BoA Better Balance Rewards Timing

Anonymous · ‎06-09-2015

Hi all,

I have the BoA BBR and I'm guessing I've used it incorrectly the past couple months, hence missing out on both quarter 1 and quarter 2 rewards. I pretty much only buy 50 cent amazon giftcards with this card, pay off the full statement amount, and hope to get the reward...but I've been doing it wrong I guess.

My statement closes on the 4th, and auto pay is set up to automatically pay on the 1st the following month. does that mean:

a) I need to make new purchases between the 1st and 4th (aka 2nd or 3rd)

b) or just anytime after the 4th between the following 1st of the month?

I'm getting this entire thing confused. The CSR told me that it's because my account had a 0 balance on my account (i guess after autopaying it down...) which made me ineligible.

core · ‎06-09-2015

Thanks for starting this thread because I had a very closely related question. I haven't actually received my card yet so take the rest of this with that in mind.

First of all, BofA autopay in general is very screwy and usually autopays more than it needs to. If you have a balance on the auto pay date (even if it's just new charges), it seems to want to pay those too. In my case though I always manually pay the statement first, and the autopay is just a backup. So maybe that confuses it. I have since had to completely turn off autopay because it does NOT WORK the way it's supposed to. I'm done with BofA autopay.

If it weren't for that issue I'd say anytime after the 4th would be ok for the purchase. The autopay (if it worked sanely) would pay only the $0.50 you owed from the last statement balance and your new $0.50 charge would remain as a balance. Don't count on it. Structure your timing so your statement always cuts with a balance. It's as simple as that. That may mean make your purchase between the payment date and the statement end date. In your case that's not really enough time, 2 days. Amazon may not post it that night and you miss the date. I'd adjust the dates so you have weeks, not 2 days.

Here's my question for everybody though: Does $0.50 even count? I haven't received a paper copy of the fine print yet, but I think it's supposed to. That doesn't mean it WILL though. I don't want to use $1.00 charges because I don't want the CRAs seeing $1. $0.49 will show up as $0 at the CRAs but that's still technically a "balance", so I'm thinking that should work if BofA adheres to the terms.

Imperfectfuture · ‎06-10-2015

Bet they don't. So much gaming the system this way. Why not just use it to get free Netflix, or something like that? Also, when the 25 hits, you need to have more than 25 in charges that month, to keep it going.

Signature needs updating

newhis · ‎06-10-2015

@ @Anonymous, you need to buy something, let a statement cut then pay the statement. So for 1st statement, you buy something before the 4th, wait for the statement to generate, then pay on or before the due date. So if you buy something for 0.50 same day (it can be 4-30, just to make sure it doesn't skip the statement) and you pay 0.50 by the 1st (just not the first month because then the statement will show $0 balance), you are fine. Maybe your autopay is paying your total balance before the statement cut (as core said)?

@core wrote:
Here's my question for everybody though: Does $0.50 even count? I haven't received a paper copy of the fine print yet, but I think it's supposed to. That doesn't mean it WILL though. I don't want to use $1.00 charges because I don't want the CRAs seeing $1. $0.49 will show up as $0 at the CRAs but that's still technically a "balance", so I'm thinking that should work if BofA adheres to the terms.

Well the terms say: Earn $25 per quarter to pay down your balance faster when you pay more than the monthly minimum and on time each month...that can be up to $100 each year, so people are not paying more than the monthly minimum. Maybe someday BofA will change that and be more strict with that. They already ban PC to BBR, I guess this is next. They can easily say 'more than minimum without getting credit', forcing everyone to buy at least $25.01 each month.

@Imperfectfuture wrote:
Bet they don't. So much gaming the system this way. Why not just use it to get free Netflix, or something like that? Also, when the 25 hits, you need to have more than 25 in charges that month, to keep it going.

Or transfer the cash to savings/checking.

Anonymous · ‎06-10-2015

I don't know if the <$1.00 is tripping you up or the timing. I just make sure I make a purchase after each statement is cut (preferably soon after), and I've always made sure that purchase is at least $1 (and I don't know for sure if that matters). And I have the autopayment set pay the full balance on the statement date. Four BBR cards, 2 years+, the only payout I missed was one month where I had thought I had made a charge, noticed right before the statement was cut I had a $0 balance so I must not have made the charge, made a quick online charge that ended up not posting for two days, so missed that statement. I'm considering setting up some sort of subscription charges for one or more of my BBR cards so there's less chance for failure. Oh, and I have the quarterly credits auto-deposited to checking, so I don't have to worry about overcoming the $30 credit on the CC every quarter. That would screw me up for sure.

Chris.

core · ‎06-10-2015

@newhis wrote:
Well the terms say: Earn $25 per quarter to pay down your balance faster when you pay more than the monthly minimum and on time each month...that can be up to $100 each year, so people are not paying more than the monthly minimum. Maybe someday BofA will change that and be more strict with that. They already ban PC to BBR, I guess this is next. They can easily say 'more than minimum without getting credit', forcing everyone to buy at least $25.01 each month.

Before I applied for the card, I did my usual week-long research here on the forum. That issue you just pointed out was my #1 question at the time. But I came across at least one post that had legalese pasted in that said a qualifying payment is one that is more than the minimum OR pays your balance in full. (I'm paraphrasing)

Actually here is one post from 9/01/2014: (sorry I don't know how to link to the exact post within the page)

"After looking at their FAQ, I don't even have to pay the extra $.10, just have to pay in full:

A monthly payment received on or before the due date, which is more than the monthly payment due is considered a qualifying payment. A payment in full received on or before the due date is a qualifying payment."

There is a similar post from a different user on this page from 'smode' saying more or less the same thing.

"Qualifying Payment —

1. A monthly payment received on or before the Due Date, which is more than the Minimum Payment due;
2. A payment in full received on or before the Due Date is a Qualifying Payment"

I'm sure this is all spelled out on their site somewhere, but I'll wait for the actual document before I decide what I'm going to do. If smode's post was indeed a carbon copy of the terms, then I would expect even $0.01 to count. However there's nothing stopping them from giving you a low balance writeoff (like many companies do) right on the statement end date. That would kill your bonus for the month and you'd not find out until it was too late. That would be devlishly clever of them.

Callandra · ‎06-10-2015

My plan: I just make 1-2 non-categorized spend charges for around $50-60 every month. (Yes, I would lose -some- points on my other cards, but even on a 2% card, that is a loss of $1...not a big deal in the long term and this is way easier) Then I PIF when the statement cuts. I charge a little more just so I don't have to worry about the $25 statement credit overriding and I wind up with no balance and it's easier for me to keep up with it this way.

Quicksilver $10,000 | Better Balance Rewards $2000 | Sallie Mae $3500 | Freedom $3500

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newhis · ‎06-10-2015

@Callandra wrote:
My plan: I just make 1-2 non-categorized spend charges for around $50-60 every month. (Yes, I would lose -some- points on my other cards, but even on a 2% card, that is a loss of $1...not a big deal in the long term and this is way easier) Then I PIF when the statement cuts. I charge a little more just so I don't have to worry about the $25 statement credit overriding and I wind up with no balance and it's easier for me to keep up with it this way.

Good plan. I'll do the same when I apply for the card by the end of the year.

celluloid17 · ‎06-10-2015

I have a monthly dental insurance bill of about $43 that I pay with my BBR (and nothing else gets charged to it). I let the balance report for the entire statement period and pay it off immediately in full after the statement cuts/closes. I haven't missed a quarterly bonus yet with this system. In the month where I get the $25 bonus, there will still be an $18 balance reporting that I PIF at statement close thus keeping the cycle going. Lather, rinse, repeat.