mileage junkie

Introducing Bank of America's "Keep The Change"

"Everytime you buy something with a Bank of America Visa debit card, we'll round up your purchases to the nearest dollar amount - and transfer it to your savings account. So you get to keep the change and grow your savings. What could be easier?"

(now the good part)

"WE MATCH 100% OF THE AMOUNT OF YOUR 'KEEP THE CHANGE' TRANSFERS DURING THE FIRST THREE MONTHS AFTER YOU ENROLL, AND WE WILL MATCH 5% THEREAFTER."

by my math.....

If you use your debit card an average of twice a day, everyday, you'll have 60 transactions a month. The AVERAGE "change" transferred to your savings will ALWAYS be 50¢ per transaction. 60 transactions x 50¢ = $30 a month. x (the first) 3 months = $90....WHICH BofA WILL MATCH!! AND, (I believe) there's NO fee for this debit card.

Even if you truly value miles at 2¢ each, you'd have to spend $4500 in the same amount of time (3 months) on your card on a one-mile-for-one-dollar debit card (or $9000!! on a one-mile-for-two-dollar card) to get the same "reward." AND, you'd be getting miles, not cash, AND mileage-earning debit cards almost always have an annual fee I believe. You could POTENTIALLY get $90+ from BofA by spending only $300-$400 dollars. IE...twice a day for 3 months buy a drip coffee at a coffee house for $2.10 using your debit card. BofA will charge your card $3 and transfer 90¢ to your savings account every time. After 3 months you'd have spent only $378, and transferred $162 into your savings account. AGAIN....the latter of which, BofA WILL MATCH!

It really only appears to be a deal for the first 3 months though, because after that, the ongoing 5% match really is a pittance. AND...of course...the small print....the annual limit that they'll match is $250, and they only credit the funds once a year....8 WEEKS AFTER THE ANNIVERSARY DATE THAT YOU ENROLLED.

Thoughts? Comments?

- MJ

gemac

A good analysis. If you already have a BOA checking account, savings account, and debit card, it would make sense to use it for the next three months for any small purchases. In your analysis, if the average purchase was $25, you would break even vs. miles. I wonder if the "match" is reported to the IRS as interest?

Personally, I don't get too excited about what I call "teaser" deals, something really good that is offered for a short period of time and then yanked away. I know that others like to jump in and out of things, so this might be of more interest to them.

Thanks for posting this.

const88

Already some interesting discussion going on about this deal here:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=492429

party_boy

If you use your debit card for a small food purchase you can add a couple extra cents in tip so that it up so that it equals XX.01, thus recieving .99 each transaction.

cordelli

Or use it for donations online, instead of $25 to support a cause, make it $25.01. Two sodas on the way home at the rest area? $3.05. I'm not reaching for my nickle jar anymore, it's the debit card. Self serve line at the grocery store? If nobody is behind me, I'm paying for every item one by one. I'll get the $250 in the first three months with the match.

The money is interest, it's reported to whoever asked.

lin821

Be aware the following points:

Match only post annually:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showp...9&postcount=19

The math for matching:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showp...2&postcount=14

Actually, this thread and the similar one from the SPAM forum probably should be combined. Since the payout is money per se instead of points/miles, would the combined thread belong to SPAM forum?

flipside

Since this is already being discussed in the threads noted above, and has nothing to do with miles or points, I'm going to close it here.

Regards,

Flipside