Bank of America Rewards: Higher Balance Requirements for Credit Card Boosts + New Monthly Credits (Coming May 2026)

(Update: BofA sent out a new e-mail that your existing members with a Preferred Rewards bonus on your credit card will be maintained at least until your annual BofA anniversary date following November 2026. So if your anniversary month is April, you’ll be good until April 2027. For new cardmembers, it starts May 2026. They also added the detail that the monthly debit card credits will apply to select “streaming and news subscription services”. )

Bank of America has a press release that their “Preferred Rewards” program is changing to “BofA Rewards” on May 27, 2026 (hat tip Bogleheads). Notable changes include the tier names, their required balances, and higher requirements for credit card rewards boosts. Here is a comparison of the old and new tiers.

Preferred Rewards Tiers (OLD; Current)

• Gold – $20,000 to < $50,000 combined balance
• Platinum – $50,000 to < $100,000 combined balance
• Platinum Honors – $100,000 to < $1,000,000 combined balance
• Diamond – $1,000,000 or more combined balance

BofA Rewards Tiers (NEW; Effective May 2026)

• Member – Less than $30,000 combined balance
• Preferred Plus – $30,000 to < $100,000 combined balance
• Preferred Honors – $100,000 to < $1,000,000 combined balance
• Premier – $1,000,000 or more combined balance

Combined balances refers to the three-month average account balance across qualifying Bank of America and Merrill accounts. Qualifying accounts include:

• Bank of America deposit accounts: 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
• 529 plans appearing on your Merrill statement
• Revocable grantor trust accounts

The big negative change is that you now need the Premier ($1,000,000+) tier to get the maximum 75% boost in credit card rewards. That’s a huge 10X increase in the balance required.

New BofA Rewards Tiers x Credit Card Rewards Boosts

• Member – Credit card rewards boost: 10%
• Preferred Plus ($30k+) – Credit card rewards boost: 25%
• Preferred Honors ($100k+) – Credit card rewards boost: 50%
• Premier ($1M+) – Credit card rewards boost: 75%

Many people have moved over stock holdings to a self-directed brokerage account at Merrill Edge in order to qualify for some of these rewards. Going from a 75% boost to 50% boost may mean going from 2.6% cash back on everything to 2.25% cash back, unless your combined balances meet the $1 million mark. A disappointing change.

A possible positive offset are new monthly credits on the higher tiers if you make certain purchases on your BofA debit card linked to your BofA checking account.

New BofA Rewards Tiers x Monthly Debit Card Credits

• Member – No subscription credits
• Preferred Plus ($30k+) – No subscription credits
• Preferred Honors ($100k+) – Up to $8 per month in statement credits for “several pre-determined subscription services” (up to $96/year).
• Premier ($1M+) – Up to $15 per month in statement credits for “several pre-determined subscription services” (up to $180/year).

BofA has not announced the eligible subscriptions yet, but hopefully it is a flexible category. This will be an important detail, and it could offset a big part of lost cashback rewards for those with lower credit card spending.

Current Preferred Rewards members will be automatically enrolled in BofA Rewards. The terms state that current Gold and Platinum tier members will initially be changed to the Preferred Plus tier, even with the new balance mismatches.