Bank of America/Merrill Edge - Preferred Rewards

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Elazor
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Mar 01, 2023 9:46 pm

Re: Bank of America/Merrill Edge - Preferred Rewards

Post by Elazor »

placeholder wrote: Thu Mar 02, 2023 1:33 am I'm at that level now but it wasn't intentional just accumulated from bonus transfers in and now I've made a bunch of outward moves so possibly next time they check I will be downgraded to platinum honors.
Nice you try out any of those lifestyle benefits they offer?
MBB_Boy
Posts: 899
Joined: Sat May 12, 2018 4:09 pm

Re: Bank of America/Merrill Edge - Preferred Rewards

Post by MBB_Boy »

lstone19 wrote: Tue Feb 28, 2023 5:08 pm
StewedCarrot wrote: Tue Feb 28, 2023 4:55 pm Has anyone been able to use a non-BoA checking account to autopay their BoA credit card?

I'm happy with my current checking account, but would like to use BoA's credit cards. Perhaps having a small BoA checking account on the side is throwing a wrench in the works?

I know I should call their customer service, but my experience has been that the CSRs are hit-and-miss.
Yes, did it just last month. IIRC, Bill Pay > Manage Accounts, then select the "Other Pay From Accounts" tab and click on "Add a Pay From account you own at another institution." Once you do that, you probably need to wait for the verification process to run its course. Then, you should see your credit card in the Payment Center with an Auto Pay button near the bottom. Clicking on that will let you set up autopay from the outside bank you just linked.

From experience, the process for setting up auto-pay with BoA credit cards has changed over the years and has never been intuitive.
Not only can you do this, but once the account is linked you can use it for ANYTHING in the Bill Pay center. So log into BOA to pay bills from my SoFi checking account, because BOAs BillPay experience is easier (can type in all the numbers and dates on one screen and hit pay, vs having to go beginning to end for each individual one at SoFi)
lstone19
Posts: 2371
Joined: Fri Nov 03, 2017 3:33 pm
Location: Nevada

Re: Bank of America/Merrill Edge - Preferred Rewards

Post by lstone19 »

MBB_Boy wrote: Thu Mar 02, 2023 9:19 am
lstone19 wrote: Tue Feb 28, 2023 5:08 pm
StewedCarrot wrote: Tue Feb 28, 2023 4:55 pm Has anyone been able to use a non-BoA checking account to autopay their BoA credit card?

I'm happy with my current checking account, but would like to use BoA's credit cards. Perhaps having a small BoA checking account on the side is throwing a wrench in the works?

I know I should call their customer service, but my experience has been that the CSRs are hit-and-miss.
Yes, did it just last month. IIRC, Bill Pay > Manage Accounts, then select the "Other Pay From Accounts" tab and click on "Add a Pay From account you own at another institution." Once you do that, you probably need to wait for the verification process to run its course. Then, you should see your credit card in the Payment Center with an Auto Pay button near the bottom. Clicking on that will let you set up autopay from the outside bank you just linked.

From experience, the process for setting up auto-pay with BoA credit cards has changed over the years and has never been intuitive.
Not only can you do this, but once the account is linked you can use it for ANYTHING in the Bill Pay center. So log into BOA to pay bills from my SoFi checking account, because BOAs BillPay experience is easier (can type in all the numbers and dates on one screen and hit pay, vs having to go beginning to end for each individual one at SoFi)
Thanks. I didn’t know you could do external bank account to others. I thought the external banks were just for paying BofA cards (in other words, I though BofA had to be a party to one end of the transaction).
slalom
Posts: 343
Joined: Mon Dec 25, 2017 3:59 am

Re: Bank of America/Merrill Edge - Preferred Rewards

Post by slalom »

GoodOmens wrote: Thu Mar 02, 2023 7:25 am
slalom wrote: Wed Mar 01, 2023 6:23 pm
Eno Deb wrote: Wed Mar 01, 2023 5:25 pm
slalom wrote: Wed Mar 01, 2023 4:20 pmCapital One savings accounts CANNOT be linked to brokerage accounts electronically, only to savings/checking/monkey market accounts.

ME rep said if they made a note on the account I *COULD* transfer funds to BoA first then to Merrill even though the terms explicitly say that doesn't count. He said they've done it "hundreds of times" but I am absolutely sure at the end of the 90 days I won't get the bonus and they'll say the terms say that doesn't count.
The Merrill Edge account has cash management features (hence the name CMA). It comes with a checking account number (not to be confused with the alpha-numeric ME account number) and routing number that you can use for ACH transfers from external banks just like a checking account. If you haven't ordered checks you may have to call them to get the checking account number.
I asked the ME rep explicitly if I could ACH transfer into the ME CMA account and he said no.. that was going to be my next thing to try, direct ACH from the Capital One side.
I've found reps not always fully trained ... sigh. Call back and ask for your "check writing number"
Well, I was able to connect the capital one CHECKING account as a funding source, so I'm just going to shift it there first.

My plan is to fund $100,000 to the M.E. account via this connection, and call to have them put it in a Preferred Deposit buy.

Now this all has me wondering how much Cap One interest I'm going to lose between xferring to the checking, transferring to M.E. (which by default is a sweep with no interest really) and then the preferred purchase. Whatever it is, it's less than $400 I'm sure - I wouldn't be surprised if I lose $100 in interest messing around with it though.
WapelloHawk
Posts: 265
Joined: Thu Apr 08, 2021 4:22 pm

Re: Bank of America/Merrill Edge - Preferred Rewards

Post by WapelloHawk »

slalom wrote: Thu Mar 02, 2023 4:27 pm
GoodOmens wrote: Thu Mar 02, 2023 7:25 am
slalom wrote: Wed Mar 01, 2023 6:23 pm
Eno Deb wrote: Wed Mar 01, 2023 5:25 pm
slalom wrote: Wed Mar 01, 2023 4:20 pmCapital One savings accounts CANNOT be linked to brokerage accounts electronically, only to savings/checking/monkey market accounts.

ME rep said if they made a note on the account I *COULD* transfer funds to BoA first then to Merrill even though the terms explicitly say that doesn't count. He said they've done it "hundreds of times" but I am absolutely sure at the end of the 90 days I won't get the bonus and they'll say the terms say that doesn't count.
The Merrill Edge account has cash management features (hence the name CMA). It comes with a checking account number (not to be confused with the alpha-numeric ME account number) and routing number that you can use for ACH transfers from external banks just like a checking account. If you haven't ordered checks you may have to call them to get the checking account number.
I asked the ME rep explicitly if I could ACH transfer into the ME CMA account and he said no.. that was going to be my next thing to try, direct ACH from the Capital One side.
I've found reps not always fully trained ... sigh. Call back and ask for your "check writing number"
Well, I was able to connect the capital one CHECKING account as a funding source, so I'm just going to shift it there first.

My plan is to fund $100,000 to the M.E. account via this connection, and call to have them put it in a Preferred Deposit buy.

Now this all has me wondering how much Cap One interest I'm going to lose between xferring to the checking, transferring to M.E. (which by default is a sweep with no interest really) and then the preferred purchase. Whatever it is, it's less than $400 I'm sure - I wouldn't be surprised if I lose $100 in interest messing around with it though.
I sent $101k to ML a month ago to gain the platinum honors status. They received the funds on a Friday, then placed them “on hold” even though the funds came from USAA federal savings bank. Went off hold the following Thursday, I bought MM mutual funds that day, which don’t close until close of business.

So, they received the funds on a Friday and 7 days later I started receiving MM interest. My cash deposit on hold interest was $0.08 for the interim week. Lol.

