Bank of America Customized Cash Rewards Credit Card

Earning Rates

Key Benefits

All Benefits

• $200 online cash rewards bonus after you make at least $1,000 in purchases in the first 90 days of account opening (per the Bank of America issuer product page and Upgraded Points 'Full Review [2026]'; the bonus posts as a statement credit or can be redeemed to a BoA deposit account)
• $0 annual fee, not waived (per the Bank of America issuer product page and Upgraded Points review FAQ which explicitly answers 'No, the Bank of America Customized Cash Rewards card does not charge an annual fee')
• Earn 3% cash back in a category of your choice from a fixed list of six: gas/EV charging, online shopping (including grocery and wholesale-club delivery and pickup), dining, travel, drug stores/pharmacies, or home improvement/furnishings (per the Bank of America issuer product page and Upgraded Points review)
• You can change your 3% category once per calendar month through the BoA mobile app or online banking; if you do not change it, your existing selection carries over automatically (per the Bank of America issuer product page and Upgraded Points review which notes 'your category can be changed each month' as a defining feature of the card)
• Automatic 2% cash back at grocery stores and wholesale clubs (no category election required - this category is fixed and runs in parallel with the 3% chosen category, per the Bank of America issuer product page and Upgraded Points review)
• Unlimited 1% cash back on all other purchases with no cap (per the Bank of America issuer product page and Upgraded Points review)
• The 3% and 2% bonus rates apply only to the first $2,500 in combined choice-category and grocery/wholesale-club purchases each quarter; spend above the $2,500 quarterly cap drops to the 1% baseline until the next quarter resets (per the Bank of America issuer product page and Upgraded Points review which lists this as the headline 'negative note': '3% and 2% cash-back categories are limited to the first $2,500 in combined purchases each quarter, then you'll earn 1%')
• Effective maximum earn without Preferred Rewards: 3% on $2,500 in choice-category quarterly spend = $75 per quarter or $300 per year on the bonus tier, plus any 2% grocery/wholesale-club spend within the same $2,500 quarterly bucket; the math makes this card a complement to, not a replacement for, an unlimited 2% flat-rate card like Citi Double Cash (rewardztravel modeling consistent with Upgraded Points review)
• Preferred Rewards cash-back boost: enrolled BoA Preferred Rewards members earn 25% more cash back at the Gold tier ($20,000-$49,999 in combined BoA banking and Merrill investment balances), 50% more at Platinum ($50,000-$99,999), or 75% more at Platinum Honors/Diamond/Diamond Honors ($100,000+), boosting choice-category earn to as much as 5.25% and grocery/wholesale-club earn to as much as 3.5% (per the Bank of America issuer product page and Upgraded Points review which states 'you could earn 3.75%-5.25% cash back on purchases in your choice category')
• 0% introductory APR for 15 billing cycles on purchases, and on balance transfers made in the first 60 days; the go-to variable APR is 17.49%-27.49% (per the Upgraded Points review citing the Bank of America issuer disclosure; APR range is variable and tied to the Prime Rate)
• Balance transfer fee: 3% of each transfer made within the first 60 days of account opening (the intro fee), then 5% of each future balance transfer thereafter (per the Bank of America disclosure quoted in the Upgraded Points review)
• 3% foreign transaction fee on any purchase processed outside the United States or in a foreign currency, making this card a poor choice for international travel even though 'travel' is one of the 3% category options (per the Bank of America issuer product page and the explicit Upgraded Points FAQ: 'Yes, the Bank of America Customized Cash Rewards card charges a 3% foreign transaction fee')
• Cash back is earned and redeemed at a fixed 1:1 ratio - one cent per point equivalent, with no transfer partners or category-multiplier variance; rewards never expire as long as the account remains open (per the Bank of America issuer product page)
• Redemption options: statement credit against any purchase, direct deposit into a Bank of America checking or savings account, deposit into an eligible Merrill Cash Management or 529 account, with no minimum redemption amount (per the Bank of America issuer product page; eliminating the redemption minimum is a recent enhancement compared with most other cash-back cards which still require a $25 floor)
