@Anonymous wrote:
I'm going to apply for a Bank of America Cash Rewards card, and was just curious if there are any benefit differences between Visa versions and the MLB Mastercard version. I'm going to use it for online shopping, so I'm particularly interested if one has better extended warrently or purchase protections. I saw someone mention that their BofA Mastercard doesn't support Mastercard's cell phone insurance, and another claim that theirs still provided price protection as of a few months ago.
I have a BofA Cash Rewards Visa Signature and a BofA Better Balance Rewards Platinum MasterCard. Neither of my cards have cell phone insurance or purchase protection.
A few years ago, BofA discontinued several Visa Signature benefits on my card; there were several, the only one I can remember off hand was concierge.
MasterCard as a whole has recently discontinued several benefits of World and World Elite cards, such as price protection. MasterCard is noted as indicating that they do offer cell phone protection on all World and World Elite cards; however, there does seem to be exclusions. The Points Guy indicates that Citibank is one of these exceptions wherein the benefit is not offered. An article I found describing this from his website (sorry, links are not permitted here) has comments from readers. One reader indicated that he absolutely does not have the cell phone protection on his Cash Rewards Mastercard.
Visa Signture/Infinite and World/World Elite MasterCards do offer many benefits; however, it is ultimately up to the lender which of these protections and perks will be offered on the cards. Most lenders have done away in recent years with a lot of the benefits of these cards as they were mostly going unused, or at least that is what the banks were indicating.
Bank of America seems to limit a lot of the old benefits of Visa Signature to their Premium Rewards Visa Signature. It offers travel protections, purchase protections, rental car insurance and concierge services. These benefits are not listed for either the Cash Rewards Visa Signature or the MLB Cash Rewards MasterCard (which more than likely would be issued as a World MasterCard).
At the end of the day, Visa Signature and World/World Elite MasterCard does not mean what it used to. A lot of benefits have been stripped away on more common cards. It is worth stating that merchants have to pay the banks a fee anytime you make a purchase-and the higher level your card, the higher fee the banks earn. In recent years, most rewards credit cards are issued as Signature/World/World Elite despite pitiful credit lines (i.e. $300 Capital One GM World Elite MasterCard) because it helps the banks pay for the rewards it offers. Since Visa and Mastercard allow the banks to decide which benefits to offer on their cards, many have opted to do away with many of the original benefits of Signature/World/World Elite.
TL DR: no, there does not appear to be any difference between the Visa Signature Cash Rewards or the MLB World MasterCard except for the obvious: no using MLB at Costco and no cool design on the Visa. Neither the Visa nor the MasterCard appear to offer the cell phone insurance or price protection.
