Most travel credit cards make you juggle airline transfer partners and hope the maths works out. Bank of America's Premium Rewards card takes the opposite approach: plain cash back, at a rate that can beat almost anything on the market — provided you park serious money with the bank.
The card itself looks unremarkable at first glance. There's a $95 annual fee (not waived in year one), a welcome bonus of 60,000 points after spending $4,000 in the first 90 days — worth $600 as a statement credit, since points redeem at one cent each — and a base earn of 2x points on travel and dining, 1.5x on everything else. That's a so-so 1.5–2% back. The magic comes from Bank of America's Rewards program, which boosts card rewards by up to 75% based on how much money you hold with the bank and Merrill. At the top tier, that means 2.625% back on every purchase, a rate virtually unheard of for unrestricted spending. The catch is blunt: you'll need combined balances of around $1,000,000 to reach it.
Even without the top tier, the perks make the fee easy to swallow. A $100 annual airline incidental credit covers things like checked bags, seat upgrades, change fees and lounge access on US carriers — no registration or airline selection required — which more than cancels the $95 fee. There's also up to $100 back every four years for TSA PreCheck or Global Entry (you can pay for someone else's), no foreign transaction fees, and access to the Visa Signature Luxury Hotel Collection perks at select properties.
The travel definitions are unusually generous, too. Beyond flights and hotels, the 2x travel category counts amusement parks, museums, zoos, taxis, tolls, trains and parking — so plenty of everyday holiday spending earns the higher rate. On the protection side, the card includes trip delay reimbursement of up to $500 per ticket, trip cancellation cover up to $2,500, baggage delay and lost luggage coverage, emergency evacuation cover, and secondary rental car insurance, plus purchase protection, extended warranty and return protection.
Where the card falls short: points are locked at one cent each with no transfer partners, so there's no shot at premium-cabin redemptions worth multiples of that. And you can't earn the welcome bonus if you've held this exact card in the past 24 months, though other BofA cards don't count against you. Approval generally wants a credit score of 700 or better.
Who should care? Anyone who prefers straightforward cash value over loyalty-program gymnastics — especially travellers who already bank with Bank of America or Merrill and can climb the Rewards tiers. For them, this may be the single most lucrative everyday-spending card going. For everyone else, the standard 1.5–2% rate is merely fine, and the seven-figure balance requirement puts the headline rate out of reach. Authorised users cost nothing to add, so the card works well as a household earner too.
