Bank of America^® Premium Rewards^® credit card Review

The Bank of America^® Premium Rewards^® credit card could be a great fit if you’re looking for a travel credit card with straightforward rewards and a good sign-up bonus. It’s especially worth the $95 annual fee if you have big deposits with Bank of America or Merrill Lynch via Bank of America’s Preferred Rewards® program.

Depending on your level in the program, you can earn up to 3.5 points per dollar spent on travel and dining purchases and 2.62 points per dollar spent on all other purchases.

Its high rewards rates and benefits like extensive travel protections, TSA PreCheck/Global Entry credits and no foreign transaction fees make this a valuable card for travelers with Bank of America.

On the other hand, the $95 might not be worth it for you if you want the ability to transfer rewards to outside loyalty programs. This card’s redemption options are limited and less valuable compared to other flexible travel rewards cards.

• Annual fee: $95
• Sign-up bonus: 60,000 online bonus points - a $600 value - after you make at least $4,000 in purchases in the first 90 days of account opening.
• Rewards: 2 points for every $1 spent on travel and dining purchases. 1.5 points for every $1 spent on all other purchases.
• APR on purchases: 21.24% - 29.24% Variable APR
• Foreign transaction fee: None
• Other benefits:
  • Up to $100 airline incidental statement credit for qualifying purchases
  • Up to $100 statement credit for TSA PreCheck or Global Entry every four years
  • Trip delay insurance
  • Travel cancellation and interruption insurance
  • Baggage delay insurance
  • Lost luggage insurance
  • Emergency evacuation and transportation insurance
  • Warranty manager service
  • Return protection
  • Purchase security
  • 24/7 roadside dispatch
  • Concierge service
• Credit needed: Good / Excellent

• Earns 2X points on travel and dining

  This card lets you earn 2 points for every $1 spent on travel and dining purchases. 1.5 points for every $1 spent on all other purchases. This is a simple — yet effective — setup if you don’t want to carry around different credit cards for different spending categories. Many other cards with elevated rewards categories only let you earn 1X points on all other purchases.

• $200 worth of travel statement credits

  Despite a $95 annual fee, the benefits of the Bank of America^® Premium Rewards^® credit card more than cover it. You get up to a $100 yearly airline credit — automatically applied to your card statement — to cover things like seat upgrades, baggage fees, in-flight services and airline lounge fees. On top of that, you get up to $100 to cover enrollment fees for TSA PreCheck or Global Entry every four years. These benefits are typically only available on cards with much higher annual fees.

• Large sign-up bonus

  You can earn 60,000 online bonus points - a $600 value - after you make at least $4,000 in purchases in the first 90 days of account opening. This is one of the larger sign-up bonuses for a travel credit card — and one of the main reasons to apply. If you qualify for the sign-up bonus and take advantage of the card’s other benefits, you can squeeze a lot of value from it in your first year.

  The spending threshold for this offer is high. Time your application of this card out for when you’re about to make big purchases — whether they’re on travel or something else.

• Enhanced rewards for Bank of America Preferred Rewards® members

  For Bank of America’s Preferred Rewards® members — especially those with account balances over $100,000 — this could be one of the most rewarding cards around. Depending on your membership tier, you’ll get a 25% to 75% bonus on every purchase. This translates to up to 3.5 points per $1 on travel and dining purchases and up to 2.62 points per $1 on all other purchases.

  Bank of America Preferred Rewards® level	Bonus	Points per $1 on travel and dining	Required average daily combined balance
  None	None	2	No account or combined balances below $20,000
  Gold	25%	2.5	Combined balances between $20,000 to $49,999
  Platinum	50%	3	Combined balances between $50,000 to $99,999
  Platinum Honors and Diamond	75%	3.5	Combined balances of $100,000-plus

• Flexible redemption options

  Bank of America points are very flexible and straightforward to redeem for travel. Your statement credits can apply to a wide range of travel purchases with no blackout dates or restrictions like some other travel cards have.

  Bank of America has one of the broadest definitions of travel of any credit card rewards program, and you can apply statement credits to your most recent 2,500 dining and travel purchases as far back as 12 months. Your points also don’t expire.

  When redeeming your points, stick to travel, since other options may lower the value of your points. For example, cash back redemptions will only yield about 0.006 cents per point.

• Extensive travel benefits

  Bank of America^® Premium Rewards^® credit card cardholders are covered when it comes to travel mishaps. For just a $95 annual fee, you’ll get benefits you’d expect to find with higher-annual fee cards — like lost luggage reimbursement and trip delay reimbursement.

  • Trip delay reimbursement: Covers eligible trip delays more than 12 hours.
  • Travel and emergency assistance services: Get help coordinating medical, legal and travel services when traveling.
  • Trip cancellation/interruption insurance: Reimburses your airfare up to a set amount if your trip is canceled or cut short by sickness or other covered situations.
  • Baggage delay insurance: Get reimbursed for purchases of essential items (up to five days), for baggage delays more than six hours. Coverage is secondary to the common carrier.
  • Lost luggage reimbursement: Coverage for luggage and its contents if they are lost or stolen due to theft or misdirection by the common carrier (airline, bus, train, cruise ship).
  • Emergency evacuation and transportation coverage: Coverage for eligible medical services and transportation if you or an immediate family member are injured or get sick during a trip far from home that results in an emergency evacuation.
  • Auto rental collision damage waiver: Reimbursement for damage due to collision or theft of a rental vehicle, when you decline the coverage offered by the rental agency. Coverage is secondary to other insurance policies.
  • Purchase protection: Covers you for the repair, replacement or reimbursement of an eligible item purchased with the card is stolen or damaged, within 90 days of purchase.
  • Return protection: Covers you for items that you want to return within 90 days of purchase, if the retailer will not accept the return.

