The Most Comprehensive Introduction to BofA Preferred Rewards Benefits: The New Tier Benefits Are Now Live

On May 26, 2026, this change officially took effect. The new membership tiers and benefits are now visible in accounts, and reimbursements have started.

The streaming benefit reimbursement is also live. You need to use a debit card linked to checking for purchases at merchants, and you can get up to $8 reimbursed per month. Note that this benefit must be activated!

The benefits have also been updated:

• For example, the Preferred Honors credit card now only gets a 50% bonus reward.
• Another useful benefit is Identity Monitoring, which can automatically notify you of changes on your credit report. This benefit is only available with Preferred Honors and Premier.
• Also, if you are a regular checking customer, credit cards now earn an extra 10% cash back, which is still pretty good.

Latest tiers

Bank of America (Bank of America) announced today that its customer loyalty program, "Preferred Rewards," will officially be renamed "BofA Rewards™" on or around May 26, 2026. This brand refresh is not just a name change; it also comes with major changes to membership tiers, eligibility reviews, and related benefits.

• Official page

Key changes are as follows:

• The old Platinum tier, which used to get a 75% cash-back bonus, required only $100,000 in deposits. Now, the Premier tier with a 75% bonus requires $1,000,000 in deposits; if you only have $100,000, you can only reach the Preferred tier, with just 50%.
• A new Member tier appears for deposits below $30,000, with an extra 10% cash-back bonus
• The Preferred and Premier tiers now come with additional reimbursement benefits of $8 or $15 per month

Details below:

The membership tiers have been restructured. The existing Gold, Platinum, Platinum Honors, and Diamond Honors tiers will be replaced by a completely new naming system. The new tiers are determined entirely by the average combined daily balance of qualifying deposit and investment assets over the past three months:

• Member tier: below $30,000;
• Preferred Plus tier: $30,000 to $100,000
• Preferred Honors tier: $100,000 to $1,000,000
• Premier tier: $1,000,000 or more

Existing member transition rules: on the transition date (May 26), customers enrolled in the old program will be automatically moved to the new program as follows:

• Old Gold / Platinum members → Preferred Plus tier
• Old Platinum Honors members → Preferred Honors tier
• Old Diamond Honors members → Premier tier

Credit card rewards are being improved across the board. Under the new program, eligible Bank of America credit cards will receive reward bonuses based on the customer's tier. When a purchase posts, the extra rewards will be based on the current tier.

• Member tier: extra 10% rewards
• Preferred Plus tier: extra 25% rewards
• Preferred Honors tier: extra 50% rewards
• Premier tier: extra 75% rewards

New subscription benefits are being added. For Preferred Honors and Premier members, the new program will offer a subscription fee reimbursement benefit. Customers can be reimbursed when they use a designated debit card to pay subscription charges at eligible merchants. Details have not been announced yet, and this is likely for streaming subscriptions and similar services.

• Preferred Honors tier: up to $8 reimbursed per month
• Premier tier: up to $15 reimbursed per month

Other changes

• Eligibility review updates: the new program introduces a more flexible review process. For the first 30 days after enrollment, eligibility is based on end-of-day balances, but you must meet the requirement for at least 3 business days; routine reviews calculate the average combined daily balance on the third business day of each month. Eligible customers will be moved up to a higher tier within 3 business days, but new benefits may take up to 30 days to take effect.
• Other benefit updates, loan perks: newly originated mortgages may receive varying levels of fee reductions (from $100 at the Member tier to $600 at the Honors tier), and Premier-tier customers who enroll in PayPlan automatic payments may receive an interest rate discount of up to 0.375%. Credit monitoring: the identity monitoring feature in My Credit will be available only to BofA Rewards members. Lifestyle benefits: available only to Preferred Honors and Premier members.

About Preferred Rewards

Although BofA points can't be transferred, they do have their own rewards system called BofA Preferred Rewards. However, this program is only open to people who have a certain amount of assets with BofA, with a minimum of $20,000, which is still fairly easy to reach. The biggest benefit is the credit card cash-back bonus, which can be increased by up to 1.75x, meaning a 3% cash back rate can become 5.25%. In addition, there are benefits such as loan discounts, ATM fee waivers, and investment discounts. It's still pretty worthwhile.

