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I agree with you that coupling BofA/Merrill's ofA/Merrill Edge Preferred Rewards program (that increases rebates by 25%, 50%, or 75%) with a BofA credit card can give some large credit card rebates.
The reason why I suggested the BofA Travel Card above is that the BofA 3%/2%/1% cash rewards card would require a lot of gasoline purchases to come out better than the travel card.
The cash rewards bonus categories (3% gas/2% supermarkets) are capped at $1500 spend/quarter, or $6K per year. If you spend $24K/year ($6K+ on gas), this gets you 3% of $6K and 1% of $18K, i.e. $180 + $180, or $360. The flat 1.5% on the travel card would get you the same $360.
If you spend more than $24K on the card per year, the travel card comes out better, or if less than 1/4 of your charges ($24K) are for gasoline, the travel card comes out better. If you're not using the card a lot, then the cash rewards could come out better (you'd still need a big portion of your charges to be for gas).
The Preferred Rewards program multiplies these figures by 1.25 (for bank/brokerage balances over $20K), 1.5 (for balances over $50K), or 1.75 (for balances over $100K).
I think the JCB 3% card I mentioned above beats all of these (even with its $25/year total fees), if one qualifies.
Maurice is right, I'm looking for the best cash back rewards card I can find. Also I was hoping to swap one Amex card for another but I have no idea on my credit rating would be affected or if a swap was even possible.
To be honest I only had the Amex card because at the time Costco opened in MN all they accepted was cash or Amex. It might be different where you live. My Costco Amex wasn't the best cash back rewards card out there probably but it was for me. I drove and traveled a lot and with 3% back on gas and travel that's the card that was the most useful and rewarding. Semi-retired now I don't drive as far (read: use as much fuel) so I'm transitioning to an all-around overall card. The 2% on everything Fidelity Amex card was interesting to me. I don't care for the rotating category types and I have a mental block on charging my groceries. Irrational I know but it just seems desperate. I'm also not into the 'points' business either. Just give me the money. I was really hoping not to be applying for another credit card at my age and stage in life and I already have Visa and Mastercard's that I rarely use. Mostly I would only pull them out when a merchant wouldn't accept the Amex card. Except for the grocery business it's just easier to make one payment a month and be done with it.
One of the quirks of the Fidelity Amex card is that even though it is marketed as a 2% cash back card, what you're really earning are WorldPoints (2pts per dollar spent).
Here are the complete terms of its rewards program. You can redeem points:
Fidelity Reward: Cash deposited into a Fidelity account (min 5,000 pts = $50), at an exchange rate of $0.01 per point.
Travel: (a) Airfare - undisclosed redemption rate for "FlexAir" reward tickets. There are also "Premium" reward tickets that could give you a redemption rate nearly double the Fidelity cash rewards (tickets up to $600 value to Canada cost $350 worth of points). But you can only get them by paying a fixed number of points (e.g. 35,000 for that Canada ticket) and the ticket must have a value less than a specified amount ($600 for this ticket). You would pay 25,000 points for a domestic ticket, but the ticket could have a value no greater than $400. (b) Car rentals - undisclosed redemption rate (c) Hotels - undisclosed redemption rate
Cash (no Fidelity account required) - $0.01 per point (same as Fidelity) if you redeem 25,000 points or more ($250); otherwise the redemption rate is lower. redemption rates up to $0.01 per point (i.e. up to the same rate as Fidelity cash)
Gift cards - redemption rates similar to cash - $0.01 per point at the 25,000 point level; otherwise lower redemption rates.
I doubt one person in a hundred thinks of the Fidelity Amex card as anything but a straight 2% cash back card, but it is a point card with a slew of (generally less valuable) options. This should not matter if one just wants cash back.
Comments
The reason why I suggested the BofA Travel Card above is that the BofA 3%/2%/1% cash rewards card would require a lot of gasoline purchases to come out better than the travel card.
The cash rewards bonus categories (3% gas/2% supermarkets) are capped at $1500 spend/quarter, or $6K per year. If you spend $24K/year ($6K+ on gas), this gets you 3% of $6K and 1% of $18K, i.e. $180 + $180, or $360. The flat 1.5% on the travel card would get you the same $360.
If you spend more than $24K on the card per year, the travel card comes out better, or if less than 1/4 of your charges ($24K) are for gasoline, the travel card comes out better. If you're not using the card a lot, then the cash rewards could come out better (you'd still need a big portion of your charges to be for gas).
The Preferred Rewards program multiplies these figures by 1.25 (for bank/brokerage balances over $20K), 1.5 (for balances over $50K), or 1.75 (for balances over $100K).
I think the JCB 3% card I mentioned above beats all of these (even with its $25/year total fees), if one qualifies.
To be honest I only had the Amex card because at the time Costco opened in MN all they accepted was cash or Amex. It might be different where you live. My Costco Amex wasn't the best cash back rewards card out there probably but it was for me. I drove and traveled a lot and with 3% back on gas and travel that's the card that was the most useful and rewarding. Semi-retired now I don't drive as far (read: use as much fuel) so I'm transitioning to an all-around overall card. The 2% on everything Fidelity Amex card was interesting to me. I don't care for the rotating category types and I have a mental block on charging my groceries. Irrational I know but it just seems desperate. I'm also not into the 'points' business either. Just give me the money. I was really hoping not to be applying for another credit card at my age and stage in life and I already have Visa and Mastercard's that I rarely use. Mostly I would only pull them out when a merchant wouldn't accept the Amex card. Except for the grocery business it's just easier to make one payment a month and be done with it.
Here are the complete terms of its rewards program. You can redeem points:
- Fidelity Reward: Cash deposited into a Fidelity account (min 5,000 pts = $50), at an exchange rate of $0.01 per point.
- Travel:
- Cash (no Fidelity account required) - $0.01 per point (same as Fidelity) if you redeem 25,000 points or more ($250); otherwise the redemption rate is lower.
- Gift cards - redemption rates similar to cash - $0.01 per point at the 25,000 point level; otherwise lower redemption rates.
I doubt one person in a hundred thinks of the Fidelity Amex card as anything but a straight 2% cash back card, but it is a point card with a slew of (generally less valuable) options. This should not matter if one just wants cash back.(a) Airfare - undisclosed redemption rate for "FlexAir" reward tickets. There are also "Premium" reward tickets that could give you a redemption rate nearly double the Fidelity cash rewards (tickets up to $600 value to Canada cost $350 worth of points). But you can only get them by paying a fixed number of points (e.g. 35,000 for that Canada ticket) and the ticket must have a value less than a specified amount ($600 for this ticket). You would pay 25,000 points for a domestic ticket, but the ticket could have a value no greater than $400.
(b) Car rentals - undisclosed redemption rate
(c) Hotels - undisclosed redemption rate
redemption rates up to $0.01 per point (i.e. up to the same rate as Fidelity cash)