Oh well, the net net was still positive due to the sign on bonus. And of course the long term cash back rates are why I did it. But, 7 days of $101k sitting on the sidelines was frustrating.
placeholder
Posts: 8421
Joined: Tue Aug 06, 2013 12:43 pm

Re: Bank of America/Merrill Edge - Preferred Rewards

Post by placeholder »

Elazor wrote: Thu Mar 02, 2023 7:33 am
placeholder wrote: Thu Mar 02, 2023 1:33 am I'm at that level now but it wasn't intentional just accumulated from bonus transfers in and now I've made a bunch of outward moves so possibly next time they check I will be downgraded to platinum honors.
Nice you try out any of those lifestyle benefits they offer?
No my lifestyle is a simpler one :)
aragorn1
Posts: 82
Joined: Sun Jan 16, 2022 12:46 pm

Re: Bank of America/Merrill Edge - Preferred Rewards

Post by aragorn1 »

I have some stocks for a company in my Fidelity account. I am thinking of transferring all of them to my ME account in order to earn the welcome reward. How easy is it to move individual stocks from Fidelity to ME ? Do I need to worry about something or just transfer without incurring any fees/taxes ?
placeholder
Posts: 8421
Joined: Tue Aug 06, 2013 12:43 pm

Re: Bank of America/Merrill Edge - Preferred Rewards

Post by placeholder »

aragorn1 wrote: Thu Mar 02, 2023 11:25 pm I have some stocks for a company in my Fidelity account. I am thinking of transferring all of them to my ME account in order to earn the welcome reward. How easy is it to move individual stocks from Fidelity to ME ? Do I need to worry about something or just transfer without incurring any fees/taxes ?
Unless there is something odd about the stocks it's just a custodial transfer like you'd do with etfs via the acats form on the merrill site and if fidelity charged a transfer fee edge would probably cover it.
sycamore
Posts: 6359
Joined: Tue May 08, 2018 12:06 pm

Re: Bank of America/Merrill Edge - Preferred Rewards

Post by sycamore »

aragorn1 wrote: Thu Mar 02, 2023 11:25 pm ... How easy is it to move individual stocks from Fidelity to ME ? Do I need to worry about something or just transfer without incurring any fees/taxes ?
The transfer is straightforward. Open your ME account (making sure the bonus code is applied) and then initiate an asset transfer. The ME web site may even prompt you to do that as part of opening an account.

Know that ACATS transfer system doesn't allow for fractional shares for stocks or ETFs. So if for example you hold 100.567 shares of MSFT stock, 100 shares will be transferred to ME, and 0.567 shares will be sold by Fidelity and the cash proceeds transferred over soon after. The 0.567 share sale is a taxable event that you'll need to report on your taxes.
lstone19
Posts: 2371
Joined: Fri Nov 03, 2017 3:33 pm
Location: Nevada

Re: Bank of America/Merrill Edge - Preferred Rewards

Post by lstone19 »

sycamore wrote: Fri Mar 03, 2023 7:16 am The transfer is straightforward. Open your ME account (making sure the bonus code is applied) and then initiate an asset transfer. The ME web site may even prompt you to do that as part of opening an account.

Know that ACATS transfer system doesn't allow for fractional shares for stocks or ETFs. So if for example you hold 100.567 shares of MSFT stock, 100 shares will be transferred to ME, and 0.567 shares will be sold by Fidelity and the cash proceeds transferred over soon after. The 0.567 share sale is a taxable event that you'll need to report on your taxes.
My experience (also Fidelity to ME) was that the fractional shares (at least of mutual funds) did transfer but separately from the ACATS transfer and arrived a day later.
spickups09
Posts: 68
Joined: Wed Feb 10, 2021 7:29 pm

Re: Bank of America/Merrill Edge - Preferred Rewards

Post by spickups09 »

growlers wrote: Tue Feb 28, 2023 7:03 pm
1) My understanding is that I am earning 3.5% on travel and dining and 2.62% on everything else with my 100K tier at BOA/Merrill. This is with my "premium rewards visa". BOA also has the "travel rewards card", the "unlimited cash rewards" and the "customized cash rewards". I want to maximize my rewards (within reason) but not use a ton of cards. Looking at the categories, travel and dining are my highest spending, then online shopping. Gas, drugstores, home improvement are all minimal. Should I add a card and what is the exact % benefit in my given scenario?
Growlers - I didn't see that anyone has replied to this part of your post yet. Apologies if I missed an earlier reply.

The "Customized Cash Rewards" are very valuable cards because you can rotate the top category monthly, and the categories include both online spending, dining, travel. If you are platinum honors, you get 5.25% back on purchases in that category. That beats pretty much every other cash back card, so that is why those cards and the BOA system in general is so attractive to many of us on this thread. However, these cards do have a $2500 quarterly cap, per card, on spending in these bonus categories (both your 5.25% top category of choice, plus the 3.5% default of grocery stores/wholesales).

With that in mind, and the fact that your allocation across spending categories appears generally similar to mine, here is what I do. Between my wife and I, we have 3 of the Customized Cash Rewards cards. In general, we use 1 for online shopping, 1 for dining, and 1 for gas - so we generally get 5.25% back on all of that spend. Occasionally we have switched 1 CCR card to travel temporarily, in order to get 5.25% back on a trip or part of a trip, but when you take nice vacations, you tend to quickly bust that $2500 quarterly cap, so eventually I decided it's not worth the hassle, and I am happy to use my Premium Rewards card and get the 3.5% back on unlimited travel spend. I have thought about trying to get one more CCR card that I could use exclusively for travel, but again, it's only worth so much, and I'd rather just use the black card then deal with the possibility of dividing up travel payments among multiple cards.

Another tip: the "online shopping" category can be broader than you think. Almost anything that is purchased at a store, but using that store's "pay app" will count (i.e., Kroger Pay through the Kroger App, Target Pay through the Target app, etc.). In this way, I have gotten 5.25% back on most of my grocery spend (Kroger), because when I pay in-store with the app, it counts as online for BOA's purposes.

For any spending that doesn't fall into one of those 3 bonus categories (online shopping, dining out and gas), we use the Premium Rewards Card and get 2.62% back, which I believe is the best card on the market for general, unlimited spend.

Hope this helps.
aj44
Posts: 309
Joined: Sat May 10, 2014 11:22 am

Re: Bank of America/Merrill Edge - Preferred Rewards

Post by aj44 »

spickups09 wrote: Fri Mar 03, 2023 12:41 pm
growlers wrote: Tue Feb 28, 2023 7:03 pm
1) My understanding is that I am earning 3.5% on travel and dining and 2.62% on everything else with my 100K tier at BOA/Merrill. This is with my "premium rewards visa". BOA also has the "travel rewards card", the "unlimited cash rewards" and the "customized cash rewards". I want to maximize my rewards (within reason) but not use a ton of cards. Looking at the categories, travel and dining are my highest spending, then online shopping. Gas, drugstores, home improvement are all minimal. Should I add a card and what is the exact % benefit in my given scenario?
Growlers - I didn't see that anyone has replied to this part of your post yet. Apologies if I missed an earlier reply.

The "Customized Cash Rewards" are very valuable cards because you can rotate the top category monthly, and the categories include both online spending, dining, travel. If you are platinum honors, you get 5.25% back on purchases in that category. That beats pretty much every other cash back card, so that is why those cards and the BOA system in general is so attractive to many of us on this thread. However, these cards do have a $2500 quarterly cap, per card, on spending in these bonus categories (both your 5.25% top category of choice, plus the 3.5% default of grocery stores/wholesales).

With that in mind, and the fact that your allocation across spending categories appears generally similar to mine, here is what I do. Between my wife and I, we have 3 of the Customized Cash Rewards cards. In general, we use 1 for online shopping, 1 for dining, and 1 for gas - so we generally get 5.25% back on all of that spend. Occasionally we have switched 1 CCR card to travel temporarily, in order to get 5.25% back on a trip or part of a trip, but when you take nice vacations, you tend to quickly bust that $2500 quarterly cap, so eventually I decided it's not worth the hassle, and I am happy to use my Premium Rewards card and get the 3.5% back on unlimited travel spend. I have thought about trying to get one more CCR card that I could use exclusively for travel, but again, it's only worth so much, and I'd rather just use the black card then deal with the possibility of dividing up travel payments among multiple cards.

Another tip: the "online shopping" category can be broader than you think. Almost anything that is purchased at a store, but using that store's "pay app" will count (i.e., Kroger Pay through the Kroger App, Target Pay through the Target app, etc.). In this way, I have gotten 5.25% back on most of my grocery spend (Kroger), because when I pay in-store with the app, it counts as online for BOA's purposes.

