Just a hypothetical musing that I would put in the new weekly thread but wouldn't get replies because the mods won't pin it.
Sometimes I want to give up my two CCRs and just put everything on the Premium Rewards. My CCRs do most of the work – groceries, gas, alcohol and everything online – around $7500/year at 5.25%. What bugs me most is that I use the Premium Rewards so little, around $250/month, that I only hit the 2500 point minimum 3 or 4 times per year.
The simplicity seems nice, but giving up half the cash back would be tough. On the plus side, my apartment charges a flat fee on rent, so I'll be putting 1.5 months of rent every other month on my Premium Rewards since I quit Bilt.
Has anyone given up their CCR(s) and gone all in on the PR/PRE, or considered doing it?
byu/mr-french-tickler inCreditCards
Posted by mr-french-tickler
5 Comments
I have Diamond Honors with BoA and exclusively use my PRE. I do not use any other BoA cards. I do use a few AmEx cards though.
Correct me if I’m wrong here, but, UCR has no minimum redemption amount right?
Product changing from a no FTF BofA card to any other retains the no FTF benefit. So just PC from PR to UCR. No annual fee, no annual credits, no minimum points redemption.
Years ago, when I first moved assets to BofA I got a PR (no PRE existed then) and a CCR. Less than a year later, I was at a big family dinner for combined birthdays and we were about 1/2 way through the quarterly cap, so I handed my red CCR card to my wife and said, put $1,250 on the red card, and the rest on the grey card. (PR). She gave me a look, and I went home and cancelled the CCR the next day. Moved the line to my PR, which later became the PRE.
Liberating. Others mileage may vary, and I respect the online category, groceries, etc. that others capture.
Notes: I have high spend, so the caps are sort of a killer. The nerf will also not impact me.
Good luck, it is a tough decision, and I am older so trying to simplify to “good enough.”
Unless you’re a millionaire, the BofA rewards system is about to get slightly less valuable. And unfortunately, that small amount less is enough to make it start to compare unfavourably to other available options.
To answer your broader question, though: if you value simplicity and spend enough money to exceed the caps on your CCR(s), then I can understand wanting to move to the PRE instead, especially if you are able to that advantage of the 20% boost for redeeming in the travel portal.
I’ve never been able to leave the optimization instinct behind, so rather than tinker with my portfolio, I play the CCR game (I have 3).
Scoring 5.25% is not going to change my financial picture, but it’s fun to score a win, however small.
Only you can decide if this is worth it. I can see the PR being a single card set up in my future if I ever get tired of the game.