The best Bank of America credit cards

Featured cards

All 23 cards in this ranking, with what each one is actually best at. Tap any card to jump to its row.

1. 1 Bank of America Atmos Rewards Summit Visa Infinite — Best overall for Bank of America cardholders: 3x on dining, $395 a year — 4.2¢ back per dollar
2. 2 Royal ONE Plus Visa Signature — 4x on travel, $99 a year — 4.0¢ back per dollar
3. 3 Air France KLM Visa Signature — 3x on dining, $89 a year — 3.6¢ back per dollar
4. 4 Norwegian Cruise Line World Mastercard — Best with no annual fee: 3x on travel, no annual fee — 3.0¢ back per dollar
5. 5 Royal ONE Visa Signature — 3x on travel, no annual fee — 3.0¢ back per dollar
6. 6 Bank of America Alaska Airlines Visa Signature Business (Atmos Rewards) — Best for business spending: 2x on gas, $70 a year — 2.8¢ back per dollar
7. 7 Bank of America Alaska Airlines Visa Signature (Atmos Rewards Ascent) — 2x on gas, $95 a year — 2.8¢ back per dollar
8. 8 Bank of America Business Advantage Customized Cash Rewards — Best for straight cash back: 2% on dining, no annual fee — 2.0¢ back per dollar
9. 9 Bank of America Customized Cash Rewards — 2% on groceries, no annual fee — 2.0¢ back per dollar
10. 10 Bank of America Customized Cash Rewards Secured — 2% on groceries, no annual fee — 2.0¢ back per dollar
11. 11 Bank of America Customized Cash Rewards for Students — 2% on groceries, no annual fee — 2.0¢ back per dollar
12. 12 Sandals Visa Signature — 2x on groceries, no annual fee — 2.0¢ back per dollar
13. 13 Allways Rewards Visa — 2x on dining, $59 a year — 2.0¢ back per dollar
14. 14 Bank of America Premium Rewards — 2x on dining, $95 a year — 2.0¢ back per dollar
15. 15 Bank of America Premium Rewards Elite — 2x on dining, $550 a year — 2.0¢ back per dollar
16. 16 Bank of America Business Advantage Travel Rewards — 1.5x on everything else, no annual fee — 1.5¢ back per dollar
17. 17 Bank of America Business Advantage Unlimited Cash Rewards — 1.5% on everything else, no annual fee — 1.5¢ back per dollar
18. 18 Bank of America Travel Rewards — 1.5x on everything else, no annual fee — 1.5¢ back per dollar
19. 19 Bank of America Travel Rewards Credit Card for Students — 1.5x on everything else, no annual fee — 1.5¢ back per dollar
20. 20 Bank of America Travel Rewards Secured — 1.5x on everything else, no annual fee — 1.5¢ back per dollar
21. 21 Bank of America Unlimited Cash Rewards — 1.5% on everything else, no annual fee — 1.5¢ back per dollar
22. 22 Bank of America Unlimited Cash Rewards Secured — 1.5% on everything else, no annual fee — 1.5¢ back per dollar
23. 23 Bank of America Unlimited Cash Rewards for Students — 1.5% on everything else, no annual fee — 1.5¢ back per dollar

The ranking

What these actually pay on a year of dining

A rate is a promise about one dollar. This is the same ranking run over 145 real dining charges totalling $4,789 — our sample year — scored one charge at a time by the same engine the app uses on your own statement. Caps, category rules and point values all apply; nothing is annualised or rounded up.

On this spending the gap between top and bottom is $105 a year — the effective rate, after caps and point values, runs from 2.00% to 4.20%. Your own charges are what matter, and the app scores those rather than a sample.

How we rank

One arithmetic rule, applied by code to our maintained card database. There is no editorial pick, no hand-ordering and no sponsored slot.

• Printed earn rate. Each card's strongest printed earn rate — the highest flat rate it actually publishes, base rate included — taken from our maintained database. That is what places a card here, so a card leads on the category it is genuinely built for.
• Conservative point value. That rate is multiplied by our conservative mid-range value for the currency it pays, which is why a hotel card printing a large multiplier can finish below a plain cash-back card. Every point value we use, published →
• Annual fee. Printed against every card and used to break ties. The best fee-free card in this pool is Norwegian Cruise Line World Mastercard at 3.0¢ per dollar. We never net the fee out of the rate for you — whether it is worth paying depends on how much you spend.
• Caps and limits. Where a card's headline rate stops after a spending cap, that cap is on the card's own page and in the relevant category guide. This ranking uses the printed rate, so a heavily capped bonus should be checked against the cap before you act on it.
• Pool and cutoff. 221 open US cards are in our database; 27 of them are Bank of America cards and qualify. The page publishes the top 23 by real value — the cutoff is #24, so 4 qualifying cards did not make it and can be found on the full card list.
• Rotating and pick-your-own categories. Kept out of the headline ranking, because they only pay in the right quarter or with the right election. Issuer-travel-portal-only rates are excluded for the same reason: they pay only if you book through the portal.
• Commission. The ranking code has no access to which cards pay us a commission — the ordering function never reads the affiliate file. Any apply link is attached after the order is already fixed, so it cannot move a card up or down. How that works.

Full methodology, including how each point value is set: how we value points and rank cards →

The honest caveat

The best Bank of America card for you depends on where you actually spend — a card's top rate only counts if your money lands in that category, caps bite, and premium cards carry annual fees a lighter spender won't earn out. The optimizer settles it by re-scoring your real charges against every card here.

Common questions

More guides

Every guide on this site is built by the same code from the same card database, so the numbers on one page mean exactly what they mean on another. Jump sideways:

All 70 best-card guides → · Best card for a specific store or bill →