I am taking it as a habit to keep track of interesting credit card offers. When I browse the Bank of America site today trying to find out the BofA flavor of cash back card, I found the BofA Money Return Platinum Visa.
What makes the Money Return Platinum Visa unique is the fact that it is not returning cash based on cardholder's consumption; instead, it will hand back 10% of yearly interest charges at year end, provided the account is open and current at calendar year end.
Is it a cash back card? BofA may argue it is, because it will return cash to some cardholders. But in my opinion it should not call itself a reward card at all. Charging a variable rate between 11.99% and 16.99% (after 6 months of introductory APR of 2.9%), a 10% return on interest charges is merely lowering the interest rate by 1.2% to 1.7%, so it is even worse than a card with a posted APR of 10.79% to 15.29%, because BofA Money Return Platinum Visa cardholders need to wait till year end to receive the money return. With cheap credit so abundant, does BofA really think it can fool intelligent consumers with this alleged reward card?