My Thoughts On the Bank of America 2.62% Card Nerf

Everyone likes to grumble about the recent news of Bank of America ending the easy-ish access to their 2.62% card. Since I’m a blogger I get to do so publicly. 

• Original Post: Bank of America Announces Negative Changes To Preferred Rewards
• Follow-up Post: Existing Bank of America Relationship Customers Will Keep Status Longer Than Expected (Into 2028 For Some)
• Key Link: Bank of America Rewards

Currently, by holding $100k in a brokerage/IRA with Merrill you can get unlimited 2.625% cashback everywhere. Starting “on or about May 26, 2026”, the program will be changing whereby you’ll need $1m in assets to get the 75% boost which gives the 2.62% rate. 

I’ve been using my 2.62% card for many years now and love the simplicity. Since the Smartly card came out I’ve been putting most spend on that card, but I still use the BofA cards for tax and insurance payments or when the $10k is maxed out on Smartly. 

Some key details that stand out to me, mostly discussed in our original post, but wanted to highlight:

• We get grandfathered for 6 months from when the program change goes into effect. So basically, we keep the 2.62% until around November 26, 2026.
• Even beyond November, the cards will still earn 2.25%. Since everything is already set up for me, I might just keep it for the 2.25%. One thing about the BofA cards: they just work. No hiccups or denials or issues. And it’s still better than a flat 2% card. However, some people might prefer earning 2x Membership Rewards points or some other card setup instead.
• The 3% cards on up to $2,500 per quarter (select categories) will go from being 5.25% down to 4.5%. Personally, I do have one of those cards but don’t use it much since most regular spend goes on the Smartly 4% card for me. 
• There is an $8 monthly credit being added for the $100k tier for subscriptions. You’ll have to charge the subscription to your debit card, not a credit card. We’ll have to wait and see which subscriptions count.
  Maybe I’ll order a debit card and get a subscription set up there. It is a pain to juggle a new card and to keep a small balance in the checking account to cover the subscription cost, but maybe worth it. 
• There is still a once-per-year lock on the relationship tier. And so you can move $1m funds into BofA, get status, and then move funds out for a year – if you have the assets and find the hassle worthwhile. (Some people misread the terms to imply there is no one-year lock-in anymore, but the terms are still clearly there. It’s just upgrading that changes monthly, downgrading still has the year lock-in.  “No need to worry if your balances dip temporarily — you’ll retain your BofA Rewards tier until your next anniversary date. If you no longer meet the balance requirement for your tier at your annual review, we’ll notify you and provide a 3-month grace period to increase your eligible balances. If you haven’t met the minimum balance requirement for your tier after those 3 months, you’ll be moved to a lower tier.” I’m not sure exactly how the anniversary thing is calculated, but it might be possible to get 12 months or 15 months per go-round.)
• The business version of BofA Rewards still has the $100k tier for 2.62%. Someone with a business and with $100k cash can simply put $100k in the business brokerage and buy SGOV. But it’s harder to manage when moving over investments since IRAs won’t work, and moving regular investments would require selling/rebuying which will create a taxable event. I’m not sure if 401k is an option for this. 
  I’d consider trying to do the business version if it was a long term setup. It is possible it could remain for many years, but difficult to know. (Update: looks like there might be changes coming to the business version as well, per the press release.)