We recently saw the launch of Atmos Rewards, the new loyalty program of Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines. This includes changes to the credit card portfolio, including an all-new premium credit card. Well, all of these cards are actually even more generous than we thought.
Forget about earning 3x points on all foreign purchases… how does 3.3x points sound, instead? This is all almost sounding too good to be true, no?
In this post:
It’s time to open a Bank of America checking account!
If you look at the applications of the three co-branded Atmos Rewards and Bank of America credit cards, you’ll see mention of a 10% rewards bonus.
On the two personal versions of the card, the Atmos™ Rewards Ascent Visa Signature® Credit Card (review) and Atmos™ Rewards Summit Visa Infinite® Credit Card (review), you’ll see the following marketing bullet:
Earn a 10% rewards bonus on all points earned from card purchases if you have an eligible Bank of America account.
Meanwhile on the business version of the card, the Atmos™ Rewards Visa Signature® Business Card (review), you’ll see the following marketing bullet:
Earn a 10% rewards bonus on all points earned from card purchases if your company has an eligible Bank of America small business account.
I’ve written in the past about the Bank of America Preferred Rewards program, which offers bonus credit card rewards for having a certain amount in assets with the bank. However, that doesn’t apply to co-branded cards. What’s being offered on the co-branded Atmos Rewards credit cards is different, as simply having an open checking account unlocks this bonus.
For the two personal cards, the Atmos Rewards Ascent Card and Atmos Rewards Summit Card, the requirement is to have an active qualifying consumer (non-business) checking, savings, or CD account, with Bank of America, or an investment account with Merrill.
In order to qualify, the Bank of America account must have a deposit or withdrawal within 90 days, while the Merrill account must maintain an average daily balance greater than $0. Note that upon opening a new qualifying account, it could take up to 60 days to begin earning the relationship bonus points.
For the business card, the Atmos Rewards Business Card, the requirements are virtually identical, except you need a business account rather than a personal account.
While I’ve already applied for the Atmos Rewards Summit Card, I haven’t yet signed up for a Bank of America account that would trigger the 10% bonus. So if anyone has any experience or thoughts as to the easiest way to do this, I sure would appreciate it (and I imagine many others in the OMAAT community would as well)!
Practical implications of Bank of America 10% bonus
If you have an eligible Bank of America account, you earn a 10% bonus on the rewards earned for your spending (meaning the points earned from the welcome offer won’t get a 10% bonus). However, it’s better than you might expect (and I’ve confirmed this with Alaska contacts).
You don’t just get a 10% bonus on the points earned from base spending, but instead, you get a 10% bonus on the bonus categories as well. For example, the Atmos Rewards Summit Card offers 3x points on all foreign purchases, on dining, and on Alaska and Hawaiian purchases. This means that those purchases would actually earn 3.3x points. That’s… really, really good.
If you were eligible for the 10% bonus, spending $60,000 on foreign purchases on the Atmos Rewards Summit Card would earn you 198,00 Atmos Rewards points, a 100,000-point Global Companion Award, and 30,000 status points. Ugh… as in, Alaska is making it impossible not to switch loyalty.
Bottom line
The three Atmos Rewards credit cards offer a 10% relationship bonus on points earned from spending if you have an eligible Bank of America account. This doesn’t require depositing some massive amount of money, but even a basic checking account qualifies.
The Atmos Rewards Summit Card was looking pretty compelling already, but it’s even more compelling when you consider that you can ultimately earn 3.3x points on foreign purchases, dining, and Alaska and Hawaiian spending, plus 1.3x points on everyday spending.
What do yo make of this Bank of America 10% relationship bonus?
Thank you for covering this - details on their sites were pretty scant. (Opening a brokerage now.)
You can open an Advantage Savings account and park $500 in there. I did that two years ago and always get the bonus. Requires zero management.
Note though that I only ever get bonus miles equivalent to 10% of the dollar spend, not on top of the category bonuses. If I spend $1500 in a cycle, I get whatever the appropriate base and bonus amount is for that, and a separate line item of...
You can open an Advantage Savings account and park $500 in there. I did that two years ago and always get the bonus. Requires zero management.
Note though that I only ever get bonus miles equivalent to 10% of the dollar spend, not on top of the category bonuses. If I spend $1500 in a cycle, I get whatever the appropriate base and bonus amount is for that, and a separate line item of 150 miles for "relationship bonus". If that $1500 is spent on Alaska purchases earning 3x I still only get 150 bonus miles. I don't like it, but that's the way it is.
I've long had a Merrill Roth IRA with a balance of $0.03 (it recently grew to $0.04 from the interest), qualifying me for the 10% bonus. It's unclear to me if someone could open a new account with this amount of $ and still qualify, but there's no fees attached to it.
Does this include the 3x points for rent through Bilt; would that also be 3.3x?
Probably not, as those points are coming from Bilt and not from this card.
BOA has an offer to earn $500 with $10000 in direct deposits within 90 days on new accounts. Helps defray the opportunity cost. Thanks for the great coverage on this Ben!
Unless someone can show me a better plan, I'll open a Merrill Lynch investment account and put a tiny amount into the TMCXX (BlackRock Liquidity Funds TempCash) money market fund. If I'm reading the terms correctly, this can be done with as little as $1 in the account and will trigger the 10% boost, though I'll probably do a bit more.
