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With the MLB Cash Rewards Mastercard from Bank of America, you will get a $200 cash rewards bonus for spending $1,000 in the first 90 days of opening your account.
You can put your favorite team’s logo on the card. This card is clearly for MLB fans only. The Bank of America Cash Rewards card gets you the same benefits without the MLB branding.
Consider the Bank of America MLB card if you would like 2%-3% cash back rewards for grocery stores, wholesale clubs and a category of your choice. Surprisingly, it doesn’t offer any baseball-related perks.
Get even more rewards with the Preferred Rewards program, where clients get an extra 25% – 75% bonus on purchases.
Did you know you can also earn bonuses with checking and savings accounts? The MLB card is issued by Bank of America. BoA also offers great sign-up bonuses for their Checking/Savings accounts.
CHASE FREEDOM FLEX℠
The Chase Freedom Flex℠ credit card is going to earn you a $200 bonus after you spend $500 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. The welcome bonus comes in the form of 20,000 Ultimate Rewards points. This card has no annual fee.
This card earns 5% cash back on up to $1,500 in combined purchases in bonus categories each quarter you activate (new categories each quarter). Travel purchased through Chase also earns 5%.
This card earns Ultimate Rewards (UR) points and is a popular option for a multi Chase card strategy. You can pool points together with consumer cards like the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card and Chase Sapphire Reserve®. Or, with a business card like the Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card. The 20,000 UR points could be worth around $400 with this strategy, rather than the standard $200. Read more on this here.
Bank of America MLB Credit Card $200 Bonus
To get the $200 cash rewards bonus, make $1,000 in purchases in the first 90 days of your account opening.
A $200 bonus is competitive with other top cash back alternatives without an annual fee.
Here are some ideas on meeting the spending requirement.
How Much Cash Back Can You Earn?
The highest rewards rate of 3% for cash back will be in the category of your choice.
If spending habits change, you have the option to update your choice category for future purchases once a month using the mobile banking app or online banking.
If you don’t select a category, the default 3% category will be set to gas. If you spend more money on Amazon.com than you do on gas, then you may want to choose Online Shopping to maximize your rewards.
When selecting a 3% cash back category, you can choose one of the following six options:
- Gas
- Online shopping
- Dining
- Travel
- Drugstores
- Home improvement and furnishings
You’ll earn 2% at grocery stores and wholesale clubs.
There’s a crucial limitation on what you can earn. The 2% and 3% reward rates apply on up to $2,500 in combined choice category/grocery store/wholesale club purchases per quarter. All other purchases will earn an unlimited 1%.
Redeem your cash rewards for any amount, anytime for statement credits, deposits made directly into a Bank of America checking or savings account, or for credit to an eligible account with Merrill Lynch or Merrill Edge.
Redemptions for a contribution to a qualifying 529 account with Merrill Lynch or Merrill Edge or for a check start at $25.
You may set up automatic redemptions into an eligible Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, or Merrill Edge account. Automatic redemptions start at $25. Statement credits, checks and contributions into a qualifying 529 account are not eligible for automatic redemption enrollment.
The rewards with the MLB Cash Rewards card are straightforward. You’ll earn 1-3% in rewards, and that will be the value you receive in cash back. There are no special strategies to employ for more value like with Chase’s Ultimate Rewards program using the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card.
Bank of America MLB Card Top Features
0% Intro APR
You’ll get a 0% APR rate on purchases for the first 12 billing cycles. This gives you time to pay off a large purchase.
Note the introductory 0% APR offer also applies to balance transfers made in the first 60 days which you can potentially use to save money on interest on any current debts. However, there’s a 3% (min $10) balance transfer fee.
Bank of America Preferred Rewards
Enroll in Bank of America Preferred Rewards with at least $20,000 in combined accounts and you can enjoy a 25% – 75% rewards boost on every purchase.
You are eligible to enroll in the Preferred Rewards program if you have an active Bank of America personal checking or Advantage Banking account and maintain a qualifying 3-month average combined balance in your Bank of America accounts, and/or your Merrill Edge and Merrill Lynch investment accounts.
| Tier | Qualifying Combined Balance |
| Gold | $20,000 |
| Platinum | $50,000 |
| Platinum Honors | $100,000 |
Don’t have an existing BoA checking account? Here’s a guide to current BoA checking account bonuses to help you decide whether you should switch or not.
Enrolled clients can receive a Preferred Rewards bonus of 25% for the Gold tier, 50% for the Platinum tier or 75% for the Platinum Honors tier.
For top-tier clients, a $100 purchase that normally earns $3.00 (3%) will actually earn $5.25 (5.25%) for a better-than-average return on your spending.
| Qualifying Balance | Bonus category reward rate | Grocery store/wholesale club reward rate | Reward rate on everything else |
| $20,000 (Gold) | 3.75% | 2.5% | 1.25% |
| $50,000 (Platinum) | 4.5% | 3% | 1.5% |
| $100,000 (Platinum Honors) | 5.25% | 3.5% | 1.75% |
Bottom Line
The $200 bonus is competitive with top cash back cards without an annual fee.
With broadly defined categories such as online shopping, which includes Amazon.com, it may be easy to find a 3% rewards category to match your spending habits.
However, the 2% and 3% reward rates are capped and only apply up to $2,500 in spending per quarter.
Because of this card’s bonus category spending limits, it may not be a good pick for families with large expenditures. But, having other BoA accounts can potentially boost your rewards rate from 3% all the way to a respectable 5.25% by keeping large balances with Bank of America or Merrill Lynch and qualifying for the Preferred Rewards program.
The Bank of America MLB credit card can also be used as part of a multi-card spending strategy (different cards for different categories). Because it’s a no-annual-fee card with rewards that don’t expire, you can take your time earning cash back. When traveling abroad, you should consider also carrying the Bank of America Travel Rewards card which doesn’t charge foreign transaction fees.
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Disclaimer: These responses are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser, credit card issuer, hotel, airline or other entity. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post. It is not the bank advertiser's or any other entity's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.