I spent a good amount of time looking at numbers and figuring out how to deal with the post USBAR/Smartly fallout. Since I joined the sub, people have talked about the 2.625% cashback with BoA (that you can get with a couple different cards). USBAR itself was of course talked about nonstop, same with the Venture X, the Chase ecosystem, etc.
But I find the PRE gets mentioned very little – maybe part of why the PRE wasn't discussed much was being overshadowed by USBAR for so many people. That was probably the case for me. They're both premium cards, non-zero EAF, both simultaneously had many travel related benefits but were cashback cards rather than transfer.
Or maybe it's because people tend to assume the worst of travel portals. But every data point I have of people who actually have the card say it's basically guaranteed to be able to get flights, in portal at the same price. You either do it online or call the concierge.
Given that, we're left with:
- $100 EAF
- 3.28% blanket
- 4.38% travel and dining
If we compare to a flat 2.625%, the EAF is paid for by spending ~$5700 on travel/dining, or ~$15K of non-travel dining, or some combination thereof. That's not a lot of spend for many people – if you spend enough to be annoyed by caps on category cards for example then you easily get value on this. And I haven't even touched some of the other minor benefits – priority pass, infinite, etc. You could get this on other cards obviously, but it's very convenient having your top earning card also handle these things for you instead of having to get more and more cards.
Obviously this isn't a card for everyone, or even everyone who held USBAR. You need the 100K with BoA, for starters. If you never travel, there's zero value over the PR. If your spend is low, then again, you won't be able to get value. But a lot of the people who prized USBAR did so in part because it was simple, and often because their spend was high enough that dealing with category cards became annoying. Definitely for me, trying to manage CCRs for dining and travel would be a headache because of the caps.
I hope the card gets mentioned a bit more as an option – I really think it's now one of the top cash back options. I'd encourage BoA people, and ex-USBAR people to at least consider the card – if you have the capital, the spend, and travel at least once per year, there's at least a decent chance this card could be interesting to you.
Is the Premium Rewards Elite a bit underdiscussed/underappreciated? With USBAR gone it's a good time to highlight it
byu/quicknir inCreditCards
Posted by quicknir
15 Comments
Alternate non-travel portal setup:
AmEx Platinum for flights
BoA PR for everything else.
Where booking via a portal is more troublesome is for cases where something goes wrong.
I did use the BofA portal for simple roundtrip direct flights, but since there weren’t any issues (like flight being cancelled for example), I can’t say how good BofA would be when handling such cases.
In my case the price was identical as booking directly with the airline (United), and from what I’ve observed from checking the portal, that is usually the case.
I think for most people getting a Strata card, the Premier is a better fit. And neither are great without a Double Cash for non category spend.
I don’t like the travel portal too much. I was able to use it for J class trip x5 for the 20% off, but it felt somewhat restrictive/limited. I think the PR card for 95 AF is a good one to use.
Using your EAF of $100, your break even on redeeming through the portal is 100÷.0025=40,000
So as long as you’re redeeming ≥40,000 points each year and every year you do come out ahead vs. the regular Premium Rewards.
If someone redeems every other year the break even becomes 80,000
Nah most people just don’t have 50k to park at ML to enjoy the benefits.
I have it and have been enjoying it. Fits my lifestyle perfectly as a catch all with platinum honors
Your effective AF is a bit high.
You get points on the $450 credit spend. If you do it right and buy the travel bank on the annual points day, this ends up maxing out around $20, $14 if you don’t do the points day thing.
There’s also the credit for precheck which should knock another $20/year off the AF (I’m assuming you fly enough to justify wanting the card in the first place).
You also didn’t mention the four PP subs with restaurant benefits that can be assigned to anybody not just cardholders.
It basically works out to where if you redeem for at least one flight a year it’s worth it.
Probably because of the demographic of the sub.
PRE is best if you’re able to have 100k in investable assets and have kids.
If you dont have at least 50k, youre better off with any other 2% catchall card
If you dont have kids, you are better off with UR/MR/TYP getting 3 cpp flying business class on the third Tuesday in January to Reykjavik.
With kids, you’re not getting those amazing transfers, plus you have a ton of non category spend from tuition to activities, doctors visits, etc. so its really the best option.
Also a family of 4 gets $112 credit on their PP restaurant bill which is great!
To me the problem with the PRE is that it’s not really any better than the PR unless you use a bunch of PP restaurants.
Having increased redemptions in a portal when so many hate portals is dumb
It’s given the proper attention and most card nerds know about it but we don’t have $50k+ to throw around to make it viable. Bank of America as whole is the credit card end game for sure
For me personally, the real gem of the USBAR was that I could buy a flight directly from anyone for 4.5%, no portal needed.
I’ve just had too many headaches with portal customer service across multiple lenders over the years.
So while 3.5 and 2.625% are good numbers, for my purposes, it’s still a far cry from 4.5%.
It’s underutilized because it earns cash back not points, and people here are obsessed with transferrable points.
Those are great if you only use them for luxury hotels and international first/business, but the typical domestic economy only traveler is better off with a simple cash back card like this
Disclaimer I have both USBAR and now switching to PRE
I think the most annoying thing about this card is it competes poorly with CCR for dining. You know you should use this card so it justifies the $100 EAF but then you feel bad cuz u are leaving 1.25% on the table by not using CCR instead.
It is similar with travel but less so since CCR doesn’t offer travel protection.
The $300 incidental credit is kinda meh compared to cards that straight up allow flights.