I don't want to use a BoA savings account with their puny APY...
Unless someone can show me a better plan, I'll open a Merrill Lynch investment account and put a tiny amount into the TMCXX (BlackRock Liquidity Funds TempCash) money market fund. If I'm reading the terms correctly, this can be done with as little as $1 in the account and will trigger the 10% boost, though I'll probably do a bit more.
I don't want to use a BoA savings account with their puny APY and $1,500 minimums, and I also don't want to make my direct deposit go to them. A CD could work, but would require manually rolling over every time it matures. The money market is set and forget forever, has the barest minimum fees, and I don't lose out on my money earning higher interest somewhere else.
This is the way to go! FYI it looks like you can also transfer single shares of equities from other brokerage firms if you want to go that route. Anything >$0 will fulfill the T&Cs.
That is essentially what I did a few months ago. Getting my bonus every month.
Here is the fine print from the Terms and Conditions of the Summit Card:
Relationship Bonus Points: If the Primary Cardholder or Joint Cardholder has a Qualifying Account with us, a 10% bonus will be added to the points earned with each $1 spent on Net Purchases. An active Qualifying Account is an open consumer (non-business) checking, savings or CD account with Bank of America N.A. or an investment account with Merrill that maintains an...
Here is the fine print from the Terms and Conditions of the Summit Card:
Relationship Bonus Points: If the Primary Cardholder or Joint Cardholder has a Qualifying Account with us, a 10% bonus will be added to the points earned with each $1 spent on Net Purchases. An active Qualifying Account is an open consumer (non-business) checking, savings or CD account with Bank of America N.A. or an investment account with Merrill that maintains an average daily balance greater than $0 or a Bank of America checking or savings account that has had a deposit or withdrawal within 90 days. Balances are reviewed at the end of every month to determine if qualifications were met. For cardholders with a Qualifying Account all Net Purchases made with your card on or after the fifth business day of the current month through the fifth business day of the following month will earn the Relationship Bonus Points. Upon opening a new Qualifying Account, it may take up to 60 days to begin earning the Relationship Bonus Points.
Based on that: Open a savings account, set up a recurring transfer to it from your other bank every 30 days to get from $100 to $500. Then reduce deposits to $10 a month or something to stay good.
Easiest to just open a Merrill account, put a little in it, such as in a money market equivalent money market account, and forget about it. Also it can give you another ATM card for travel.
On the BofAsavings account route: $500 in near zero interest limbo, it seems (per the details on their personal account fees) you are waived the maint fee for first six months. Open with $100, then just add another $400 by the six month point. That cuts down the opportunity cost by about 40% in year one. Now we are talking around $14 for year one.
How do you know if your BOA checking or savings or Merrill account is linked properly and you will earn the 10% bonus? is there some kind of indicator?
You can link them when logged into the BOA accounts page. It should provide a login to Merrill. After that they should then both show on the accounts page.
Looks like the simplest option might be a savings account, which appears to be a $500 minimum to avoid any fees. This pays nearly zero interest, so if the opportunity cost is, say, 4% (perhaps the rate of a better savings account elsewhere), then this would effectively cost $20/yr.
Looks like you could also do a CD, their rates aren't the best but it looks like a 6- or 7-month is around 4%. Just have...
Looks like the simplest option might be a savings account, which appears to be a $500 minimum to avoid any fees. This pays nearly zero interest, so if the opportunity cost is, say, 4% (perhaps the rate of a better savings account elsewhere), then this would effectively cost $20/yr.
Looks like you could also do a CD, their rates aren't the best but it looks like a 6- or 7-month is around 4%. Just have to remember to do something with it at the end of the term, or it renews into one that pays nearly zero.
How do you have a deposit or withdrawal to a CD account (it needs to stay locked for years)
They have 3-month and other short maturities.
Or, open a ML brokerage account and just have a money market fund that earns 4% and is daily liquid.
Exiciting! My BofA account I've had since college is finally good for something other than basic banking!
Looks like I know where most of my CC spend will be going this coming year now. Sorry Aeroplan MC - you got surpassed!
Bank of America remains one of the most expensive places to bank. I can’t imagine signing up for that.
@ CF Frost -- And that's one of the reasons I'm asking about the best way to go about opening an account with minimal effort. :-) It seems a regular checking account has the $14 monthly fee waived if you maintain at least a $1,500 balance? Or you're just saying ATM withdrawals and other fees are high?
It's a low hurdle. The other thing a basic checking does is to get you around BofA's 3/12 rule. The extra points and easier approvals are worth the lost interest.
I was a 20 year customer of BofA and left after the fees became too much work to avoid. The opportunity cost of banking there is also too high when I can get a better return elsewhere. It's probably fine if you can keep a small of money with them to qualify.
Just go with a simple Merrill account. Put a little in a money market equivalent ETF and forget about it.
Ben, how dare you let us know about all of these benefits that we might not otherwise know about. You are so imposing on your leadership. Good gravy. (Humor intended.)
@ Lee -- Hah, I appreciate you! :D I'm sure someone will be along shortly to say that non humorously, but several people have asked about the Bank of America 10% bonus, and it's much easier and more rewarding than I was expecting.