The BankAmericard Better Balance Rewards card pays customers up to $100 annually just for making more than the minimum payment.
Cardholders will get an automatic credit of $25 each quarter when they pay more than the minimum amount due each month on their card. If they also have a checking or savings account with the bank, they will get another $5 bonus each quarter, for a total of $30 in rewards every three months. If they maintain their Bank of America accounts for a year and make all payments on time, and pay more than the minimum due, customers will earn $120 in rewards every year.
Customers can have their rewards automatically deposited into their Bank of America checking or savings account, a Merrill Lynch Cash Management account, or credited to their card statement.
Features of the Better Balance Rewards card include:
- No annual fee.
- An introductory 0% APR on purchases for the first 12 months the card account is open
- APR will be a variable 11.99% to 21.99% depending on creditworthiness after first year
- Balance transfers within 60 days also get a 0% APR for the first year
- A balance transfer fee of 3% or $10, whichever is greater.
Paying more than the minimum pays off twice
Paying more than the minimum due on credit card balances is good practice for a couple of reasons. For one thing, the more customers pay each month, the less balance they will carry over and pay interest on. But for cardholders who have balances on the same card at different interest rates – for example, a balance transfer or a cash advance amount in addition to a purchase amount – it’s even more important to pay more than the minimum due.
Here’s why: according to the Credit CARD Act of 2009, credit issuers must apply any amount over the minimum due to the balance with the highest APR first. So if a customer has a balance of $2,000 with an APR of 14.99% and a balance of $500 with an APR of 25.99%, the minimum payment will be applied to the $2,000 balance first, leaving the $500 balance to continue accruing interest at the higher rate. But if the customer pays $500 on top of the minimum balance due, that $500 must be applied to the higher APR balance, effectively wiping it out.
The Bank of America Better Balance Rewards card encourages responsible payment behavior by rewarding customers for doing something that benefits them anyway in the long run.