For any spending that doesn't fall into one of those 3 bonus categories (online shopping, dining out and gas), we use the Premium Rewards Card and get 2.62% back, which I believe is the best card on the market for general, unlimited spend.

Hope this helps.
The online shopping category is magnificent, I have 3 customized cash cards, all set to that category, and with apps get pretty much all the other categories to fit under it. I just ran out of room this quarter.
growlers
Posts: 12
Joined: Tue Feb 28, 2023 5:29 pm

Re: Bank of America/Merrill Edge - Preferred Rewards

Post by growlers »

spickups09 wrote: Fri Mar 03, 2023 12:41 pm
growlers wrote: Tue Feb 28, 2023 7:03 pm
1) My understanding is that I am earning 3.5% on travel and dining and 2.62% on everything else with my 100K tier at BOA/Merrill. This is with my "premium rewards visa". BOA also has the "travel rewards card", the "unlimited cash rewards" and the "customized cash rewards". I want to maximize my rewards (within reason) but not use a ton of cards. Looking at the categories, travel and dining are my highest spending, then online shopping. Gas, drugstores, home improvement are all minimal. Should I add a card and what is the exact % benefit in my given scenario?
Growlers - I didn't see that anyone has replied to this part of your post yet. Apologies if I missed an earlier reply.

The "Customized Cash Rewards" are very valuable cards because you can rotate the top category monthly, and the categories include both online spending, dining, travel. If you are platinum honors, you get 5.25% back on purchases in that category. That beats pretty much every other cash back card, so that is why those cards and the BOA system in general is so attractive to many of us on this thread. However, these cards do have a $2500 quarterly cap, per card, on spending in these bonus categories (both your 5.25% top category of choice, plus the 3.5% default of grocery stores/wholesales).

With that in mind, and the fact that your allocation across spending categories appears generally similar to mine, here is what I do. Between my wife and I, we have 3 of the Customized Cash Rewards cards. In general, we use 1 for online shopping, 1 for dining, and 1 for gas - so we generally get 5.25% back on all of that spend. Occasionally we have switched 1 CCR card to travel temporarily, in order to get 5.25% back on a trip or part of a trip, but when you take nice vacations, you tend to quickly bust that $2500 quarterly cap, so eventually I decided it's not worth the hassle, and I am happy to use my Premium Rewards card and get the 3.5% back on unlimited travel spend. I have thought about trying to get one more CCR card that I could use exclusively for travel, but again, it's only worth so much, and I'd rather just use the black card then deal with the possibility of dividing up travel payments among multiple cards.

Another tip: the "online shopping" category can be broader than you think. Almost anything that is purchased at a store, but using that store's "pay app" will count (i.e., Kroger Pay through the Kroger App, Target Pay through the Target app, etc.). In this way, I have gotten 5.25% back on most of my grocery spend (Kroger), because when I pay in-store with the app, it counts as online for BOA's purposes.

For any spending that doesn't fall into one of those 3 bonus categories (online shopping, dining out and gas), we use the Premium Rewards Card and get 2.62% back, which I believe is the best card on the market for general, unlimited spend.

Hope this helps.
Very helpful, thank you.

If I fully understand, let's say you get one of these CCR cards and pick travel and are in the >100K tier.. Compared to the premium rewards card you are getting an extra 1.75% back, 5.25% CCR vs 3.5% PR, but it's limited to $2500 per quarter. That is $43.75 extra per quarter, or $14.58 a month. if you pick online shopping, it's an extra 2.63% back, 5.25% CCR vs 2.62% PR, which would max at an extra $65.75 per quarter, or $21.92 a month. On grocery/warehouse, it's an extra 0.88%, 3.5% CCR vs 2.62% PR, so a max of $22 per month, or $7.33 per month.
If you accidentally overspend on the CCR in a quarter, you are only getting 1.75% back for additional purchases >$2500 per chosen category on the CCR, vs 2.62% unlimited on the PR, so missing out on 0.87% for any "errors". if it is travel or dining you are getting 1.75% CCR vs 3.5% PR, so missing out on 1.75% for "errors".

I have rotated various cards in the past to maximize what was probably less money, although it was always a lot more opaque because it was with various travel programs, and you usually don't know what the cents per point conversion you are going to get when you eventually redeem for a flight or hotel, etc. It is a lot easier to see the exact impact with these BOA cards, since it is all effectively cashback.

I suppose if you got three of these cards, you could go online every month and rotate three categories between the three cards. If you rotated travel, dining, and online shopping and spent exactly $2500 on each a month, and then spent $2500 between grocery and warehouse, you could get an extra $14.58 + $14.58 + $21.92 + $7.33 a month, so an extra $58.41 a month, but you would have to use 4 cards and not overspend, and this is spending 10K a month on these categories (I don't spend anything near that).

I plan on continuing a couple other cards, namely the Hyatt card for the first 15K spending (you get a cat 4 hotel night for this) and Hyatt hotel spend and Hilton aspire for hilton spend, i also have united and southwest and chase preferred cards. I use the BOA premium rewards card for everything else already, I will have to put some thought into getting some of these CCR cards, but spitballing it, it seems like I would only get realistically maybe $35 a month with what seems like a decent amount of hassle. I wish this system didn't "penalize" you for spending over $2500 per quarter and not switching back to the PR card, because i don't want to feel obligated to keep track of categories that closely, especially while traveling.

Sorry, this has probably been way too long of a post, but hopefully it will help a couple people make a decision as well (assuming I did the math correctly)
WapelloHawk
Posts: 265
Joined: Thu Apr 08, 2021 4:22 pm

Re: Bank of America/Merrill Edge - Preferred Rewards

Post by WapelloHawk »

aj44 wrote: Fri Mar 03, 2023 1:17 pm
spickups09 wrote: Fri Mar 03, 2023 12:41 pm
growlers wrote: Tue Feb 28, 2023 7:03 pm
1) My understanding is that I am earning 3.5% on travel and dining and 2.62% on everything else with my 100K tier at BOA/Merrill. This is with my "premium rewards visa". BOA also has the "travel rewards card", the "unlimited cash rewards" and the "customized cash rewards". I want to maximize my rewards (within reason) but not use a ton of cards. Looking at the categories, travel and dining are my highest spending, then online shopping. Gas, drugstores, home improvement are all minimal. Should I add a card and what is the exact % benefit in my given scenario?
Growlers - I didn't see that anyone has replied to this part of your post yet. Apologies if I missed an earlier reply.

The "Customized Cash Rewards" are very valuable cards because you can rotate the top category monthly, and the categories include both online spending, dining, travel. If you are platinum honors, you get 5.25% back on purchases in that category. That beats pretty much every other cash back card, so that is why those cards and the BOA system in general is so attractive to many of us on this thread. However, these cards do have a $2500 quarterly cap, per card, on spending in these bonus categories (both your 5.25% top category of choice, plus the 3.5% default of grocery stores/wholesales).

With that in mind, and the fact that your allocation across spending categories appears generally similar to mine, here is what I do. Between my wife and I, we have 3 of the Customized Cash Rewards cards. In general, we use 1 for online shopping, 1 for dining, and 1 for gas - so we generally get 5.25% back on all of that spend. Occasionally we have switched 1 CCR card to travel temporarily, in order to get 5.25% back on a trip or part of a trip, but when you take nice vacations, you tend to quickly bust that $2500 quarterly cap, so eventually I decided it's not worth the hassle, and I am happy to use my Premium Rewards card and get the 3.5% back on unlimited travel spend. I have thought about trying to get one more CCR card that I could use exclusively for travel, but again, it's only worth so much, and I'd rather just use the black card then deal with the possibility of dividing up travel payments among multiple cards.

Another tip: the "online shopping" category can be broader than you think. Almost anything that is purchased at a store, but using that store's "pay app" will count (i.e., Kroger Pay through the Kroger App, Target Pay through the Target app, etc.). In this way, I have gotten 5.25% back on most of my grocery spend (Kroger), because when I pay in-store with the app, it counts as online for BOA's purposes.

For any spending that doesn't fall into one of those 3 bonus categories (online shopping, dining out and gas), we use the Premium Rewards Card and get 2.62% back, which I believe is the best card on the market for general, unlimited spend.