At the moment, Preferred Rewards has three tiers in total:

• Gold requires $20,000-$50,000 in assets, and credit card cash back gets a 25% bonus
• Platinum requires $50,000-$100,000 in assets, and credit card cash back gets a 50% bonus
• Platinum Honors requires more than $100,000 in assets, and credit card cash back gets a 75% bonus

Qualification requirements

The only requirement for all three tiers is the total amount of assets at BofA. Your history, credit score, number of credit cards, and so on do not matter. In other words, if you have enough money parked there, you can upgrade—simple and straightforward. There are two key terms here: assets and total amount. Let's go through them one by one.

Total amount

The total amount requirement does not mean you have to stay within the range at every moment. Instead, BofA uses its own three-month rolling calculation. The official explanation is as follows:

This number reflects the three-month combined average daily balance in your eligible Bank of America deposit and/or Merrill investment accounts. It's calculated based on your average daily balance for a period of three calendar months. Your program balance is updated each calendar month and determines your Preferred Rewards eligibility and benefits. Visit our learning center for more information.

Simply put, it is the average of each month's average daily balance over three months. You need to reach a certain amount. The official example is essentially adding the three months together and dividing by 3.

As for how each month's average daily balance is calculated, the industry standard is to add up the balance at the close of each day and divide by the number of days in the month. BofA should calculate this automatically for checking, savings, and investment accounts.

Assets

From an asset perspective, the scope is actually fairly broad: all assets related to BofA and Merrill investment accounts count. Note that they must be Personal Accounts; business accounts are not counted. In addition, assets in DP 401(k) accounts are not included in total assets. The official terms are as follows

You maintain your Preferred Rewards status if you have an active, eligible Bank of America® personal checking account and maintain a qualifying balance of at least $20,000 for the Gold tier, $50,000 for the Platinum tier, or $100,000 for the Platinum Honors tier in your combined qualifying Bank of America deposit accounts (such as checking, savings, certificate of deposit) and/or your Merrill investment accounts (such as Cash Management Accounts, 529 Plans) .

• Deposit accounts: Checking, Bank of America Advantage Banking, savings, money market savings, CD and IRA accounts
• Merrill^® investment accounts, such as the Cash Management Account (CMA) and IRA accounts^Footnote1
• 529 plans appearing on your Merrill^® statement^Footnote2
• Revocable grantor trust accounts

A quick explanation of a few commonly used ones

• BofA Checking: This is the one most people use.
• BofA Savings: The current APY is 0.01%; even at the highest Platinum Honors tier, it's only 0.05%.
• Certificate of deposit: A CD, a type of time deposit. From what I found, the APY also seems to be 0.01%.
• Merrill Edge: An investment account where you can buy stocks and ETFs with zero commission.
• 529 Plan: A tax-advantaged U.S. investment vehicle designed to encourage saving for a designated beneficiary's future qualified higher education expenses.

If you want to reach the highest tier, keeping $100,000 in cash in checking or savings is still not very efficient. A 529 Plan is a relatively low-risk investment option, and you can also open a Merrill Edge account and buy some lower-risk ETFs. If you already invest in stocks, gradually moving money into Merrill Edge is also a good option, since it's basically like getting 75% extra cash back from your credit card for free.

It is worth noting that the account-opening requirements for Merrill Edge are fairly strict. In the past, online account opening required U.S. citizens or green card holders, but recent user feedback shows that work visas such as H-1B may also be eligible to apply, while student visas still are not.

How it takes effect

Since BofA assets are calculated on a three-month rolling basis, for new users, if your money has just entered BofA, you generally need to wait three months before your balance can start being used to calculate your tier. If you are an existing user, in theory, if you have deposited enough, you can start earning the corresponding tier after one month. Joining is also very simple; once you meet the requirements, you can do it online.

• BofA Preferred Rewards enrollment link

What if you no longer meet the requirements later?

If you previously met the requirements for any tier and received the corresponding membership, BofA says that tier can be kept for one year plus three months. After you spend three months meeting the requirement, you can move all your money out and still keep the premium membership for a year and three months, along with the associated benefits.

No need to worry if your balances dip temporarily, you'll keep your Preferred Rewards program status for at least a full year. If after a year you no longer meet the balance requirement, you'll have a three-month grace period. If you haven’t met the balance requirement after three months, you'll be moved to a lower tier or lose your Preferred Rewards benefits.

