The Offer
- Get the Bank of America Travel Rewards card and receive a 20,000 point/$200 signup bonus after spending $1,000 within 90 days.
Typically, this card comes with a $100 bonus after $500 in spend. The bonus is now doubled, along with the spend requirement.
The Fine Print
- No annual fee and no foreign transaction fees
- Earn unlimited 1.5 points for every $1 spent on all purchases
- 20,000 online bonus points if you make at least $1,000 in purchases in the first 90 days – which can be redeemed for a $200 statement credit toward travel purchases
- Redeem points for a statement credit to pay for flights, hotels, vacation packages, cruises, rental cars or baggage fees
Our Verdict
This signup bonus is almost as good as cash similar to the Barclay Arrival reward points which are redeemed for travel. A $200 cash signup bonus is pretty good on the scale of cash signup bonuses.
See also, Bank of America Preferred Rewards Program: 5.25% Cash Back On Gas, 3.75% Travel, 2.625% All Purchases. See also our comprehensive post on World Points.
I’m considering this one, mostly because I don’t have a single Bank of America credit card. Maybe I’ll go for a couple BoA cards at once with the expectation that the inquiries will be combined. You can even mix personal cards and business cards and it should be combined, which is useful if you plan on applying for the $2000 checking account bonus which requires opening a business credit card.
HT: physixfan on Reddit
Other useful bits of info about Bank of America:
- Bank of America cards can be churned
- BoA reconsideration phone number
- BoA will often match a higer signup bonus, if you applied recently try calling in
- Some had success with freezing their credit report and convincing BoA to pull a different report
- You may be able to have your BoA card expedited upon request
- View your prequalified BoA offers
- Best downgrade options for BoA
What are the insurance benefits with this card?
Can we re-apply for this card again for another $200 bonus if we already have a travel rewards that’s 1 month old?
Usually you can with bank of america
Hello everybody,
I am proud to share that BoFA did approve me for travel rewards credit card $500 spend for 10k travel rewards points online and a day later to my surprise, I saw that the 20k travel rewards for $1000 was online available!! So I knew calling will put me in circles. I just chatted online this sunday that I was upset about the 20k travelrewards online offer and wanted them to match it. He opened a ticket and said they would revert in 14 days. Guess what today, I see 20k travelrewards in my rewards section! Good job BoFA!
Thanks for the data point, Sate.
Do I have to close my current BOA Travel card that I’ve had for years in order to receive a new card with this offer?
If you’re approved, you should get the bonus without closing. https://www.doctorofcredit.com/list-of-churnable-credit-cards/#Bank_of_America
Not sure if closing helps or hinders your prospects of getting approved.
Applied 7 days back with an old offer. Received card yesterday.
could not find CS for chat, so I called over phone.
no go with CS and Sales team. The only option both suggested was to close 1 day old account (that has 0 transaction) and reapply again with new offer.
Tomorrow, I will try CS via Chat.
In general my experience with BOA is; very hard to deal with compared to Chase.
After two unsuccessful try, finally I got CR who was ready to submit office match request.
I received credit of 10k to match with 20k offer.
I went through preferred rewards live chat and asked if they’d match the increased bonus. The rep put in a request and said I’d get notified by mail in 7-10 days. I got the card just over a month ago, so guess we’ll see.
Update: 10,000 point “adjustment” appeared in account this morning. Very pleased. Wish the bonus got the pref rewards bump though!
I have found preferred rewards chat generally very responsive whenever I’ve had an issue e.g., a cashback deal that didn’t post.
Thank you for your notification. I got back additional $100 bonus.
I got approved my second travel card two weeks ago to replace my two Arrival+, and Alaska card at the same within 15 minutes. I just chatted with the representative online and he agreed to match the $200 signon bonus offer in 2 minutes. I have a preferred platinum status
Awesome!
what was the number you called?
BOA has been denying people who have multiple inquiries left and right lately, they appear to have changed their policy like Chase recently has as well. Read up on the Alaska CC thread on FT for more info.
Thanks for the information, but those of us who do not churn credit cards probably have nothing to fear.
Just one data point, but I have 9 inquiries on my TU report (which I’m pretty sure is the one they pulled because they pulled that in the past) and they denied me. I eventually asked to move a credit line, they said they’d take 3 days to process it.
Looks like I got approved after moving some of my credit line from my other BoA card.
10 inquiries on TU, including 2 within the last month. Just approved for both Travel Rewards and Amtrak Guest Rewards (no AF version) using 2B method.
What does it mean by $200 in travel credit? Can I purchase a gift card from an airline company and use the $200 credit after my $1000 spend? Or do I have to go through the BOA site and use the $200 through their travel site? If I can use it for cashback or a gift card, I’m all over this. When you mention applying for multiple cards counting as one inquiry, how does that work? Do I just apply for each individually on the same day and it will only have 1 pull on my credit?
Thanks?
Yes, probably anything the same day (or within a few hours at least) should be combined.
Thank you for the reply Chuck, but what does it mean by $200 in travel credit? Can I purchase a gift card from an airline company and use the $200 credit after my $1000 spend? Or do I have to go through the BOA site and use the $200 through their travel site? If I can use it for cashback or a gift card, I’m all over this.
You don’t have to use the BOA travel site for your credit. You just use the card for the approved categories such as airline tickets,hotels, museums, etc. After the points
post to your account, then you log in to the
rewards section to get your statement credit. If the purchase was not coded for an approved category, then it will not be eligible for a credit. The total being redeemed has to be $25 or more and individual purchases can be combined to reach that figure.
The way purchases are
coded can lead to odd things being eligible for travel credit. For example, admissions to museums and
aquariums are eligible for credit. On a recent truip to Cincinnati, I visited an art museum,the Aquarium, and bought something from a candy shop next to the aquarium. The museum admission coded as a gift shop purchase that was ineligible for a
credit. The aquarium and the candy shop purchase were eligible. Go figure.
Thanks Stampman. Does anyone else have experience purchasing airline or cruise gift cards directly from the cruise or airline’s website and receiving the credit?
Thanks
If you purchase airline ticket from BoA travel site, you got 1.5% additional point.
I purchased a US air ticket from BoA travel site 45 days ago and I got additional 1.5 point. I got 2.625% +1.5%=4.125%.
I paid $644.20 and I got 1,691 points(2.625%) and 966 point(1.5%). Total point is 2657.
Can the $200 be redeemed as straight cashback?
I believe not, but I’m not entirely positive.