Hope this helps.
The online shopping category is magnificent, I have 3 customized cash cards, all set to that category, and with apps get pretty much all the other categories to fit under it. I just ran out of room this quarter.
How were you able to acquire 3 cust cash cards and how long did it take?
placeholder
Posts: 8421
Joined: Tue Aug 06, 2013 12:43 pm

Re: Bank of America/Merrill Edge - Preferred Rewards

Post by placeholder »

lstone19 wrote: Fri Mar 03, 2023 8:28 am My experience (also Fidelity to ME) was that the fractional shares (at least of mutual funds) did transfer but separately from the ACATS transfer and arrived a day later.
Traditional mutual funds work differently than equities like etfs or individual stocks and I've never heard of fractional shares of the latter transferring which is one reason why I don't do automatic reinvestment of distributions of etfs.
spickups09
Posts: 68
Joined: Wed Feb 10, 2021 7:29 pm

Re: Bank of America/Merrill Edge - Preferred Rewards

Post by spickups09 »

growlers wrote: Fri Mar 03, 2023 4:36 pm
spickups09 wrote: Fri Mar 03, 2023 12:41 pm
growlers wrote: Tue Feb 28, 2023 7:03 pm
1) My understanding is that I am earning 3.5% on travel and dining and 2.62% on everything else with my 100K tier at BOA/Merrill. This is with my "premium rewards visa". BOA also has the "travel rewards card", the "unlimited cash rewards" and the "customized cash rewards". I want to maximize my rewards (within reason) but not use a ton of cards. Looking at the categories, travel and dining are my highest spending, then online shopping. Gas, drugstores, home improvement are all minimal. Should I add a card and what is the exact % benefit in my given scenario?
Growlers - I didn't see that anyone has replied to this part of your post yet. Apologies if I missed an earlier reply.

The "Customized Cash Rewards" are very valuable cards because you can rotate the top category monthly, and the categories include both online spending, dining, travel. If you are platinum honors, you get 5.25% back on purchases in that category. That beats pretty much every other cash back card, so that is why those cards and the BOA system in general is so attractive to many of us on this thread. However, these cards do have a $2500 quarterly cap, per card, on spending in these bonus categories (both your 5.25% top category of choice, plus the 3.5% default of grocery stores/wholesales).

With that in mind, and the fact that your allocation across spending categories appears generally similar to mine, here is what I do. Between my wife and I, we have 3 of the Customized Cash Rewards cards. In general, we use 1 for online shopping, 1 for dining, and 1 for gas - so we generally get 5.25% back on all of that spend. Occasionally we have switched 1 CCR card to travel temporarily, in order to get 5.25% back on a trip or part of a trip, but when you take nice vacations, you tend to quickly bust that $2500 quarterly cap, so eventually I decided it's not worth the hassle, and I am happy to use my Premium Rewards card and get the 3.5% back on unlimited travel spend. I have thought about trying to get one more CCR card that I could use exclusively for travel, but again, it's only worth so much, and I'd rather just use the black card then deal with the possibility of dividing up travel payments among multiple cards.

Another tip: the "online shopping" category can be broader than you think. Almost anything that is purchased at a store, but using that store's "pay app" will count (i.e., Kroger Pay through the Kroger App, Target Pay through the Target app, etc.). In this way, I have gotten 5.25% back on most of my grocery spend (Kroger), because when I pay in-store with the app, it counts as online for BOA's purposes.

For any spending that doesn't fall into one of those 3 bonus categories (online shopping, dining out and gas), we use the Premium Rewards Card and get 2.62% back, which I believe is the best card on the market for general, unlimited spend.

Hope this helps.
Very helpful, thank you.

If I fully understand, let's say you get one of these CCR cards and pick travel and are in the >100K tier.. Compared to the premium rewards card you are getting an extra 1.75% back, 5.25% CCR vs 3.5% PR, but it's limited to $2500 per quarter. That is $43.75 extra per quarter, or $14.58 a month. if you pick online shopping, it's an extra 2.63% back, 5.25% CCR vs 2.62% PR, which would max at an extra $65.75 per quarter, or $21.92 a month. On grocery/warehouse, it's an extra 0.88%, 3.5% CCR vs 2.62% PR, so a max of $22 per month, or $7.33 per month.
If you accidentally overspend on the CCR in a quarter, you are only getting 1.75% back for additional purchases >$2500 per chosen category on the CCR, vs 2.62% unlimited on the PR, so missing out on 0.87% for any "errors". if it is travel or dining you are getting 1.75% CCR vs 3.5% PR, so missing out on 1.75% for "errors".

I have rotated various cards in the past to maximize what was probably less money, although it was always a lot more opaque because it was with various travel programs, and you usually don't know what the cents per point conversion you are going to get when you eventually redeem for a flight or hotel, etc. It is a lot easier to see the exact impact with these BOA cards, since it is all effectively cashback.

I suppose if you got three of these cards, you could go online every month and rotate three categories between the three cards. If you rotated travel, dining, and online shopping and spent exactly $2500 on each a month, and then spent $2500 between grocery and warehouse, you could get an extra $14.58 + $14.58 + $21.92 + $7.33 a month, so an extra $58.41 a month, but you would have to use 4 cards and not overspend, and this is spending 10K a month on these categories (I don't spend anything near that).

I plan on continuing a couple other cards, namely the Hyatt card for the first 15K spending (you get a cat 4 hotel night for this) and Hyatt hotel spend and Hilton aspire for hilton spend, i also have united and southwest and chase preferred cards. I use the BOA premium rewards card for everything else already, I will have to put some thought into getting some of these CCR cards, but spitballing it, it seems like I would only get realistically maybe $35 a month with what seems like a decent amount of hassle. I wish this system didn't "penalize" you for spending over $2500 per quarter and not switching back to the PR card, because i don't want to feel obligated to keep track of categories that closely, especially while traveling.

Sorry, this has probably been way too long of a post, but hopefully it will help a couple people make a decision as well (assuming I did the math correctly)
You're correct that it's not like you are going to get hundreds of dollars more, because the quarterly caps. I've explained my system to my father, and he prefers to keep it simple by just using PR for everything. It sounds like that's what you want to do. So you do you.
spickups09
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Re: Bank of America/Merrill Edge - Preferred Rewards

Post by spickups09 »

WapelloHawk wrote: Fri Mar 03, 2023 5:52 pm
aj44 wrote: Fri Mar 03, 2023 1:17 pm
spickups09 wrote: Fri Mar 03, 2023 12:41 pm
growlers wrote: Tue Feb 28, 2023 7:03 pm
1) My understanding is that I am earning 3.5% on travel and dining and 2.62% on everything else with my 100K tier at BOA/Merrill. This is with my "premium rewards visa". BOA also has the "travel rewards card", the "unlimited cash rewards" and the "customized cash rewards". I want to maximize my rewards (within reason) but not use a ton of cards. Looking at the categories, travel and dining are my highest spending, then online shopping. Gas, drugstores, home improvement are all minimal. Should I add a card and what is the exact % benefit in my given scenario?
Growlers - I didn't see that anyone has replied to this part of your post yet. Apologies if I missed an earlier reply.

The "Customized Cash Rewards" are very valuable cards because you can rotate the top category monthly, and the categories include both online spending, dining, travel. If you are platinum honors, you get 5.25% back on purchases in that category. That beats pretty much every other cash back card, so that is why those cards and the BOA system in general is so attractive to many of us on this thread. However, these cards do have a $2500 quarterly cap, per card, on spending in these bonus categories (both your 5.25% top category of choice, plus the 3.5% default of grocery stores/wholesales).

With that in mind, and the fact that your allocation across spending categories appears generally similar to mine, here is what I do. Between my wife and I, we have 3 of the Customized Cash Rewards cards. In general, we use 1 for online shopping, 1 for dining, and 1 for gas - so we generally get 5.25% back on all of that spend. Occasionally we have switched 1 CCR card to travel temporarily, in order to get 5.25% back on a trip or part of a trip, but when you take nice vacations, you tend to quickly bust that $2500 quarterly cap, so eventually I decided it's not worth the hassle, and I am happy to use my Premium Rewards card and get the 3.5% back on unlimited travel spend. I have thought about trying to get one more CCR card that I could use exclusively for travel, but again, it's only worth so much, and I'd rather just use the black card then deal with the possibility of dividing up travel payments among multiple cards.

