The Bank of America® Customized Cash Rewards Credit Card offers increased rewards in a category of your choice, plus up to a 75% boost to your rewards if you have Bank of America Preferred Rewards with Platinum Honors status.
Bank of America® Customized Cash Rewards at a glance
The Bank of America® Customized Cash Rewards credit card offers up to 3% cash back rewards in a category you choose—and up to 5.25% cash back if you’re a Preferred Rewards member with Platinum or higher status.
Bank of America® Customized Cash Rewards credit card welcome offer
Welcome offer: Earn 6% cash back for the first year from account opening in your choice category. Plus, get a $200 online cash rewards bonus after making at least $1,000 in purchases in the first 90 days of your account opening.
This bonus is earned as cash back rewards.
Annual fee: $0
Rewards
- 3% in the category of your choice.
- 2% at grocery stores and wholesale clubs.
- 1% on all other purchases.
You’ll earn 3% and 2% rewards on the first $2,500 in combined purchases each calendar quarter in the 3% and 2% bonus categories. Earn 1% cash back on these purchases thereafter.
Rewards are earned as cash back. If you have Bank of America Preferred Rewards, you’ll receive additional rewards based on your rewards multiplier of up to 1.75. Your rewards multiplier is based on your relationship with Bank of America and Merrill.
3% choice categories
Choose one of the following categories to earn 3% cash back:
- Gas and EV charging stations.
- Online shopping, including cable, internet, phone plans, and streaming.
- Dining.
- Travel.
- Drug stores and pharmacies.
- Home improvement and furnishings.
You can change your choice category once each calendar month. You’ll earn 3% and 2% rewards on the first $2,500 in combined purchases each calendar quarter in the 3% and 2% bonus categories. Earn 1% cash back on these purchases thereafter.
Benefits
Consumer insurance benefits
- Extended Warranty Protection.
Travel insurance benefits
- Travel and Emergency Assistance Services.
- Roadside Dispatch.
Rates and fees
- Annual fee: $0
- Foreign transaction fee: 3% of the U.S. dollar amount of each transaction
Our quick take on the Bank of America® Customized Cash Rewards credit card
Cards and Points Rating:
There are plenty of cards that earn 3% cash back on gas, on online shopping, at drugstores, on phone plans, or at home improvement stores, so in a vacuum, the card isn’t terribly impressive.
What gets us jazzed about the Bank of America® Customized Cash Rewards credit card is the rewards multiplier we get by having status in Bank of America’s Preferred Rewards program. When we start multiplying the card’s base cash back rewards by up to 1.75x, suddenly, we’re talking about a card that can offer market-leading cash back rewards in almost any category you choose.
When we’re getting up to 5.25% online, this card becomes one of the best cards to use at Amazon, Target.com, and pretty much every other place we shop online. And the 1.75x multiplier boosts the 2x rewards at grocery stores and wholesale clubs up to 3.5%—more than we’d get with our Costco credit card and one of the best rates you’ll find for groceries without paying an annual fee.
We do wish the benefits would be better, but if you’re looking for cash back and are a Bank of America Preferred Rewards member, the card does cash back very, very well.
Pros
- Up to 5.25% cash back in a category you pick
- Up to 3.5% cash back on groceries and at wholesale clubs
- Extended warranty
- No annual fee
Cons
- Requires substantial assets with BofA or Merrill to get the best cash back rates
- Limited benefits
How to maximize the Customized Cash
The first step to maximizing the Customized Cash is to get Bank of American Preferred Rewards status. We’ve got more in our article on Preferred rewards, but the quick version is that you’ll receive a rewards boost to certain Bank of America credit cards (including the Customized Cash) if you hold deposit and investment assets with BofA and Merrill.
Ideally, you’d have Platinum Honors status or higher in the Preferred rewards program to get the program’s 75% rewards multiplier, boosting the value of the rewards categopries:
- 3% rewards in your choice category becomes 5.25%.
- 2% categories (groceries and wholesale clubs) become 3.5%.
- 1% on other purchases becomes 1.75%.
Once you’ve got that covered, pick one of the 3% categories and use the Customized Cash card exclusively for spending in that category until you’ve spend $2,500 on the card during the calendar quarter. Then shelve the card for the rest of the quarter, rinse and repeat.
Rewards: Potential for massive cash back
The best rewards from the Bank of America® Customized Cash Rewards credit card will come in the category you select, but the card also earns decent rewards in a few other categories as well. Here’s what the card earns:
- Up to 3% cash back in a category of your choice
Choose from gas and EV charging stations; online shopping, including cable, internet, phone plans and streaming; dining; travel; drug stores and pharmacies; or home improvement and furnishings. - Up to 2% cash back at grocery stores.
- Up to 2% at wholesale clubs.
- 1% cash back on all other purchases.
You earn 2% and 3% cash back on the first $2,500 in combined bonus category purchases each quarter, then 1%.
