BofA Product change in the works

[Anonymous]

Well, I just got off the phone here with BofA regarding a product change, and I thought that I would relay my experience with everyone else here who may be thinking of initiating such a request.

Bit-O-Backstory.  Last year I applied for the Chase Amtrak Guest rewards card not knowing that, at the time I was applying, they were in the process of discontinuing the card.  So, rather than simply cancelling the app, or immediately taking the application offline, Chase HP'd me, denied me, then stated in the letter the reason for denial was "Product no longer available".  I was pretty peeved over that one, but a call to the CS,s line got the HP removed.  So, water under the bridge.  However, being a heavy Amtrak rider, and current guest rewards member, I really wanted the card.  

Fast forward to today, the new Amtrak Guest Rewards card's from BofA are now out and available.  This time however, I am going to bypass the entire credit pull step and simply do a product change.  After doing some research here on the forums, I discovered it is possible with BofA to change from a Visa to a Mastercard (which the new Amtrak cards are), so I called, spoke with a very friendly CSR, and put in my request to change my Platinum Plus Visa, over to the new Amtrak no AF Platinum mastercard.  The request was submitted to the back office, and the CSR told me that within a few days I should be receiving a phone call regarding the PC.

I will keep you all posted as to what happens and how things go!

[icyhot]

Good luck, BofA is good with PCs and don't seem to have a time limit when you can do it. They are just very, very, very slow.

[Membersince2013]

Yup..I was juts going to come in here to tell you to expect your card between 3 weeks and a month. 

[Anonymous]

Wow from Visa to MASTERCARD I take it your card was once a secured card since you mentioned "no annual fee"if true than that means at some point your account had gone to graduation well done. I did pc on my platinum plus VISA to the rewards and same thing I had to request it with a representative and than wait a few days for someone to reach out to me instead of that I received a mail with a phone number and confirmation # of my request. 3 weeks later I received my rewards card pretty slow process but promising.

[Anonymous]

Well I hate to be the bad news bear, but this won't work. While you may be able to change your network from visa to mc, or maybe from mastercard to WMC, they will not allow PCs to the AGR card.

The bank americard, travel rewards, and the 3-2-1 cash rewards are all interchangeable. The better balance rewards and others are not.

I tried doing the PC last week quite a few times, and no dice. Was hoping to get our BOA CR pc'd to AGR, and then I'd open my own later when the 20k bonus was higher as it goes to 32k (at least it did with chase).

Also, how much traveling with amtrak? You wont get the sign on bonus.....and the AGR points are worth 2.625 cents each, so even the 12k or 25k point bonus cant be worth a lot...especially if you redeem before 2016.

If you are concerned about getting approved you can do a joint application and split it up in a year.

[kdm31091]

Hate to agree with the above but I imagine the "phone call" you will get in a few days will be a call telling you the PC cannot be done. I have never heard of this type of PC being succesful with BOA. As icyhot mentioned, PCs take weeks with them, so the request being submitted doesn't mean it was accepted.

Travel Rewards, 123 Cash and the plain Americard are interchangeable for PCs, BBR was removed as a PC option due to people abusing PCs to that card, and that's about it. Cobranded PCs I don't think will work out. Good luck though.

[FinStar]

I guess it would be interesting to see if BOA would even allow the PC altogether.  Network switch, V>MC (or viceversa), no problem.  Typically, most affinity programs aren't transferrable or PC-eligible but since the Amtrak product is much newer to BOA's portfolio I suppose that remains to be seen. 

[Anonymous]

I mean obviously the person travels amtrak. So wouldnt the question become, what is the HP worth?

Why not use 1 hard pull and grab the $79 version with 20k points AND a Better Balance Rewards for $100-$120 free per year?  You could then rationalize that as paying the AF...and downgrade if you decide later to the No AF version.

If my math is correct with the AF version you end up earning base 2 points/dollar spent on amtrak travel PLUS 3 points per dollar with the AGR World Mastercard, which is 5 points per dollar worth roughly 13.125 percent.....

Plus it does 2 points per dollar on any travel.... so thats essentially a 5.25% travel card. Hard to beat that!

Super excited for this card if you cant tell lol.

Not to mention the other perks like acela pass, companion pass, upgrades etc.

[icyhot]

BoA will do PCs on affinity cards that have the same reward structures as the 3-2-1, such as the Susan G Komen or MLB. However, now that I think about it I've never heard of a PC to an actual COBRANDED card. Also, how were people abusing the BBR PCs? How do you abuse that card? lol

[kdm31091]

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@icyhot wrote:
BoA will do PCs on affinity cards that have the same reward structures as the 3-2-1, such as the Susan G Komen or MLB. However, now that I think about it I've never heard of a PC to an actual COBRANDED card. Also, how were people abusing the BBR PCs? How do you abuse that card? lol

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People would open a 123 cash rewards, collect the sign up bonus and then PC to the BBR for the "easy money". Enough people were doing it that they halted PCs to the BBR.

To be honest I think the BBR will be discontinued sooner than later.