Another tip: the "online shopping" category can be broader than you think. Almost anything that is purchased at a store, but using that store's "pay app" will count (i.e., Kroger Pay through the Kroger App, Target Pay through the Target app, etc.). In this way, I have gotten 5.25% back on most of my grocery spend (Kroger), because when I pay in-store with the app, it counts as online for BOA's purposes.

For any spending that doesn't fall into one of those 3 bonus categories (online shopping, dining out and gas), we use the Premium Rewards Card and get 2.62% back, which I believe is the best card on the market for general, unlimited spend.

Hope this helps.
The online shopping category is magnificent, I have 3 customized cash cards, all set to that category, and with apps get pretty much all the other categories to fit under it. I just ran out of room this quarter.
How were you able to acquire 3 cust cash cards and how long did it take?
If you have a spouse or partner to divide and conquer its easier. I have 2 and she has 1 (and then we are authorized users on each other's cards). I think each individual can get a new one every 6 months to a year, but I'm not sure.
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Re: Bank of America/Merrill Edge - Preferred Rewards

Post by Lastrun »

spickups09 wrote: Sat Mar 04, 2023 9:14 am
You're correct that it's not like you are going to get hundreds of dollars more, because the quarterly caps. I've explained my system to my father, and he prefers to keep it simple by just using PR for everything. It sounds like that's what you want to do. So you do you.
I am one that just uses the PR Elite and folded my other BofA cards. We have heavy travel and dining spend so that was where the money was but it was not worth running an extra card for $175 extra cash back a year since we already receive 3.5% on those categories. Note we do most of our online shopping on Amazon and have a sock-drawered Amazon Prime card for that.

The PR Elite is worth it to us, as I said we travel, so for the $550 annual fee I get the lifestyle credit of $150, $300 in United Travel Bank or American Airlines gift card credits, plus the Global Entry fee amortized, so for $75/year I get Priority Pass with restaurants, Visa Infinite benefits, 2.62% base spend, and 3.5% travel and dining. So this works well as a one-card and done. But you have to be traveling on UA or AA for this to make sense.
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Re: Bank of America/Merrill Edge - Preferred Rewards

Post by spickups09 »

Lastrun wrote: Sat Mar 04, 2023 9:35 am
spickups09 wrote: Sat Mar 04, 2023 9:14 am
You're correct that it's not like you are going to get hundreds of dollars more, because the quarterly caps. I've explained my system to my father, and he prefers to keep it simple by just using PR for everything. It sounds like that's what you want to do. So you do you.
I am one that just uses the PR Elite and folded my other BofA cards. We have heavy travel and dining spend so that was where the money was but it was not worth running an extra card for $175 extra cash back a year since we already receive 3.5% on those categories. Note we do most of our online shopping on Amazon and have a sock-drawered Amazon Prime card for that.

The PR Elite is worth it to us, as I said we travel, so for the $550 annual fee I get the lifestyle credit of $150, $300 in United Travel Bank or American Airlines gift card credits, plus the Global Entry fee amortized, so for $75/year I get Priority Pass with restaurants, Visa Infinite benefits, 2.62% base spend, and 3.5% travel and dining. So this works well as a one-card and done. But you have to be traveling on UA or AA for this to make sense.
Nice, yeah I actually was net positive on the fee for the regular PR this past year, between the $100 airline incidentals and the full reimbursement for TSA pre-check.

I certainly don't begrudge anyone who wants to keep it simple with 1 card and 2.62% back unlimited. Personally I enjoy optimizing to an extent. It's fun to try to get 5.25% back on as much of our spend as possible, within reason.
skibummer
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Re: Bank of America/Merrill Edge - Preferred Rewards

Post by skibummer »

spickups09 wrote: Sat Mar 04, 2023 10:13 am
Lastrun wrote: Sat Mar 04, 2023 9:35 am
spickups09 wrote: Sat Mar 04, 2023 9:14 am
You're correct that it's not like you are going to get hundreds of dollars more, because the quarterly caps. I've explained my system to my father, and he prefers to keep it simple by just using PR for everything. It sounds like that's what you want to do. So you do you.
I am one that just uses the PR Elite and folded my other BofA cards. We have heavy travel and dining spend so that was where the money was but it was not worth running an extra card for $175 extra cash back a year since we already receive 3.5% on those categories. Note we do most of our online shopping on Amazon and have a sock-drawered Amazon Prime card for that.

The PR Elite is worth it to us, as I said we travel, so for the $550 annual fee I get the lifestyle credit of $150, $300 in United Travel Bank or American Airlines gift card credits, plus the Global Entry fee amortized, so for $75/year I get Priority Pass with restaurants, Visa Infinite benefits, 2.62% base spend, and 3.5% travel and dining. So this works well as a one-card and done. But you have to be traveling on UA or AA for this to make sense.
Nice, yeah I actually was net positive on the fee for the regular PR this past year, between the $100 airline incidentals and the full reimbursement for TSA pre-check.

I certainly don't begrudge anyone who wants to keep it simple with 1 card and 2.62% back unlimited. Personally I enjoy optimizing to an extent. It's fun to try to get 5.25% back on as much of our spend as possible, within reason.
There really is no difference from the PR Elite (AF of $550-$300 travel credit-$150 lifestyle=$100 annual fee) vs the regular PR ($95 AF-$100 travel credit=-$5 annual fee), OTHER than the PR Elite gives a 20% discount (which mathematically works out to an increase of 25%) on using points for airlines tickets through BOA travel portal. So that means the regular 2.625% everything cash x1.25=3.28% cash back. and the 3.5% travel and dining becomes 4.38% cash back. The $100 difference between the 2 above cards breakeven spend is $15,238/yr at the lower everything spend category when you use the points for airline tickets. We spend WAAY more than $15k/yr on "everything spend" so we come out ahead using the PR Elite points for airline tickets. Domestic tickets are the same on the BOA travel site as the actual UA, AA, or Delta sites. Internationals may be a bit more from time to time, so we just use it for domestics. For us, the PR Elite is a keeper card with the 25% increased value on top of the 2.625% and the 3.5% categories. We also have multiple CCR cards back for the above reasons. All in, this is a no brainer system. We meet the Platinum Honors PR level by keeping $100k+ in ETFs at Merill Edge, and we keep less than $100 in a BOA checking account.
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Re: Bank of America/Merrill Edge - Preferred Rewards

Post by anon_investor »

WapelloHawk wrote: Fri Mar 03, 2023 5:52 pm How were you able to acquire 3 cust cash cards and how long did it take?
I have 3 CCRs (original red one, Susan G.Komen Race for the Cure, and National Trust for Historic Preservation).

I applied for a CCR and PR at the same time. 3 months later applied for a 2nd CCR, 12 months after that applied for 3rd CCR. So 4 BoA CCs in 15 months.
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Re: Bank of America/Merrill Edge - Preferred Rewards

Post by WapelloHawk »

anon_investor wrote: Sat Mar 04, 2023 10:42 am
WapelloHawk wrote: Fri Mar 03, 2023 5:52 pm How were you able to acquire 3 cust cash cards and how long did it take?
I have 3 CCRs (original red one, Susan G.Komen Race for the Cure, and National Trust for Historic Preservation).

