On May 26 BOA will be changing it's program name from Bank of America Preferred Rewards to BofA Rewards. This was announced back in January. Tier levels will remain the same but have different names. However, we've now learned that the bonus amounts will change. Platinum Honors (requires $100K) will be lowered from 75% to 50% (2.625% down to 2.225%). To receive the highest rate you'll now have to keep $1million in securities etc with them.
https://info.bankofamerica.com/en/bofa-rewards
Going to have to decide if holding the Elite card will still be worth it, because no way Merrill is getting $1million. Trading platform stinks and their fixed income individual corp and muni bonds pricing is horrific.
EDIT:
"you'll keep your Preferred Rewards benefits for at least 6 months (after May 2026)"
EDIT 2/19/26:
Doctor of Credit has an update. It's a little convoluted, but the new bonus tiers will take effect 3 months after the Anniversary Date following November 2026. So for example, our card anniversary date is in June, so it seems changes wouldn't take affect until September 2027.
Doctor of Credit Post

Never understood the attraction to the program.

2.62% on tax payments, uncapped.

Any thoughts on where to defect to? I was only holding on to Merrill Edge for the 2.625% visa bonus, otherwise I have 0 allegiance to their ...... brokerage customer service and money market policies. Well maybe a little bit for the BofA fee waivers, etc too. I probably exploited the bonus too much...

Fidelity has a nice 2% card, it is issued by Elan though.

Im consolidating into Schwab cause I like them, My spend is going on a United Quest card.
Finishing my SUB on the CCR and then closing, Waiting for my Quest to get here then moving all my reoccurring payments to it then closing my PR.

You don't understand how the highest cash back (2.625%) on any purchase would be attractive?

I didn't consider the tax angle or potentially precious metal purchases, but other than that, I can get better than 2.625% on any purchase.

That's the entire point, small biz owners and large earners can earn 0.875% on all tax payments (2.625-1.75). While the spread isn't nearly as good on state/property taxes, it's still positive for most. It's also cash back and no complexity which is the majority of people. I doubt BoA cares about gamers leaving, in fact one would have to think that's the goal by 10x-ing the requirements. And the small biz owners or high earners probably already keep a million with BoA. When BoA rolled out that "Extra 2% day" years ago it was uncapped in year one. I can only imagine the amount of people who paid their taxes that day for 4.625%.

I know all of the discussion will be on the 100k to 1million change, but I wanted to point out a subtle aspect.

The current Preferred Rewards program allows any type of deposit account including a small savings account (or CD?) or whatever. The new Rewards program will require at least a checking account to be a Member (10% card rewards bonus), but all existing Preferred Rewards will become Rewards member apparently.

So, if you don't want to have a BofA checking account, you should lock in some sort of small deposit account with them before the switchover in May to qualify for the new program. Both my deposit account and even my version of customized cash (no FTF) are all grandfather account types that are no longer offered, so it seems BofA does keep a lot of legacy stuff (Citi is the only other one who tends to do this it seems).

I think the general thinking is to always keep a little bit with major banks in a no fee product even with all the gloom and doom to remove out the 100k balances.

Preferred rewards has required a checking account for a while iirc

What cards get greater than 2.625% on all purchases, uncapped? 'Cause I'd be interested.

Bummers. It's actually slightly worse now... I was putting the points towards airfare via the the BoA Visa Infinite card, which gives a 20% discount when using points. So when I am paying for something that charges me a 3% credit card fee, I was getting back 2.625% in points, but with the airfare discount those were actually worth 3.28% in points (if I did my math right). So I was getting ahead. Now I'm going to be down to 2.81% in points, so it's costing me money to put the charges through the credit card.

Would love to see if people have other suggestions.

Robinhood Gold. Or futzing with Citi ThankYou Mastercard offers. I hadn�t considered the tax angle which is a unique benefit to BOA.

Robinhood specifically excludes tax payments

Yes, which is why I�ve said 3 or 4 times I had overlooked the tax payment angle with BOA.