(Update 7/20/21: There’s also a Student card version of this card. All the rest of the details are the same, including signup bonus, just maybe they’ll approve students easier. Could be a nice first card.)
Bank of America has launched a new Unlimited Cash Rewards consumer card which has no annual fee and earns an unlimited 1.5% cashback on all purchases. Preferred Rewards Platinum Honors members will earn 2.62% on all purchases.
Bank of America Unlimited Cash Rewards signup link | Student Version | Secured Card Version| Press Release
Signup Bonus
- Get $200 signup bonus after you spend $1,000 within 90 days.
Card Details
- No annual fee
- 3% foreign transaction fee
- Card earns 1.5% cash back on all purchases with no limit. Preferred Rewards Platinum Honors members will earn 2.62% on all purchases. Rewards do not expire.
- Cash rewards can be redeemed as a statement credit to your credit or a deposit to your Bank of America checking, savings, or Merrill investing account.
- Low Introductory APR Offer of 0% APR for your first 15 billing cycles for purchases, and for any balance transfers made within 60 days of opening your account. After that, a Variable APR that’s currently 13.99% to 23.99% will apply. 3% fee (min $10) applies to balance transfers.
Our Verdict
This card is similar to the old Travel Rewards card, just as cashback instead of points. This is a terrific new card since it removes the annoyance of having to redeem the rewards against travel purchases and creates a straight 2.62% cashback card with no annual fee.
A lot of people carry the Premium Rewards card, with its $95 annual fee, specifically to avoid the annoyance of having to redeem against travel. There are other advantages of the Premium Rewards, including $100 airline incidental credit, 2x (3.5x) on travel & dining purchases, and no foreign transaction fee. But if you don’t care for those benefits you can simply get the Unlimited Cash Rewards and then you won’t need the Premium Rewards card anymore.
Hopefully they’ll allow product changes from the Travel Rewards and the Premium Rewards cards to the new Unlimited Cash Rewards card. You won’t get a signup bonus when product changing, but some will prefer that to opening a new account.
Some people were targeted with a $200 bonus for product changing into this Unlimited Cash Rewards card.
There’s also a Student version of the Unlimited Cash Rewards card with all of the same details as the regular card, just maybe a bit easier for students to get approved when using that Student link. There’s also a Secured version of this card which is mostly the same, but does not have the $200 signup bonus. The bank plans to launch a similar 1.5%/2.62% Business Unlimited Cash Rewards in October.
View Comments (238)
Got an email about new $300/1k spend sub for the UCR. Only have a checking with them.
Honest review, 4 years later with 3 cards under the same/similar name:
This is a no brainer if you can get the higher tiers in BofA's preferred rewards program. E.g. with my tier, I get 5.25% on categories.
Mainly I use the "travel", "restaurants", and "online shopping" categories. There is a $2,500 spend cap each quarter that resets, and usually I max out on each.
Two downsides: the biggest is there are no transfer partners, instead I opt for a statement credit or cash deposit. Would be great to be able to transfer a la Chase Sapphire Preferred/Reserve
Another downside is making payments. Typically, I like to pay the minimum payment when the statement cycle is over. Then immediately schedule a payment in advance for the entire balance before it's due so I can maximize the interest. But BofA doesn't have the feature and you have to pay from BofA funds. So it's a hassle to time this and I end up just paying the entire statement balance when the statement cycle is over (for fear of a late payment)
Some will say that a negative is these cards don't have travel protections (e.g. trip delay, cancellation). This is true and I only use it for business travel where for example if I was delayed or stuck in another city, my work would cover the hotels, meals, etc. For personal trips, I use other cards that offer protection
But net, I love the 5.25% earn on this
BofA did away with this tier. If you are at the Platinum level then you get 2.62% on all categories with NO cap.
The 2.62% is with the Premium rewards or Unlimited cash rewards card at the Platinum Honors level. Bubz is talking about the Custom cash rewards card which has categories and spend caps but gets 5.25% at the Plat honors level.
Pay & Transfer -> Bill Pay -> Manage accounts from other banks.
This should bring you to a page with two tabs...one for BoA pay from accounts, and one for Other pay from accounts which has a link to add external accounts. Some people can't seem to find it, so if its not showing for you, try going to the main bill pay page (billpay-ui.bankofamerica.com/imm/PaymentCenter/Index/####) and replace PaymentCenter in the url with MyAccounts
This!!!! Thank you, how did I miss this. I just added my account but little nervous since it is a savings account and the only options on BofA are "money market" or "checking" so I picked money market. Anyways, hopeful and if this works this is just the cherry on top to the BofA cards
Bummer, no trial deposits into my savings account
Ha! Super helpful, thank you!
Glad to help...were you able to navigate to the page or did you have to use the url replacement?
"Navigate" worked just fine.
Thanks again!
Mine comes with a cash advance limit of $200 which cannot be lowered
Anybody get a 0% APR and 0% fee offer for balance transfers until June 2024 on an existing card? Surprised at the 0% fee part and wondering if it is a mistake.
@will @chucksithe
I just noticed the ability to use cashback rewards from BofA Unlimited to pay on Amazon. Go to the rewards summary page in app. Time to expect a promotion later? I do not see this feature on my CCR business card.
Can you transfer points from Travel Rewards card to the Unlimited Cash Rewards card?
I just tried and it did not work for me. System says, "We're sorry, your Points cannot be transferred because the accounts have different rewards programs."
Thanks so much for the helpful DP!
I was planning on closing out my Premium Rewards and just using Unlimited Cash Rewards. But now I'm unsure about what to do given that my Travel Rewards will be harder to deal with.
That does sound like a conundrum. It sounds like you are trying to simplify. I have not had a premium rewards but I opened a premium rewards elite last year for sign up bonus and was able to use credits fairly easily, now closed mine out and P2 opened one recently. But obviously depends on being able to utilize credits…
If you do not have a BoA checking with a preferred rewards then there is a better all category reward card out there since this card just earns 1.5%.cahs back . Most Banks these days are forcing us to have checking Acc with them to get higher rewards such as this card, Alliant CU signature card, Union Bank freely and etc.
Also with Wells Fargo active cash card you can't redeem the cash back into your checking and or receive check in the mail if you don't have their checking account, So that Leaves us with the Good Old Citi Double Cash back if you want a no hassle straight 2% cash back or if you want to switch your checking account for the sake of little bit more with Alliant Cu or get this card if you already have preferred reward platinum or above status,
Does anyone know what cashback do Bofa Customized and Unlimited reward cards code as for IRS tax payments?
I got the 2.62% back on my taxes with PR Honors. I used PayUSATAX, the cheapest of the three official IRS approved sites that take CCs and it worked fine. It coded as “TAX PAYMENTS” for merchant. I say it worked fine because Google shows a lot of people stating the CC payment never applied to their tax accounts. Mine hit in a couple days.
I have the premium rewards card and earned the standard 1.5x on the purchase. My preferred rewards boost applied as well
Success! And much quicker payout than expected.
March 25: Applied and Approved.
April 9: $1k Spending completed.
April 11: Final transaction passes "pending stage." Login splash screen on app shows "Congrats! You earned your bonus." No rewards show yet in the rewards section on the app, but the rewards section of the website does show "New Account Spend Bonus" as pending. Looks like it'll come through soon!
BofA has never offered me this card as the customized cash rewards is my most heavily-used card. They don't want me to get 2.625% where I am now getting 1.75% :-) I will have to go after this myself. Contrast this with a newbie who got their first-ever card last month (from Citi). They got a preapproval letter recently for this card!