I applied for a CCR and PR at the same time. 3 months later applied for a 2nd CCR, 12 months after that applied for 3rd CCR. So 4 BoA CCs in 15 months.
Thanks for the gameplan. I hope to copy you over time.
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Re: Bank of America/Merrill Edge - Preferred Rewards

Post by FedGuy »

FYI, BoA changed their terms and conditions a year or so ago so that they now state that they may not approve you if you apply for a CCR if you already have one, or if you've had one in the last 24 months. This seems to refer only to the generic Customized Cash Rewards cards and not to the "affinity cards," such as the Susan G. Komen and National Trust for Historic Preservation cards that anon_investor got.
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Re: Bank of America/Merrill Edge - Preferred Rewards

Post by spammagnet »

spickups09 wrote: Sat Mar 04, 2023 9:18 am... If you have a spouse or partner to divide and conquer its easier. I have 2 and she has 1 (and then we are authorized users on each other's cards). ...
If considering Chase new credit card account bonuses, be aware that being added as an authorized user counts as a credit check toward their 5/24 rule.
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Re: Bank of America/Merrill Edge - Preferred Rewards

Post by sailaway »

spammagnet wrote: Sat Mar 04, 2023 11:33 am
spickups09 wrote: Sat Mar 04, 2023 9:18 am... If you have a spouse or partner to divide and conquer its easier. I have 2 and she has 1 (and then we are authorized users on each other's cards). ...
If considering Chase new credit card account bonuses, be aware that being added as an authorized user counts as a credit check toward their 5/24 rule.
Chase has rejected me twice in 12 months for "too many new accounts" even though I have only opened one card since 2019, so I wouldn't hold back for only that reason.

Yes, I did double check my credit report, just in case.
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Re: Bank of America/Merrill Edge - Preferred Rewards

Post by spammagnet »

sailaway wrote: Sat Mar 04, 2023 11:44 am
spammagnet wrote: Sat Mar 04, 2023 11:33 am
spickups09 wrote: Sat Mar 04, 2023 9:18 am... If you have a spouse or partner to divide and conquer its easier. I have 2 and she has 1 (and then we are authorized users on each other's cards). ...
If considering Chase new credit card account bonuses, be aware that being added as an authorized user counts as a credit check toward their 5/24 rule.
Chase has rejected me twice in 12 months for "too many new accounts" even though I have only opened one card since 2019, so I wouldn't hold back for only that reason.

Yes, I did double check my credit report, just in case.
We just add the other user's credit account to our phone wallet. That way we don't have to be authorized users. It's easy.
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anon_investor
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Re: Bank of America/Merrill Edge - Preferred Rewards

Post by anon_investor »

FedGuy wrote: Sat Mar 04, 2023 11:21 am FYI, BoA changed their terms and conditions a year or so ago so that they now state that they may not approve you if you apply for a CCR if you already have one, or if you've had one in the last 24 months. This seems to refer only to the generic Customized Cash Rewards cards and not to the "affinity cards," such as the Susan G. Komen and National Trust for Historic Preservation cards that anon_investor got.
I got my most recent CCR (National Trust for Historic Preservation) in Dec 2022, so that policy does not appear to apply to "affinity" CCR cards. (The other CCRs were obtained less than 24 months prior.)
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Re: Bank of America/Merrill Edge - Preferred Rewards

Post by aj44 »

skibummer wrote: Sat Mar 04, 2023 10:32 am
spickups09 wrote: Sat Mar 04, 2023 10:13 am
Lastrun wrote: Sat Mar 04, 2023 9:35 am
spickups09 wrote: Sat Mar 04, 2023 9:14 am
You're correct that it's not like you are going to get hundreds of dollars more, because the quarterly caps. I've explained my system to my father, and he prefers to keep it simple by just using PR for everything. It sounds like that's what you want to do. So you do you.
I am one that just uses the PR Elite and folded my other BofA cards. We have heavy travel and dining spend so that was where the money was but it was not worth running an extra card for $175 extra cash back a year since we already receive 3.5% on those categories. Note we do most of our online shopping on Amazon and have a sock-drawered Amazon Prime card for that.

The PR Elite is worth it to us, as I said we travel, so for the $550 annual fee I get the lifestyle credit of $150, $300 in United Travel Bank or American Airlines gift card credits, plus the Global Entry fee amortized, so for $75/year I get Priority Pass with restaurants, Visa Infinite benefits, 2.62% base spend, and 3.5% travel and dining. So this works well as a one-card and done. But you have to be traveling on UA or AA for this to make sense.
Nice, yeah I actually was net positive on the fee for the regular PR this past year, between the $100 airline incidentals and the full reimbursement for TSA pre-check.

I certainly don't begrudge anyone who wants to keep it simple with 1 card and 2.62% back unlimited. Personally I enjoy optimizing to an extent. It's fun to try to get 5.25% back on as much of our spend as possible, within reason.
There really is no difference from the PR Elite (AF of $550-$300 travel credit-$150 lifestyle=$100 annual fee) vs the regular PR ($95 AF-$100 travel credit=-$5 annual fee), OTHER than the PR Elite gives a 20% discount (which mathematically works out to an increase of 25%) on using points for airlines tickets through BOA travel portal. So that means the regular 2.625% everything cash x1.25=3.28% cash back. and the 3.5% travel and dining becomes 4.38% cash back. The $100 difference between the 2 above cards breakeven spend is $15,238/yr at the lower everything spend category when you use the points for airline tickets. We spend WAAY more than $15k/yr on "everything spend" so we come out ahead using the PR Elite points for airline tickets. Domestic tickets are the same on the BOA travel site as the actual UA, AA, or Delta sites. Internationals may be a bit more from time to time, so we just use it for domestics. For us, the PR Elite is a keeper card with the 25% increased value on top of the 2.625% and the 3.5% categories. We also have multiple CCR cards back for the above reasons. All in, this is a no brainer system. We meet the Platinum Honors PR level by keeping $100k+ in ETFs at Merill Edge, and we keep less than $100 in a BOA checking account.

EXACTLY my setup, my daycare provider was absolutely befuddled I wanted to pay with a credit card and accept their 2.5% credit card fee, I think they thought I was in trouble financially.
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Re: Bank of America/Merrill Edge - Preferred Rewards

Post by aj44 »

WapelloHawk wrote: Fri Mar 03, 2023 5:52 pm
aj44 wrote: Fri Mar 03, 2023 1:17 pm
spickups09 wrote: Fri Mar 03, 2023 12:41 pm
growlers wrote: Tue Feb 28, 2023 7:03 pm
1) My understanding is that I am earning 3.5% on travel and dining and 2.62% on everything else with my 100K tier at BOA/Merrill. This is with my "premium rewards visa". BOA also has the "travel rewards card", the "unlimited cash rewards" and the "customized cash rewards". I want to maximize my rewards (within reason) but not use a ton of cards. Looking at the categories, travel and dining are my highest spending, then online shopping. Gas, drugstores, home improvement are all minimal. Should I add a card and what is the exact % benefit in my given scenario?
Growlers - I didn't see that anyone has replied to this part of your post yet. Apologies if I missed an earlier reply.

The "Customized Cash Rewards" are very valuable cards because you can rotate the top category monthly, and the categories include both online spending, dining, travel. If you are platinum honors, you get 5.25% back on purchases in that category. That beats pretty much every other cash back card, so that is why those cards and the BOA system in general is so attractive to many of us on this thread. However, these cards do have a $2500 quarterly cap, per card, on spending in these bonus categories (both your 5.25% top category of choice, plus the 3.5% default of grocery stores/wholesales).

With that in mind, and the fact that your allocation across spending categories appears generally similar to mine, here is what I do. Between my wife and I, we have 3 of the Customized Cash Rewards cards. In general, we use 1 for online shopping, 1 for dining, and 1 for gas - so we generally get 5.25% back on all of that spend. Occasionally we have switched 1 CCR card to travel temporarily, in order to get 5.25% back on a trip or part of a trip, but when you take nice vacations, you tend to quickly bust that $2500 quarterly cap, so eventually I decided it's not worth the hassle, and I am happy to use my Premium Rewards card and get the 3.5% back on unlimited travel spend. I have thought about trying to get one more CCR card that I could use exclusively for travel, but again, it's only worth so much, and I'd rather just use the black card then deal with the possibility of dividing up travel payments among multiple cards.

Another tip: the "online shopping" category can be broader than you think. Almost anything that is purchased at a store, but using that store's "pay app" will count (i.e., Kroger Pay through the Kroger App, Target Pay through the Target app, etc.). In this way, I have gotten 5.25% back on most of my grocery spend (Kroger), because when I pay in-store with the app, it counts as online for BOA's purposes.

For any spending that doesn't fall into one of those 3 bonus categories (online shopping, dining out and gas), we use the Premium Rewards Card and get 2.62% back, which I believe is the best card on the market for general, unlimited spend.

