Last year, Bank of America started heavily marketing their “Preferred Rewards” program, whereby you can get increased rewards rates on credit card spending by holding certain balances with Bank of America and Merrily Edge. Doctor of Credit goes into all its gory detail (linked below), but roughly, you get bonuses of 10%/25%/50%/75% for having balances of $0/$20k/$50k/$100k.

Bank of America Preferred Rewards Program: 5.25% Cash Back On Gas, 3.75% Travel, 2.625% All Purchases

This has been scrutinized pretty heavily because it’s a lot of money to park somewhere, and for the most part the conclusion is that as long as you don’t have a 401k or IRA or investment account that you can roll into Merrill Edge to hit the thresholds, it’s NOT worth pursuing the bonuses. Here’s a particularly scathing (though mathematically on point) perspective:

Consumer Watchdog: Bank of America Preferred Rewards can cost you $600+ a year

(Side note: I’m trying out a new link/embed format; let me know if you’d prefer them inline instead).

Given that I don’t have enough savings to hit any of these thresholds (whether or not I include investments), I decided to pass, but as I was poking around the Bank of America site, I noticed something interesting (emphasis mine):

You are eligible to enroll in the Preferred Rewards program if you have an active, eligible Bank of America^® personal checking account and maintain a 3-month average combined balance in your qualifying Bank of America deposit accounts and/or your qualifying Merrill Edge^® and Merrill Lynch^® investment accounts of at least $20,000 for the Gold tier, $50,000 for the Platinum tier, or $100,000 for the Platinum Honors tier. The combined balance is calculated based on your average daily balance for a three calendar month period. Continue reading →