Welcome back to Junk Mail Saturday! This is where I will review some of the junk mail (both postal and e-mail) that was received through the week. We call it “junk mail” but many times there are some golden nuggets in there (more often than not, they are targeted to specific individuals) so hopefully this will help you as we look at what the offers are. I have seen some very funny ones and some great ones. Feel free to send me yours to be included as well!
Junk Mail Saturday
This was another slow week (c’mon, banks, send me what you’ve got!) and I only have one offer for you today.
Bank of America
The Offer: Get $100 cash back bonus after qualifying purchases. Earn 1% everywhere, everytime; 2% on grocery purchases; 3% on gas purchases. The grocery and gas bonus rewards apply to the first $1,500 in combined purchases in these categories each quarter. There is no annual fee and you start with a 0% Intro APR for 15 billing cycles for purchases and for any balance transfers made in the first 60 days.
The Fine Print: After the Intro APR expires, the variable APR will apply which is currently 12.99%. If you take advantage of the balance transfer offer, a 3% fee (min. $10) applies. There is no annual fee, even after the first year.
The Summary: I find this to be an attractive offer, especially for those who do not care as much about getting miles or hotel points. It helps that it is from Bank of America, so you could add this on to other card applications (as in making multiple applications from different banks on the same day). Yes, the bonus is only $100, but it comes after spending $500 (which it did not say in the offer until I signed in to find it). So, this makes the bonus a 20% bonus on initial spend. The bonus for spend categories is not great – for instance, if you did all $1,500 in spend per quarter on gas purchases, you would get a maximum of $180 in cash back in the year (for extra spend categories). This might be a good card to use if you only use it for gas purchases for the 3% cash back, otherwise, there are other cards with better bonus categories. Though the letter we got sent us to a targeted website with RSVP code, this is an open offer which you can find here (I do not get a commission for this card).
The Verdict: Average
