After many years of using the Bank of America Premium Rewards card as my primary driver, I finally decided to close out the card and avoid the upcoming annual fee. The card’s main draw for me is the 2.62% on everyday spend with relationship status, and I’m getting that on the no-fee Unlimited Cash Rewards card.
Sure, there’s the $100/yr. travel benefit which can basically offset the $95 annual fee, and there’s the 1.5x on travel & dining along with some other perks, but I wasn’t getting enough value from that and decided it’s time to break up. (I’m also considering signing up for the Elite version of the Premium Rewards card near year-end for a potential triple-dip…)
First, I paid down the balance and cashed out all rewards on the Premium Rewards card. Then, I called in and easily reallocated most of the credit line over to my Unlimited Cash Rewards card. (There does not appear to have been any hard pull for me with the reallocation.) The BofA rep was surprised that the system allowed him to bring the credit line down under $5,000 on the premium card.
After giving a few days to let the payment settle and rewards cashout process, I called in to close out the card. I made sure to call in a few days before the annual fee posts since there’s no guarantee of getting a refund, even if you cancel soon-after it posts (though you often will get a refund). Luckily, a few weeks before the annual fee date, BofA send me a notice mail warning of an impending annual fee.
I did not ask for a retention offer, and the rep did not mention any offer.
The rep mentioned that instead of closing it out, we can product change to one of their no-fee cards and avoid the annual fee. I had somehow forgotten about product changing. She mentioned the Customized Cash Rewards card which earns 3%/5.25% on the category of your choice, up to $2,500 per quarter. And so instead of closing the Premium Rewards card, I opted to product change it to a Customized Cash Rewards card. I’ll choose the Online Shopping category and see if it turns out useful for me.
After completing the card conversion, the rep was easily able to reallocate $5,000 of the credit line from my Unlimited Cash Rewards back to the new Customized Cash Rewards card. The new credit line shows up immediately after logging back in. She mentioned that the card number might change, but the full card credit history will remain on my credit report with all of the years that the card has been open.
After completing the product change and reallocation, the rep mentioned that there’s a retention offer available for me. I was honestly confused given that she had already retained the card account. Apparently, once they saw me consider leaving they wanted to give me a spend offer to keep me happy.
The retention offer was to get $175 statement credit after spending $1,500 by December. Per the rep, the spend can be done on any single one of my BofA personal credit cards, but only on a card already open at this time. For me, that’s the Unlimited Cash Rewards card, the Travel Rewards card, and the Customized Cash Rewards card.
Easy win. I found this new kind of “retention” offer interesting. Hopefully I’ll have $1,500 of online shopping spend for my shiny new Customized Cash Rewards card which will trigger the $175 bonus, alongside the regular 5.25% earn rate.
Source: doctorofcredit.com