Bank of America's 75% rewards boost now needs $1M in assets, up from $100k
Preferred Rewards became BofA Rewards on 27 May 2026. The 75% credit card earnings boost moved to a new $1M tier, and the $100k to $1M band drops from 75% to 50%.
Bank of America's rewards multiplier was the quiet best deal in US cashback: park $100,000 with the bank and every card earned 75% more, forever, on everything. On 27 May 2026 Preferred Rewards became BofA Rewards, and that 75% moved up a tier it takes ten times the assets to reach.
What changed
| Tier | Assets held at BofA | Card earnings boost |
|---|---|---|
| Member | under $30k | 10% |
| Preferred Plus | $30k to $100k | 25% |
| Preferred Honors | $100k to $1M | 50% |
| Premier | $1M and up | 75% |
The tier names are new; the number that matters is the last column. The 75% boost previously started at $100,000. It now starts at $1,000,000. Everyone in the $100k to $1M band, the old Platinum Honors tier and by far the most populated one, drops from 75% to 50%.
What it costs in cents
The boost is a multiplier on the card's base rate, so the damage scales with how much you were earning:
| Card base rate | Old effective (75%) | New effective (50%) |
|---|---|---|
| 1.5% | 2.625% | 2.25% |
| 2% | 3.5% | 3% |
| 3% | 5.25% | 4.5% |
On $40,000 a year of spend at a flat 1.5% card, that is a drop from $1,050 to $900. The gap widens on the higher category rates, which is exactly where BofA holders concentrated their spend to exploit the multiplier.
You probably have longer than you think
Existing members keep their current benefits until three months after their next anniversary following November 2026. For most people that pushes the actual cut into late 2027. It is a genuinely long runway, and it is also how a program change stops feeling like news before it arrives.
Two additions come with the restructure. Members in the $100k to $1M band get up to $8 a month in streaming and subscription credits, and the top band gets $15 a month.
Set that against the table above: on a moderate spender the lost boost runs to well over a hundred dollars a year. The credits are a partial offset, not a replacement, and they only pay out if you already subscribe to something on the eligible list.
What to do
The BofA proposition was never the cards, it was the multiplier; the cards are ordinary without it. At 50%, a 1.5% flat card lands at 2.25%, which several no-annual-fee cards match without asking you to move six figures of assets. Two honest options: if you were holding assets at BofA mainly to feed the boost, the case for that is now materially weaker, and if you were near the top of the old tier, check whether the effort of reaching $1M is worth 25 percentage points of boost.
Run your real spend through Polo Match and see whether a flat-rate card without an asset requirement beats your boosted BofA rate now. If you are weighing whether the moved assets are worth it, price both sides before you decide.
Sources
Every claim on this page is backed by a primary or reputable source.
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