Bank of America Preferred Rewards

The Preferred Rewards is Bank of America’s loyalty program designed to honor customers who maintain considerable assets with the bank and its investment arm, Merrill. Launched in 2014, the program has grown to more than 11 million customers. Bank of America reported (slide #9) that Preferred Rewards members carried 12 times as much deposit and used twice as many products as non-members. Considering that the financial giant serves more than 69 million consumer and small business clients, such figures indicate the strategic importance and substantial value of Preferred Rewards. 

In its current form, Preferred Rewards has four tiers: Gold, Platinum, Platinum Honors and Diamond Honors. Below is a snapshot of the required minimum balance to qualify for each tier and two of the eligible benefits:

	Minimum Combined Balance	Waived Fees On Banking Products	Credit Card Rewards Bonus
Gold	$25,000	Yes	25%
Platinum	$50,000	Yes	50%
Platinum Honors	$100,000	Yes	75%
Diamond Honors	$1 mil	Yes	75%

How does the credit card rewards bonus work? For example, if a card has a 2% earn rate, a Gold member will have 2.5% and a Platinum Honors will receive 3.5%, on every transaction. 

Recently, Bank of American announced that, effective May 27, 2026, Preferred Rewards would be rebranded as BofA Rewards, alongside significant changes to the enrollment process, membership tiers and associated benefits. So what exactly is changing?

Enrollment Process

Previously, a customer can only enroll in BofA Preferred Rewards program with at least $25,000 in combined balance that can be determined by either one of these two ways:

• If a customer opens the first eligible BofA checking account, enrolls in Preferred Rewards immediately upon account opening and satisfies the requirements for at least one day within 30 days, the current combined balance will be used to determine  which tier and benefits the customer is entitled to. In other words, BofA declares the status in advance and lets customers enjoy benefits without waiting.

• Otherwise, if Preferred Rewards is not enrolled at account opening, status will be determined by a three-month combined average daily balance in qualifying deposit and investment accounts.

With BofA Rewards, anyone with a qualifying BofA checking account can enroll and is placed in an appropriate tier based on combined balance. For new customers, the combined balance is assessed within 30 calendar days following the first enrollment and to qualify, such balance must meet a tier’s requirement for at least three business days. For existing customers who are not already enrolled in Preferred Rewards, the assessment will take place on the 3rd business day every month. 

Both versions of the loyalty program allow customers to keep status till the next anniversary, even if their balance falls below the minimum requirement.

Overall, the new enrollment is tightened to deter excessive churning behavior – customers who transfer assets in for one day to get the status and quickly transfer them out.  

Tiers

BofA Rewards will have four tiers: Member, Preferred Plus, Preferred Honor and Premier, in ascending order. Member is available to anyone with a checking account and Preferred Plus to those with at least $30,000 in balance. The top two tiers will see no change to their respective balance requirement. 

Fee waivers will be available only to the top three tiers. Member will earn 10% credit card reward bonus, Preferred Plus 25%, Preferred Honor 50% and Premier 75%. Preferred Honor and Premier customers will be eligible for $8 and $15 respectively in monthly statement credit on subscription purchases paid with a debit card linked to a BofA checking account.

So, Who Wins & Who Loses With The Transition To BofA Rewards?

Winner: those that currently do not qualify for the current Preferred Rewards

BofA said that the new changes would open up the program to 30 million more customers. These individuals previously do not have the balance required to join. Now, they can. 

Winner: those with $1,000,000+ in assets

Not only is there no change to the existing benefits, but these top tier customers will also receive an additional $180 in statement credits.

Losers: those with $25,000 – $29,999 in balance

Credit card bonus earn rate will drop from 25% to 10% and there will be no waived fees on banking products, with no additional benefits.

Losers: those with $50,000 – $99,999 in balance

Credit card bonus earn rate will drop from 50% to 25%

What about those with $100,000 in balance? Well, it depends.

Those in this tier will see the credit card rewards drop from 75% to 50%, but get in return a monthly statement credit of $8, on subscription charges paid with a BofA debit card. Whether the credit is enough to offset the lower bonus rate depends on how much one spends every month on credit cards. For instance, let’s take a catch-all earn rate of 1.5%. An existing Platinum Honors customer can earn in total 2.625 points per dollar. With the new BofA Rewards, the earn rate will be 2.25 points per dollar. Assuming every point is worth one cent, here is how much a customer can earn with $1,000, $2,000 or $3,000 in monthly credit card spend:

Monthly Credit Card Spend	Points earned with Preferred Rewards Bonus (1.5 x 175% = 2.625)	Points earned with BofA Rewards (1.5 x 150% = 2.25)	Difference in points	Difference in dollars (1 point = 1 cent)
$1,000	2625	2250	375	$3.75
$2,000	5250	4500	750	$7.50
$3,000	7875	6750	1125	$11.25

Up to $2,000 monthly credit card spend, the $8 subscription credit will offset the drop in credit card reward bonus. Perhaps, this suggests many in this tier do not spend more than $2,000 a month on their BofA credit cards. The financial giant wants to keep them in the fold with similar benefits while enticing them to maintain a banking balance, not just a Merrill one. 

Are There Similar Programs To Preferred Rewards?

JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citi all have their own version of Preferred Rewards. While none come with additional credit card rewards, they do offer enhanced credit card acquisition bonuses or annual fee credits.

	Bank of America	Chase	Wells Fargo	Citi	Morgan Stanley
Considered Product	Platinum Honors or Preferred Honors	Chase Private Client	Wells Fargo Premier	Citi Gold
Requirement	$100,000 – $999,999 in balance	$150,000+ in balance	$250,000+ in balance	$200,000 – $999,999 in balance	$25,000 in checking balance with low interest and $5,000 in total monthly deposits
Benefits at $1,000 monthly credit card spend	$366 ($22.5 X 12 in extra credit card rewards + $96 in subscription credits)	Higher credit card acquisition bonus	Higher credit card acquisition bonus & better credit card	$145 in annual fee credit for Citi Strata Elite	$895 in annual credit for Morgan Stanley Amex Platinum
Benefits at $2,000 monthly credit card spend	$636 ($45 x 12 in extra credit card rewards + $96 in subscription credits)

There are two other ways that individuals with a high net worth can maximize rewards. One is to park some assets in a high-yield savings account at Capital One and leverage its credit card offerings. Right now at 3.3% APY, a $100,000 in cash could yield $3,300 in interest. The downside is that such additional income is subject to tax and it historically doesn’t have the same return as the S&P500.

The other approach is to maintain assets with Robinhood and use its Robinhood credit card with 3% earn rate on every category. The downsides include $5 fee every month for Robinhood Gold and the terrible customer services that the brokerage firm is infamous for.

Overall, Preferred Rewards is still one of, if not, the best bank loyalty programs out there. The announced changes make the program more accessible at the lower end while preserving benefits at the top. At its latest Investor Day, BofA disclosed that 71% of its credit-eligible checking customers (slide #27) had a BofA credit card and it wanted to push that to 80%. The new BofA Rewards is clearly designed for that purpose. 

In my opinion, this is a strategically shrewd move by Bank of America. The new program is aimed at expanding the reach to an under-served clientele while preserving more or less the appeal to clients at the top end. In addition, the new tweaks should encourage BofA Rewards members to park more assets in checking accounts. That would give the bank more deposits to fund the target of 5% in loan growth in the near term.