Bank of America Customized Cash Rewards: worth a spot in your wallet?
The honest math on the Bank of America Customized Cash Rewards: what its cash back earns beyond a plain 2% card and what its protections would cost to buy.
Bank of America · No annual fee · cash back
Where it ranks: #2 of 8 for streaming · #2 of 5 for drugstores · #2 of 2 for online retail · #3 of 12 for other travel
Earning rates
- 3x Choice category (pick one, changeable monthly) (3% on the first $2,500 in combined choice-category + grocery/wholesale-club purchases per quarter (~$10,000/yr), then 1%)
- 2x Grocery stores & wholesale clubs (automatic) (2% on the first $2,500 in combined grocery/wholesale-club + choice-category purchases per quarter (~$10,000/yr), then 1%)
- 1x Everything else
Protections and perks (1)
- Extended Warranty — Doubles the manufacturer's U.S. warranty by up to one extra year on eligible warranties of 3 years or less.
Recent changes to this card's data
2026-09-11 — Bank of America Customized Cash Rewards
2026-08-21 — Bank of America Customized Cash Rewards (new card)
- Added new card
bofa-customized-cash-rewards. $0 annual fee, Visa, flat 1-cent cash back. Source: https://www.bankofamerica.com/credit-cards/products/cash-back-credit-card/ - Earning: you pick ONE bonus category monthly (gas/EV charging, online shopping incl. cable/internet/phone/streaming, dining, travel, drugstores, or home improvement/furnishings) at 3%; automatic 2% at grocery stores/wholesale clubs; 1% everything else. The first-year 6% choice-category promo is intentionally NOT counted — first-year math is out of scope for this calculator. Source: https://www.bankofamerica.com/credit-cards/products/cash-back-credit-card/
- Cap honesty: the choice-category and grocery/wholesale rates SHARE one $2,500/quarter cap (not two separate caps). At first this could only be modeled approximately, with a note that it could overstate for people spending in both; days later the calculator gained a real shared-cap mechanic and this card now uses it (see the "smarter valuation mechanics" entry above). Source: https://www.bankofamerica.com/credit-cards/products/cash-back-credit-card/
- Foreign transaction fee is 3% (no no-FTF benefit added). Source: https://www.bankrate.com/credit-cards/reviews/bank-of-america-cash-rewards-credit-card/
- Relationship boosts follow the CURRENT "BofA Rewards" tiers (Member 10%/no minimum, Preferred Plus 25%/$30k, Preferred Honors 50%/$100k, Premier 75%/$1M), which replaced the older "Preferred Rewards" Gold/Platinum/Platinum Honors tiers (25%/50%/75% at $20k/$50k/$100k) when Bank of America rolled the new program out 2026-05-27. Sources: https://newsroom.bankofamerica.com/content/newsroom/press-releases/2026/02/new-bofa-rewards--program-to-reach-millions-more-clients-with-ex.html , https://info.bankofamerica.com/en/rewards/bofa-rewards
- This pass also revealed that the Bank of America Premium Rewards card (added a day earlier) still carried the old Preferred Rewards tier names — corrected in its own same-day verification pass (see that entry).
- Added Extended Warranty (doubles the manufacturer's U.S. warranty by up to 1 extra year on warranties of ≤3 years) on three mutually-consistent sources (Bankrate, WalletHub, CreditCards.com) — BofA publishes no card-specific benefits guide for this card. Sources: https://www.bankrate.com/credit-cards/issuers/bank-of-america-purchase-protection-guide , https://wallethub.com/answers/cc/bank-of-america-cash-rewards-extended-warranty-1000413-2140655637/ , https://www.creditcards.com/card-advice/bank-of-america-customized-cash-rewards-guide/
- Did NOT add Purchase Protection (Visa Purchase Security): secondary sources disagree on the per-claim cap ($500 vs. the $10,000 Visa-Signature-standard figure already used on
bofa-premium-rewards.json's identical benefit) — two sources suggested this may reflect the card being issued at either Visa Signature or Visa Platinum Plus tier depending on applicant creditworthiness (different benefit sets). Omitted rather than guess between conflicting numbers. Sources: https://www.bankrate.com/credit-cards/issuers/bank-of-america-purchase-protection-guide , https://wallethub.com/answers/cc/bank-of-america-cash-rewards-purchase-protection-1000410-2140656029/ - Also did NOT add (no primary confirmation; The Points Guy's otherwise thorough review doesn't mention any of them either): rental car CDW, trip/travel insurance, roadside dispatch, Visa Signature Concierge. Source: https://thepointsguy.com/credit-cards/reviews/customized-cash-rewards-card-review
- Intentionally excluded as issuer-generic/non-monetizable per skill convention: "Museums on Us" (applies identically to ALL BofA/Merrill credit AND debit cards), BankAmeriDeals (variable card-linked merchant offers, like Amex Offers/Chase Offers), zero-liability, free FICO score, digital wallet, account alerts.
Card data verified against Bank of America on 2026-09-11.
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