• Issued as a contactless Mastercard World card (with select offers on Visa Signature variants historically); World Mastercard benefits include 24/7 concierge service, MasterRental insurance for car rental damage, and access to Mastercard's Priceless Cities and Priceless Experiences event marketplace (standard World Mastercard guide-to-benefits package referenced on the Bank of America product page)
• BankAmeriDeals: targeted merchant offers loaded to the card in BoA mobile/online banking that stack additional cash back on top of the underlying category earn rate; offers are personalized to spend history and rotate frequently (ongoing BoA card benefit documented by Doctor of Credit)
• Free authorized users with no per-user fee; authorized-user spend earns at the cardholder's chosen 3% category rate and counts toward the welcome-offer spend requirement (per the Bank of America issuer product page)
• Online cash-rewards bonus can be earned only on accounts opened through the bankofamerica.com online application path; in-branch applications historically receive a lower bonus or no bonus, which is why the headline offer is described in BoA marketing as the 'online cash rewards bonus' (per the Bank of America product page language and Upgraded Points review wording)
• Eligibility note: Bank of America applies the '2/3/4' rule (no more than 2 new BoA cards in 2 months, 3 in 12 months, or 4 in 24 months); applicants who already hold multiple BoA cards or have many recent new credit accounts may be denied even with strong credit (widely documented by Doctor of Credit and Upgraded Points; not a written benefit but a real-world acquisition constraint)
• Transfer partners: Not offered - cash back cannot be converted into airline miles or hotel points and there is no portal-style travel multiplier; value ceiling is fixed at 1 cent per dollar of cash back (called out by Upgraded Points as the card's hard rewards ceiling versus a Chase Sapphire Preferred or Amex Gold transferable-points stack)
• Travel insurance: Not offered - this card carries no trip cancellation, trip interruption, trip delay, baggage delay, lost luggage, or travel accident insurance; travel-coded purchases earn 3% if chosen as the category but receive none of the cardholder protections that the Premium Rewards or Sapphire Preferred extend (rewardztravel verified absence against the Bank of America Customized Cash Rewards benefits disclosure summary)
• Airport lounge access: Not offered (no Priority Pass, no proprietary BoA lounge network); lounge access on Bank of America cards is reserved for the Premium Rewards Elite tier at $550 annual fee
• Hotel or airline elite status: Not offered (no Marriott, Hilton, Hertz, or airline status comes with the Customized Cash Rewards card)
• Annual hotel, dining, rideshare, streaming, or airline incidental credit: Not offered (the card carries no recurring lifestyle statement credits beyond the one-time $200 welcome-offer credit)
• Cell phone protection: Not offered - despite being a Mastercard World product, Bank of America does not fund the optional Mastercard cell phone protection benefit on the Customized Cash Rewards card; cardholders who want phone insurance should look at Wells Fargo Active Cash or any Chase Ink product (rewardztravel verified absence against the BoA Customized Cash Rewards benefits disclosure summary)
• Purchase protection and extended warranty: Not offered as guaranteed cardholder benefits - Bank of America stripped the standard Mastercard purchase-protection and extended-warranty riders from its no-annual-fee consumer cards in 2019, leaving only the Premium Rewards line with those benefits (well-documented in Doctor of Credit and Upgraded Points coverage of BoA's benefits-trim cycle; rewardztravel treats both as 'not offered' on this card until BoA publishes a contrary Guide to Benefits)
• TSA PreCheck or Global Entry application credit: Not offered (this benefit is reserved for the BoA Premium Rewards and Premium Rewards Elite cards)
• Rental car insurance: Mastercard MasterRental coverage may be available as secondary collision damage coverage when the entire rental is charged to the card and the rental company's CDW is declined, subject to the Mastercard World Guide to Benefits in effect for non-premium BoA cards; rewardztravel flags this benefit as 'verify with issuer' because Mastercard moved much of its non-premium rental coverage behind the World Elite tier in 2024-2025 and BoA has not separately re-confirmed coverage on the Customized Cash Rewards card
• Best-fit use case: pair this card with a flat-rate 2% cash-back card and use Customized Cash Rewards only for the chosen 3% category, capping monthly spend so that the household stays within the $2,500 combined quarterly cap; outside the cap and outside the chosen category the card pays only 1% and is materially worse than a Wells Fargo Active Cash or Citi Double Cash (rewardztravel modeling consistent with the Upgraded Points 'maximize your earnings' guidance)