We'll reinstate your Preferred Rewards status if you meet the requirements at a later date.

Of course, after that you can move the money back for another three months and keep the membership going, renewing it again.

Benefits overview

BofA positions Preferred Rewards very comprehensively, with a bit of everything: credit cards, ATMs, waived monthly fees, lower rates, loan discounts, and more. If you already like BofA and plan to use its products or take out loans, this premium membership is well worth getting.

Credit card benefits

For us, the credit card benefits are probably the most valuable, since they can provide up to 75% extra rewards. This 75% doesn't apply only to the traditional 1x portion; it applies to all rewards you earn on spending. For example, if your BofA Customized Rewards offers 3% cash back on online shopping, then with the 75% bonus it becomes 3% * (1 + 75%) = 5.25% cash back. Unfortunately, sign-up bonuses are not included in the extra bonus coverage.

The Preferred Rewards bonus for eligible cash rewards credit cards will be applied after all base and bonus cash rewards have been calculated on a purchase. For example, a $100 purchase that earns 3% ($3.00) will actually earn $3.75, $4.50 or $5.25 based on your tier when the purchase posts to your account. For all other eligible card types, a purchase that earns 100 base points will actually earn 125, 150 or 175 points, based on your tier when the purchase posts to your account. The Preferred Rewards bonus is not applied to any account opening bonus, if applicable

The cards eligible for this extra cash-back bonus are fairly broad. Basically, most of BofA's own cash-back cards and points cards qualify, such as Unlimited Cash Rewards, Customized Cash Rewards, Travel Rewards and Premium Rewards, which we'll cover in detail in the next section. Here are the ones that do NOT qualify:

• Airline, hotel, and railroad co-branded cards: such as Alaska, Air France KLM, Allegiant World Mastercard, Amtrak Guest Rewards, and others
• Cards with no cash back: Better Balance Rewards
• Business credit cards

Other benefits

Some other discount benefits can also be useful for people who need them, such as no-fee ATM withdrawals nationwide and loan discounts.

Credit card analysis

With the maximum 75% rewards bonus, the cards below all perform quite well!

BofA Customized Cash

• After the maximum bonus, one category of your choice among online shopping, travel, drugstores, home improvement, gas, or dining earns 5.25% cash back; grocery stores and wholesale clubs earn 3.5%; everything else earns 1.75%. This can work as a one-card setup, and the rates are all pretty solid.

BofA Travel Rewards

• After the maximum bonus, all purchases earn 2.625% cash back, easily beating the current best flat-rate card at 2% (Double Cash and the like). So cards below 2.5% cash back are not even worth considering.
• However, points can only be redeemed for travel purchases.

BofA Unlimited Cash Rewards

• After the maximum bonus, all purchases earn 2.625% cash back, easily beating the current best flat-rate card at 2% (Double Cash and the like). So cards below 2.5% cash back are not even worth considering.
• Rewards can be redeemed directly for cash! That makes it a bit more convenient than Travel Rewards.

BofA Premium Rewards

• After the maximum bonus, travel and dining purchases earn 3.5%; everything else earns 2.625%, giving you a higher rate on dining and travel.
• Although it has an annual fee, the reimbursement is easy to handle.

Business version of Preferred Rewards

Actually, BofA also has a fully symmetrical business version of Preferred Rewards, with requirements and benefits that are pretty much the same as the personal version. I won’t repeat the details here; here’s the summary below:

• Tier: Gold/Platinum/Platinum Honors require $20,000-$50,000 / $50,000-$100,000 / $100,000 in business account assets
• Requirement: Calculated on a rolling three-month basis; if you no longer meet it, the status expires after 15 months
• Benefits: 25%/50%/75% bonus cash-back rewards on business credit cards, plus discounts on a variety of business-related services, loans, investments, and ATM fees
• Business Preferred Rewards info link

My Take

For users who are all-in on the BofA ecosystem, this benefit is pretty solid. Most of BofA’s cash-back cards have no annual fee, and the earning categories are generally strong. While the welcome bonuses are a bit lower than what you’ll find at some other banks, these cards are very rewarding to keep long term. If you can reach Platinum Honors and get the 75% bonus cash-back boost, many BofA cards instantly become must-haves. For anyone who doesn’t want to deal with mileage redemptions, this is absolutely the best choice.