(Live 5/27) Bank of America Announces Negative Changes To Preferred Rewards

Update 5/27/26: Bank of America Preferred Rewards Streaming Credits ($8-$15) At Paramount, Sirius, WSJ, Economist

Update 5/25/26: Originally this was going to be live 5/25, that has been changed to 5/27 when clicking through on app. 

Update 2/19/26: Two small additional tidbit based on the official press release:

• “Bank of America clients enrolled in Preferred Rewards for Business will remain in their current program with additional details coming soon.” 
• “Preferred Honors and Premier tier members can also get reimbursed for popular subscriptions from top streaming, entertainment, and news services.” We still don’t have the full details. 
• Also check out this follow up post: Existing Bank of America Relationship Customers Will Keep Status Longer Than Expected (Into 2028 For Some)

Original Post 2/17/26: 

Bank of America announced that reward tiers names would be changing in May, but not what the changes were. Then they announced that new incentives for people with high balances would be announced. 

We finally have details of the changes and it’s not good news. Here is what you need to know (% in brackets indicates credit card bonus):

• Current tiers:
  • No tier: $0-$19,999 (10% with active checking account)
  • Gold – $20k-$49.99k (25%)
  • Platinum – $50k-$99.99k (50%)
  • Platinum Honors – $100k-$999.99k (75%)
  • Diamond – $1m+ (75%)
• New tiers:
  • Member – $0-$29.99k (10%)
  • Preferred Plus – $30k-$99.99k (25%)
  • Preferred Honors – $100k-$999.99k (50%)
  • Premier – $1m+ (75%)

Main downgrade is earning the 75% credit card bonus now requires $1,000,000 in funds, previously that was only $100,000. Was really hoping we wouldn’t see this program nerfed this badly. It’s hard to justify keeping that much invested with Bank of America especially when you consider the opportunity cost of chasing brokerage bonuses. 

According to the fine print the business program is not being nerfed (at least not yet). Additionally current customers will keep their benefits for at least six months after the changes go live in May, 2026. 

Positive Changes

There is some good news though with a new subscription credit being added.

• Preferred Honors – $100k-$999.99k ($8 monthly credit)
• Premier – $1m+ ($15 monthly credit)

Charges must be made to debit card, list of eligible merchants isn’t available. 

• Related: My Thoughts On the Bank of America 2.62% Card Nerf