Bank of America Premium Rewards credit card review (2021 UPDATE)

hey there i'm jeff with creditcards.com today we're doing a review of the bank of america premium rewards credit card we'll talk about the main pros and cons of this card and we'll do a final verdict towards the end of the video for you and just so you know while i think you're going to find the video really really helpful we do have a full review of this card and all the other bank of america credit cards on our website i'll link a bunch of that information for you down below in the description the fact of the matter is once i publish a video i can't come back and change it so if something changes whether it's the sign up bonus or the terms there's really nothing i can do about this video so all the information is accurate as of when i'm filming but who knows it may change in the future i don't know when you're watching today's video so check out everything in the description like i said you'll be able to see your current sign up bonus and all of that now as for the sign up bonus as of now it's 50 000 bonus points when you spend three thousand dollars on the card in the first 90 days of account opening that's about a 17 percent return on spend depending on how you value the points they're usually about one cent per point again that definitely may change in the future and you might also want to try out the card match tool on our website it's totally free to use i'll link it down below in the description that way you can see if you have any pre-qualified offers or anything special for you now in terms of how we're going to break down this review we're going to start by talking about the rewards that the card earns and bank of america's preferred rewards program because that's really interesting and something unique about bank of america then we'll cover the redemption options for your rewards we'll talk about perks terms and fees and then at the end we'll cover our final verdict now we'll also compare to some other similar cards along the way so hopefully you enjoy the video and you realize how much time we put into our content and we earn your thumbs up and you become a subscriber to our channel so now let's kick it off by talking about the rewards they're pretty simple with this card but as you'll see in a second the bank of america preferred reward system makes things a lot more interesting for this card and a lot more compelling but for the general public if you were to go out and sign up for this card right now it earns two points per dollar in a travel category which includes things like airlines hotels timeshares buses taxis even parking in many cases and then you also earn two points per dollar on dining purchases which includes restaurants fast food bars and taverns and then beyond those two categories you have a catch-all which is one and a half points per dollar on all other purchases now to be honest with you those rewards are just okay i mean they're in line with what you'll see with the capital one venture rewards credit card and the chase sapphire preferred card which are kind of two comparable credit cards although there is a case to be made with those two cards that they offer a higher return since you can actually transfer your points to travel partners whereas that's not the case with bank of america now i'll link those other two cards in the description for you as well as our guide to the best travel cards you can check that out but when it comes to bank of america it's generally accepted that one point equals one cent so if you're earning two points per dollar you're really getting basically two percent back but like i said before what makes this card and other bank of america card so compelling is the preferred reward system which not many people know about it's basically a three-tiered system that compensates you for your loyalty to bank of america so they've got the gold the platinum and the platinum honors and there's a different cash threshold for each one of them so you have to have a certain amount of money for the gold for the platinum for the platinum honors and then you get a bonus on your credit card rewards for being a part of that system depending on where you sit between gold platinum and platinum honors so the gold tier you get a 25 bonus platinum tier is 50 and the platinum honors is 75 so let's just say you do have the premium rewards credit card and you're in the platinum honors tier so you're getting the 75 boost your two points per dollar for travel and for dining purchases goes to three and a half points per dollar and your catch-all category of 1.5 points per dollar goes to 2.6 points per dollar so all this is to say that the rewards are just okay but there is a scenario where this card is pretty much a no-brainer i mean 2.6 points per dollar or basically 2.6 cashback is pretty much unheard of for general purchases and 3.5 points per dollar or three and a half percent cash back is pretty good for dining and travel purchases now we've done a full guide on the preferred reward system from bank of america you can look that over i'll link that down below in the description i think that'll give you more context as to some of the big advantages of going with bank of america now let's move over to the redemption options the main ways to redeem your points are obviously cash back you can do statement credit direct deposit you can also book travel via bank of america's travel portal and then you can get gift cards so you can get gift cards at popular merchants like amazon starbucks whole foods stuff like that next i want to move over to some of the main fees and credits that come with the card obviously starting with the fact that it has a 95 annual fee now usually i do not like cards that have a 95 annual fee or any annual fee for that matter because i think it sort of directly eats into the cash back or the rewards that you earn but with this card in particular i think it's less of a concern for two reasons the first is that it comes with a tsa pre slash global entry credit that's up to a hundred dollars and that's once every four years so you should always do global entry because that includes tsa pre that's a hundred dollars so just the mental math for me i kind of assign 25 per year of value to that credit so you spend the money on the card and then you see the credit show up later in addition to the tsa pre and global entry credit you have a hundred dollar per year airline incidental credit and that applies to things like baggage fees in-flight entertainment onboard food and drinks and more and that credit has been known to work for several major airlines so we'll put them on the screen here this is not an official list i could not find an official list from bank of america but i've read about in the past that these are known to work these airlines however there are certain airlines that are specifically excluded from the credit and those would be sun country spirit and allegiant air with bank of america it applies to a fairly broad list of u.s carriers so let's say you're spending money you know you spend 35 on baggage fees at united one week then a couple of weeks later you fly southwest then you can also charge those baggage fees to the card and you'll see the incidental airline credit show up as well so it applies to a fairly broad list of us carriers we have more information about this on our website i can link that down below in the description for you in my mind i consider this to be worth a hundred dollars per year full credit because it applies to so many different carriers i think it's relatively easy to use but beyond the credits the premium reward card comes with plenty of other perks and benefits uh that i think you should look into in particular it doesn't charge any foreign transaction fees which is great and it's a visa so it's accepted almost everywhere but they have plenty of other protections and stuff that you'll want to learn about you know frankly there's too many of them for me to list off right now in the video and they may change in the future so it's best that you check out our full review we have them all spelled out there again that's linked down below in the description so that's basically it with the bank of america premium rewards credit card i see it as being very similar to the chase sapphire preferred or the capital one venture card the cards i mentioned earlier like anything it has its pros it has its cons it's not perfect but i think if you are somebody that travels at least a few times a year and you are a preferred rewards member it makes a lot of sense but if you're not a preferred rewards member i think the decision becomes a lot more difficult you know there are a lot of cards in this mid-range travel credit card category you know cards that have around 100 annual fee they are really competitive and there are a lot of good cards to look over i'll link some other ones for you down below in the description for instance chase they have travel partners the chase sapphire preferred card might be something you want to look into because you can transfer your points to those travel partners and hopefully get more than one cent per point also the city premiere card they have some really nice earnings tiers comes with a lot of benefits and they also have travel partners so maybe you want to look into that card but if you want a travel credit card and you're mostly concerned with offsetting that annual fee i'd argue that it's actually easiest with the bank of america premium rewards credit card that is if you're looking for a credit card that has a recurring annual credit that you can count on year after year not just a temporary credit that may go away in the future and you have no idea if it's coming back i also like the fact that it earns 1.5 points per dollar on all general purchases not one point per dollar as you'll see with a lot of other credit cards so look i don't think the answer is easy i think it comes down to the person there are some people where it is an absolute slam dunk in other people where they might take a pass so again there's a lot more resources for you down below in the description i hope you found the video helpful and hopefully we earned your thumbs up and you're now a subscriber to the channel have a great day [Music] you

Channel: CreditCards.com

Views: 7,968

Keywords: bank of america credit card review, bank of america, bank of america credit card, bank of america premium rewards, bank of america premium rewards review, bank of america premium rewards credit card, bank of america premium rewards card review, bank of america travel rewards

Id: gHkBDKD05zc

Length: 9min 26sec (566 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 27 2021