• Low rewards rate for non-Preferred Rewards members

  If you’re not a Bank of America Preferred Rewards® member, then this card’s rewards rate isn’t impressive. You can use this card for general purchases, but you may earn rewards faster with cards that have higher rewards rates on dining, travel, grocery and other common spending categories, like the Chase Sapphire Preferred^® Card or the American Express^® Gold Card.

• No loyalty program transfer partners

  One of the greatest drawbacks of the Bank of America^® Premium Rewards^® credit card is that it doesn’t let you transfer points to outside loyalty programs. Many cards with similar annual fees from issuers like American Express, Chase and Capital One allow you to transfer points at a 1:1 ratio to a variety of airline and hotel loyalty program partners. This substantially boosts the value of these cards’ points, since you can shop among loyalty programs to find the best value for your rewards.

  As you can see from our estimated rewards rates below, cards like the American Express^® Gold Card and the Chase Sapphire Preferred^® Card have two to three times the potential earning power of the Bank of America^® Premium Rewards^® credit card because of their point transfer options:

  Estimated rewards earned per $1 spent

  • American Express^® Gold Card: $0.046
  • Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card: $0.043
  • Citi Strata Premier^℠ Card: $0.040
  • Chase Sapphire Preferred^® Card: $0.037
  • Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card: $0.037
  • Chase Sapphire Reserve^®: $0.033
  • Bilt World Elite Mastercard^®: $0.028
  • Bank of America^® Premium Rewards^® credit card: $0.016
  *Based on LendingTree’s value methodology

Bank of America^® Premium Rewards^® credit card vs. Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card

For the same $95 annual fee (see rates & fees), the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card offers a better value than the Bank of America^® Premium Rewards^® credit card. That starts with a larger sign-up bonus. You’ll earn 75,000 Miles once you spend $4,000 on purchases within the first 3 months of account opening, plus receive a one-time $250 Capital One Travel credit in your first cardholder year – that’s equal to $1,000 in travel. But you’ll also get a higher rewards rate: 2 Miles per dollar on every purchase, every day; 5 Miles per dollar on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel.

You’ll earn flexible rewards that you can use to fly any airline or stay at any hotel with no blackout dates. Even better, you can transfer your miles to more than 15 hotel and airline loyalty programs partnered with Capital One. By strategically transferring your miles, you potentially can earn rewards at twice the rate of the Bank of America^® Premium Rewards^® credit card.

The Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card also offers trip cancellation/interruption coverage, rental car insurance, lost or damaged luggage reimbursement and 24-hour travel assistance services.

Bank of America^® Premium Rewards^® credit card vs. Chase Sapphire Preferred^® Card

The Chase Sapphire Preferred^® Card is a valuable rewards card with a $95 annual fee. It comes with a $50 hotel credit, but, unlike the Bank of America^® Premium Rewards^® credit card, does not offer an airline credit or TSA PreCheck/Global entry credits.

However, the Chase Sapphire Preferred^® Card does offer a more generous rewards rate: Enjoy benefits such as 5x on travel purchased through Chase Travel℠, 3x on dining, select streaming services and online groceries, 2x on all other travel purchases, 1x on all other purchases, $50 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit, plus more.

Like the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card, you can transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards® points with this card to a variety of hotel and airline partners. This gives it much higher potential rewards earnings than the Bank of America^® Premium Rewards^® credit card.

Bank of America^® Premium Rewards^® credit card vs. Chase Sapphire Reserve^®

The Chase Sapphire Reserve^® is a higher-tier travel credit card than the Bank of America^® Premium Rewards^® credit card. It has a $550 annual fee, but has excellent benefits like airport lounge access, a $300 flexible travel credit and Global Entry/TSA PreCheck or NEXUS fee credits.

It also offers a much higher rewards rate: Earn 5x total points on flights and 10x total points on hotels and car rentals when you purchase travel through Chase Travel℠ immediately after the first $300 is spent on travel purchases annually. Earn 3x points on other travel and dining & 1 point per $1 spent on all other purchases. You can also transfer points earned with this card to Chase’s loyalty program partners to give a big boost to your rewards earnings.

The Chase Sapphire Reserve^® is best for frequent travelers who would benefit from a wider set of perks. If you don’t travel as frequently, then the Bank of America^® Premium Rewards^® credit card or another travel credit card might be a better fit.

The Bank of America^® Premium Rewards^® credit card could be right for you if you’re a Bank of America Preferred Rewards member. You can earn TSA PreCheck, airline credits and a higher rewards rate than most cardholders. Also, if you primarily travel in economy and have little flexibility with your dates, then Bank of America’s straightforward rewards program could do the trick.

If you’re not a Preferred Rewards member, however, and you want to maximize your travel rewards, then another travel card might be right for you. Cards like the Chase Sapphire Preferred^® Card and Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card have similar annual fees, but they offer better rewards rates and sign-up bonuses. These cards also have more flexible rewards and redemption options, like transferring to travel partners.