Better Balance Rewards

[SunriseEarth]

I'm honestly surprised BBR lasted this long.  I have two cards, and will look into PCing to Customized Cash Rewards.

[galahad15]

RIP BBR -- it's been a great run and you will be missed... 

[happypill]

Yes, truly it has been a great run.  One minor recurring bill, paid in full each month and $30 magically shows up in the bank account each quarter.  Surprised it lasted this long, RIP.

[boolean]

I received the same letter this past week. I've had the BBR for about 10 years, coincidentally also used it to auto-pay Spotify each month. Great while it lasted. My only regret is that I didn't sign up for multiple card, which I only discovered after aplications closed several years back.

[galahad15]

I just called in to BoA, and was able to successfully get my BBR converted to a CCR.

Data points:  the BoA CSR said there are no direct/blanket conversions from BBR to CCR just based on the automatic conversion options in and of themselves, since she said the BBR is a discontinued product, but she did say that based on a BoA customer's individual card profile promotions available, that they may or may not qualify.  In my case, she said I my profile qualified me for the BBR-to-CCR conversion, and that I will get the new CCR card in 2-4 weeks.  The only caveat is that iirc, I believe that I may have forfeited the last $30 BBR payout, as well as the one-time $20 courtesy credit, as the result of the conversion at this time, but in mho, the difference of up to 3% cashback rewards on the CCR outweighed the "missing the boat" for a potential CCR conversion timeframe, and instead risking being stuck with the 1.5% cashback of the UCR.

[coldfusion]

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@galahad15 wrote:

I just called in to BoA, and was able to successfully get my BBR converted to a CCR.

Data points:  the BoA CSR said there are no direct/blanket conversions from BBR to CCR just based on the automatic conversion options in and of themselves, since she said the BBR is a discontinued product, but she did say that based on a BoA customer's individual card profile promotions available, that they may or may not qualify.  In my case, she said I my profile qualified me for the BBR-to-CCR conversion, and that I will get the new CCR card in 2-4 weeks.  The only caveat is that iirc, I believe that I may have forfeited the last $30 BBR payout, as well as the one-time $20 courtesy credit, as the result of the conversion at this time, but in mho, the difference of up to 3% cashback rewards on the CCR outweighed the "missing the boat" for a potential CCR conversion timeframe, and instead risking being stuck with the 1.5% cashback of the UCR.

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I called in and made the same conversion as my Premium Rewards card makes a UCR redundant.   If BoA sticks to the boilerplate T&C as read to me the last $30 payout and the $20 courtesy credit will in fact be forfeited.  

[coldfusion]

My conversion was processed overnight last night and the card now shows as as a "Customized Cash Rewards Platinum Plus Mastercard - xxxx" where xxxx are the same 4 digits as the original card.

[xenon3030]

The PC process was easy and it took only 5 minutes by phone. The CCR can be chosen aslo as either Visa or MC. It will be received in 2-4 weeks by snail mail (not sure whether expedite shipment is available while I do not need the card urgently, since I have 2x ).

[UncleB]

Has anybody received the $20 courtesy credit yet?  I've not seen the credit on either of my accounts. 

I have received the $200 bonus they offered for spending $1k on one of the cards, so I'm not complaining, mostly just curious.  I've been waiting on the credit(s) to post before calling to see if I can PC one or both of the now 'Unlimited Cash Rewards' cards to a CCR.

Having the Amex BCE has taken the urgency away (for a while I've wanted a CCR for online purchases) but from what I understand the online category on the CCR is more broad so I'd still like to have one, expecially if I don't have to add a new account.

[coldfusion]

Can confirm the CCR Online Shopping category is quite broad. There are exclusions but they're generally things not viewed as retail goods such as utilities, taxes, tuition, or professional services and BoA has the full detailed list of them available online. 

Having more than 1 CCR does prove to be useful not only due to having multiple $2500 category quarterly thresholds; it makes it easier to occasionally make a large-ish spend in a different category by leveraging the ability to dynamically change a card's category once per calendar month without sacrificing earnings made on the original category that month before the change.