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.
I got my PR last year in Aug and I got some expenses coming up. Called the 866-866-2059 number mentioned. I asked for procedure to close the card and then asked if there is any retention offer available. He said yes, get $175 after 1500 spend in 90 days. I accepted it. Thank you, below data points are much helpful.
Tried to product change my PR to a CCR but wasn’t successful. Waited until a few days past the one year mark of having the card, then tried calling the main number. The rep was able to transer some of my credit limit to another card on my request, but said she couldn’t do the product change. She gave me the (866-866-2059) number mentioned below and said the line is available on weekdays and after 8 a.m. CT on Saturdays. Called in on Saturday but they still said they couldn’t help. My annual fee should post March 31, so I wait and try calling in again April.
Tried calling again today and still no product change options. Maybe having the statement post will trigger something, so I’ll try calling in again later after that happens.
Called again today after statement with annual fee posted. Was told again that there are no product change options. Will probably call again in a few days and cancel the card if no product change option is available.
Two more calls didn’t prompt an ability to product change. Wasn’t offered a retention off either when I asked to cancel, but didn’t directly ask for it. The rep was able to reduce my credit limit to $200 at my request, then cancel the card. So now at least the clock is ticking on when I can next churn the card, and I should have some extra available credit if I decide to apply for the premium Alaska card launching this summer.
@S.C where you able to convert at all?
Called in today for retention offer, and the rep said that there was no offer on my account despite being a Platinum Honors member. Converted PR to Travel Rewards (told me this was the only option)
Just converted my Premium reward card to the Customized cash reward card. There is no retention offer for me.
Can confirm that the $175 after $1500 spend retention offer is still active on BofA premium rewards. I declined it since the BofA 24 mo language is based on holding the card and not date of SUB, so I wanted to start the clock running on being eligible for a new SUB.
i have a weird experience on the retention offer…
nov 2024: called to cancel and got a retention offer: spend $1500 within 3 months to get a $175 cashback; rep also said i could pc at the same time to a fee-free card and still qualify for the offer. i’d never heard of this before but thought it was great so i took both.
feb 2024: fast forward to now, after meeting the spend requirement i called them again to check on the offer, but was told supposedly it’s gone because a product change invalidates it (which would make sense but the original rep definitely did insist it would work both ways, and that was the only reason i actually put the spend on it). i escalated it up to a supervisor but they couldn’t do anything since it was a diff department that closed already so i’d have to call back another day when they’re open… and even then it doesn’t seem like i can get much done, since this supervisor didn’t seem hopeful to get me any credit back…
i guess maybe this is partially my fault and that i should have called to confirm the offer again before putting spend on it, but it’s pretty ridiculous to be told one thing and find out it’s different only after i spent the money on it.
i was about to call back again today but then the $175 showed up in my account lol… i guess the offer did apply as the november rep said regardless of the february rep + supervisor insisting on it disappearing
During the disclosure they read to you during the retention offer, they say: “Allow 8-12weeks to see credit after meeting requirement”
regardless of when i got the credit, i mainly wanted to check that i fulfilled the requirements – usually a customer service rep can provide that information since they can see extra information us as customers cannot
my issue was that the later rep said the offer was invalidated, which contracted the information the first rep gave me. i did end up get the credit though and it did not take 8-12 weeks, so it worked out in the end and only caused me some undue stress 😂
I called the “Advanced Client Solutions team” from the DP’s below and said I was considering closing this card… Super helpful agents got me a promotional offer on this card of $175 for spending $1500 within the next 3 months. Ive previously gotten a sign up bonus on this card and I was only looking to offset the AF and keep it so this works well for me
Called the 866-866-2059 number mentioned by
Gadget 🕵️♂️ Bank Bonus Geek 🔗 below, and they managed to convert an old UCR–>CCR. I’ve tried before (a while ago) at the regular number. Just said I was considering closing it, and I was wondering if it could be converted instead. No retention offer was mentioned but I didn’t ask.
The rep did ask (very nicely) why I closed a checking account I’d had with them — I told them it was a few years ago and I didn’t remember — and if I’d be interested in opening one again.
I called the regular number yesterday and was told no offers to PC. Called the Advanced Client Solutions team (mentioned by Gadget below) today and was told the same thing. My annual fee is due in about 40 days, so I will try again after the letter is generated. Interestingly, the Advanced Client Solutions rep told me they can waive the fee up to 60 days after it is applied (versus the 30 days which is in the annual fee letter P2 recently received). Don’t know if I trust that though.
The letter actually says, “within 30 days of the mailing of the statement on which your Annual Fee is billed”. So, it’s 30 days from the statement closing date. And if the fee posts at the beginning of the statement then you do have almost 60 days. Maybe that’s what they meant.
Who knows what they meant (I ended up closing before the annual fee posted so I did not test the 60 days), but date of the annual fee to the end of the next statement would’ve only been about 38 days for me.
called to check for retention offer and got 175 credit for 1500 spend in 3 months