But the base cash back is only half the story, since the card qualifies for the Bank of America Preferred Rewards bonus multiplier. When you factor in the bonus multiplier, here’s how the rewards look
| Preferred Rewards status tier | 3% choice category | Grocery stores Wholesale clubs | General purchases |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base | 3% | 2% | 1% |
| Gold $20k to < $50k 1.25x multiplier | 3.75% | 2.5% | 1.25% |
| Platinum $50k to < $100k 1.5x multiplier | 4.5% | 3% | 1.5% |
| Platinum Honors $100k to < $1M 1.75x multiplier | 5.25% | 3.5% | 1.75% |
| Diamond $1M to < $10M 1.75x multiplier | 5.25% | 3.5% | 1.75% |
Benefits: Limited consumer and travel protections
Bank of America isn’t known for generous benefits on its cards with no annual fee card, but the Bank of America® Customized Cash Rewards credit card does offer a few benefits. Here are the most important details on the card’s benefits, but check the Guide to Benefits of your card for complete coverage details.
Consumer insurance benefits
Extended Warranty Protection
Extended warranty can provide coverage if an item fails outside your original manufacturer’s warranty by doubling the warranty period for many items you buy.
- Covers items with a manufacturer’s warranty of three years or less.
- Provides the lesser of one additional year of double the original manufacturer’s warranty coverage.
- Limit of $10,000 per claim and $50,000 per cardholder.
- Some types of items are excluded, like computer software, items purchased for commercial use, and medical equipment. Check your card’s guide to benefits for details.
How to start a claim: Visit www.cardbenefitservices.com or call the benefit administrator at 1-800-592-4089 or call collect outside the U.S. to 1-804-673-1468.
Travel insurance benefits
Roadside Dispatch
Roadside dispatch can connect you with a variety of roadside assistance services for a per service call fee.
- Provides standard towing, tire changing, jump starting, lockout service, fuel delivery, and standard winching.
- As of October 1, 2022, the fee for a standard service call was $69.95.
- Cardmember is responsible for the costs of all services provided.
How to get roadside assistance: Call 1-800-847-2869 to be connected to the roadside dispatch service.
Travel and emergency assistance services
Travel and emergency assistance services provides a single phone number you can use to get assistance with things like medical referrals, emergency transportation, and legal referrals when traveling away from home.
- Services are referral only.
- Cardmember is responsible for the costs of all services provided.
How to use this service: Call the Benefit Administrator at 1-800-592-4089 or call collect outside the U.S. to 1-804-673-1468
Our experiences: How we use the card
Our guides to cards are thoroughly researched using primary sources, but members of our team often have these cards as well. Here’s how we use our cards.
Since I’m a Bank of America Preferred Rewards customer, I’m getting 5.25% cash back rewards in my choice category—and my choice category doesn’t change. Online shopping.
Pretty much everything I buy online that isn’t for my business goes on this card and I’m happily earning 5.25% cash back on all of it. I also use the card for all of my Costco shopping, where it beats the rewards I get on Costco’s own credit card hands-down. Groceries are another story—I get more rewards with my Blue Cash Preferred® Card, so I use that instead.
For me, there’s no better card for online shopping.
Other cards to consider
First, let’s talk about the cards you should definitely consider if you have Preferred Rewards status:
- For general purchases, you’ll want the Bank of America® Unlimited Cash Rewards credit card. That card will earn you 2.625% cash back on general purchases when you have Preferred Rewards with Platinum Honors and if you have at least Platinum status, you’ll do better with the card than you will with a 2% cash back card.
- If you dine or travel often, you might consider either the Bank of America® Premium Rewards® or Bank of America® Premium Rewards® Elite cards. Both of these cards have an annual fee, but they both offer better rewards for dining and travel and the elite card comes with some useful fee credits and airport lounge access.
As for alternative cards that can earn more cash back in categories:
- Online. Most likely, you’ll want to use the Customized Cash card for online shopping. But if you want another card for general online shopping, the Blue Cash Everyday® Card from American Express is a great option to earn up to 3% rewards. Also, Amazon, Target, and other retailers will frequently have cards that can earn you decent rewards.
- For gas and EV charging, there are a handful of better cards for gas rewards. The Citi Custom Cash℠ Card and the Blue Cash Everyday® Card from American Express are good options with no annual fees, but check out our article on the best gas rewards cards for a comprehensive list.
- At drugstores and pharmacies, use the Chase Freedom Unlimited® or Chase Freedom Flex® for 3% rewards at drugstores as Ultimate Rewards®. We also maintain a list of great cards to use at drugstores.
- Home improvement stores. There are plenty of options for earning more rewards at home improvement stores, including the U.S. Bank Shopper Cash Rewards® Visa Signature® Card and the Citi Custom Cash℠.
- If you don’t have Preferred Rewards status with at least the Platinum level or higher, you’ll want to check out another 2% cash back credit card for rewards everywhere. We particularly like the Citi Double Cash for its extended warranty benefit and the Wells Fargo Active Cash for its cellphone protection.
- Dining. Finally, you can find a much more profitable card for your dining purchases. Many cards with no annual fee earn 3% cash back in this category. We’ll update this post when we publish a list of great cards for dining.
