict what I'd think Bank of America wants new account holders to be doing with it.

I recently did a large purchase that I considered carrying on the BBR, but I'd have to do the purchase with a different card and then balance transfer it at 3%.

So I gave that charge to Discover and decided to just pay it off directly. Don't think I'll BT it.

In the coming months I expect to spend a fairly significant amount on car work, and the above purchase will have exhausted a lot of my available cash.  So I still want financing for the car work.  Once again I could charge and transfer to Bank of America at 3%, but I can also just get another card that gives 0APR on new purchases.. so the BoA card lost again and I opened a Chase card for that purpose.  The Chase card (Freedom) isn't even intended for carrying balances, so it's kind of ironic to me that it has a 0APR offer on purchases and the BBR doesn't.

If BoA's 0APR on this card applied to purchases, they'd be seeing me make more immediate use of it in the manner they intended.  As it stands, it may be a while before that starts happening.

Long term, I do intend to use balance transfers on this card.  In the past I've done it a few times with Barclay, and I wanted a competing source for those offers.  But at the current moment balance transfers haven't made as much sense to me.  This may make it seem strange that I chose this time to apply for the BBR - well the reason is because I was honestly worried about how long this card would be available, so I didn't want to wait.  It might be a year before I use this card "properly", I just hope it's still functioning by then.

[kdm31091]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Two questions:

(1)  How long do you all guess existing BBR cardholders will be allowed to keep their BBR's?  I'm asking for a realistic best guess -- not a cynical One-Month.  :-)  I ask because DoC mentions that if you do want to PC now is the time.  Well, that's so, but you have to weigh the time it takes to get a PC to a BBR (typically many calls) against how many quarters one will likely get the bonus.  If the BBRs will likely be cancelled by year's end, it may not be worth it.

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There's no standard. Banks have the right to change/modify reward programs whenever they want (such things are not protected by the CARD act).

My guess is a year or less since the program has likely been very unprofitable for BOA, but on the other hand, people have ancient grandfathered BOA cards that have not been touched (typically a much lesser rewards program though).

[Anonymous]

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@Mrm-na wrote:

Something I find a bit odd about this card is that the signup promotion includes a long (12mos I think) 0APR period for balance transfers, but the same doesn't apply to purchases.  This has nerfed my usage of the card for large purchases thus far, and seems to contradict what I'd think Bank of America wants new account holders to be doing with it.

I recently did a large purchase that I considered carrying on the BBR, but I'd have to do the purchase with a different card and then balance transfer it at 3%.

So I gave that charge to Discover and decided to just pay it off directly. Don't think I'll BT it.

In the coming months I expect to spend a fairly significant amount on car work, and the above purchase will have exhausted a lot of my available cash.  So I still want financing for the car work.  Once again I could charge and transfer to Bank of America at 3%, but I can also just get another card that gives 0APR on new purchases.. so the BoA card lost again and I opened a Chase card for that purpose.  The Chase card (Freedom) isn't even intended for carrying balances, so it's kind of ironic to me that it has a 0APR offer on purchases and the BBR doesn't.

If BoA's 0APR on this card applied to purchases, they'd be seeing me make more immediate use of it in the manner they intended.  As it stands, it may be a while before that starts happening.

Long term, I do intend to use balance transfers on this card.  In the past I've done it a few times with Barclay, and I wanted a competing source for those offers.  But at the current moment balance transfers haven't made as much sense to me.  This may make it seem strange that I chose this time to apply for the BBR - well the reason is because I was honestly worried about how long this card would be available, so I didn't want to wait.  It might be a year before I use this card "properly", I just hope it's still functioning by then.

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Good points.

[minski]

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@galahad15 wrote:

Update:  my new BBR application is still under "In Review" status, been between 1-2 days now since the app, and I have been checking the online app status page periodically.  Just wondering, rather than checking online, do you think I might potentially be able to get a faster answer on the approval (or lack thereof) by calling in to BoA and inquiring by phone?

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Just wondering if you found out your status?

I myself got an email about my status. 

[galahad15]

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@minski wrote:

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@galahad15 wrote:

Update:  my new BBR application is still under "In Review" status, been between 1-2 days now since the app, and I have been checking the online app status page periodically.  Just wondering, rather than checking online, do you think I might potentially be able to get a faster answer on the approval (or lack thereof) by calling in to BoA and inquiring by phone?

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Just wondering if you found out your status?

I myself got an email about my status. 

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Thanks for asking and for checking in -- unfortunately, there has been no word so far from BoA on my application status, since the application is still pending.  I have been checking the app status online on a daily basis, sometimes multiple times a day, but nothing so far.  I also tried calling BoA directly to see if the CSRs possibly had any more information, but the extension they transfer you to appears to only be a computerized system with no option to talk with a live representative, as far as I could best ascertain.  As soon as I get an application status update though, I will be sure to post it here.

J/c hbu, were you hopefully approved for the card, in the status e-mail you mentioned you'd received? 

[galahad15]

Update:  as of this morning, the BoA application status page is now listing my BBR app as approved!    It's not listing the SL atm though, I guess I'll find out when the card arrives?

[Anonymous]

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@galahad15 wrote:

Update:  as of this morning, the BoA application status page is now listing my BBR app as approved!    It's not listing the SL atm though, I guess I'll find out when the card arrives?

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Congrats on your approval galahad! I haven't applied for a card in a while but I think it shows up on your online profile before you receive it.

[Mrm-na]

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@galahad15 wrote:

Update:  as of this morning, the BoA application status page is now listing my BBR app as approved!    It's not listing the SL atm though, I guess I'll find out when the card arrives?

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Yeah, their communication after the application is a bit lacking.  They were still better than Discover though - at least BoA told me when I was approved. No terms though.

I got the BBR a few weeks ago - you'll get a letter in the mail telling you the terms.  By that time the card will be showing up very shortly afterward, in my case it was the following day.  Or maybe it's also in the online profile like beautiful mentioned. I'm not sure if I set mine up before the card arrived.

Actually one minor gotcha I ran into - when I tried to activate my card, the web site got sidetracked into some other setup details.  In the end, although I thought I had entered the requisite info to activate the card, it didn't actually get activated.  I had to go back a week later and click an "activate card" button, which asked no further questions but just added a green checkmark next to the card.  So make sure it's really activated before you try to use it.

Congrats!  I just hope our use of these cards will be long lived.

[minski]

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@galahad15 wrote:

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@minski wrote:

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@galahad15 wrote:

Update:  my new BBR application is still under "In Review" status, been between 1-2 days now since the app, and I have been checking the online app status page periodically.  Just wondering, rather than checking online, do you think I might potentially be able to get a faster answer on the approval (or lack thereof) by calling in to BoA and inquiring by phone?

---

Just wondering if you found out your status?

I myself got an email about my status. 

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Thanks for asking and for checking in -- unfortunately, there has been no word so far from BoA on my application status, since the application is still pending.  I have been checking the app status online on a daily basis, sometimes multiple times a day, but nothing so far.  I also tried calling BoA directly to see if the CSRs possibly had any more information, but the extension they transfer you to appears to only be a computerized system with no option to talk with a live representative, as far as I could best ascertain.  As soon as I get an application status update though, I will be sure to post it here.

J/c hbu, were you hopefully approved for the card, in the status e-mail you mentioned you'd received? 

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I did.

Congrats on your own approval. I too didn't get any info on the terms. I am waiting for the card and letter since I am not in any hurry to get it. I plan on using it for my monthly gym but not until next quarter since my Citi Dividend has it now. 

I too hope that the card lasts long enough for us to get some use for it. 

I'm kind of contemplating on applying for a second card at the end of the month.