Hope this helps.
The online shopping category is magnificent, I have 3 customized cash cards, all set to that category, and with apps get pretty much all the other categories to fit under it. I just ran out of room this quarter.
How were you able to acquire 3 cust cash cards and how long did it take?

BOA operates under a 2/3/4 rule, 2 new cards in a 2 month period, 3 new cards in a 12 month period and 4 new cards in a 24 month period.

For me it took a year to get all 3 CCR because I also got a Premium that I product changed to a premium elite later

As someone else mentioned they do have a 24 month rule on getting a duplicate version of the CCR which you can bypass by getting different versions, I have the plain one, US Pride and Iowa Hawkeyes.

There also are data points of BOA shutting down more than 4 cards per person, it hasn’t been everyone. I had read someone got almost all 30 of the MLB cards years ago which caused BOA to crack down with these rules.
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Re: Bank of America/Merrill Edge - Preferred Rewards

Post by FedGuy »

aj44 wrote: Sat Mar 04, 2023 12:58 pmThere also are data points of BOA shutting down more than 4 cards per person, it hasn’t been everyone.
I currently have 4 cards and am planning to apply for a fifth, so I really wish there was better understanding of the "4 cards per person, sometimes" limit. I'm Platinum Honors, and BoA seems to be more lenient with their program members so maybe things will work out, but I wish we had more datapoints on this.
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Re: Bank of America/Merrill Edge - Preferred Rewards

Post by GaryA505 »

I'm a little confused about the Platinum Rewards tiers. I'm in the Platinum Honors tier, but it looks like I'm only getting 3% category reward.

Can anyone explain?

EDIT: I have a Customized Cash Rewards card.
Get most of it right and don't make any big mistakes. All else being equal, simpler is better. Simple is as simple does.
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Re: Bank of America/Merrill Edge - Preferred Rewards

Post by GaryA505 »

GaryA505 wrote: Sat Mar 04, 2023 1:13 pm I'm a little confused about the Platinum Rewards tiers. I'm in the Platinum Honors tier, but it looks like I'm only getting 3% category reward.

Can anyone explain?

EDIT: I have a Customized Cash Rewards card.

Nevermind I got it.

3% plus %75 bonus is 5.25%

Duh.
Get most of it right and don't make any big mistakes. All else being equal, simpler is better. Simple is as simple does.
WapelloHawk
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Re: Bank of America/Merrill Edge - Preferred Rewards

Post by WapelloHawk »

aj44 wrote: Sat Mar 04, 2023 12:58 pm
WapelloHawk wrote: Fri Mar 03, 2023 5:52 pm
aj44 wrote: Fri Mar 03, 2023 1:17 pm
spickups09 wrote: Fri Mar 03, 2023 12:41 pm
growlers wrote: Tue Feb 28, 2023 7:03 pm
1) My understanding is that I am earning 3.5% on travel and dining and 2.62% on everything else with my 100K tier at BOA/Merrill. This is with my "premium rewards visa". BOA also has the "travel rewards card", the "unlimited cash rewards" and the "customized cash rewards". I want to maximize my rewards (within reason) but not use a ton of cards. Looking at the categories, travel and dining are my highest spending, then online shopping. Gas, drugstores, home improvement are all minimal. Should I add a card and what is the exact % benefit in my given scenario?
Growlers - I didn't see that anyone has replied to this part of your post yet. Apologies if I missed an earlier reply.

The "Customized Cash Rewards" are very valuable cards because you can rotate the top category monthly, and the categories include both online spending, dining, travel. If you are platinum honors, you get 5.25% back on purchases in that category. That beats pretty much every other cash back card, so that is why those cards and the BOA system in general is so attractive to many of us on this thread. However, these cards do have a $2500 quarterly cap, per card, on spending in these bonus categories (both your 5.25% top category of choice, plus the 3.5% default of grocery stores/wholesales).

With that in mind, and the fact that your allocation across spending categories appears generally similar to mine, here is what I do. Between my wife and I, we have 3 of the Customized Cash Rewards cards. In general, we use 1 for online shopping, 1 for dining, and 1 for gas - so we generally get 5.25% back on all of that spend. Occasionally we have switched 1 CCR card to travel temporarily, in order to get 5.25% back on a trip or part of a trip, but when you take nice vacations, you tend to quickly bust that $2500 quarterly cap, so eventually I decided it's not worth the hassle, and I am happy to use my Premium Rewards card and get the 3.5% back on unlimited travel spend. I have thought about trying to get one more CCR card that I could use exclusively for travel, but again, it's only worth so much, and I'd rather just use the black card then deal with the possibility of dividing up travel payments among multiple cards.

Another tip: the "online shopping" category can be broader than you think. Almost anything that is purchased at a store, but using that store's "pay app" will count (i.e., Kroger Pay through the Kroger App, Target Pay through the Target app, etc.). In this way, I have gotten 5.25% back on most of my grocery spend (Kroger), because when I pay in-store with the app, it counts as online for BOA's purposes.

For any spending that doesn't fall into one of those 3 bonus categories (online shopping, dining out and gas), we use the Premium Rewards Card and get 2.62% back, which I believe is the best card on the market for general, unlimited spend.

Hope this helps.
The online shopping category is magnificent, I have 3 customized cash cards, all set to that category, and with apps get pretty much all the other categories to fit under it. I just ran out of room this quarter.
How were you able to acquire 3 cust cash cards and how long did it take?

BOA operates under a 2/3/4 rule, 2 new cards in a 2 month period, 3 new cards in a 12 month period and 4 new cards in a 24 month period.

For me it took a year to get all 3 CCR because I also got a Premium that I product changed to a premium elite later

As someone else mentioned they do have a 24 month rule on getting a duplicate version of the CCR which you can bypass by getting different versions, I have the plain one, US Pride and Iowa Hawkeyes.

There also are data points of BOA shutting down more than 4 cards per person, it hasn’t been everyone. I had read someone got almost all 30 of the MLB cards years ago which caused BOA to crack down with these rules.
Thanks for the additional helpful explanation. Sounds like I need to be patient and let some time pass.

More importantly, Go Hawks!
prettybogle
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Re: Bank of America/Merrill Edge - Preferred Rewards

Post by prettybogle »

After a quick read of this thread, it appears merrill edge is no-brainer for balances over 100k. I am now wondering why I should stick with big brokerages like Vanguard or fidelity. Anyone in the same boat ?
dukeblue219
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Re: Bank of America/Merrill Edge - Preferred Rewards

Post by dukeblue219 »

prettybogle wrote: Sat Mar 04, 2023 5:27 pm After a quick read of this thread, it appears merrill edge is no-brainer for balances over 100k. I am now wondering why I should stick with big brokerages like Vanguard or fidelity. Anyone in the same boat ?
Fidelity is a *much* more pleasant app and website than Merrill Edge. If you're just holding 2 or 3 ETFs indefinitely it's fine, but if you want to do anything more complex like move money in and out of money market funds it's going to irritate you eventually. They also have a much larger list of ETFs they don't trade, like NTSX for example.
Last edited by dukeblue219 on Sat Mar 04, 2023 5:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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riverant
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Re: Bank of America/Merrill Edge - Preferred Rewards

Post by riverant »

prettybogle wrote: Sat Mar 04, 2023 5:27 pm After a quick read of this thread, it appears merrill edge is no-brainer for balances over 100k. I am now wondering why I should stick with big brokerages like Vanguard or fidelity. Anyone in the same boat ?
I have 100k in ME. Everything else is at Fidelity. A few downsides

1) no partial shares of ETF
2) poor 2FA. While BoA supports Yubikey, ME only allows SMS 2fa
3) slow transfers and customer service that isn’t as good as Fidelity in my experience
4) doesn’t support tax loss harvesting well. You can only select 4 lots and if they don’t add up to a whole number of shares, they FIFO partial shares.
zie
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Re: Bank of America/Merrill Edge - Preferred Rewards

Post by zie »

prettybogle wrote: Sat Mar 04, 2023 5:27 pm After a quick read of this thread, it appears merrill edge is no-brainer for balances over 100k. I am now wondering why I should stick with big brokerages like Vanguard or fidelity. Anyone in the same boat ?
Fidelity/Schwab/Vanguard have all the bells and whistles. I keep 100k @ BOA/ME just for the credit cards. Everything past that is kept @ Fidelity.

