Bank of America Preferred Rewards

Who This Program Is For

Bank of America Preferred Rewards is not a loyalty program in the traditional sense. There are no points, no transfer partners, no award charts. It is a balance-based multiplier: the more money you hold at BofA and Merrill, the higher the bonus on cash back you earn with eligible BofA credit cards.

At Platinum Honors tier ($100k+ in combined BofA/Merrill assets), the program becomes genuinely compelling. A 75% rewards bonus transforms the BofA Premium Rewards card's base rates into 3.5% on travel and dining and 2.625% on all other purchases. Those effective rates beat the Chase Sapphire Reserve (3x travel/dining, $550 annual fee) for a customer who was already paying a $95 annual fee and holding the qualifying assets.

If you don't have $100,000 in qualifying BofA/Merrill accounts, the program's best tier is out of reach. Gold ($20k) adds only 25%, and Platinum ($50k) adds 50% — useful, but not enough to make BofA cards clearly better than Chase Ultimate Rewards or Amex Membership Rewards at those thresholds. The program is specifically designed for high-balance Merrill customers, and that's who benefits most.

How the Rewards Boost Works

The boost is a percentage multiplier applied to all cash back earned on eligible BofA credit cards. It stacks on top of the card's base earn rates, not as a flat rate on top of everything.

Example at Platinum Honors (75% boost):

• Premium Rewards card earns 2 points per $1 on travel and dining. 75% boost → effective 3.5 points per $1, each worth 1 cent → 3.5% back
• Premium Rewards card earns 1.5 points per $1 on all other purchases. 75% boost → effective 2.625 points per $1 → 2.625% back
• Customized Cash Rewards earns 3% on chosen category. 75% boost → effective 5.25% back on the chosen category (capped at $2,500/quarter in combined category + grocery spend)

Qualifying Balances

Tier qualification uses a 3-month average daily balance across eligible BofA deposit accounts and Merrill investment accounts. Eligible accounts include checking and savings at Bank of America, Merrill Edge self-directed brokerage accounts, Merrill Lynch investment accounts, and certain 529 college savings accounts.

The balance calculation is a daily average, not a snapshot. A significant withdrawal close to a quarter-end can drop your average below a threshold and reduce your tier for the following period. If you're near a tier cutoff, watch this carefully.

How It Compares to Chase and Amex

At Platinum Honors, the BofA stack is genuinely competitive for cash-back-focused customers. The Premium Rewards card at $95/year delivers 3.5% on travel/dining and 2.625% everywhere else — a strong combination at a lower annual fee than the Chase Sapphire Reserve ($550) or Amex Gold ($325).

The meaningful trade-off: Chase and Amex offer transfer partners. Preferred Rewards does not. A Chase Sapphire Reserve customer who transfers points to World of Hyatt can get 2.0–2.5 cents per point — more than the 1 cent per point equivalent of BofA cash back, for certain redemptions. Preferred Rewards wins on simplicity and requires no redemption optimization. Chase and Amex win when you're willing to put in the work for premium travel.

The program also competes directly with Chase Freedom Unlimited + Sapphire pooling and Amex's no-annual-fee cash back card. For customers with the qualifying Merrill balance, Preferred Rewards beats both on raw effective rate. For customers without that balance, there is no meaningful reason to prefer BofA cards.

The Bank Lock-In Trade-Off

Preferred Rewards works because Merrill's investment returns can be competitive with other brokerages. If you're already using Merrill Edge for index fund investing or Merrill Lynch for wealth management, the Preferred Rewards multiplier is essentially free — you get higher credit card rewards as a side effect of where you already hold assets.

If you would have to move assets from a brokerage with better trading tools, lower expense ratios, or better research into Merrill specifically to qualify, run the numbers carefully. The credit card rewards boost is capped at a few hundred dollars per year for most household spending levels. Moving a significant investment portfolio to earn credit card bonuses is rarely the right financial decision.

Bottom Line

Bank of America Preferred Rewards is the best cash back program in the US for one specific profile: a customer who already holds $100,000+ at BofA and Merrill and prefers cash back simplicity over points optimization. At Platinum Honors, the effective earn rates on BofA cards are genuinely excellent — 3.5% on travel/dining with a $95 annual fee is hard to beat in pure cash back terms.

For everyone else — especially travelers who want to transfer points to airlines and hotels — the program has nothing to offer. The 75% boost only applies to BofA cards, only rewards cash back, and disappears entirely if you move your assets. It is a loyalty program with a very narrow eligibility window. But for the customers in that window, it is among the most underrated options in the market.