So I agree it's a great deal to keep $100k there, but there is no reason to keep more than that @ BOA/ME, their website is functional, but mostly annoying, support can be annoying, etc. I try to not ever need BOA/ME support ever, and minimized my holdings to 1 ETF (AOA), just so I never have to deal with BOA/ME, except spend their cash back they dump into my account. I even pay my BOA CC's from my Fidelity CMA, which is where my income gets deposited. :)

One certainly could do a 1 stop shop @ BOA/ME, but I've never met or heard from anyone that enjoyed the experience.
Whether rich or poor, a young woman should know how a bank account works, understand the composition of mortgages and bonds, and know the value of interest and how it accumulates. -Hetty Green
prettybogle
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Re: Bank of America/Merrill Edge - Preferred Rewards

Post by prettybogle »

Thanks for feedback. So, that 100k in ME - what are you holding it in ? Vanguard has pretty good interest rate on it's default cash sweep money market fund.
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Re: Bank of America/Merrill Edge - Preferred Rewards

Post by placeholder »

prettybogle wrote: Sat Mar 04, 2023 5:27 pm After a quick read of this thread, it appears merrill edge is no-brainer for balances over 100k. I am now wondering why I should stick with big brokerages like Vanguard or fidelity. Anyone in the same boat ?
It depends on your needs and the size of your holdings because I like to move assets around to get bonuses but always leave enough at edge for the platinum honors.
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Re: Bank of America/Merrill Edge - Preferred Rewards

Post by placeholder »

prettybogle wrote: Sat Mar 04, 2023 5:46 pm Thanks for feedback. So, that 100k in ME - what are you holding it in ? Vanguard has pretty good interest rate on it's default cash sweep money market fund.
In my case it's etfs and I wouldn't be interested in cash holdings of that size.
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anon_investor
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Re: Bank of America/Merrill Edge - Preferred Rewards

Post by anon_investor »

prettybogle wrote: Sat Mar 04, 2023 5:46 pm Thanks for feedback. So, that 100k in ME - what are you holding it in ? Vanguard has pretty good interest rate on it's default cash sweep money market fund.
There are some decent NTF money market funds at ME that only have a $1k min initial investment ($1 thereafter), competitive with Vanguard's rates.
prettybogle
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Re: Bank of America/Merrill Edge - Preferred Rewards

Post by prettybogle »

placeholder wrote: Sat Mar 04, 2023 5:49 pm
prettybogle wrote: Sat Mar 04, 2023 5:46 pm Thanks for feedback. So, that 100k in ME - what are you holding it in ? Vanguard has pretty good interest rate on it's default cash sweep money market fund.
In my case it's etfs and I wouldn't be interested in cash holdings of that size.
Agreed but I prefer to hold some money in a liquid fund with good yield while I wait for opportunities. Is there a good equivalent of VMFXX in BOA/ME with $0 commission or fee ?
vaylie
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Re: Bank of America/Merrill Edge - Preferred Rewards

Post by vaylie »

Those of you who only use BoA/ME for the cash back rewards, how much do you keep in your BoA checking account do keep it "active"? Right now I'm using it as a primary checking account with direct deposits, bill pay, etc. But I'm very tempted to switch over to Fidelity instead for that.

However, I don't want to risk getting my checking account closed for inactivity.
prettybogle wrote: Sat Mar 04, 2023 5:53 pm Agreed but I prefer to hold some money in a liquid fund with good yield while I wait for opportunities. Is there a good equivalent of VMFXX in BOA/ME with $0 commission or fee ?
There's a bunch of options here on the second page. TTTXX is a good choice for state tax exempt funds.
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anon_investor
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Re: Bank of America/Merrill Edge - Preferred Rewards

Post by anon_investor »

prettybogle wrote: Sat Mar 04, 2023 5:53 pm
placeholder wrote: Sat Mar 04, 2023 5:49 pm
prettybogle wrote: Sat Mar 04, 2023 5:46 pm Thanks for feedback. So, that 100k in ME - what are you holding it in ? Vanguard has pretty good interest rate on it's default cash sweep money market fund.
In my case it's etfs and I wouldn't be interested in cash holdings of that size.
Agreed but I prefer to hold some money in a liquid fund with good yield while I wait for opportunities. Is there a good equivalent of VMFXX in BOA/ME with $0 commission or fee ?
TTTXX is what I use. TOIXX is good if you don't have state income tax.
growlers
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Re: Bank of America/Merrill Edge - Preferred Rewards

Post by growlers »

I am using TOIXX, but I live in a no-tax state (Nevada)
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anon_investor
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Re: Bank of America/Merrill Edge - Preferred Rewards

Post by anon_investor »

vaylie wrote: Sat Mar 04, 2023 5:55 pm Those of you who only use BoA/ME for the cash back rewards, how much do you keep in your BoA checking account do keep it "active"? Right now I'm using it as a primary checking account with direct deposits, bill pay, etc. But I'm very tempted to switch over to Fidelity instead for that.

However, I don't want to risk getting my checking account closed for inactivity.
prettybogle wrote: Sat Mar 04, 2023 5:53 pm Agreed but I prefer to hold some money in a liquid fund with good yield while I wait for opportunities. Is there a good equivalent of VMFXX in BOA/ME with $0 commission or fee ?
There's a bunch of options here on the second page. TTTXX is a good choice for state tax exempt funds.
I keep about $10 in my checking, but I do have all my CC cack back deposited into my BoA checking each month, then transfer it to ME or my Fido brokerage. So there is monthly "activity". I use my Fido CMA as my main checking.
vaylie
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Re: Bank of America/Merrill Edge - Preferred Rewards

Post by vaylie »

Unfortunately, I don't spend enough each month to get cashback deposited to my account on a monthly basis - more like once every 2-3 months.

I'll have to think a little bit more if it's worth transitioning to Fidelity. It's not like the ACH pulls to Fidelity from BoA are slow or anything when I do my regular investing. Things are just a little more convenient on the Fidelity side to combine cash management + money market fund trading in one account compared to the BoA + ME combo.
tj
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Re: Bank of America/Merrill Edge - Preferred Rewards

Post by tj »

vaylie wrote: Sat Mar 04, 2023 5:55 pm Those of you who only use BoA/ME for the cash back rewards, how much do you keep in your BoA checking account do keep it "active"? Right now I'm using it as a primary checking account with direct deposits, bill pay, etc. But I'm very tempted to switch over to Fidelity instead for that.

However, I don't want to risk getting my checking account closed for inactivity.
prettybogle wrote: Sat Mar 04, 2023 5:53 pm Agreed but I prefer to hold some money in a liquid fund with good yield while I wait for opportunities. Is there a good equivalent of VMFXX in BOA/ME with $0 commission or fee ?
There's a bunch of options here on the second page. TTTXX is a good choice for state tax exempt funds.
I keep $100 in the BofA checking account. I don't use it for anything except to redeem the cash back and mobile deposit checks. The alliant app stopped working for me for mobile deposits for some reason.
GaryA505
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Re: Bank of America/Merrill Edge - Preferred Rewards

Post by GaryA505 »

prettybogle wrote: Sat Mar 04, 2023 5:27 pm After a quick read of this thread, it appears merrill edge is no-brainer for balances over 100k. I am now wondering why I should stick with big brokerages like Vanguard or fidelity. Anyone in the same boat ?
Yes. I'm thinking the same thing. There are other benefits as well. Having all accounts accessible from one screen, very easy transfers to/from checking, is attractive to me.
Get most of it right and don't make any big mistakes. All else being equal, simpler is better. Simple is as simple does.
alexbogle
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Re: Bank of America/Merrill Edge - Preferred Rewards

Post by alexbogle »

One reason i only keep a minimum amount at merrill: Costumer service at boa is terrible. The merrill agents tend to be better. But both have ridiculous hold times compared to schwab and fidelity.
"Learn every day, but especially from the experiences of others. It’s cheaper!” -- Jack Bogle
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